An Intermediate Space
Nathaniel Hawthorne wrote, “Yesterday has already vanished among the shadows of the past; tomorrow has not yet emerged from the future. You have found an intermediate space.”
Living in a space like this requires patience, curiosity, experimentation and failure. It requires trading what we understand for new insight. To explore what is possible, we need to release our status as experts of the present. The beginner’s mind will always drive innovation. Hawthorne’s intermediate space is bridged by other unique geometric devices. Marshall McLuhan highlighted Keith Boulding’s concept of break boundaries in his compelling work Understanding Media — The Extensions of Man. These are areas where the existing and the future are blurred in a shape-shifting vortex called potential. Break boundaries are the inflection point where current state begins a subtle transformation into a new version of itself. Turn the clock back a few centuries and Leonardo da Vinci framed the idea of sfumato, which defined the subjects and shapes through the ethereal spaces between them. Sfumato as a technique existed at a break boundary, while the smoky haze between the Mona Lisa’s facial features personified it.
Boundaries are nothing more than a shared space between two or more things in close proximity. In that shared space, packets of both entities intermingle offering a new opportunity for interaction and creation. Collisions of these particles challenge our current thinking and present new arrangements of existing elements.
So where are the break boundaries on the path to Web3? Could the first one be the intersection of emergent output and planned activity? Would this drive a release of the need to organize and control in favor of enabling the possibilities of serendipitous collaboration? The promise of DAOs could help bring this to life. Or will the break boundary exist at the border between legacy systems and participants in those systems that are starving for a new approach? Could the music industry and its stakeholders redefine the relationship between artist and fan while distributing equitable return to the creators? The things that live in the boundaries connect what we’ve done to what is possible.
Fifty-one years ago, John Bonham set up a drum kit at the bottom of a stairwell at Headley Grange with microphones placed on the two floors above, while Andy Johns captured the sound and pushed it through a few Binson Echorec delays and some heavy compression to create one of the most famous drum grooves of all time. Years later, Adam Yauch experimented in his kitchen and used those sounds to create the loop for Rhymin’ and Stealin’. One iconic creation in one genre feeds an altogether new creation in another one. One output becomes a new input. Both of these efforts were fringe conditions that sparked innovation.
If we look beyond the chaos of JPEGs going for millions of dollars and truly understand the possibilities of the technology powering Web3, we can start to look at the boundary conditions of the existing processes and systems that are ripe for innovation. We are living in Hawthorne’s immediate space with countless ideas colliding with history and potential in Boulding’s break boundaries. Don’t wish this time away to get to the answer. This is the fun part, right?
