In the cryptoplasm ecology, relics of physical constructions are 3D scanned in order to recompose and build a virtual architectural alphabet. In the future, cryptoplasms will be customized smart-contracts, adopted in AR environments and 3D printed.
***
A cryptoplasm is a shapeless piece of virtual matter, put into circulation by a smart-contract on the blockchain.
The preliminary state of a cryptoplam is a piece of physical matter, a debris or a relic. Its transfer into a virtual reality is achieved by means of a 3D scan. The object, most often composed of several interlocking materials, is unified as a 3D mesh. This is one of the primary properties of a cryptoplasm, which is about uniformizing all the components of a physical object into a uniform surface.
-PLASM
As a consequence, a cryptoplasm cannot be a hybrid and decomposable object. It is a uniform and shapeless entity in the Bataillian sense, it is marking the emergence of a virtual low-materialism. Echoing with the suffix -plasm which denotes in biology shapeless or mouldable conditions(1). In medicine, a neoplasm is a mass of abnormal tissue that arises without obvious cause from pre-existing body cells, has no purposeful function, and is characterized by a tendency to independent and unrestrained growth(2).
CRYPTO-
A cryptoplasm comes into full existence when it is minted on a blockchain. Before it is minted, it is considered to be part of the pre-cryptoplasmic process. A cryptoplasm cannot be dissociated from the blockchain which is its cradle. By minting it, a cryptoplasm can take the form of an image that represents it, as well as a new smart-contract specifically written for it. In the future, specific smart-contract coded to inject properties into cryptoplasms will emerge.
CRYPTOPLASMIC FORMATIONS
On the other hand, a cryptoplasmic entity can take on a separate reality from the blockchain it's coming from. The cryptoplasmic is a process that incorporates cryptoplasm into a becoming. For example, a cryptoplasm can be printed into a physical material and become a physical object again. From the original debris to its reprint, the blockchain will have been a vehicle for transforming the matter. The cryptic transformation of the matter is equivalent to an alchemical transformation of the matter.
A cryptoplasmic formation in a multiverse, a VR or AR environment is another mode of existence equivalent to the one mentioned above.
CRYPTOPLASM IN THE ARCHITECTURE INDUSTRY
The architectural typologies that interest cryptoplasms are: architectures without use, totems, piles of matter and commemorative or funerary monuments.
The cryptoplasmic logic belongs directly to the Bataillian theory of the unproductive expenditure: Hence relieving the blockage was always (…) the object of a feverish pursuit. Ancient societies found relief in festivals; some erected admirable monuments that had no useful purpose(3). Cryptoplasm is an autonomous entity, as neoplasms: they exist without obvious cause and no purposeful function. Once a cryptoplasmic formation is printed in a field or in the middle of a city, their exitence is definitively marking a change in the role architecture is supposed to play. Cryptoplasms were invented in order to develop the vocabulary of this specific genre of architecture.
As two measurable and inviolable realities, blockchain technology and construction are deeply linked.
I should like to see the equivalent of Bernard Tapie in the world of business emerge in the world of concepts. Buying up failing concepts, swallowing them up, dusting them off (firing all the deadbeats who are in the way), putting them back into circulation with a dynamic virginity, sending them shooting up on the Stock Exchange and then abandoning them afterwards like dogs. Some people do this very well. It is perhaps better to save tired concepts by maintaining them in a super cooled state like unemployed labour, or locking them away in interactive data banks kept alive on a respirator(4).
NOTIONS REGARDING THE DEVELOPMENT OF ARCHITECTURE WITH BLOCKCHAIN TECHNOLOGY
OCS (off-chain space)
OCS is the physical world. For architects, it is a worksite where an in-situ construction is realized. OCS can belong to the pre-cryptoplasmic process or to the printing process of a cryptoplasmic formation. Finally, OCS serves as a place of exchange with the public, an archaeological site and a place of knowledge. BCS (blockchain space) can be seen as the digital twin of the OCS.
PA (protocol architecture)
The construction realized in the OCS and the BCS is a PA: it does not arise from the impulse of a private or public commission, it does not follow a specific program and has no relation to a specific use. A PA is a different protocol in the sense that it is outside the logic of : commission / drawing / building permit / construction / use. The introduction of a protocol induces new conditions and invents another architectural category. Most of the time, this type of architecture is a DMA (direct message architecture) which is de facto transmitting a certain knowledge through its physicality.
A PA works as a purely visual architecture, like a fresco. It is immersive, like the Italian Mannerist grottos of the 16th century, which deliver a message through space. In order to be distinguished from sculpture or installation (even if it is, in fact, the fusion of all these fields), the condition for a PA to be included in the field of architecture is that it intentionally or by default produces space. Therefore, we must enter it or the visitor must be included in the space it defines.
DM (direct message)
By removing the use, the architecture is transformed into an architecture-message. This architecture parlante visually expresses its own condition and especially two things: the SE (stored energy) and the RE (released energy). The dialogue between the viewer and the architecture's internal organization is the main communication, similar to the experience of observing a skeleton. The SE is accumulated in the blocks, defying gravity, and the RE is appearing in the physical traces of construction. Showing its internal organization is the only raison d’être of this type of construction: the shape expresses the amount of energy spent and stored.
NFT (non fungible token)
Cryptoplasms have been developed using NFT technology in order to produce more than gifs and jpegs, but to produce programmable NFTs and generative shapes thanks to smart-contracts. In the future, each cryptoplasm will be encoded with specific properties to produce complete cryptoplasmic architectures by the meeting of multiple NFTs. They will evaluate each other, transform each other and build an intelligent organism.
BCS (blockchain space)
The BCS is the space that will authenticate the cryptoplasms. Each physical block has its equivalent in the BCS as a digital twin.
Architecture, as an open body, is transformed into a place of exchange where the transactions and the transformations of its matter become visible. Thanks to BCS, the viewer can own the self-certification of these operations belonging to a specific architectural concept.
Currencies are not more than symbolic operations which are solidifying in the blockchain every thought from the physical world.
(1) Marcos Cruz, The Inhabitable Flesh of Architecture, Routledge, New York, 2016, p.160
(2) Marcos Cruz, The Inhabitable Flesh of Architecture, Routledge, New York, 2016, p.162
(3) Georges Bataille, La Part Maudite, Les Éditions de Minuit, Paris, 1949, p. 29 in the french edition
(4) Jean Baudrillard, Cool Memories, Gallimard, Paris, 1987, p. 217 in the french edition
In the cryptoplasm ecology, relics of physical constructions are 3D scanned in order to recompose and build a virtual architectural alphabet. In the future, cryptoplasms will be customized smart-contracts, adopted in AR environments and 3D printed.
***
A cryptoplasm is a shapeless piece of virtual matter, put into circulation by a smart-contract on the blockchain.
The preliminary state of a cryptoplam is a piece of physical matter, a debris or a relic. Its transfer into a virtual reality is achieved by means of a 3D scan. The object, most often composed of several interlocking materials, is unified as a 3D mesh. This is one of the primary properties of a cryptoplasm, which is about uniformizing all the components of a physical object into a uniform surface.
-PLASM
As a consequence, a cryptoplasm cannot be a hybrid and decomposable object. It is a uniform and shapeless entity in the Bataillian sense, it is marking the emergence of a virtual low-materialism. Echoing with the suffix -plasm which denotes in biology shapeless or mouldable conditions(1). In medicine, a neoplasm is a mass of abnormal tissue that arises without obvious cause from pre-existing body cells, has no purposeful function, and is characterized by a tendency to independent and unrestrained growth(2).
CRYPTO-
A cryptoplasm comes into full existence when it is minted on a blockchain. Before it is minted, it is considered to be part of the pre-cryptoplasmic process. A cryptoplasm cannot be dissociated from the blockchain which is its cradle. By minting it, a cryptoplasm can take the form of an image that represents it, as well as a new smart-contract specifically written for it. In the future, specific smart-contract coded to inject properties into cryptoplasms will emerge.
CRYPTOPLASMIC FORMATIONS
On the other hand, a cryptoplasmic entity can take on a separate reality from the blockchain it's coming from. The cryptoplasmic is a process that incorporates cryptoplasm into a becoming. For example, a cryptoplasm can be printed into a physical material and become a physical object again. From the original debris to its reprint, the blockchain will have been a vehicle for transforming the matter. The cryptic transformation of the matter is equivalent to an alchemical transformation of the matter.
A cryptoplasmic formation in a multiverse, a VR or AR environment is another mode of existence equivalent to the one mentioned above.
CRYPTOPLASM IN THE ARCHITECTURE INDUSTRY
The architectural typologies that interest cryptoplasms are: architectures without use, totems, piles of matter and commemorative or funerary monuments.
The cryptoplasmic logic belongs directly to the Bataillian theory of the unproductive expenditure: Hence relieving the blockage was always (…) the object of a feverish pursuit. Ancient societies found relief in festivals; some erected admirable monuments that had no useful purpose(3). Cryptoplasm is an autonomous entity, as neoplasms: they exist without obvious cause and no purposeful function. Once a cryptoplasmic formation is printed in a field or in the middle of a city, their exitence is definitively marking a change in the role architecture is supposed to play. Cryptoplasms were invented in order to develop the vocabulary of this specific genre of architecture.
As two measurable and inviolable realities, blockchain technology and construction are deeply linked.
I should like to see the equivalent of Bernard Tapie in the world of business emerge in the world of concepts. Buying up failing concepts, swallowing them up, dusting them off (firing all the deadbeats who are in the way), putting them back into circulation with a dynamic virginity, sending them shooting up on the Stock Exchange and then abandoning them afterwards like dogs. Some people do this very well. It is perhaps better to save tired concepts by maintaining them in a super cooled state like unemployed labour, or locking them away in interactive data banks kept alive on a respirator(4).
NOTIONS REGARDING THE DEVELOPMENT OF ARCHITECTURE WITH BLOCKCHAIN TECHNOLOGY
OCS (off-chain space)
OCS is the physical world. For architects, it is a worksite where an in-situ construction is realized. OCS can belong to the pre-cryptoplasmic process or to the printing process of a cryptoplasmic formation. Finally, OCS serves as a place of exchange with the public, an archaeological site and a place of knowledge. BCS (blockchain space) can be seen as the digital twin of the OCS.
PA (protocol architecture)
The construction realized in the OCS and the BCS is a PA: it does not arise from the impulse of a private or public commission, it does not follow a specific program and has no relation to a specific use. A PA is a different protocol in the sense that it is outside the logic of : commission / drawing / building permit / construction / use. The introduction of a protocol induces new conditions and invents another architectural category. Most of the time, this type of architecture is a DMA (direct message architecture) which is de facto transmitting a certain knowledge through its physicality.
A PA works as a purely visual architecture, like a fresco. It is immersive, like the Italian Mannerist grottos of the 16th century, which deliver a message through space. In order to be distinguished from sculpture or installation (even if it is, in fact, the fusion of all these fields), the condition for a PA to be included in the field of architecture is that it intentionally or by default produces space. Therefore, we must enter it or the visitor must be included in the space it defines.
DM (direct message)
By removing the use, the architecture is transformed into an architecture-message. This architecture parlante visually expresses its own condition and especially two things: the SE (stored energy) and the RE (released energy). The dialogue between the viewer and the architecture's internal organization is the main communication, similar to the experience of observing a skeleton. The SE is accumulated in the blocks, defying gravity, and the RE is appearing in the physical traces of construction. Showing its internal organization is the only raison d’être of this type of construction: the shape expresses the amount of energy spent and stored.
NFT (non fungible token)
Cryptoplasms have been developed using NFT technology in order to produce more than gifs and jpegs, but to produce programmable NFTs and generative shapes thanks to smart-contracts. In the future, each cryptoplasm will be encoded with specific properties to produce complete cryptoplasmic architectures by the meeting of multiple NFTs. They will evaluate each other, transform each other and build an intelligent organism.
BCS (blockchain space)
The BCS is the space that will authenticate the cryptoplasms. Each physical block has its equivalent in the BCS as a digital twin.
Architecture, as an open body, is transformed into a place of exchange where the transactions and the transformations of its matter become visible. Thanks to BCS, the viewer can own the self-certification of these operations belonging to a specific architectural concept.
Currencies are not more than symbolic operations which are solidifying in the blockchain every thought from the physical world.
(1) Marcos Cruz, The Inhabitable Flesh of Architecture, Routledge, New York, 2016, p.160
(2) Marcos Cruz, The Inhabitable Flesh of Architecture, Routledge, New York, 2016, p.162
(3) Georges Bataille, La Part Maudite, Les Éditions de Minuit, Paris, 1949, p. 29 in the french edition
(4) Jean Baudrillard, Cool Memories, Gallimard, Paris, 1987, p. 217 in the french edition