In the past, there was a "Final Art" called "Dark Nebula Plan" among the vast amount of art works of Yutaka Matsuzawa. This art was the universe as a secret ritual of the giant star, the founder of conceptual art in Japan and the world. In the early 1960s, 9 people, including Matsuzawa, held a ritual for the "The 1st Dark Nebula Plan" in Psi Zashiki Room (now Psi Room). The first official appearance of "Dark Nebula Plan" as a language, however, was in "As the Dark Nebula Plan, DNP" (Vanishings Natural Nature Series 6/12, 1971). Matsuzawa, in his search for art to give to aliens after "Quantum Art Manifesto 4" (Okazaki Tamako Gallery, 1996), after 28 years since 1971, he began revolving the "Dark Nebula Plan" again at his solo exhibition "Post Universe at a Glance" in the special exhibition "The Vanishing of the Final Art Thoughts Workshop and After" (1999) in Para GLOBE (now Circulation Art Space). In 2003, only 999 copies were published, "Nine Pillars: Yutaka Matsuzawa "Dark Nebula Plan - The Emergence of the Treasure Tower Chapter 9"" (The 3rd Dark Nebula Plan) was rotated. Since then, the "Dark Nebula Plan", including the ritual held on the 1st anniversary of Matsuzawa's death, has been in revolution and rotation for a total of 8 times until now.
The "Dark Nebula Plan" was a sorrow toward the apocalypse of 1999. This was Matsuzawa's sorrow about the widening disparity caused by the concentration of wealth on a few and the centralization of power. This is not the sorrow of the present. It is the sorrow of the past. And it is the sorrow of the future. In fact, the world situation has not changed in the 50 years since "As the Dark Nebula Plan, DNP" in 1971. In 2021, the centralization of power still continues as a matter of habit despite calls for the apocalypse of capitalism.
Afterwards, Matsuzawa created the "80 Years Problem" series inspired by Jun-ichi Nishizawa's co-authored book "Humans Will Perish in 80 Years" (2000), but actually from what year is this 80 years? Matsuzawa proposes several scenarios for the vanishing of humans, including the year 2222. However, if we take "As the Dark Nebula Plan, DNP" in 1971 as our starting point, 80 years later would be 2051. This can be seen as the prophecy for the world after the "Singularity" in 2045. In other words, it could be considered as a plan for a new world where the prehistory of humans will be vanished by AI (Artificial Intelligence). At his solo exhibition in Para GLOBE in 1999, Matsuzawa presented a language work titled "Humans, be eaten by aliens". It wonders we can say that this is AI as an internal alien that will eventually be born from deep learning in cyberspace today.
Intersecting this perspective on artificial intelligence with the perspective on cryptocurrency, which has been attracting attention in recent years, the ideology of cryptocurrency originates from the "Cypherpunks" ideology of the 1980s, which aimed for social change. This has been practiced as DeFi (Decentralized Finance) and DAO (Decentralized Autonomous Organization), which are based on decentralized blockchain technology, trying to break away from the traditional concentration of wealth and centralization of power to a few. This ideology has a commonality with Matsuzawa's goal of Final Art that vanishes melancholy. Will the electricity consumption and Co2 emissions from PoW, which are a problem in cryptocurrency, be the essence of the problem compared to Co2 emissions in the "80 Years Problem"? Are the huge Co2 emissions of the existing material civilization justified for the future against Ethereum moving to PoS?
We have overlooked the big issues many times while discussing the small issues. I think we have seen too much light on capitalism, which is actually a big problem. A dark nebula is a shadow cast by the light of a diffuse nebula. On June 25, 2021, 222 days before the 100th anniversary of Yutaka Matsuzawa's birth on February 2, 2022, the new "Dark Nebula Plan, DNP" cast by the light of accelerationism is an inner universe as a secret ritual in the cyberspace metaverse. The many NFTs that are minted on the blockchain may be the Nil of the imaginary space that Matsuzawa once described. In the past, present, and future, we are appreciating the exhibition "Independent '64 in the Wilderness".
Matsuzawa's "Final Art" was inspired by Kanji Ishiwara's authored book "The Theory of the Final World War" (1940). Matsuzawa had the original experience of leaving the mobilization of students without permission and coming to the end of the Pacific War, and that experience seems to have influenced his later perspective on the world and peace. The Final Art of "ending the prehistory of humans" was always shining deep and black behind the light of the "World Uprising" (1971-73) that Matsuzawa proposed. We are observing the final war of capitalism in the coronavirus crisis. This is terminal care for humans. A terminal is both an ending point and a starting point. We sending two hearts to the metadata.
Yoshihide Manai / EXCALIBUR