“I attempt to divinate the unseen through expressions of art, music and ceremony.”
An interview with halluciphile
By Anna Seaman, curator, MORROW collective
An underground musician, Shamanic practitioner, cut-up artist, coder, and a “post y2k experience mindset state of being” are just a few of the ways that halluciphile describes himself. His personality and artistic approach are infused with so many references and influences that his output is widely varied, conceptual and not easy to define. In a nutshell, one way of putting it is that, he reaches for things beyond reach.
“I have always been naturally drawn to the occult and esoteric,” he said. “It is through the misuse of traditional media and implementation of novelty that I attempt to divinate the unseen through expressions of art, music and ceremony.”
His artist pseudonym, meaning lover of ‘allucinari’ (Latin for “to wander in the mind”) is derived from his lifelong quest to ascertain if it is possible to perceive “the greater world that surrounds everyone”. And, he notes, it is deliberately written in lowercase because it should be “viewed as an improper noun, a verb, or a last name that anyone can take on”. Harmonious with open source culture, especially blockchain technology, halluciphile embraces the process of decentralization.
However, well before blockchain technology appeared on his radar, he conceived of an early peer-to-peer network derived from file trading programs used in the late nineties and especially botnets in the early two thousands. “It became commonplace for users to find unauthorized programs which would commit activities that they did not agree with, such as denial of service attacks. It was at that time that I conceived of an opt-in botnet which would help deliver data directly from one peer to another,” he explained. “One of the cornerstones in my career was when I published an album on Soulseek Records (2007), which was a collective that came together from using the program.”
In 2012, after several years of hosting local events and being inspired by online netlabels, halluciphile created his own netlabel called Synchronausea. On that, he published his own and other people’s works until about 2015, during which time he also became obsessed with integrating blockchain tech by launching a music altcoin. “I drew up extensive plans with some internet friends of mine of how to create an altcoin which also strengthened the interconnectedness of all underground music scenes. When working on a budget away from home it is important for the underground musician to be able to network with honorable promoters, sound guys and venues. I envisioned the capacity of the blockchain to be able to independently support such activities as self-publishing but also trust building through various market mechanics.”
Due to the complexity of securing an altcoin network, this blockchain ultimately never came into being. His search continued with Ethereum, but expectations were not met when the project forked over controversy from TheDAO hack. Eventually finding RarePepe his fascination was sparked with using the Counterparty platform. It allows users to create and trade any self-made digital tokens, as well as secure them on the Bitcoin blockchain on a fairly launched protocol.
As time went on, he continued to dedicate all his attention to Counterparty protocol. Not only because of the phenomenal community, but also because they had figured out how to express blockchain tokens on a website with graphics. Something he had been searching for as he had no idea how to build it himself. He became more concerned with the direction of the Counterparty protocol, and became more and more involved, dedicating much time over the years back to the community. For the last few years, he has advocated for initiating a balanced governance structure. Again, drawing from native concepts, like the use and purpose of wampum, to understand the true meaning of consensus, he hopes to launch an initiative to quantify it. A dedicated champion of the open source space. “Just like an artist can tease out a form out of a block of marble, so too do I attempt the social informatic role of ushering in empowerment for the individual publishing in an open source era of tokenized intellectual property.”
In the end, this is where his excitement comes in — he is interested in the tokenization of assets that are open source and that empower any individual’s ability to create. “Copyleft is more relevant than copyright when it comes to digital ownership and licensing, as far as I’m concerned. I feel like copyleft goes hand in hand with other things that I do. One of the things I have wanted to explore now is readapting old expired copywritten material because they are in the public domain. I feel a lot of people in the NFT space don’t realize copyright expires.”
His exploration of the acceptable cultural context of reappropriating copyrighted material gave rise to m/eow, an entry on Namecoin registered on Sept. 22, 2014, (block 37368). “A full-immersion mixtape where the user is in control and each track is a little live performance.” Essentially he produced a series of mash-ups of publicly available music and material into a new sounds and music experience. For the MORROW collective show at Art Dubai 2024, m/eow has been revived as a web page for replicating the experience. The re-release will be made into a commemorative Counterparty token and a b-side will be made available as well.
The exhibition also contains a ‘string’ token for the first 12 emoji symbols that he created punycode tokens for on Namecoin back in 2014. d/xn — 26hy478nznbvh5b14ajb63hj0ala527a59 was created under a new namecoin token and a similar Counterparty token was created to ensure longevity. Each of the new individual CounterParty tokens are illustrated svgs linked to IPFS and clearnet files in the metadata. With this Punytoken collection, halluciphile is delving again into the meaning of code, language and iconography. It goes back to the first question, can we harness the technology that is emerging around us to reach for the unreachable? Can we transcend the systems for a different experience?
“As an artist, I look at myself as more of a messenger of unexplored terrain, someone who is willing to forge paths into the unknown. I envision the capacity of the blockchain to be able to independently support activities such as self-publishing but also trust building. As time goes on, I see myself getting involved with the blockchain industry at large in order to facilitate the launch of an equitable initiative, codified as a social contract which can help the developers and the users achieve consensus,” he says.
This editorial is part of a series of essays and interviews contextualizing MORROW collective’s {R(Evolutionaries);} project, exhibition and sale commemorating a decade of blockchain art. Launched at Art Dubai Digital 2024 and brought to market in collaboration with SuperRare Labs Team and Sotheby’s.
For more info www.morrow-collective.com/revolutionaries
