It is no secret that the post-pandemic economic crisis has hit artists and cultural workers hard. Due to the lack of networks, it is difficult to unite this sector to provide a safe space. State institutions are unable to provide a solution to this problem. Applying for a Fondart, practically the only state fund that finances cultural projects in Chile in addition to private initiatives (which often in both cases work through cronyism) is a tedious and distressing task, both because of its competitiveness and the complexity of yielding its limited funds.

This scenario is unlikely to change people's conception of art. Far from that, it prolongs its conception as expensive, distant, private and even incomprehensible. It is essential to recognize that current cultural policies have not contributed to generate more democratic instances, moreover, they are less and less effective. They perpetuate the format within four walls and at the same time, they remain without opening new public, friendly and open exhibition spaces for the communities and their needs. What we must not lose sight of is that this has been giving greater prominence to other forms of expression and exhibition of art, positioning the digital as a form of transformation and even rebellion against the impossibility of visiting these spaces.

Digital art arises from the criticism of stereotypical artists who have the luxury of being locked up all day in their studios and then exhibit their works inside a museum. It transforms the affections that are expressed in everyday life into something that is not purely physical -a long time ago- and manages to expand its scope and limits. But, is there mediation in the digital? How do we reach audiences?

It is important to question how to manage the already installed digital space to benefit different communities. Today it is seen as a place that includes technology and its advances, far from opposing it. The works are appreciated in their natural environment of first source (digital) and physical (VR, interactive screens, projections). Its nature opens the way to a chaotic and rhizomatic mediation, but always present from the interaction. It is oriented to converse with the public by challenging the forms of exhibition and also demonstrating the potential of scale distribution. It seeks to question conventional notions of custody and origin, understanding its key as collaboration with users (artists, collectors of works, audiences and investors). The exhibition of digital works emphasizes the meaning of creation through the social network, providing a powerful tool for the dissemination of art that goes far beyond just contemplating the selection of works that others prepared vertically for us to consume passively.

The attraction of the human with its own otherness (the non-human) enters into an interesting tension by mediating its receptivity to art. In the online world, multitudes of people coexist, seeking to project the identity they desire in the space/time they desire.

On the other hand, there is a financing model for digital art based on its own assets: the NFT or Non Fungible Tokens. They are a way of certifying the ownership of an online work (public and visible). The creator uploads his work to a platform composed of a network that approves his participation, adding a “block” of digital assets. The blockchain certifies exhibitions, artworks, authors and participants.

Among the variety of people who work in Web3, there are those who collaborate for the recognition of online identities operating as artists, investors, researchers and cultural managers. But the most established are those who recognize themselves as “builders”, actively working to expand the world of digital assets technologically, theoretically and communicatively. There are organizations that even publish competitive funds, providing capital to finance projects of various kinds through open treasuries around the world. There, those who are dedicated to art propose to understand museums not only as a place of accumulation, but rather as a basis for generating social engagement through education and an active contribution of its visitors, who benefit from access to public goods.

But let's not be fooled: for now, NFT projects are mostly based on speculation and scams, leaving many fallen by the wayside who cannot access collaborative spaces simply out of ignorance. Here we aim to open ourselves to the possibility of interpreting - without evangelizing - that cultural projects funded by digital assets represent a viable option, as much or more than any other in contexts of crisis.

We recognize a public-network space that is much more fragmented, but also much more interconnected and dynamic. The more technology and science advance, the more opaque and obscure it is perceived by people. There is a kind of magic, of the occult created in conjunction with machines. Let's remember that magic can be used for good or bad, and that some of us are more interested in it than others.

In 2022 Metro21 and Coilabs were invited to Ch.aco fair (the largest art fair in Chile) as a collaborative network. We agreed with the intention of making digital art visible as something public and at the same time, legitimize the work in Web3. But, returning to reality and its deficit in the cultural sector in economic terms, we had to finance our participation in the fair. So we got in touch with an organization of builders that had aroused our interest before: Nouns DAO. The collective promulgates the positive values of the space we described, focusing on the quest for democratization of this digital culture. Nouns is organized through a treasury in which all its members vote weekly to choose proposals to fund, where any citizen of the world can participate with their ideas.

We worked on an application (which had little or nothing to do with filling out forms and resumes) and the Noun community selected us with the commitment to fulfill our proposal: to exhibit digital art and generate educational instances around Web3 and NFTs, also making known the Nouns DAO discourse. Immediately after winning the vote we had the funding in ether in the Coilabs virtual wallet to participate in Ch.aco.

It is curious to deposit that level of trust also translated into money without knowing who is on the other side, nor demanding to see results first. All from a friendly, open and collaborative discourse. We consider that these spaces are, at least, too interesting to let them go unnoticed in a context where the cultural field is subjugated to uncertainty.

Bibliographic references

Barranha, H. et al., (2021). Art, Museums and Digital Cultures: Rethinking Change. Research Gate. Available at: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/358249001_Art_Museums_and_Digital_Cultures_Rethinking_Change

Coilabs, (2022). NFTs education for artists and creators. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hILqo1IeioU&ab_channel=coilabs

Coilabs (2022). Results Report: NFT's from the artists' perspective. Qualitative research for the development of cultural management projects in Chile. Available at:

https://coilabs.files.wordpress.com/2022/07/informe-nft-1.pdf

Coilabs (2022). Web3 community discourses from creators in Chile. Available in: https://medium.com/@coilabs/web3-community-discourses-from-creators-in-chile-9377f145895c

Nouns DAO (2022). WTF is Nouns? Available at: https://nouns.wtf/

Coilabs, Metro21. (2022). Nouns DAO Prop House: Round 8, proposal 853. Available at: https://prop.house/proposal/853.