Perry Chen is an artist and the founder of Kickstarter. He approaches his work with an openness to form and context, having used art to explore technology, and technology to help democratize the funding of creative work.
View projects and practices below, or see full bio + press.
I. Exploration / Investigation. Exploring complexity using research and archival material as entry points for engagement.
How do we negotiate a world of growing complexity and uncertainty?
Nature Morte, New Delhi, India. Jan 23 - Apr 23, 2021.
Perpetual Novelty - Conversations
Available on Spotify & Apple Podcasts
Investigation into the Alcântara Launch Center, Maranhão, Brazil, and the events of August 22, 2003.
Released online and as an edition of 150 books by Meli-Melo Press, São Paulo, Brazil. By invitation of Mesa & Cadeira.
Investigation into the phenomenon, and our memory of the phenomenon, of Y2K.
Co-presented by the New Museum, Rhizome and Creative Time Reports for the New Museum's First Look program.
Site-specific installation / intervention at the disused Teatro Santa Cecelia, Mexico City, Mexico.
Residency project, Laboratorio para la Ciudad, Government of Mexico City.
II. Formats. Creation of new formats for generative social exchange and collaboration.
Giving ritual in the time of Covid. Twenty people connect through gifting things of personal significance.
By invitation of Unfinished, Bucharest, Romania.
Community and cultural space through collaborative experimentation. Part open-door clubhouse, not-for-profit cafe, library / reading room, artist studio, performance space, dance floor, and more.
Funding platform for creative projects — designed as an alternative to gatekeeper systems, where a small number of people with money and power decide what gets funded.
III. Governance. Focused on the problems of profit-centric systems; specifically the need for better structures (public benefit corporations, steward-ownership models), tools (measurement of non-financial impacts), and institutions to enable a more generative and less extractive society.
Kickstarter reincorporated as a Public Benefit Corporation legally formalizing the company’s long held commitment to its mission -- to help creative projects come to life -- over optimizing for profit.
The company also encoded high standards of responsibility in its charter; including commitments to (i) not sell user data, (ii) not abuse terms of use and privacy policies to claim excessive rights and powers, (iii) not use loopholes or esoteric strategies to reduce its tax burden, (iv) not lobby or campaign for public policies unless they align with its mission and values, regardless of possible economic benefits to the company.
The commission examined and made recommendations in response to the collapse in trust in U.S. democratic institutions, media, journalism, and the information ecosystem.
See about page for select interviews & conversations.