With the support of the Stimuleringfonds EXPERIMENT grant, we – Amiche Arx & Gram – carried out an exploratory research towards: a Regenerative NFT Manifesto COLLECTION, a Regenerative Manifesto, an Amiche Arx & Gram Regenerative Pricing Method.

Regenerative NFT Manifesto COLLECTION

To produce our Regenerative NFT Manifesto, we collaborated with the graphic design studio Visual Intelligence. The exchanges we had with the studio during a two month period allowed for the development of a different visual language than the dominant graphic typology strains of NFTs, FTs and in general cryptos. Mimicking an intelligent algorithm, we created a generator device that could translate our regenerative content through keywords into visual certificates/representations. The generated imagery is multi-dimensional, composed of different intertwined and stratified layers and we believe express the complex, physical, sensitive, and relational nature of the regenerative manifesto (see Regenerative Manifesto Lyric Prose).

For the sake of the NFT production, we organised the content into five domains plus a general definition of regeneration. The five domains are: technology, governance, energy, spatial justice, and diversity. Each of these domains has been synthesised in one sentence statement which could fit into an NFT frame.

Here is a summary of the general regeneration statement followed by each of the five domain statements:

1.Regeneration
REGENERATION IMPROVES LIFE-HOLDING CAPACITIES – IN SYSTEMS BOTH ECO AND SOCIAL.

2.Technology
REGENERATIVE TECH = LEAKLESS TECH, LET’S LET NO VALUE LEAK!

3.Governance
REGENERATIVE GOVERNANCE SUPPORTS CONSENSUS, LET’S AGREE TO DISAGREE!

4.Energy
REGENERATIVE ENERGY IS SMALL IN SCALE, LET’S ENERGIZE OUR COMMUNITIES!

5.Spatial Justice
REGENERATIVE LAND USE CONSIDERS USE, LET USE VALUE DETERMINE SPACE!

6.Diversity
REGENERATION EMBRACES DIVERSITY, LET ‘MORE-THANS’ INFORM ALL DESIGNS!

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Regenerative Manifesto

The Manifesto contributes to the field of regeneration by creating a link with the blockchain and crypto fields. Trying to avoid a dense academic style, we chose a hybrid/queer language that is down to earth, at times ironic, capable of generating dialogue yet address the pressing challenges we confront by engaging this field. The aim of this poetic choice is to trigger questions, and to inspire possible methodological paths for the future.

Some notes for an easy read of the Regenerative NFT Manifesto lyric prose:

the mathematics ‘equal’ sign (=) signifies the word ‘IS’. See ‘=’, say ‘IS’.
alternating ‘bold’ and ‘regular’ in the typeface is a tool to indicate the text’s rhythm.

REGENERATION

REGENERATION IMPROVES LIFE-HOLDING CAPACITIES – IN SYSTEMS BOTH ECO AND SOCIAL.
NURTURING SOIL AS THE WAY TO GROW FOOD WHERE PRODUCTION IS MULTIFOCAL.
REGENERATION PRODUCES ABUNDANCE = AGRICULTURAL RECALIBRATION.
= INTERSPECIES REDUCED COMPETITION WITH MAXIMISED COOPERATION.
FOR WHEN REGENERATIVE PRODUCTION EVADES DAMAGE AND SCARCITY,
WITH COLLABORATION BETWEEN HUMANS AND MORE-THAN-HUMANITY,
WHAT REGENERATION REPRESENTS IS A PARADIGM SHIFT,
OF MORE-THAN-HUMAN RESOURCE USE SANS METABOLIC RIFT.

DOMAIN – SPATIAL JUSTICE

REGENERATIVE LAND USE CONSIDERS USE, LET USE VALUE DETERMINE SPACE!
SPATIAL JUSTICE = SHARING SPACE WITH THOSE WHO REPAIR IN THE FIRST PLACE.
REGENERATIVE LAND USE CONSIDERS USE, LET USE DETERMINE SHARE!
SPATIAL JUSTICE = SHARED SPACE WITH THOSE WHO LABOUR TOWARDS REPAIR.
FOR LAND THAT’S ORGANISED AROUND EXCHANGE,
ENVISIONING GAINS IN SHORTENED RANGE
AND DISLOCATION AND LANDS LAID WASTE,
EXTRACTION OF RESOURCES = MISUSE OF PLACE.
WHERE MINING MINES MINDS AND LIVES AND LANDS,
NO FARMLANDS GROW, NOR WOODLAND STANDS.
WHEN SPACE IS ORGANISED AS COMMUNAL LAND TRUST
WE ARE STARDUST, NO NEED TO ADJUST!

DOMAIN – DIVERSITY

REGENERATION EMBRACES DIVERSITY, LET ‘MORE-THANS’ INFORM ALL DESIGNS!
DIVERSITY IN ALL LANDSCAPES, COMMUNITIES, AND GOVERNANCE,
WHERE INCLUSION DEFINES GUIDING LINES.
CREATING OUR SPACE = RADICALLY REGENERATIVE,
LET’S MAKE SOME LIBERATION SNACKS!
AND WHEN COMMUNITY IS SEEN AND ENGAGED TO THE MAX,
WE REFLECT, ACT, THEN HACK, THEN RELAX.
FOR WHEN DIVERSITY SERVES DIVERSE ABILITY,
AND PUBLIC INFRASTRUCTURES SERVE PUBLIC UTILITY,
AND GRANDMA-TECH = BENCHMARK FEASIBILITY,
= POST-PATRIARCHAL AND ECSTATIC INTEROPERABILITY.

DOMAIN – ENERGY

REGENERATIVE ENERGY IS SMALL IN SCALE, LET’S ENERGISE OUR COMMUNITIES!
= ENERGY CREATED BY AND FOR US, SHARED ACCESS AND SHARED OPPORTUNITIES.
= ENERGY FOR ALL OUR TRANSACTIONS, THAT SERVE OUR COLLECTIVE NEEDS,
= ENERGY PRODUCED FOR USE RIGHT HERE, AND PLANNED WITH EXPERTISE.
FOR WHEN ENERGY PRODUCTION IS RESOURCE AWARE
AND DISTRIBUTION = TOTALLY FAIR,
THEN ENERGY IS DECENTRALISED,
AND PRODUCTION = USE ORGANISED
AND EASILY SOURCED FROM LOCAL RECOUP,
FROM LOCAL SOLAR, WIND, AND POOP.

DOMAIN – TECHNOLOGY

REGENERATIVE TECH = LEAKLESS TECH, LET’S LET NO VALUE LEAK!
= TECH FOR THE DIGGERS, FOR THOSE WHO DIG, WHOSE LABOUR ALLOWS TECHNIQUE.
= TECH FOR THOSE WHO WERE DUG OUT, OR THOSE WHO WERE DUG UPON,
= TECH FOR THOSE THE DIGS IMPACTED, WHEN THE DIGS WENT ON.
FOR WHEN EXTERNALS ARE CENSORED AND RENDERED TABOO,
AND LABOUR VALUE HAS PRICE UNTRUE,
THEN WE ARE SCREWED AND EXPROPRIATED ANEW.
AND REQUIRED CHANGE = A NEW WORLD VIEW.

DOMAIN – GOVERNANCE

REGENERATIVE GOVERNANCE SUPPORTS CONSENSUS, LET’S AGREE TO DISAGREE!
= NON-PROPRIETARY STANDARDS AND PROTOCOLS, AND GRATIS CRYPTO-THERAPY!
REGENERATIVE GOVERNANCE = DECENTRALISED, LET’S COLLABORATE RIGHT NOW!
= GOVERNANCE FOR MAKERS, FOR CARER-REPAIRERS, ALL EXPERIMENTING WITH A DAO.
FOR REGENERATIVE GOVERNANCE = SYMBIOTIC,
EMBODIED WORK RECOGNISES THE METABOLIC.
CON LE MANI, CON I PIEDI, CON IL CUORE, CON LA TESTA!
BELLA DAO, BELLA MIAUW, BELLA CIAO, CIAO, CIAO!

DOMAIN – FUTURITY – IN RECOGNITION OF THE STRUGGLES BEFORE US

WHAT WE BUILD IN OUR CONTRACTS = A GOVERNANCE OF CARE,
WHERE WE HONE SIGHTS AND SKILLS TO BRING SOMETHING OTHER TO BEAR.
YES, FLOWER PETALS INSTEAD OF RARE EARTH METALS,
BUT APPLYING ‘TRUE PRICE’ BY ITSELF, WON’T SUFFICE.
NOT ONLY COMPOSTATION, WE ACCOUNT FOR REPARATION,
PLUS THE COST OF COOPERATION, AS CONSENSUS-TIME IN COLLABORATION.
AND ‘CAUSE WE WORK QUASI IN PERPETUITY, WE MUST ACCOUNT FOR CONTINUITY.
FOR BUILDING SECURE FINANCIALISATION, SUMS UP A JUST REGENERATION.

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Amiche Arx and Gram Regenerative Pricing Method

Having produced the NFTs we needed to establish a selling price that accurately represented both the pure production costs and the environmental damages caused by NFT production and minting. The second factor, and the knowledge gap we aimed to address in our research, is that environmental damages are rarely (if ever) considered in determining the price of NFTs. In the digital realm in general, the subject of the costs of resource extraction are not widely discussed. Doing so remains taboo. Though speculation on this subject exists, we struggled to monetize and include ‘externalities’ in the final pricing of our NFTs because quantitative parameters that index resource extraction costs behind an NFT simply do not exist. Amiche Arx and Gram Regenerative Pricing Method attempts to offer a fresh perspective on the definition of a market price, in our case, of an NFT as a digital artwork. By adopting the Amiche Arx & Gram Regenerative Pricing Method, we confront ourselves with the challenge of calculating shadow damages through the design (and sale) of projects with a digital representation (in this case NFTs) by applying revolutionary methods aimed at repair, and an equitable redistribution of wealth and resources.

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Why we take on this experiment

As artists producing socio-ecologically regenerative work during the ongoing crises of climate and democracy, this project is borne of a desire to develop an NFT marketplace that challenges the hegemonic extraction culture considered native to technological innovation. As artists historically collaborating with communities at risk, and with legacies targeting ecosystems at risk, we are poised to develop new care networks demonstrated by those in our oeuvres. The dismantled financial infrastructures that once supported our sectors (culture, conservation, and education) not only devastated our field, but the ecosystems and communities where our work is situated. In our careers as artists, researchers and infrastructure activists, we regularly experience financial precarity through unpaid labour. Most of our socially and environmentally regenerative projects are produced with funding streams outside of commodification networks. Though the projects require near constant attention and long-term care, we are excluded from institutional remuneration and continuity. We produce value for cultural institutions, public and private commissioners, galleries, collectors, and the natural and urban environments in which we operate – yet our precarity is structural.

We see innovative NFT marketplaces as a chance to create fair economic opportunities for our field by counteracting extraction culture and exploitative praxes. Replacing these spectres with regenerative practices will produce a new direction for this field. We are aware this market is young and unregulated, but for this reason we believe that the time is ripe to design just economic conditions and regenerative imaginaries. Our skills as artists/designers, environmental/infrastructure activists, community advocacy practitioners, trend initiators and influencers, with long-term projects in landscape and social regeneration, are required to redefine and shape NFT marketplaces appropriate for these times.

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Acknowledgements

The content of this project was also inspired and informed by informal interviews and discussions with 12 amazing professionals on the notion of regeneration.
One of the most poetic key gleanings from these interviews was, ‘Regeneration means increasing the life-holding capacity, in the social and
ecological sense. The social and the ecological are bound to each other. Contrary to popular definition, regeneration is not a set of
practices, but a different paradigm. It is holistic, involves scenario thinking and is connected with a value-based community. As an example,
in a fungal model of extraction, mining increases plant growth’.

We would like to warmly thank all of them for their generosity in terms of knowledge and time: ShuLea Chang, Alex d’Elia, Seth Eisen, Baruch Gottlieb, Michelle Kasprzak, Anne van Leeuwen, Pierluigi Maori, Cesare Morelli, Annalisa Pellizza, Miguel Robles Duran, Denis Roio, Malkit Shoshan.

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