Black Swan is an experimental digital initiative designed to eat the art world by channeling resources from established institutions to cultural practitioners. The project responds to the increasing precarisation of cultural labour by experimenting with organisational forms that enable practitioners to collectively manage resources. At Trust, Black Swan will provide the means to research, develop and present projects within spheres of collective interest while empowering community members to steer the flows of resources and shape the research agenda. The project builds tools and networks for trans-local cooperation, catalysing as a peer to peer support structure for cultural workers in Berlin and beyond.
Trust
Trust is an interdisciplinary research and development lab in Berlin for artists, designers, technologists, and ecologists working with advanced technologies and experimental theories. Trust nurtures new forms for creative practice, assembling and accelerating collective interests, objectives, standards, and sympathies.
Trust’s motto is utopian conspiracy:
- Utopian because the focus is on narratives and technologies that envision societies beyond industrial capitalism, alienation, debt, precarity, and climate catastrophe.
- Conspiracy because at the core Trust works with others to strategise against the status quo, building solidarity between disciplinary boundaries, humans and nonhumans, organisms and algorithms.
The People Behind the Project
© Skye Bougsty-Marshall
Laura Lotti is a researcher investigating the transformations of monetary technologies in relation to economic and cultural formations. Her current work focuses on the mimesis and memetics of desire in markets and their effects on the reconfiguration of ecosystems of value.
Calum Bowden creates stories, worlds, and platforms. He co-founded Trust, an incubator for utopian conspiracy in Berlin.
