No attempt is made to conceal the laborious nature of their making - hardware, power sources, and errant strands of fiber assert the hand-made and the ephemeral. Here in Absent Word Double, artist Greg Smith has cultivated an environment that subverts the hip, crisp, clean aesthetics associated with tech. The gears spin furiously and promise so much this project is both about how it breaks down, and how it can be used differently. There's potential, but I'm also deeply skeptical of the possibility of making a clean break. Under the mountains of hype, people are serious about trying to do governance, social groups, and cities in a new way. I respect the urge in the crypto folks who, fed up with the garbage, attempt to start anew. Sometimes constraint is exactly what is required to slip the bonds. As such, Absent Word Double is inspired by and implicated in the crypto-utopian project, embodying its optimism, its delusionality, and its commitment to D.I.Y.
The text gropes, but also concretizes: it contains coded messages that enable observant (or lucky) viewers access to digital wallets containing governance tokens to a range of DAOs (Decentralized Autonomous Organizations). As a result, textual musings in the objects and installations are necessarily ham-fisted as they consider human foibles and hopes amidst technological promise.
