Responding to histories and politics of artist-run culture in Canada, Kay will discuss the development of blockchain and network decentralization technologies at Pumice Raft, a non-profit independent art space he founded in Toronto. Adopting these emerging technologies, Kay looks to how artist-run culture can better embody practices of transparency, accountability, and communal governance.

Vaezi’s research practice investigates issues of censorship, surveillance, privacy, and copyright among dominant data systems and models. Concerned with the expansion of platform capitalism, Vaezi examines how peer-to-peer internet protocols might challenge the status quo, and provide better alternative forms of data governance and sovereignty. In her hybrid role as a designer and curator, Vaezi is developing an app which uses design metaphors to make peer-to-peer protocols more visible and accessible to lay users.