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Putting the “public” back in “public art” in one North London park and beyond

Furtherfield is an art gallery that’s been uniquely located in the heartof North London’s Finsbury Park since 2011. When COVID made its indoorspace unmanageable, the Furtherfield team took it as an opportunity toreset its relationship with the Finsbury community. As a result, theynot only brought their work outdoors, but also created CultureStake, ablockchain app that lets any cultural organization open up decisionmaking to the public.

Co-creating with the local community via information-rich voting on blockchain

Formed in response to the celebrity and commercialization of London’sYBA scene in the 90’s, for almost three decades Furtherfield has embodied the grassroots DIY culture of the early internet for artists. Even though the pandemic was the catalyst for CultureStake, the team had been ready to make a change. “We had a growing feeling that bringing art from our international network into this public space was us bestowing ‘good culture’ on a locality, and we were becoming increasingly uncomfortable with it,” co-founder Ruth Catlow explains. “We wanted to work more with the different communities that used this space to see how they might shape our programs and our organization, and realized we could ask them directly about what was important to them.”

“We had a growing feeling that bringing work from our internationalnetwork into this public space was us bestowing ‘good culture’ on alocality.”

As longtime followers of open source and peer-to-peer technologies, andas explorers of how emerging tech impacts society, the Furtherfield teamknew they wanted to incorporate two specific decentralized tools into CultureStake:

Quadratic voting (QV), which in contrast to one person, one vote andranked choice systems, lets voters express both their preferences andhow strong they are. QV does this by giving voters a set of credits to“spend.” Voting for the same choice multiple times “costs” more andmore credits with each vote, so if you feel very strongly aboutsomething, it’s reflected. The benefit, Ruth says, is that “QVprovides nuanced information about why voters want something insteadof just which outcomes they want.”

Blockchain to record the votes, which Ruth characterizes as “animmutable public record that lets people know we haven’t messed withtheir votes.”

“Without Hypha, we would’ve been at the end of the road and had to put the project to bed.”

For CultureStake’s first iteration, Furtherfield commissioned artist anddeveloper Sarah Friend and later brought in fellow co-op Common Knowledge to work on its design and frontend. But when it came to themore challenging backend work of connecting the app to the blockchain,both Sarah and the firm recommended Hypha. At first, Furtherfield wasnervous about handing the project to a new partner. Says Ruth, ”We werea little bit freaked out because we didn’t have a bunch of extra fundingif things went wrong. We had to be sure this would work.” But thenFurtherfield met with the Hypha team. “They asked really good questions.That’s how we came to feel, ‘Yes, this is doable.’”

As the work began, Ruth loved Hypha’s rigorous approach: “After everymeeting, Hypha’s notes would reflect back to us everything we describedalong with anything that was still unknown, that they wanted additionalinformation on, or had questions or comments about.” Through thisprocess, Ruth says, “They kept asking questions until they kneweverything. This made us feel very secure because we could see all theremaining gaps.” In addition to making the app functional — making thefrontend do what it was intended to do — as planned, Hypha helpedimprove the design of CultureStake’s frontend as well.

“They kept asking questions until they knew everything. This made usfeel very secure because we could see all the remaining gaps.”

As Furtherfield “turned the gallery inside out,” bringing art from thegallery to the park, they used CultureStake to cede creative control tothe people. Calling the project People’s Park Plinth, Furtherfieldcommissioned a series of small extended reality artworks. Finsbury’s50,000 visitors a week could then use CultureStake to scan QR codes andview the works throughout the park. They then could use CultureStake tovote on which piece they wanted to see realized at full scale. As partof CultureStake’s design, votes cast from within the park were weightedhigher than ones made from outside it. That year, Furtherfield tripledits local engagement and heard feedback like, “I’ve been talking aboutthis with my friends for months.”

The People's Park Plinth (2021) by Furtherfield

When asked about her overall experience working with Hypha, Ruthresponded, “I trusted them. I always felt like we were working with goodpeople. Without Hypha, we would’ve been at the end of the road and hadto put the project to bed.”

Confirming the usefulness and untapped potential of blockchain for art and culture

Because of recent changes to the Furtherfield team, Ruth is now seekingfunding to support CultureStake’s continued growth. Even thoughCultureStake’s future is uncertain, Ruth says the project confirmed forher the “massive and still underexplored value quadratic voting has inthe cultural setting.”

Reflects Ruth, “In trying to make a connection with our local communityto understand our shared interests, CultureStake allowed for a radicalinversion of how you usually run a gallery. It responded to a pragmaticissue with COVID, but also the desire for more authentic relationshipswith the public around us.”

“Testing all the promises of democratization in the blockchain spaceagainst reality” was something Ruth had been wanting to do ever sinceFurtherfield board member Rhea Myers started “issuing provocations on decentralized autonomous organizations that were impossible to ignore, long before the NFT boom.” To her, blockchain may not be essential to making cultural democracy happen. But Ruth feels it’s important to keep the spirit of DIY experimentation alive for this generation of the internet so blockchain isn’t only used for financial extraction. Hypha’s Co-Creation Lab gives organizations like Furtherfield the expertise they need to safely explore these possibilities.

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Putting the “public” back in “public art” in one North London park and beyond

Furtherfield is an art gallery that’s been uniquely located in the heartof North London’s Finsbury Park since 2011. When COVID made its indoorspace unmanageable, the Furtherfield team took it as an opportunity toreset its relationship with the Finsbury community. As a result, theynot only brought their work outdoors, but also created CultureStake, ablockchain app that lets any cultural organization open up decisionmaking to the public.

Co-creating with the local community via information-rich voting on blockchain

Formed in response to the celebrity and commercialization of London’sYBA scene in the 90’s, for almost three decades Furtherfield has embodied the grassroots DIY culture of the early internet for artists. Even though the pandemic was the catalyst for CultureStake, the team had been ready to make a change. “We had a growing feeling that bringing art from our international network into this public space was us bestowing ‘good culture’ on a locality, and we were becoming increasingly uncomfortable with it,” co-founder Ruth Catlow explains. “We wanted to work more with the different communities that used this space to see how they might shape our programs and our organization, and realized we could ask them directly about what was important to them.”

“We had a growing feeling that bringing work from our internationalnetwork into this public space was us bestowing ‘good culture’ on alocality.”

As longtime followers of open source and peer-to-peer technologies, andas explorers of how emerging tech impacts society, the Furtherfield teamknew they wanted to incorporate two specific decentralized tools into CultureStake:

Quadratic voting (QV), which in contrast to one person, one vote andranked choice systems, lets voters express both their preferences andhow strong they are. QV does this by giving voters a set of credits to“spend.” Voting for the same choice multiple times “costs” more andmore credits with each vote, so if you feel very strongly aboutsomething, it’s reflected. The benefit, Ruth says, is that “QVprovides nuanced information about why voters want something insteadof just which outcomes they want.”

Blockchain to record the votes, which Ruth characterizes as “animmutable public record that lets people know we haven’t messed withtheir votes.”

“Without Hypha, we would’ve been at the end of the road and had to put the project to bed.”

For CultureStake’s first iteration, Furtherfield commissioned artist anddeveloper Sarah Friend and later brought in fellow co-op Common Knowledge to work on its design and frontend. But when it came to themore challenging backend work of connecting the app to the blockchain,both Sarah and the firm recommended Hypha. At first, Furtherfield wasnervous about handing the project to a new partner. Says Ruth, ”We werea little bit freaked out because we didn’t have a bunch of extra fundingif things went wrong. We had to be sure this would work.” But thenFurtherfield met with the Hypha team. “They asked really good questions.That’s how we came to feel, ‘Yes, this is doable.’”

As the work began, Ruth loved Hypha’s rigorous approach: “After everymeeting, Hypha’s notes would reflect back to us everything we describedalong with anything that was still unknown, that they wanted additionalinformation on, or had questions or comments about.” Through thisprocess, Ruth says, “They kept asking questions until they kneweverything. This made us feel very secure because we could see all theremaining gaps.” In addition to making the app functional — making thefrontend do what it was intended to do — as planned, Hypha helpedimprove the design of CultureStake’s frontend as well.

“They kept asking questions until they knew everything. This made usfeel very secure because we could see all the remaining gaps.”

As Furtherfield “turned the gallery inside out,” bringing art from thegallery to the park, they used CultureStake to cede creative control tothe people. Calling the project People’s Park Plinth, Furtherfieldcommissioned a series of small extended reality artworks. Finsbury’s50,000 visitors a week could then use CultureStake to scan QR codes andview the works throughout the park. They then could use CultureStake tovote on which piece they wanted to see realized at full scale. As partof CultureStake’s design, votes cast from within the park were weightedhigher than ones made from outside it. That year, Furtherfield tripledits local engagement and heard feedback like, “I’ve been talking aboutthis with my friends for months.”

The People's Park Plinth (2021) by Furtherfield

When asked about her overall experience working with Hypha, Ruthresponded, “I trusted them. I always felt like we were working with goodpeople. Without Hypha, we would’ve been at the end of the road and hadto put the project to bed.”

Confirming the usefulness and untapped potential of blockchain for art and culture

Because of recent changes to the Furtherfield team, Ruth is now seekingfunding to support CultureStake’s continued growth. Even thoughCultureStake’s future is uncertain, Ruth says the project confirmed forher the “massive and still underexplored value quadratic voting has inthe cultural setting.”

Reflects Ruth, “In trying to make a connection with our local communityto understand our shared interests, CultureStake allowed for a radicalinversion of how you usually run a gallery. It responded to a pragmaticissue with COVID, but also the desire for more authentic relationshipswith the public around us.”

“Testing all the promises of democratization in the blockchain spaceagainst reality” was something Ruth had been wanting to do ever sinceFurtherfield board member Rhea Myers started “issuing provocations on decentralized autonomous organizations that were impossible to ignore, long before the NFT boom.” To her, blockchain may not be essential to making cultural democracy happen. But Ruth feels it’s important to keep the spirit of DIY experimentation alive for this generation of the internet so blockchain isn’t only used for financial extraction. Hypha’s Co-Creation Lab gives organizations like Furtherfield the expertise they need to safely explore these possibilities.

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The phrase 'Collective Cultural Decision-making' is displayed in all uppercase, using a monospaced font.