terra0
Autonomous Forests
Introduction
Workshop
Format
Workshop
Event information
“Autonomous Forests” is a work of land art that leverages the collective power of people to enable the autonomy of forests. It is commissioned by the LAS Art Foundation and will be announced in Summer 2024.
By establishing land ownership as communal and democratic, Autonomous Forests removes ecosystems from the economic sector and protects them from material exploitation. The project's new legal structure allows the integration of a Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO) into a registered association, thereby opening up an established legal framework to new forms of participation.
As a piece of land art, it addresses the social, economic, and environmental aspects of land and provides people with the opportunity to participate in the management, protection, and advocacy of land through communal digital ownership.
The workshop series at the School of Survival in the Deichtorhallen will start with a comprehensive introduction to the Autonomous Forests project.
This workshop is part of a three-part series led by terra0. While attending all sessions is beneficial, it is not mandatory.
Short biography
Across their various projects, the art collective terra0 explores how economy and ecology intertwine. Since their inception in 2015, terra0 has explored how ecosystems can become economic agents, engaged in questions of collective ownership. Their first work, terra0 whitepaper (2016), proposed a self-utilizing forest which, with the help of sensors and smart contracts, sells logging licenses and ultimately accumulates capital. Later works have iterated and reflected back on the claims set forth in the whitepaper, continuing to center on emerging technologies’ potential to support new forms of ownership, and the different conceptions of agency they may thus entail. In Flowertokens (2018), terra0 cultivated a garden of tokenized Dahlia flowers, which could be collected, traded, and speculated on via an online marketplace, with value fluctuating in relation to the physical plant’s health. Likewise, projects like Premna Daemon (2018) and Seed Capital (2022) have played with using distributed ledger technology to crowdsource resources for plant care, intertwining market incentives with the stewardship of plants living in the exhibition space. Across these works and throughout their practice today, terra0 raises questions around autonomy and agency in culture and law; novel distributions of ownership; and regard for the natural world within and beyond market capitalism.
Location
SCHOOL OF SURVIVAL, Hall for Contemporary Art
Language
German
More workshops in the series
Information for participants
The so-called SURVIVAL PASS, which can be obtained free of charge on request when you first enter the exhibition, allows unlimited free access to the exhibition and participation in the SCHOOL OF SURVIVAL.
Prior registration is not required. Once the 35 slots for the SCHOOL OF SURVIVAL are filled, the course is considered full. Please arrive on time accordingly. For group visits with more than 8 people, we kindly request prior arrangement via besuch@deichtorhallen.de.
All offerings of the SCHOOL OF SURVIVAL can be attended without prior knowledge. Materials will be provided on-site unless otherwise specified. Feel free to bring personal materials that are important to you for the workshop.