Really, I went as OONA. an artist exhibiting artwork. and performing art. But if you were to ask any one of the 2,000 attendees I spoke to, they would likely say I was ‘the girl with the briefcase,’ ‘the girl dressed that way,’ or ‘ the girl in pink.’ always ‘girl’ never ‘womxn.’ Maybe they’d show you a picture they took with OONA, or sneakily of OONA. Few would remember OONA is an artist, even fewer would identify OONA by that title.
This is OONA’s recap of Avalanche Summit in Barcelona. Think of this as a jovial shitting-on-cryptobros/a kink for the brodude dominance of de-fi and then add a splash of toxicity, inspired by the VCs. Above all else, take this medium — and OONA — seriously!!!
I exhibited 6 NFTS at the Conference. But, because, video sits passively on a screen, displayed for you to walk right past, there was no real conversation between the audience and the artwork. Did anyone actually see any of the artwork at the Avalanche Summit?
So, I also decided to also display LIVE ART: OONA, a performance art piece involving a briefcase.
Walking into the Eco-Dome in the center of Poble Espanol, you could not miss the six foot pink presence of OONA — with briefcase handcuffed to wrist — amongst a sea of gray, blue, and black cryptococks. Far from the passivity of video, this type of performance art is active dialogue. Built on the network of the body. Created in the interactions between OONA and her audience (in this case the Summit attendees).
Whether vocalized or subconscious, OONA makes you look at gender and sexuality. At the Summit, even if you didn’t speak to OONA herself, you spoke about her. The conversations mirrored the exact protocol Avalanche is built upon; gossip — one host querying nodes around it — inspiring localized dialogue. The host — in this case OONA — which started the process then computes which alternatives were the most popular among replies. And the process repeat itself.
So, here is a computation of the most popular male replies to OONA: the horny ones, the conceited ones, the frightened ones, and the unintelligent ones. Some unashamed to assert their misogyny, others unaware of how obvious it is.
Now now OONA, not all men.**cuebarf** Of course, a rare few men were curious thinkers who were indeed a good time to chat with. But, I mean a rare few. Hardly enough to make a network survive.
THE HORNY ONES:
The horny ones are hilarious. As soon as they see OONA, a womxn standing in her own sexual power, they see a direct invitation and their tongues act like levers for their penises: flopping hopelessly out of their mouths trying to get into OONA’s (lack of) pants.
The underlying belief the horny ones have is that sexuality is never for oneself, but always for others. Read: A womxn — in this case, OONA — can’t enjoy her sexuality and gender for herself by herself. If it is displayed publicly, it must be for consumption of others — HIM. Him being central to the narrative of why and how OONA expresses herself. (It’s really all a touch narcissistic if you ask me, but then again the cryptoids do tend to have above average messiah complexes)
- Example 1: The Horny Curator Who Is As Desperate as His Discord
I spoke to a curator, launching a new NFT platform for 3 minutes. I followed up with a DM. He replied “I am in town until Friday, let me know if you would like to meet up romantically or professionally. based on your inclinations, salome ;-)”
I did not reply.
He followed up with “i am of course a gentleman in this regard, one is not predicated on the other. intoxication and collaboration has many faces”
I did not reply.
To which he then sent “check out the discord” and dropped the link.
(cue dick shrink) - Example 2: The Horny One who Fantasizes about Shooting Sperm around the Summit, harmlessly of course.
When I told the person who introduced me to the curator about the series of unsolicited messages, they replied “at least, he shot his shot.” - Example 3: The One Who Loves His Horns
An Israeli man asked me out to dinner three days in a row, suggesting he could bring me “guys, girls, drugs, whatever you want.”
He also told me his wife thought that I was hot.
And felt comfortable commenting which of my outfits he preferred (presumably for the imaginary threesomes I was having with him and his wife) — the black was his fave. he though it was the “hottest”
I told him “and this is why open bar isn’t always a good idea.”
He responded: “I like that you express your opinions, but not in the Chinese way.” — yikes. - Example 4: The Horny One Who Thinks He Isn’t A Dog Just Like The Rest of Them
Whilst having dinner amongst the most stunning of Gaudi architecture, a trad-fi guy told me “I am not interested in your art. I am interested in you” and proceeded to ask “so when we fuck do you keep the mask on?”
I replied “Original. I’ve never heard that one before.”
THE FRIGHTENED ONES:
Bless these little babyboydults! The frightened ones are more comfortable in the presence of men. It’s like their dicks act as uniting periscopes, keeping them all inherently connected, like reassuring magnets for one another. As long as we have dicks, we got this!
And while they are kind at heart, a vagina gives them fright so they turn mean. It’s only natural: at low levels of emotional intelligence, we respond to perceived threats with anger and malice. Poor things, these lil darlins don’t even know it!
- Example 1: The One Who Would Fly Away if He Could
A man stares at me from 10 feet away.
We make eye contact.
I smile — but then again no one can see if I’m ever smiling or not — he looks to the floor.
I walk over.
He runs away.
And not a calm run, a fearful and immediate bodily response: flight at it’s finest. - Example 2: The One Who Is So Fearful He Forgets
I was introduced as “OONA, an artist” to “Eli, from California,” he seemed uncomfortable.
I asked him how his day was.
He responded “I’m afraid of you.”
I wondered what other artists had done to him in the past and why he could be so afraid of us.
He timidly asked, “are you also from LA?”
When I explained that I was from Miami, he said “makes sense, you give off that influencer vibe.”
Clearly fear subdues our memory because just moments before I was introduced as an artist — not an influencer — but poorscaredbabyboo Eli couldn’t keep track (or wasn’t wise enough to know the difference.)
I asked “are you calling me dumb or vain?”
And I smiled when he turned a shade paler. - Example 3: The Ones Who You Can Strike Fear into their Hearts & Minds with a Single Word
A curios duo with good vibes asked me how the conference was going & why my practice as artist brought me here.
I responded “i’m here to remind the defi dudes that vaginas are a part of this space too”
both tried respond but couldn’t.
So I asked “did me just saying the word vagina make you scared?”
Both said yes.
“That’s exactly my point: there’s a guy here handing out t-shirts with dicks on them, literally walking around sharing his project: cryptodickies*. No one seems to be afraid of him”
THE CONCEITED ONES:
The conceited ones meet someone else and immediately assume the lowest common denominator of that person: OONA = girl = in pink = dumb. It’s surprising how many jobs in the space require flexible thinking and the ability to perceive a situation from multiple perspectives, yet most men in at the conference couldn’t conceive of OONA being anything other than dumb girl, needing their big dicks to give her a boost!
- Example 1: The One Who is Too Smart For Womxn
While getting a coffee on the second day, I asked a Danish man what his company did. He responded “oh, it’s pretty technical” and walked away. - Example 2: The One Who Thinks Being From Europe, but not technically not a part of the E.U, Makes Him More Fuckable than the NYC-VC-SHITS
I met a group of VCs, mostly from NYC, all shitheads. When introducing ourselves and sharing where we were from, one made it a point to say “I am from Switzerland, not Sweden. Most American girls don’t know there is a difference.” I asked him what was in his Swiss bank account before walking away. - Example 3: The One Who Thinks They Are Gods Gift to Man
When I asked a psuedo-anon man, why he chose to conceal his identity, he responded that he was “building a start up that would change everything” and because “his vision was so clear, he was destined to become bigger than Mark Zuckerberg.”
Indeed, the center of the universe is a very crowded place.
THE UNINTELLIGENT ONES
Intelligence is correlated to awareness. So surely those who are more self-aware are smarter, more evolutionarily competitive, than those who are not. This is to say that someone who knows what sexism is and can see the ways in which their behavior or response to OONA is conditioned by her gender are smarter than those who cannot see how they are acting in sexist ways. If you disagree, fuck off and write your own medium xxx
- Example 1: The One Who Has a Reason to Care about Womxn, Now.
when i shared some of the sexist commentary I was receiving at the conference, one salesman was “shocked! How could they be so rude.” He explained that now, because he had a daughter, he was really aware of these things and they made him mad now.
I didn’t have the heart to share how even that statement was sexist in and of itself: he cares about womxn now because he made one. a womxn’s importance is still only considered in her relationship to the men around her. - Example 2: The Ones that Don’t Make Eye Contact With Womxn
More often than not, when sharing what their companies did or what projects they were working on, many men did not make eye contact with OONA.
Instead they glossed over to the other men in the group. (Now maybe they were just afraid that acknowledging OONA would make their dicks shrink…or surface???)
I shared this tendency with some of the other ladies at the summit, a fair few reported similar accounts: a lack of eye contact from men. being glossed over when there was important information being communicated. A subtle reinforcement of the idea that money and knowledge are better suited for man-on-man // bro-on-bro action. - To be fair, these men are slightly better than the ones that make eye contact with my nipples, as if my nipples will suddenly blink. or as if they look hard enough, my nipples will act like magnets and pop right out of my top and into their mouths. it’s not their fault that they just wanna be all powerful babies again suckling at the tit!
- Example 3: The Ones that Think Objectifying Womxn is Helpful for a Womxn’s career
One of my personal favorites of the Summit was a consultant who genuinely thought he was being kind and helpful:
“I would like to give you an opportunity to work in the space.”
i explained several times that I was an artist. who already had work in the space, who was exhibiting artwork here at the Summit.
But he wanted to help so he kept pushing: “I have a really great client and they have a fantasy football league for cryptocurrency traders.”
I told him that was a dumb idea that sounded ripe for rug pulls.
He continued “please send me a photo of you wearing red — they will want you at the launch.”
When I asked “will they want me at the launch as an artist or eye candy?”
He responded “exactly!”
At every conference I go to, there is always one dude that wants to bring me along as eye candy to his “pitch” or “launch”. FYI: No matter how smokinredhot OONA is, she can’t cover up how shitty your idea is.
So how did other womxn act with and towards OONA?
With great joy, curiosity, and support. I had rich conversations about the tenacity it takes to engage in a market like this. Many womxn exalted other womxn in the room -uplifting their work. Introducing one and other, supporting one and other. It was far from the outdated & sexist trope that womxn don’t support womxn.
When I shared the male responses to OONA with other womxn, it was disappointing — but not unsurprising — to hear that many of these womxn (who were at the summit for business and not to explore the performance of gender and its intersection with art&tech) had similar experiences to varying degrees. Men were more interested in their bodies than their minds. Men assumed they were less intelligent. Men didn’t make eye contact. Men assumed they were better than the womxn at their jobs. Blah blah blah — how nuanced and innovative! So reflective of this emerging tech right?!
This is the reason OONA is loud. OONA acts like a magnet for all the subtle sexism that most womxn face in the space. Because gender and sexuality are so obviously at the forefront of OONA’s identity, it is impossible to ignore. In this way OONA acts as a mirror. You see only what you’re willing to look at.
If OONA’s experience at the Summit were to end in a conclusion it would be simply that: decentralized finance does not lead to decentralized thinking (not yet at least). In a space that could facilitate total autonomy, we (men) still perform and enforce traditional gender roles that are constrictive and impede the expansion of knowledge.
This is not going to end in some “do better” or “work harder” or “be self reflective” trope because honestly, OONA does not give a fuck about you.
You do you honey, OONA will be here doing OONA. OONA!!!
Will I be at the next Avalanche Summit? Undoubtedly. Unless this post gets me shadowbanned. I am quite fond of a number of people on the AVA Labs team. I think they are wonderful — their caliber of work is strong & they are professionals who can think fluidly and treat others with respect.
Truly, my mask goes off to each and every person from the AVA Labs Team*. Especially a select few that made my attendance possible. AVA Labs is trying to shift the space, to integrate more voices, and truly create a web of diverse knowledge and perspectives.
I am over the moon to be a part of this network of knowledge — let the avalanche begin!
Smooches,
OONA
*The cryptodickies man is INCREDIBLE HUMXN AND TALENTED ARTIST.
I LOVE HIS WORK. I LOVE HIS ATTITUDE. HE’S A GEM.
*SERIOUSLY THE AVA LABS TEAM IS FANTASTIC. GOOD PEOPLE. KIND PEOPLE. SMART PEOPLE. GÜN IS GREAT. i could write a whole medium about them, but the internet loves controversy and people hardly ever makes it the footnotes, so if you’re here you know whats good. X
