Structure
EO1 holds four things together: a substrate, a method, a set of clusters, and a register.
The substrate is the shared grammar every cluster speaks. The method—BLACKBOX—is how works come into being. The clusters are bodies of practitioners pursuing their own inquiries. The register records what they produce. Each design decision follows from the ethos, and can be traced back to it.
The principles below describe the architecture and its intended operation. The present implementation is a research prototype; some workflows are maintained manually, and some capabilities described here are design intentions rather than delivered features. Current status and outstanding work are recorded in the log.
01 The register records. Governing is left to the clusters.
The register is a substrate. It accepts every attestation that meets the shared schema. It is not designed to endorse or gatekeep. Recording a relation is not the same as governing it. A work can enter at any phase; it can be read, copied, derived from, and re-attested without asking anyone's permission. The clusters—not the register—decide who joins them, what they produce, and how their works are used.
What it forecloses
- Editorial control over what enters the register.
- A "record of firsts" in which some works are privileged over others.
- The register becoming a members' club.
What it produces
- Non-discretionary entry: every contribution is attested, with no gatekeeping.
- Phase is an event in the life of the work—a work can enter at any phase, and no phase is more real than another.
- No "graduation" between phases: Once a work is recorded on the register, it remains there; new works are added to its lineage as events in its ongoing life.
- The register is a set of views over one record, not multiple record sets.
- Attestations whose revocation status can be inspected on-chain. Where the deployed schema supports revocation, a contributor may withdraw a claim without erasing the record of it.
02 BLACKBOX is a method.
BLACKBOX is the method by which works come into being. A cluster reads a source; an interim work is produced. That work is read, by the same hands or by others; an iteration emerges. Some iterations become editions. The method has a genealogy in the transmedia-based works that used a BLACKBOX theatre to produce iterative and generative ambiances, later re-rationalised through photo-essays and essays. What it has become is simpler: a method any cluster may practise, on any material, for any duration.
The method is a process. A cluster practises it; the register records what the method produces. The method is ceded to the commons—any cluster may adopt it, adapt it, or replace it with its own. The name BLACKBOX is the method's public identity, but no one owns it, and no one needs permission to use it.
What it forecloses
- Treating BLACKBOX as a cluster, a page, or a layer of the architecture.
- Treating it as a gate through which works must pass.
- Any idea that works "graduate" from one phase to another.
- Any claim by EO1 to own the method or license its use.
What it produces
- The four phases as a common vocabulary: source, interim, iteration, edition.
- A chronological feed on the BLACKBOX page, showing recent interim works, iterations, and editions across clusters. Phase-grouped dossier views appear on cluster pages; a unified dossier view is a design intention, not yet implemented.
- Lineage as the primary relation between works, recorded as derivation.
- Editions as a relation, not a terminal state: an edition is a new attestation derived from an existing one.
- A public name for the method that any cluster may use.
03 Clusters govern themselves.
A cluster is a body of practitioners. It admits its own members, sets its own rules, funds its own projects, resolves its own disputes. The register records what the cluster produces; it does not govern the cluster. EO1 hosts a directory of clusters, but is not a host for their pages. Each cluster deploys its own page, under its own name, at an address of its choosing.
What it forecloses
- EO1 controlling which clusters exist.
- A central authority that admits or dismisses clusters.
- The register functioning as a supervisory body.
What it produces
- Starter files for cluster pages, deployable by the clusters themselves.
- A wizard that lets any group generate those starter files without asking permission. Forming a cluster and being listed in this directory are separate acts; inclusion in the current directory is maintained manually.
- Rules that live on the cluster's own page, not in the register.
- A minimal schema, so clusters can add their own conventions without breaking the substrate.
04 The work is relational.
A cultural work is not an object but an event. It lives through its relations—its origins, its derivations, its re-editions, its lineage. Therefore, the register records relations, not objects. Derivation is a first-class field, and the lineage is visible on every page: on the register, in the BLACKBOX dossiers, on cluster pages, and in the graph.
What it forecloses
- Treating works as ownable assets.
- A register that catalogues works as static items.
- A model in which a work's value is its scarcity.
What it produces
- Derivation recorded in the catalogue for every contribution. Whether each derivation is also encoded on-chain depends on the attestation workflow; the local catalogue and the chain are not currently reconciled automatically.
- The graph view as a primary view.
- Lineage visible on every entry, in every list, on every page.
- Editioning as a relation—a new attestation derived from an existing one—rather than a terminal state.
- Cross-registry references via URI, so external provenance is preserved.
05 Entry is a form-of-life.
“No Rights” is a unilateral renunciation: a statement of how one will hold one's work in common. It binds contributions that enter via EO1. It does not bind external source works referenced by clusters. A contributor who remixes an EO1 contribution is invited to accept the same renunciation for their remix; acceptance is a voluntary act, recorded in the register when the remix is attested. The register records the renunciation but does not enforce it.
What it forecloses
- Describing the register as a licence, or the ethos as a legal instrument.
- Extending “No Rights” to works whose originators have not accepted it.
- Using the ethos to override external rights.
What it produces
- Two kinds of attestation in the register: contributions under “No Rights”, and references under their own terms.
- The licence field carrying the distinction, and the viewer displaying it.
- Honesty about asymmetry: the register records what it cannot resolve.
06 Interoperability without hierarchy.
Different registries can reference each other, but no registry is the master. A work can enter a cluster, be transformed, and leave, without losing its lineage and without any one registry holding authority over another. Resolution of external references is a viewer-side or cluster-side concern, not a protocol-level guarantee.
What it forecloses
- Automatic, trustless cross-registry validation.
- A central registry that acts as the root.
- Smart contracts that bridge between registries by fiat.
What it produces
- A shared schema and a URI grammar.
- Derivation within one registry by reference to the attestation's unique identifier; reference across registries by URI.
- Canonical URI forms for cross-registry references.
- Cross-registry resolution left to the viewer or the cluster, not enforced by the substrate.
07 The register offers a different jurisprudence.
A cultural work is relational, collective, and event-based. A jurisprudence built on that premise does not treat the work as an object to be owned. It treats attribution as a relation, derivation as a public fact, and the record of a work's life as belonging to no one. This is what the register holds.
Five positions follow. Where a cluster derives from a copyrighted source, the register records the relation and names the contributor. The derivation is declared publicly; it is enforceable against the attestant only through the attestant's own accountability, not through the register. Where attribution is contested, the register holds the claim and the contest side by side, without choosing between them. The current implementation demonstrates this contestation in the interface; it does not yet persist a contested claim as its own attestation. Where a work's origin cannot be named, the work enters as an orphan; if a name emerges later, it is added to the record. Where “No Rights” is declared, a remix may carry the same renunciation as its source, when its contributor accepts it. The declaration is not a legal transfer, and the contributor retains whatever rights the law grants. And the Rule is not a licence to harm: the renunciation of property rights is not a renunciation of responsibility. Contributions are declared lawful to make, hold, and circulate; the steward of the infrastructure does not host unlawful material, and reports it where the law requires. What the register adds is the record: a public account of the work's life, preserved against alteration, though not against loss of discovery or availability.
What it forecloses
- Treating a work as an object to be owned.
- The idea that attribution requires ownership.
- Using the register as a legal instrument or a substitute for law.
What it produces
- A working alternative to the author-work-property nexus.
- Public accountability for derivations.
- A record of disputes that holds them without resolving them.
- An orphan works simulator, demonstrating in the interface how a contestation would be recorded. It does not persist a contestation on-chain.
What the design produces as a whole.
Taken together, these principles seek to reduce dependence on any single operator. Attestations can be inspected independently of this website, and the static application can be copied and redeployed. Continued access nevertheless depends on maintaining the relevant data, storage, identifiers, and software. The domain, hosting account, and signing keys are held by a named steward and can be handed on. The aim is not infrastructure without dependencies, but dependencies that are visible and arrangements that can be taken over by others.
The collective’s own statement—the ethos in its own words—is on the About page.