This interview aims to expose the affective qualities of blockchains, and its potential affects in the word(s)-making strategies in technologically mediated communities.
The socio-technical assemblages based on blockchain bring a new type of social togetherness, influenced by commons and prefigurative strategies. These are value-loaded activities, determined by their kin-making capacity, which transform the technology into an affective infrastructure. If we look at blockchain in this way, the technology not only supports the organisation of a community, but becomes the very instrument upholding political engagement. This capacity to generate a sense of belonging naturally enhances the political project for which the technology was designed for and, in turn, it creates new types of future imaginaries.
This conversation between Daphne Dragona, Shintaro Miyazaki and Barbara Cueto unravels threads of thinking about the affective nature of commoning and how it could trickle down to the technology. Both participants will explain their different approaches to commoning: as way to make the technology “affordable” to a community”; and a way to build social bonds. This double perspective permits to elucidate how the technology could help to build more resilient communities through self-determined forms of governance. In this way, it aims to expose the affective qualities of blockchains, and its potential affects in the word(s)-making strategies in technologically mediated communities.
