2022 in Review: A Look Up the Rabbit Hole
As we enter the new year, it’s natural to take a step back to reflect on the events, accomplishments, and challenges of 2022. This reflection period gives us both perspective and appreciation for the phenomenal projects that were birthed into the Tezos ecosystem in the past 12 months.
Today, we’ll explore the progress made within our grants program, Down the Rabbit Hole, highlighting milestones made by the grantees to expand the Tezos ecosystem to new frontiers.
For those who are new to our community, Down The Rabbit Hole is a small grants program that supports ideas and projects that utilize Tezos technology to develop and ideate new products, applications, and blockchain tools — while simultaneously raising awareness of Web3 utility functions through educational or informational activities.
Categories for the application include: industry exploration, proof of concepts, open source ecosystem development, community building and engagement, research and more.
This grant program had a successful year in 2022. Despite being launched mid-year, it was able to award funding to 13 grantees totaling €47.600. These projects span a variety of industries — including Art Projects (Floodplains XYZ, Seeing/Unseen, Eschatonality, Blockchain Oracles in Physical Art Installations), Fashion Projects (J’adore DYOR, Showcase 3D), Educational and Community Projects (’no name projkt’, Visiblr, blkVlpha, ‘Curative!’), DeFi (ToDeFi), Dev Tooling Projects (Tezos One-click Faucet) and other (Autro).
We are proudly sharing the stories of a few of our grant-funded projects, which have made a significant impact in the tech and arts communities. Our aim today is to inspire others to use their inventiveness to begin projects fueled by curiosity that will continue to expand the Tezos ecosystem to frontiers we never thought possible and beyond.
Education & Community
Starting with one of our main branches, Education & Community, a project that stands out is blkVlpha+, led by a team of PoC leaders from the arts and tech communities. The project aims to build a Web3 network designed to connect, educate and invest in trans, non-binary & women of color. The project demystifies the complexity behind Web3 adoption and helps navigate digital worlds with autonomy through community power. This project has not only achieved its intended goals, but has also had a powerful ripple effect — benefiting and onboarding a handful of members interested in joining the Tezos community. The team managed to host an Intro to Tezos NFTs, a Marketplaces and Minting web class, and a BIPOC & Allies Ecosystem Projects presentation, within a short two-month time span between Nov-Dec 2022. For 2023, they still have already hosted a Pitch Review and a Buy Party, and will continue to expand with more community-building events throughout the year. Stay tuned on Twitter!
‘Curative!’ by Michael Straeubig is another very promising initiative from our educational branch. This handy guide aims to help you to plan, curate, and organize your physical NFT exhibition. With practical advice and discussions about technology, art, and event issues, it also provides checklists and further useful materials. Built on the collaborative “4 Screens” pop-up exhibition in Berlin, it aims to encourage everyone to become curative and exhibit digital art regardless of background, budget, and available resources. Michael has been an active member of the despace community for a long time. By supporting with resources and making himself present at almost all of the community events, he’s a shining case of how a community-driven initiative can inspire members to serve as a guide for newcomers in the Web3 space, breaking down barriers and sparking the light of inspiration for creation and utilization of new technologies and use cases for Web3 tools and technology.
Another captivating project is Visiblr, by Su-Zeong Fröhlich. Visiblr is the first intersectional project in Web3 for BIPOC in Germany (BIPOC goes for Black, Indigenous, and People of Color). Visiblr is an NFT Art and Social Project that seeks to bring blockchain technology and Web3 closer for millions of marginalized groups in Germany. The team is committed to social equality and strives for structural change. With Visiblr, they hope to create a world where all people have a seat at the table, making underrepresented groups literate in blockchain technology and Web3, and empowering them through a hands-on, open, and available experience. The team has already organized an event in Berlin, called Workshop4KIDS, where the community gathered with a welcoming infrastructure for kids and parents to learn, play and educate themselves on Web3 matters. More to come in 2023. Stay tuned!
The ‘no name projkt’, by Hannah-Katharina Chabbani, also found great success aiming to onboard new participants to the ecosystem. ‘no name projkt’ was an IRL immersive onboarding experience and performance piece on Tezos organised in Berlin in November, at KW Institute for Contemporary Art. Aiming to educate on the possibilities of tokenomics and DAO using a practical show-and-tell approach, the “projkt” allowed access for 227 guests and 100 participants, onboarding them into a live construction site of experimental technology.
Kicking off the Art category, a project that has made a significant impact: Seeing/Unseen, by Lauren Moffatt, an Australian artist working with immersive environments and experimental narrative practices. Seeing/Unseen is a decentralized app (dApp) accessible via mobile devices, which allows its visitors to view and/or interact with geolocated augmented reality sculptures. The sculptures are dynamically affected by environmental data that is streamed to them from the surrounding (urban) ecosystem via the blockchain. This project aims to connect people to the hidden ecosystems that surround them, while also creating an open-source dataset that could be useful to researchers — showing the wide reach and influence of our grants program.
Floodplains XYZ, by Michelle Brown, is also a unique example of the community tendency to fall Down the Rabbit Hole. Michelle is a Brisbane-based new media artist focused on virtual and augmented reality storytelling in the digital space. With Floodplains XYZ, an interactive Web3-based 3D project, she aims to highlight the impact climate change has on weather and habitability while highlighting the clean and sustainable essence of Tezos. Michelle has undertaken a residency with despace berlin to focus on integrating NFTs into the experience and we cannot wait to see further updates!
Another thought-provoking project born in DTRH is Eschatonality, by Noah Pred. A generative, interactive, audio-visual installation exploring the co-creative experience of time as an object expressed via meta-cultural systems. A shape-shifting monolith that emanates from the horizon, reacting fluidly to unique musical expressions. Audio and visual changes were triggered by tweets including the term “Eschatonality”, with corresponding Twitter handles appearing on the screen, inviting global collaboration in the process as it unfolds. So interesting, right?
Noah’s project had a show-up at Refraction Festival at NFT.NYC and airdropped NFTs for people that interacted with the project (Objkt collection). It also had a final exhibition at despace, gathering the community together to connect, network, and appreciate the grantee’s amazing work.
Last but not least, we wrap up 2022’s Art Projects with Blockchain Oracles in Physical Art Installations, by David Pettersson (Somatic Bits). This project researches the use of blockchain oracles in physical art installations. Composed of multiple parts, it utilizes the creation and evaluation of oracles (with different storage architectures) in the form of smart contracts, artist interviews, and research into past and current research literature. Prototypes have been developed and tested, and the thesis can be accessed here.
2022 was a year of innovation and experimentation in the fashion industry, as evidenced by the projects supported by our grants program. J’adore DYOR and Showcase 3D explored the development of emerging technologies in the design process, not only showcasing the creativity and ingenuity of the grantees, but also highlighting the importance of addressing pressing issues such as environmental sustainability and inclusivity in fashion.
J’adore DYOR, by Paula Kühn, aims to be a Web3 & Fashion sustainability handbook. Paula is a Berlin-based fashion, textile, and 3D designer that found her way into the Web3 world in 2017. The project collects and comments on the use cases of brands and upcoming projects in the wider field of fashion and token engineering from a sustainability point of view. It’s meant to be the start of a navigation tool for brands and interested people to see what’s possible beyond the marketing and community-building strategies we’ve seen within fashion Web3 projects.
Nuno Oliveira brings Showcase 3D: A fashion-forward and workshop event to the ecosystem. It’s a showroom showcasing up-and-coming talent within the fashion industry and their pathway for integration into Web3. The program begins their descent into the digital world by minting their NFT collection. Then follows with a free, 2-day, in-person workshop that’s open for all curious creatives to come through, learn, and connect. The goal is to onboard individuals into the community by minting NFTs of their work to a tezos-based marketplace, so they can begin their Web3 experience — learning along the way.
DeFI & Dev Tooling & Music
Since we have one of each, it made sense to keep those categories together in the ending portion of the Year Wrap-Up. We have ToDeFi, Tezos One-click Faucet, and Autro — all very different and very exciting projects that connect different universes.
ToDeFi, organized by Lorenzo Schoenleber, is a new international conference purely dedicated to topics within decentralized finance. It’s set to be hosted by the Collegio Carlo Alberto and the University of Turin, and while it’s still under development, they already have support from various institutions, researchers and speakers with their sights set high. The conference will take place in Turin, Italy, on April 19, 2023.🚀
Tezos One-click Faucet, by Alexander Vanryssel, was created from one of those moments when you really need a tool as a developer, and you have no choice but to build it yourself. This project provides a one-click faucet for Tezos testnets.
Autro, by Sam Counihan and Noah Pred, is our latest grant and revolves around the music industry. It aims to be an NFT-based License Management Solution, to help music makers who want to easily use, exchange, swap, and resell their music.
All of these projects connect and disconnect inside the tunnels of the rabbit hole, creating the community that we are proud to call despace berlin.
As we reflect on these projects, we can’t help but think about the future of this ecosystem. And we encourage our readers to do the same and share their thoughts and reflections. What stood out to you? What ideas did the projects spark in you?
Down The Rabbit Hole is there for those brave enough to spiral down its wonders. Check it out on our website and apply your ideas to the waiting list.