Public Value

Decentralised Technologies and Public Value

Beyond Speculation

FAE3 provides a sophisticated analysis of blockchain and decentralised technologies in cultural contexts. Critically, the research distinguishes between speculative applications and genuine infrastructural innovation. It notes that 'the challenge for new organisational forms such as DAOs and tokenised communities is to identify a public at all, beyond their immediate community of stakeholders.' The research calls for models that deliver 'public value' rather than merely serving 'gated interests.'

Nonterritorial's blockchain application model—with anti-speculation smart contracts that prevent trading while enabling transparent circulation and artist compensation—directly addresses this concern. The technology serves the mission of democratic art access rather than creating another speculative asset class.

Networked Provenance and Artist Compensation

FAE3 discusses 'networked provenance' as a key primitive for 21st-century cultural infrastructure, noting that 'for digital artists, NFT technologies offered a pathway for benefitting financially from their work. For the first time in the history of art, artists were able to claim royalties from secondary sales in a systematic and automated manner.' The research emphasises the importance of sustainable artist compensation models.

Nonterritorial's revenue-sharing model ensures artists receive significant portions of hosting fees—creating ongoing income from the circulation of their work rather than one-time sales. The blockchain layer provides transparent tracking of circulation and automated distribution of compensation.

Interoperability and Federated Infrastructure

The FAE research consistently emphasises 'interoperability' as the foundational principle for 21st-century cultural infrastructure. FAE3 states: 'The cultural institution of the 21st century is accordingly a federated entity, a decentralised but coordinated system composed of multiple different systems pursuing their own missions at different scales. A future art ecosystem is only made possible by mass interoperability—beyond (and not the same as) marketisation.'

The research proposes that cultural institutions should function more like 'a GitHub for the arts; a common protocol drastically lowers barriers to entry in terms of building institutions through open development.' This vision of cultural infrastructure as protocol rather than place aligns precisely with Nonterritorial's networked model.

Nonterritorial functions as exactly this kind of interoperable protocol: enabling diverse hosts—from community centres to luxury corporate spaces—to participate in the same circulation ecosystem while maintaining their distinct identities and contexts. The platform creates connections across institutional and geographic boundaries without requiring centralised control.

Strategic Significance and Conclusion

Addressing the Research Gaps

The FAE research identifies several priority areas for 21st-century cultural infrastructure: investing in advanced production capabilities; supporting expanded economic and distribution rationales; deeper engagement with users-as-stakeholders; new systems of measurement beyond footfall; and building for interoperability. The research explicitly states that 'a cultural infrastructure for the 21st-century—a technologically sophisticated, experimental and highly interoperable ecosystem of organisations and capabilities—remains to be built.'

Nonterritorial represents a working implementation of this vision. Rather than theorising about what future art ecosystems might look like, Nonterritorial has built the infrastructure: a functional web application, engaged artist networks, operational frameworks for diverse host types, sustainable economic models, and a philosophical foundation grounded in both contemporary art theory and practical accessibility.