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As part of wendy.network’s Virtual Open Art Call on the topic of Radical Empathy, the selected winning artworks will be projected on different sites around the world. Portugal’s projection will take place in Jardins Efémeros, Viseu with a slideshow projection of the winners and a little introduction of wendy.network. If you want to find more about the Radical Empathy Call, here is a message from our founder, followed by a description of what the call is:
“Dear community,
We’re looking forward to our call for artists framing the topic of:
RADICAL EMPATHY.
Why did we choose this topic and where does it come from?
As you may know, the KONJUNGATE project is based on my cyber novel MACHFELD, written in 1999. One of the main characters of this book is Wendy, a fascinating person, who works as an agent for Satoshi NAKAMOTO. On the one hand, she is smart and full of empathy for the cultural conflicts of different extra-galactic forms of life – which is a central part of the novel – and on the other hand, she has a secret job to do that goes against her personal convictions. In addition, she is the eponym of our network.
Like all of us, she has to make decisions on a daily basis that will change her future life forever. If you see life as a system of experiences and socialisation, our choices are closely related to it. But can we break out of this framework? And do we as a society manage to establish a sustainable, empathic approach to one another?
wendy.network is committed to empathic interaction. We are open to cultural and artistic exchange without restrictions and we are aware of our social responsibility by implementing an experimental new way of decentralising art funding using cryptographic technology.
Art and culture have the power to exemplify empathic togetherness. Let’s show that to people.
Wendy is empathic and so are we.
Best wishes,
Michael Mastrototaro”
wendy.network is starting a series of art calls to engage the community with Wendy’s personality. One of her main traits is having radical empathy and we want you, the artists of wendy.network, to help us define what that is and how it should impact our world today. We at wendy.network want to encourage each other to have radical empathy. We think having radical empathy is a cure for this year’s loneliness. Jack Schot defines Radical Empathy as “an active striving to better understand and share the feelings of others.” For this call, we are asking you, the artists, these questions: What do you define it as? Why does the world in 2021 need us to have radical empathy?
After a year of physical and emotional distancing we need to start working as a society to be more empathic, in a radical way. We need to build bridges between each other and slash the distance that the past year put between us. By having radical empathy, we can extend the same acceptance we’ve had for ourselves over the last year to everyone around us. The work will be featured on the wendy.network site and it’s social network accounts. There will be a presentation of the selected artists and their artwork during the “Open studio”, hosted by the wendy.network artist Sabine Maier at FLUSS – Society for the promotion of photo- and media art (Link) at Schloss Wolkersdorf in Austria, an accredited partner of wendy.network. The work will also be exhibited virtually in wendy.network’s Gather.Town sphere and in a Cryptovoxel gallery (supported by Cryptowiener). The winning artworks will also be projected in different places around the world.
wendy.network was created to bring funding to artists and to enable an easy way to invest into contemporary art. wendy.network believes in the power of art and the power of the people. Together we can shift the value of contemporary art productions by using crypto-technology to generate an interpassive income. wendy.network is powered by KONJUNGATE. KONJUNGATE is a multilayered art project and cryptocurrency designed to change the way of art funding. It is based on the cyber novel MACHFELD written in 1999 by Michael Mastrototaro. KONJUNGATE, in conjunction with the wendy.network is making a strong artistic statement in the times of budget cuts. KONJUNGATE and wendy.network assists artists to exist in the everpresense of inspiration.
