About
Last updated
Last updated
Experimentation is at the heart of contemporary cultural institutions and museums like HEK (House of Electronic Arts). Friends of HEK represents a new era of inclusivity, where art enthusiasts, technologists, and creatives from around the globe come together to shape the future of media art. As a member of Friends of HEK, by owning a membership token, you will have the opportunity to actively participate in the decision-making process of our institution. Your voice matters!
The HEK token and Friends of HEK has been established within the context of the project «HEK Connect – cultural participation in the age of a decentralized Internet». This was made possible with the support of the Federal Office of Culture and the departments of Culture Basel-Stadt and Basel-Landschaft within the framework of the program «Transformation Projects» of the Swiss Covid Financial Aid.
Friends of HEK is one big experiment! This project re-imagines the usual hierarchies of an art institution by utilizing community governance methodology. We see this as an exciting chance to get involved, have your voice heard and contribute to HEK’s program. Since it is early days in this project, there is plenty of room to contribute.
Would you like to curate an exhibition or have your artwork featured in HEK’s program? Friends of HEK offers unique opportunities for both artists and curators alike. Each season, the first open call and vote are on the face of the token, i.e., the visual identity of the Friends of HEK token in the form of an NFT. Members can propose themselves or artists of their choosing, and then the community decides who to commission! In the first season, Friends of HEK 2023, members also curated a soon to be opened solo-show on HEK's online exhibition space, virtual.hek.ch. In 2024, we invite the Friends of HEK community to propose new decision making activities to explore together! Whether it's swarm curating an exhibition, proposing HEK.editions, or establishing digital residencies – Friends of HEK is the place to be.
Scroll to the bottom of this page for more information about the Friends of HEK 2023 season for a taste of what you might expect in 2024!
The HEK token replaces our regular yearly membership, so of course free museum entry is included as part of the token benefits. Aside from this, there is a varied and exclusive online event program for token-holders. This includes artist talks, workshops, networking events and parties to accompany the various stages of each Friends of HEK season. You also have free entrance to Kunsthaus Basel Land, since they have newly relocated next to us!
We willingly climb through the wiry, wild, and vibrant foliage of new technologies with support from adventurous artists, mediators, and area experts. Our brand-new NFT shop, HEK.editions, and KryptoBrunch workshops have acted as the launching pad into this new era of experimentation with blockchain technology. Now we are taking it a step further: HEK is proudly leading the way as the first museum to adopt tokenized membership and, within this context, launching our very own decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) called “Friends of HEK".
Tokenized membership is simply a digital membership card that is hosted on the blockchain, allowing for secure, verifiable ownership and unique opportunities for engagement. This has replaced our current yearly membership card and will be available from December 6th, 2023 on our website and at HEK. You can either buy the HEK token with your crypto-wallet or without one, so nobody is left behind.
The HEK Token will be valid for one calendar year, 2024, and will cost 0.05 ETH. The equivalent in FIAT is converted into CHF depending on the exchange rate.
By owning a membership token, you are granted participation in HEK’s DAO Friends of HEK, access to exclusive online events, and free exhibition entry. Some of you may be familiar with tokenized membership and DAO’s; perhaps you already own an NFT or are participating in a DAO. It’s all about participating, having your voice heard, and making collective decisions. For those of you yet to venture into Web3 technology: we are here to empower you to take part. If you want to participate but aren’t quite sure what this all means – don’t worry; we all have to start somewhere. We offer on-boarding workshops and thorough guidelines on how to get involved, both in-house and online.
In simple terms, a DAO is a self-governing organization that operates on the blockchain. Think of it as a club where everyone is given the opportunity to contribute their voice to make decisions and that these collectively agreed-upon decisions cannot be retroactively amended, manipulated, or over-turned. The first collective decision-making activity of Friends of HEK is to vote on the face of the token, which is essentially the visual identity of this membership. This token is an NFT (non-fungible token) that is both a piece of art and the key to participation. Once the face of the token is decided upon, members will be able to propose new decision making activities, such as swarm-curating our online exhibition space: virtual.hek.ch. These activities will take place over the course of the year, spanning several months.
Friends of HEK represents a new era of inclusivity, where art enthusiasts, technologists, and creatives from around the globe come together to shape the future of media art. As a member of this DAO, you will have the opportunity to actively participate in the decision-making process of our institution. Your voice matters! Together, we will explore innovative projects, curate exhibitions, support emerging artists, and pioneer groundbreaking experiments at the intersection of art and technology.
The first season of Friends of HEK was full of discovery, community and participation! Two main activities took place over this compact 6 month season, proposing and selecting the face of the Friends of HEK token and curating a solo-show for virtual.hek.ch. You had to be there. Don't worry though, Friends of HEK is back again from the December 6th, 2023.
Here is a summary of all the activities that took place!
Face of the Friends of HEK Token 2023
Artist proposals for the face of the Friends of HEK Token 2023
Voting on artist proposals which resulted in the election of artist Auriea Harvey to create two artworks for the face of the token
Selecting one out of the two artworks as the new visual identity of Friends of HEK 2023!
Artists proposals for the solo-show
Voting on artist proposals which resulted in the selection of Maya Man
Opening of Maya Man's solo exhibition in January of 2024
Online Events
Artist talk with Jonas Lund about his artistic practice and the Jonas Lund Token
Artist talk with Kyle McDonald about his work in HEK's "Exploring the Decentralized Web – Art on the Blockchain" exhibition and the sustainability of blockchain
Artist talk with Auriea Harvey about her artwork, Grand Tour, part 1, which was selected as the face of the Friends of HEK token 2023
ChitChat with Annet Dekker about Online Curation
Online exhibition tour of "Exploring the Decentralized Web – Art on the Blockchain"
Online exhibition tour of "Collective Worldbuilding– Art in the Metaverse".
The HEK token is simply a new way of having a HEK membership, one that brings the community together and invites new individuals to participate. More information will follow, but if you have questions in the meantime – just get in touch via Discord or e-mail:
