Get Funded to Preserve Your Culture
Introducing the Filecoin Fund to support projects that use decentralized storage technologies to preserve cultural works.
👋 Hi there. I’m René, co-founder of Artizen, a match funding platform for breakthroughs in art, science, technology, and culture.
“Why is digital culture at risk of vanishing and what can we do to preserve it?
I’ve helped creators raise over $50,000,000 for weird experiments in art and technology. This has been a creatively satisfying frontier for me to explore. And it’s led to breakthrough projects like Evolver, an immersive experience I produced alongside legendary filmmaker Terrence Malick. Evolver premiered at Cannes and toured the world. Yet, despite its success, there is a good chance it will disappear within a few years. This isn't because of a lack of interest or funding but because digital culture is surprisingly fragile and ephemeral.
Introducing the Filecoin Fund for Cultural Preservation. This fund aims to support projects that use decentralized storage technologies to archive, preserve, and disseminate digital culture. Listen to our talk or read on to learn more!
The Fragility of Digital Culture
Digital projects exist in an ecosystem of interconnected dependencies. Software and hardware must be continuously updated and maintained for a project to continue working. An API change, an operating system update, or an evolution in standards can easily break a project. This is especially true for projects at the frontier of innovation. I’ve felt the pain of this fragility firsthand.
My wife Selena is a rape survivor and in 2016 she produced the Testimony project, a virtual reality experience that shared the stories of survivors of sexual assault and their journey to healing. Testimony premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival and transformed many people’s lives. Yet, an update from Oculus broke the VR project. Heartbreakingly, these stories are now effectively lost. The truth is that without dedicated efforts to preserve our digital artifacts, we risk losing them forever.
Decentralized storage: a new frontier
Enter decentralized storage technologies like IPFS and Filecoin. These technologies offer a promising solution to the problem of digital fragility. Unlike traditional centralized storage, decentralized storage spreads data across a network of nodes, ensuring that it remains accessible even if some nodes go offline. This redundancy not only enhances the durability of stored data but also ensures its accessibility over time. For cultural preservation, this is a game-changer. It means that digital works can be archived in a way that protects them from the vulnerabilities of traditional storage methods.
Introducing the Filecoin Fund
Filecoin Fund for Cultural Preservation supports projects that use decentralized storage technologies to archive, preserve, and disseminate cultural works. This initiative is a beacon of hope for preserving digital culture, ensuring that artistic and culturally significant works remain accessible for future generations.
What are we looking for?
To qualify projects must utilize decentralized storage technologies. We support a variety of creative endeavors, including digital art, research data, open-source software, films, music, literature, and other culturally significant works. We seek artists, scientists, coders, and creators committed to ensuring their past and future projects remain safeguarded and accessible. The core requirement is a strong commitment to digital preservation.
Get funded to preserve your culture
Preserving our digital cultural heritage is not just about maintaining access to individual projects; it's about safeguarding the collective memory and creative expression of our time. The Filecoin Fund for Cultural Preservation is a critical step toward this goal. By utilizing decentralized storage technologies, we can protect the stories, artworks, and innovations that define our digital age. I urge all creators to submit their projects and join this essential effort. Together, we can ensure that the digital artifacts we create today will inspire and educate future generations. Get funded to preserve your culture and help protect our shared digital legacy.