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Proposal: The Indeterminacy Festival and Immersive Decentralization

Stanzi

New member
Hello Dash DAO!

This proposal is now live here: https://www.dashcentral.org/p/IndeterminacyFest

My name is Stanzi Vaubel and I was introduced to this community by my cousin Sevan Chorluyan (CEO of Badmirror). I run a project called The Indeterminacy Festival and this past year Sevan joined me for the summer tour portion of the project. As we traveled, he talked to me about the Dash community and the way in which Dash functioned. The more he talked, the more it became clear that there were deep philosophical alignments between the Dash network and the approach I take to creating my festival. I have not read any proposal that sounds anything like mine on the Dash proposal board and that makes me feel like an outlier here, but also someone who I think (and hope you will think so too) has the potential to bring something really new and exciting to the approaches that might be taken to mainstreaming Dash.

I did a pre-proposal which you can view on the dash forum here and and the Reddit page here and received a positive response from the community.

Best,
Stanzi

Dash_indeterminacyfestival_logo.jpg


INTRODUCTION
I create immersive events which change people.
My current project called The Indeterminacy Festival is focused on experiencing what a decentralized world looks like. I am an artist, PhD student, classically trained cellist, and community organizer whose focus is emergent order. I live and work in Buffalo New York, which is a place where community networks are far more important to the functioning of the city than the centralized alternatives that exist in so many other cities. For this reason, Buffalo is primed for digital cash because Buffalo is already living in an informal economy, ripe for further decentralization. Of the cryptocurrencies, Dash and the Dash DAO most closely align with my vision. My interest is not just about promoting Dash, but that Dash is an extension of the whole philosophical framework that my projects are based upon. People in Buffalo have a limited reference point for cryptocurrencies, so by partnering with Dash we are going to create an initial impression that will be the city’s formative reference point. I see this proposal as the beginning of an ongoing relationship between Dash, the festival, and Buffalo that will be developed and expanded upon in the future, as the link between the two becomes indelible in the city's mind.

DETAILS ABOUT THE FESTIVAL
In 2017, I installed thirteen large-scale inflatable bubbles at the same site. Inside of these bubbles, thirteen unique dance, music, and lighting performances took place, to eventually converge at the end of the show in the final bubble. In an entirely new way, the festival explored how within a decentralized structure, new social interactions become possible.

Here’s a short video from the festival in 2017:

"Vaubel’s social practice works are invested in creating possibilities for re-imagining ourselves and communities, by plunging audiences into strange and richly textured environments porous to participation." - The Public

THIS YEAR hen people walk into The Indeterminacy Festival, they will be located in a place called Silo City, which is a complex of grain silos located in Buffalo, New York.

Dash Proposal_SILO CITY_MarineA.jpg

Marine A (one of the structures on the silo city campus)

On the silo campus there are a number of structures that are separated by large swaths of gravel. When audience members arrive to Silo City they will have to navigate between these various structures by using an elevated net (2 feet off the ground), which will carry them from one place to the next. The net gives the physical experience of a network in which unlikely ideas and people are connected. The nets and the ideas they connect form relationships which mirror complexity* over hierarchy, encouraging decentralized modes of interacting.

*Complexity characterizes the behavior of a system or model whose components interact in multiple ways and follow local rules, meaning there is no reasonable higher instruction to define the various possible interactions

DashProposal_Net.jpg

Walkable Net

In this emergent structure, the buildings function like nodes, inside of which there will be various opportunities to collect Dash, which they will be able to able to use at the marketplace at the final installation. These opportunities to collect Dash are not simply passive situations where a consumer sees Dash advertising and then orders a beverage with Dash. Instead the festival offers audience and performers a first-hand experience with what a decentralized network feels like and why an alternative currency structured on decentralization radically alters our connections with each other and the kinds of economic structures we might create.

After they have traveled between many different nodes/installations they will arrive at their final location, which will be a marketplace. Vendors who will be hosted in the marketplace are businesses that I have developed relationships with over the course of the year. They are smaller organizations, some of whom I worked with for previous festivals and some of whom are new to the project, such as The West Side Bazaar which describes themselves as a community of vendors who “sell quality authentic products from all around the world and has enabled many immigrant, refugee, and low-income individuals to pursue their dreams of small business ownership, providing them with a space to incubate their small business all while bringing the best of many different cultures to a one-stop-shop right here in Buffalo!” These local entities are already pushing outside of the conventional economic model. It is these kinds of initiatives which will come together in the festival marketplace to buy and sell items with Dash.

WHY IS THIS FESTIVAL VALUABLE?
Throughout the experience, I won’t be selling them Dash, they will understand Dash in the gut, in a way that can’t be done with simple advertising and promotion.


This is the way decentralization can be mainstreamed, through a visceral experience. One that enacts the philosophy as an alive and active reality, that doesn’t have to be explained as an abstract concept, or sold, or posted on a billboard, where all that’s changed is the currency. I don’t think that’s enough. I think we have to step inside decentralization to truly understand what differentiates the real crypto from the ones that are just pretending. As cryptocurrencies becomes more mainstream by the day – there needs to be a felt experience of what the difference is between Dash and all of the other competing options. Otherwise, people wont make the right choice, because they won’t know what their choices are, and the explanations of the differences are too complicated. The Indeterminacy Festival is an embodiment of what decentralization and Dash can do to change everything.

As an artist who works with these concepts, I have the unique ability to serve as a translator and make these complex ideas felt viscerally by the non-crypto community. Participants will crave a way to continue this experience that has altered their perception of reality and with Dash this transition can happen, as a long-term reality. The DAO should not wait to begin creating these inroads for digital cash in small cities like Buffalo, it needs to happen now, with a local artist like myself who plays an invaluable role as a social influencer.

LEAD UP EVENTS
Leading up to the large performance events on May 18th and 19th (described above), there will be talks, workshops, and performances by partners and visiting guests. Should I be funded by Dash, I will also host workshops where people can come to set up a wallet and get a little background on how Dash works.

PARTNERS AND COLLABORATORS INCLUDE:
The Birds Nest, Just Buffalo, Starlight Studios, Buffalo String Works, Techne Institute, The Cass Project, Hallwalls Contemporary, 5 Loaves Farm, Common Roots Urban Farm, West Side Bazaar, UB Physics Department, UB Earth Science, UB Dance, UB Music, UB Architecture, UB Media Study

VISITING ARTISTS
In partnership with The Techne Institute, we will be inviting guests who will give workshops and talks around creating practical alternatives from urban agriculture to local currencies. These talks will be hosted in partnership with The Cass Project. Guests include: Stéphane Verlet, Aurélien Gamboni, and Sophie Krier.

FUNDING
My total request is for $32,225. For a total request of 59 Dash*.
*based upon Dash's value on Feb 4th

1. $15,000 for re-circulation of Dash
2. $12,316 for festival costs
3. $2,200 marketing
4. $2,709 to recoup the cost for application

THE BREAKDOWN:
1. Re-Circulation of Dash: There are around 100 participants in the festival itself and I anticipate over 400 people attending the event and I want each of them to acquire a reasonable amount of dash so they feel like it’s valuable. I would like to give each performer/festival participant as well as the first 400 persons $30 worth of Dash to spend in the market ($15,000)

2. Festival Costs: for material costs, sound, lighting, artist fees, and guest speakers. I will be purchasing netting and metal to build the net structure that will carry audience members from one installation to the other, this will be around 1,200ft of net ($3800) and enough metal to create 100 stands and 50 turnstiles to support the net ($3,000). I will be purchasing 500ft of nylon shock bungee rope in 3 different colors to be stretched from the first installation to the second ($1000). I will be paying Indigo Productions (a lighting and sound company in Buffalo) to create a sound and lighting system that covers the entire of the silo city campus ($4,516)

3. Marketing: I want to bring in new audience from all over Buffalo and promote the Dash brand. I would use Semcasting, a data driven digital marketing plan, which would target individuals in Buffalo based upon their past digital history and interests. I will hire street teams that will travel around Buffalo weekly handing out flyers and promoting the festival. I will have an article published in Business First, a business oriented newspaper that would emphasize Dash and the role crypto currency was playing in the festival. My co-producer has more than 20 years of experience with marketing and PR in Buffalo and we expect to be able to leverage those contacts for articles and features in the local media as well as surrounding areas. ($2,200)

4. Sevan Chorluyan, an early member of the Dash network and CEO of Badmirror, has generously offered to put up the funds for my Dash Proposal, however, I have agreed to pay him back if my proposal is accepted. ($2,709)

For a total request of 59 Dash

ABOUT ME

I started out as a classical cellist and trained at Manhattan School of Music and Juilliard Pre-College. I have collaborated on projects at Robert Wilson's Watermill Center and performed at venues such as Tanglewood, The Long House, and Carnegie Hall. I was hired by the Whitney Museum to design an interactive web project focused around teen engagement with contemporary American art. I graduated from Northwestern University where I ran a radio show called "Ready to Talk" which featured artists from around the world. Subsequently, I worked for New York Public Radio and was the first person to produce video content for the culture page online. My audio documentary Practice, Practice, Practice was featured by the Third Coast Audio Festival, my short film We're Apart of the City won Directors Choice at the Black Maria Film Festival. In 2012 I was selected to participate in The Telluride Film Festival's Student Symposium. In 2013 I produced a series for Chicago Public Radio called The Gift which dropped inside poetry and great literature from the past and present. In 2014 I was a fellow at UnionDocs Center for Documentary where I made and premiered my first feature film called This Place.

Currently I am a PhD student at The University at Buffalo. Since arriving, I have hosted large-scale events, which have only gotten bigger each year. In 2016, I staged Excursions into Unknowable Worlds, in 2017 I launched the first year of The Indeterminacy Festival, Following the festival, I toured the project to four different cities around the U.S. which I plan to continue this year, traveling to different locations and developing new relationships with museums and community partners.

for burchfield_smallersize.jpg

A view from a bubble, Indeterminacy 2017

IN THE NEWS

These projects have been well received and covered in the press within Buffalo, and I’ll include below links to articles from The Public, UB News, Buffalo Rising, and Buffalo News - all of the city’s most read news papers for art, culture, and news:

Buffalo Rising for this year’s festival fundraiser

The Public:
2016
2017

UB News:

Buffalo Rising
Burchfield Penney
Buffalo News
 
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