Bandung Conference

The history of human civilization is the history of the struggles of the community. Originally an attempt to survive, the community then grew, allied, but at the same time also conflicted with others. From the smallest to the largest social sphere, these patterns keep repeating themselves from time to time.

In a state of uncertainty after the Second World War, several countries that had experienced the suffering of living under colonialism chose not to choose between the two major warring nations; the United States of America (NATO) and the Soviet Union. They formed a new alliance, the Non-Aligned Movement. The big idea of this alliance is the rejection of intimidation from the big powers as well as prosperity for each member whose majority has just been independent from colonialism. The meeting of high-ranking leaders of the Non-Aligned Movement in Bandung in 1955, commonly known as the Bandung Conference, became a turning point for countries in Asia, Africa, and Eastern Europe. Inspiring the rise of new countries in managing their respective resources also provides an opportunity to open networks outside of the networks of the two big nations.

The Non-Aligned Movement is the inspiration for the name of our community, whose members are marked with a hashtag, #NonBlokMovement. #NonBlokMovement contains artists, writers, curators, and art critics in meatspace who are familiar with the art scene on a daily basis, but want to explore what art is in the blockchain network and where it will take contemporary art in the future. Functionally, this adaptation does not mean that we see any major forces or blocks (except blockchain ofc.) in the NFT ecosystem we are working on. As new players in the scene, we think the best thing to do is grow, develop potential together and build good relations between other groups who are new like us and those who have already existed in the NFT scene; participate in creating an art and market ecosystem that is sustainable and beneficial to all parties. The Non-Aligned Movement also provides important ideas about the choice of alternatives. Alternatives can always be conditioned. In this context, alternatives can also mean artistic choices, technologies, or innovative ideas that combine both or other elements.

As a community, we have never done a community-based project, and it feels like now is the right time to create a project with a thematic unity that connects to our community’s identity. Since the Bandung Conference is an important event in the Non-Aligned Movement, we think that our first project should start from that event. We will launch this project on International Friendship Day, which is every 30 July according to the United Nations General Assembly.

In this project, each member interprets the Bandung Conference with reference to visual archives, and translates them into their own aesthetic preferences. The result is a variety of artistic creations; it can look realistic, resembling a referenced archive, or it can also look very wild, deconstructing the visual form of the reference.

We will release this project into the Fantom network. Why Fantom? Apart from the fact that we already know the landscape of the ecosystem, both technology and the communities within it, Fantom offers another path that is in line with the idea of #nonblokmovement. The main strength of Fantom is its organic community network, environmentally friendly transactions, and Fantom itself is an alternative network to the various DeFi networks and blockchains available today. To end this, I would like to quote some line written by Choupinette in the article “Community is utility — Introducing PFPonies”. Here, Choupinette discusses his PFP project; PFPonies, which feels quite representative of the existence of communities in the blockchain realm:

“Because a PFP is not just a picture for your profile, it is a key to a sample of the community. It is a way to connect in the most social way possible: with peers. From peers then emerge energy, motivation, ideas, and ultimately new things, new projects, and progress.”

Written by: Rimrimrimbaud

Poster designed by: Koofraa