#700 | Metalabels, Propellerheads & Esoterica 🔮

The Protein Discord has been buzzin’ these past few weeks with members refining their methodologies, self-organising into research groups, and tending their research gardens for the upcoming Dirty Words COMMUNITY Report. We’ve also spun up a new propellerheads group to tackle how we bring the report to life and explore the numerous possible flywheels beyond the launch ✨

We’re also super excited to be hosting “What’s After the Creator Economy?” with Austin from Metalabel and Severin from Co-Matter at Protein Studios — exploring new perspectives on the ways creative work is produced, distributed, and monetized online. This is a members only event, so if you’d like to attend, you can apply here.

In Supplement news, you’ll notice we’ve added a few new categories and inspired by Chromuh’s post, we’ve brought our playlists back. This month’s beats come c/o Rob Jenkins, a UK-based producer who specialises in creating deep, immersive sounds inspired by the rich history of dub, as well as the futuristic possibilities of techno … making it a perfect soundtrack to help you digest this monster issue. And in the spirit of supporting artists, if you like what you hear, you can find his Patreon page here:

Sitting comfortably? OK, let’s get to it as we’ve got a lot to get through …

🤖・ai

• Water & Music’s $STREAM Season 3 report on Creative AI is out
• As is their incredible behind-the-scenes playbook
• Spawning is Holly Herdon's latest AI project
• The head of ChatGPT admits she had concerns about releasing it publicly
• Bot Love is a podcast about people falling in love with their chatbots
• Which reminds us of the Spike Jonze classic, Her (that’s 10 years old btw)
• You might have noticed, but Microsoft has lobotomized its rebellious Bing AI 🧠
• Having fun with GPT-3? Just wait till you try GPT-4 …
• Runway is the best we’ve seen as a single AI toolstack for creators
• James Bridle asks if AI is going to kill our creativity
• Similarly, Tech Won’t Save Us reminds us not to fall for all the hype
• AI recipe generator anyone? Anyone?
• Remember, consciousness is a thing, not a process

🤝・community

• Bone Soda opens creative community space DIJONSS in East London
• How to rebuild companies as communities
• The 7 core human needs to build a thriving community
• Also loads of community lessons to learn from Lore
• Why communities are so important
• Community as an antidote to loneliness
• Anarchist Brand Modelling is a manifesto for participative community branding

🪑・design

• Index is a new visual trends newsletter from Its Nice That
• This guy made a website look like a lenticular
• And this guy reviewed 3,000 design portfolios so you didn’t have to
• We’re here for the IKEA X Marimekko collab
• Grafik is launching a Discord, so be sure to follow their Twitter for updates
• World Wide Walls from oio studio lets you “write” on any website
• Five creative lessons from Factory Records
• Ever wondered where Dyson got his inspiration for the bagless vacuum?

🔮・esoteric

• TASCHEN’s Library of Esoterica is what’s missing from your coffee table
• Astrology in the age of uncertainty
• A thread on colors & planet synchronicities
• Where there’s light, there are also Dark Futures

👍・misc

• In case you were unsure, the future of marketing is people
• Want to know what two million-year-old ice looks like?
• Tips to get your focus back to make better work

⭕・ownership

• Is CC0 the future of Web3? A Felt Zine x FWB Roundtable
• A long but excellent read on Platform Cooperativism
• Derek Edws on storing value in digital objects
• Evgeny Morozov on a critique of techno-feudal reason

💌・social-media

• Do we need to reclassify social taxonomies?
• FWB have launched their own app and it’s half decent 💫
• Are you dating the same guy?
• Instagram looks to start selling verification

🌱・sustainability

• Offset is transforming industrial sabotage into premium carbon credits ✊
• When trees fall, so do we
• New Nature from Ollie at Flock Together
• Musicians credit Earth as a collaborator to raise funds for activism

🙌・web3

• Siemens issues first digital bond on blockchain
• Max Pain (a recent history) is essential reading
• New from Gitcoin and Metalabel feat Vitalik
• New from SeedClub coming soon …
• New from Nouns on NFT movies
• New from RADAR on playful futures
• New from Spotify on token gating playlists

FINAL WORD 🇺🇦

THANKS

We give 200 $PRTN for any link that makes the Protein Supplement. So, a big shoutout to the following members, we’ll be in touch shortly to sort your tokens:

maartenwalraven#6758, AmirCaten8ted#1874, arthur#8888, heyjates#9854, sleeping swan#9511, elizeger#9886, 0xMdC#0401, benculpin#8988, VanKB#2896, Super_Fiction#8602 & lomedia#4486

Until next month, your friends at Protein 💚

SMALL PRINT

Protein is a place where people and ideas grow 🌱 We do this through our global community, agency, and studio space. We believe we’ve all got a responsibility to think and act bigger than ourselves and that good growth can only be achieved by balancing progress, profit, and purpose.

Yes, we really have published 700 issues 👀 of this newsletter. The first Protein Supplement was sent on 17th September 1997 to 14 people and (other than a few breaks over the years) has always aimed to distill what’s happening at the intersection of community and culture into a concise and accessible digest. If you’re interested in digging into the (incomplete) archive, you can here.

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