Sašo Sedlaček
Om for Coin
With the rise of artificial intelligence and the automation of labor, the value of human non-work is about to change. The performance Om for Coin is the launch of the blockchain platform Oblomo, which aims to turn non-work into a value.
The project consists of the development of a blockchain-based system in which participants mine the Oblomo cryptocurrency by demonstrating their stillness, sitting, meditating, or lying down in front of their devices, observed by a
machine learning software rig.
Om for Coin is the first (mining) phase of the Oblomo project, in which raw coin material is created. In this protocol performance, three idle individuals, submerged deep in mantra meditation (miners)
perform a meditation mantra in front of a live audience surveilled by machine learning software. This protocol is used as insurance to control the quantity of circulating coins in the system and needs to be repeated every time there
is a need for new coins in the system.
This is a demonstration of innovative ecological cryptomining that hardly requires any electricity. All coins mined in this performance will be stored in a wallet and used in the next
phase of the project to reward users for being idle.
Production: Aksioma – Institute for Contemporary Art, Ljubljana, 2019
Co-production: Drugo more, Rijeka
This project is a co-production in the framework of the Dopolavoro flagship of the Rijeka 2020 – European Capital of Culture project, with support from the City of Rijeka – Department of Culture, the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Croatia, the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Slovenia and the Municipality of Ljubljana.
Sašo Sedlaček is a multimedia and conceptual artist with a broad spectrum of media interests, investigations, and discoveries of new expanded possibilities, with an always pronounced ludic component in his work. He has been a recipient of several
awards; VIDA 11 in Madrid, the YVAA award New York, the Alexandria Biennial award, the SPAPORT award from Banja Luka, BIH, and has participated in numerous international shows such as Secession in Vienna, DHDM Dresden, Calvert 22 in
London, the Ludwig Museum in Budapest, the Taipei Biennial, Tokyo Miraikan Museum, the Zeppelin Museum Friedrichshafen, the Alexandria Biennale in Egypt, Museumsquartir Wienna (MUMOK & Freiraum), festivals such as Ars Electronica
in Linz, Transmediale Berlin, ISEA (Dortmund GE, Albuquerque US), WRO Wroclaw, and others. His residencies include ISCP, New York, IAMAS, Japan, the Israeli Center For Digital Art, and grants for London and Berlin awarded by the Slovenian
Ministry of Culture. He is an Associate Professor at the Academy of Fine Arts and Design, Ljubljana.
//sasosedlacek.com