TL:DR
(This TL:DR needs a TL:DR of its own)
What?
- A partnership proposal between Uncanvassed & Creatives DAO
- Uncanvassed is a new independent agency for non-technical radical imagination and ideation within the NEAR ecosystem.
Partnership Aims?
- To provide support for individual creatives to build Creative Public Goods (CPG) that benefit the broader NEAR ecosystem both quantitatively and qualitatively.
- Enable individual creatives to access funding to build within the NEAR ecosystem. interact with NEAR dApps / the BOS, and ecosystem based third party suppliers
- To increase transaction levels both within the NEAR creative vertical and elsewhere across the ecosystem.
- To retain and/or onboard both individual creatives and non-creative users.
- To foster a culture of radical imagination by supporting unique creative work that matches the vision of the NEAR tech stack
- To re-energise and raise the profile of the creative vertical on NEAR
Nb: This is not a program to support the individual artistic right to create. This is a program to support the power of creative imagination for the benefit of the broader NEAR ecosystem.
How?
- Individual creatives are currently (and historically) unable to apply for community funding through the existing Creatives DAO framework.
- Uncanvassed will design, implement and administer a support scheme specifically for these unsupported individual creatives.
- This support scheme will only provide funds for building creative projects entirely within the NEAR ecosystem, with the aim to prove quantifiable benefits for that ecosystem.
- Funded projects will be in the form of Creative Public Goods - see below - with creatives able to apply for a retroactive âproduction paymentâ based on their spend within the ecosystem
Who?
- Uncanvassed is the project of Zeitwarp. A long term NEAR exclusive conceptual artist and contributor to the NEAR ecosystem and an associate (non-community) member of Creatives DAO.
DETAIL:
What is Uncanvassed?
An independent agent, accelerator and incubator for non-technical radical imagination within the NEAR Blockchain ecosystem.
What does this actually mean?
An ideation & implementation agency proposing, enabling, building and promoting creative and commercial public goods and solutions with the overall ambition to stimulate growth in the volume of transactions across the NEAR ecosystem.
How will it work?
In the first phase Uncanvassed will focus on the following two strategies:
-
In partnership with Creatives DAO, incubating/supporting individual creatives to build Creative Public Goods (CPG).
-
Internally designing, building and delivering its own CPG for deployment within the ecosystem.
What are CPG:
Creative Public Goods (CPG) is defined here as creative projects and/or infrastructure built for the benefit of the broader community/ecosystem rather than the individual. These CPG should have a quantifiable benefit to the wider community in addition to any purely aesthetic or qualitative effect.
Why CPG?
The economic landscape for creatives on NEAR is at best bleak, and at worst is facing an existential crisis. Most creative communities and projects survive through the financial support of Creatives DAO and/or other funding bodies.
This inhospitable commercial landscape has undermined the confidence of creatives to:
- continue to produce work on NEAR with any expectation of financial reward.
- choose to migrate to or - more pertinently - remain within the NEAR creative ecosystem.
It also undermines the efforts of Creatives DAO to support communities towards commercial sustainability.
If anything the situation is more dire for individual artists who currently do not qualify for support from Creatives DAO irrespective of the quantitative or qualitative benefits of their activities to the broader ecosystem.
Assuming that there is a place for creativity within the NEAR ecosystem - and that is by no means an accepted position - then the question remains:
What is to be done?
Paying individual creatives to âindulge their artistic right to createâ is not a sustainable approach - irrespective of the qualitative benefits of creativity to an ecosystem. Neither is it particularly justifiable when non-creatives within the same ecosystem face equally challenging circumstances.
The idea instead is to encourage individual creatives to produce non-commissioned work for outcomes beyond themselves. Essentially this means creating for the quantifiable benefit of the broader community. This âbenefitâ will not be measured in either purely aesthetic or emotional terms, but as how the results of the creative process:
- interacts with existing - or creates new - dApp infrastructure on NEAR
- originates new transactions on NEAR
- onboards new active wallets
- integrates with the BOS
- demonstrates âradical imaginationâ (originality)
(There are no other aesthetic guidelines apart from originality. It is a free & open submission process in terms of genre and subject.)
The CPG concept has some historical context in terms of enabling creatives to produce work within an economic downturn.
If the NEAR creative ecosystem can be said to be in something of a Great Depression, then - in a parallel of the creative New Deal programs such as the Public Works of Art Project (PWAP), 1933-1934, and the The Federal Art Project (FAP) of 1935 - the CPG Program for individual creatives will provide baseline economic support for creatives to build/create for the benefit of the ecosystem.
Individual creatives will be supported to work within the NEAR economy. Funding will be provided to spend or build within the ecosystem only - with the ambition of an internal multiplier effect of at least 2.
Moving further forward along the timeline of American political and economic history - and to paraphrase John F Kennedy - the mantra of the Uncanvassed incubator program for individual artists will be:
âAsk not what the NEAR ecosystem can do for youâŚ
âŚask what you can do for the NEAR ecosystemâ
Currently, Creatives DAO provides economic support for the creative activities of its communities. Uncanvassed intends to provide similar support for individuals who create for the broader NEAR community.
Why âRadical Imaginationâ?
This is tied up with two fundamental ideas that lie at the heart of the Uncanvassed concept:
- The NEAR-oteric:
âNEAR has a reputation for groundbreaking original technologyâŚit should also have a reputation for groundbreaking original culture.â
This was a core part of a presentation given at NEARCon Beta in September 2022 on the subject of âOriginal Culture Indigenous to the Near Blockchainâ. It introduced the idea of the NEAR-oteric - a person who introduces new methods, ideas or concepts on the NEAR blockchain. Derived from the original term âNeotericâ - in turn derived from a group of avant-garde Latin poets from the first century BC - that describes someone who âadvocates new ideasâ.
â If the technology is not copypastaâŚthen why should the culture be?â
The potential of NEAR to deliver on the promise of its technology should encourage the non-technical elements within the ecosystem to pursue a similar path towards the original, the innovative and the futurist within Web3.
âRepetition, itâs the death of art. Itâs been done.â
Chris Stevens - KBHR
- The Shining City on the Hill
âNEAR can be âThe Shining City on the HillââŚa carbon neutral, cheap, fast and scaleable blockchainâŚwhere âevery human is rewarded for bringing their creations to the worldâ "- NDC Vision & Personas Telegram Group
This is a vision for the NEAR ecosystem that borrows heavily from the tropes of US politics (once more!)âŚand more specifically from the original Human Guild strapline. In a post-scarcity utopia, this scenario would hopefully be possible, but the reality in 2023 is that every human cannot be rewarded just for bringing their creations to the world. However, what we can do is to support individual creatives to use their vision and skill to improve the ecosystem - both quantitatively and qualitatively - for the benefit of everyone else.
One of those benefits is to reinforce the idea that NEAR is a place where the new and original - in both technology and Web3 culture - not only survive, but also can thrive.
So yes, the callout is for Radical Imagination in all forms. While it will not be the defining characteristic for support, it should nonetheless remain the aspiration.
Equally, the concept of Radical Imagination is not limited to the creative sphere. It can encompass how creatives interact with the technical & dApp infrastructure on NEAR - plus the BOS - during the creative process.
âWe are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.â
Oscar Wilde
NEAR Website Rebrand 2021 - The Future Shining City on the Hill
Why âUncanvassedâ?
Definition: The word âuncanvassedâ has two meanings:
- To literally not be on canvas - ie digital
- To not be consulted - ie to be âleft outââŚor excluded - ie an âoutsiderââŚ
Given that individual creatives are currently unsupported by existing structures within the Creatives DAO, the second meaning has a clear and obvious resonance. It equally is a nod to the concepts of âArt Brutâ and the informally un-trained âOutsider/Garage Artistâ that typify much of Web3 creativity.
Launch Strategy & Objectives
While Uncanvassed has a broad ambition to support and incubate all forms of non-technical âradical imaginationâ within the NEAR ecosystem, the initial focus is to build a solution to the anomalous situation within the Creatives DAO & Constellation whereby individual artists do not qualify for any of the existing community funding support programs.
Uncanvassed is proposing a partnership arrangement with Creatives DAO in order to fill this gap within the current provision. Uncanvassed will establish a formal process, criteria and framework for individual artists to receive financial support for CPG - based upon the principles outlined above.
In return, Creatives DAO will initially fund the first quarter activities of Uncanvassed.
Uncanvassed will align closely with the values and aims of Creatives DAO while effectively acting as an external entity/supplier. In terms of co-branding and promotional activities/benefits, the intention is to use the strapline:
"Uncanvassed - powered by Creatives DAOâ
The key objectives of Uncanvassed within this incubation period will be to:
-
establish the âIndividual Creatives CPGâ support program and commence operations -(see âAppendix Aâ for proposed details).
-
design, produce and operate CPG activities internally that:
- engage with a wide range of dApp infrastructure within the NEAR ecosystem
- integrate with the BOS.
- demonstrate transaction growth across the NEAR creative ecosystem
- act as an onboarding tool for new users
- act as a lightning rod for radical imagination and a demonstration case for the effectiveness of Creative Public Goods
-
publicise the expanded opportunities available from Creatives DAO (via Uncanvassed) both internally within the NEAR ecosystem and externally
-
represent the individual creatives community and re-energise the 1/1 art vertical on NEAR
-
establish KPIs for the above
Benefits to NEAR:
Beyond completing the circle of support currently available within the Creatives DAO & Constellation - and the other objectives listed above - the Uncanvassed program has been specifically designed to benefit NEAR in the following ways:
-
increase on-chain activity & inter-dApp activity wherever possible (initially within the Creatives vertical)
-
onboard new wallets and active users
-
demonstrate integration of creative projects with the BOS
-
reinforce the reputation of NEAR as a home for both technical and non-technical innovation
Future Strategy
An evaluation of the first quarter performance by Creatives DAO will determine the future direction of operations, and any further partnership funding by Creatives DAO.
Subject to the approval of Creatives DAO Council, the medium term plan would be to operate Uncanvassed for an initial twelve month period - with quarterly performance stop/go reviews.
The long term aspiration of Uncanvassed is to expand the sphere of operations beyond the creative vertical, and to decentralize the Individual Creatives CPG program by passing future control back to the community.
(At that point Uncanvassed could seek funding directly from the NDC to continue operations or a hybrid funding mix with Creatives DAO.)
In terms of self-sustainability, the long-term objective - moving beyond just CPG - would be to become an increasingly commercial entity that earns ongoing revenue from a share of incubated project revenues and /or internally generated initiatives.
Who is Uncanvassed?
(apologies for the chatbot third person narration - ugh!)
Uncanvassed is an initiative developed by Zeitwarp. It is the result of a multi-year immersion within the NEAR art/creatives vertical and broader blockchain ecosystem.
Zeitwarp has been a high profile contributor to the NEAR ecosystem since February 2021 both as an individual conceptual cryptoartist (exclusively on NEAR) and a member of numerous community initiatives, dApp research groups and DAO Councils. He was a speaker at NEARCon Beta in Lisbon 2022 on the subject of âOriginal Culture indigenous to the NEAR Blockchainâ, and has been featured in a number of ecosystem promotional activities and podcasts. He is currently sitting on the OG SBT Council for the NDC.
Zeitwarp has forged a reputation for original and experimental ideas both in terms of his own artwork, the development of creative infrastructure on NEAR, and broader Web 3 creative and non-creative initiatives. He has represented the NEAR Art Vertical at numerous Web3 exhibitions both IRL and virtually. He has been an associate (non-community) member of Creatives DAO since its inception in 2021.
Budget & Remuneration
The budget for the Uncanvassed initiative would comprise of the following items:
-
A maximum monthly potential budget of $5k to support proposals under the âIndividual Creatives CPGâ scheme. (See âAppendix Aâ for details)
-
$1k per month bounty program for ecosystem spend on internal CPG initiatives
-
$4k per month for the internal operations budget including remuneration, promotion and administration plus the design, implementation and promotion of internal CPG projects.
The total maximum budget would therefore be $10k per month, but would depend upon proposals funded and other expenses related to the objectives. The minimum budget would be $5000.
The first month (M1 Aug 23) budget request for Q1 would be $5k, with the M2 & M3 budgets dependent upon approved proposals for the Individual Creatives CBG program.
Total request number: $5000
DAO on-chain address (target wallet): uncanvassed.near
APPENDIX A:
The âIndividual Creatives Support Programâ
This is an outline of how the program would work. While the concept of CPG is novel to Uncanvassed and part of a long term ideation process, some of the other principles involved draw on the earliest versions of the Creatives DAO scoring matrix that included provision for individual creatives from outside the ecosystem.
Equally, some of the evaluation criteria mirror those currently in operation with community funding within the Creatives DAO.
How will it work?
Individual creatives will be invited to make a qualifying proposal for funding support on the NEAR forum using the Uncanvassed tag. The proposal should be for a project that has been designed as a âcreative public good for the benefit of the NEAR ecosystemâ.
The proposal will be assessed on the following criteria:
- interaction with other Near dApps & suppliers /
- integration with the BOS
- aims to boost on chain transactions
- onboarding potential
- originality / radical imagination
- how it operates as a CPG
The proposal should detail any costs that the individual creative will incur in delivery of the creative project. These cost can include:
- integration and/or development fees
- marketing/promotional fees
- other third party fees that enable the project to be delivered
For absolute clarification, these fees can only be paid to known dApps and provider/suppliers within the ecosystem with an appropriate on-chain history. A list of approved suppliers will be made and continuously updated. Funds will not be made available to non-NEAR third parties (e.g. IRL/Web 2 media. events etc)
The individual creative will be entitled to receive a production payment for designing, organising and delivering the project. The amount will be equivalent to 30% of the total proposal value including the production fee.
Example: A proposal sets out payments to known suppliers, dApps, etc of $600 for the costs of enabling the creative project. The individual creative will be entitled to claim a production payment of $257 making a total proposal value of $857.($600 /0.7 = $857 >> $257 = 30% of $857). This payment will be paid on completion of delivery of the proposal and subject to posting a report to that effect on the NEAR forum.
The individual creative retains the right to profit from any future commercial value of the project in the form of royalties or other residual benefit, however - again for clarification - this program has been designed to mitigate the economic challenges facing creatives in the current economic environment by enabling financial support for the delivery of creative public goods. The expectation is that these CPGâs will be free at the primary point of consumption.
The benefits to the individual creative are:
- the 30% production payment (max single monthly amount = $300)
- ability to create awareness within the ecosystem both directly (promotional spend is allowable) and indirectly.
- ability to use CPG as a âlead magnetâ to generate revenue from add-ons, spin-offs, residuals and/or related creative products/projects.
The following factors will also be taken into account but will not restrict a qualifying proposal:
- Creative background & vision
- On-Chain history and reputation
Beyond this a number of general criteria will apply:
- The maximum proposal amount will be $1000 for a monthly project. This includes the 30% âproduction feeâ to the creative. (Max costs = $700)
- Proposals will need to detail the intended payment schedule to third party dApps and suppliers within NEAR
- Approved proposals will be required to provide a detailed report on the completion of the project in order to activate the âproduction paymentâ. This will include the on-chain history of all payments made under the proposal.
- Individual creatives will be allowed to apply to the program on a bi-monthly basis. (Larger projects can apply for double the maximum monthly funding, but spread over a quarterly period.)
- Failure to complete a proposal will negate any future proposal being considered. (One strike and youâre out.)
- Applicants will need to be able to demonstrate an I-Am-Human SBT, a NEAR Social account, and will have to complete KYC as per Creatives DAO current requirements.
- Integration/interaction with Creatives DAO / Uncanvassed - eg attendance at meetings - will also be a factor, however the program is not aimed at increasing bureaucracy. Results will alwys be more important.
- Creatives from within a community that have previously received funding from Creatives DAO will be directed towards that community for ongoing support.
The overarching principle of the program is to enable individual creatives within the NEAR ecosystem to build ambitious and groundbreaking creative projects for the benefit of the broader community, by having the costs of development and promotion met, while directly benefiting from a âproduction paymentâ related to those costs.
The program has been designed to inspire individual creatives to envision and deliver creative ideas and concepts that harness the existing power and potential of the NEAR ecosystem. It presents an opportunity for individual creatives to demonstrate their talent - and promote that talent - throughout NEAR.
. Excited to see what gets built 
.
âŚbut still looking at the starsâŚ