fungifemme
The NFT Club
a Mad art project
"remember, remember the fifth of november"
Nifty
Fungifemme
Trinkets
what are NFTs when the internet is not present? is something that is non-fungible actually part of the Fungi Kingdom? are trinkets to humans as pebbles are to penguins?
how can writing a book be redefined in terms of madness and multiplicity? what is a body of work? what is a body of artists? can art be a collective experience?
what is Mad math magic? what is the cosmic onion? how do you break down walls in the digital world through madness?
I will answer all these questions in the FAQ (fungi are queer) but first, a story.
the story
the origin of the origin story
on november 5, 2021, i celebrated being in this timeline for 39 years. it’s been a strange experience these last four decades, from graduating university with a BS in Engineering Studies, Holistic Health & Healing, and Plant/Fungal Biology to many psychiatric hospitalizations, both voluntary and involuntary. having spent most of my life unaware of chronic illnesses, unaware of being multiple and autistically neuroqueer, unaware of being Mad without the language to describe the madness - now that I know, this birthday this year feels different.
so when i hear us say ‘remember, remember the fifth of november’ there is this desire to understand how we remember, what we remember, why we remember, whom we remember, when we remember, where we remember, and to most importantly remember, that all beginnings are endings because all time is happening at all times.
our words remember. our stories remember. our words are where I originate. our stories are who we are.
in the origin story, there are two paths: the villain and the hero. some theories rework that conceptual binary to understand the anti-hero, the morally ambiguous conflict to the binary. yet, there is a third path.
if there is a story, then there must be a storyteller. a cosmic witness that understands time as a space, not as a measurement.
the origin of the origin story settles the idea that an origin story is the starting point, the mark in time when the ‘before’ becomes the ‘now’. but if all time is happening at all times then the origin of the origin story loses meaning. the ‘before’ is the ‘now’ so the origin is really just a transformational timeline, a chaos state of creative destruction.
so these are our stories. our complete transformational timeline, our complete chaos state.
this Mad art project, which we are calling The NFT Club, is our attempt to understand that we are on the edge of decades, and the awareness is really weird, magical, and mysterious.
this Mad art project is our way of navigating that edge as an act of courage, and hopefully - writing our stories as a multiple collective, living life while making art as praxis.
will you join us for this Mad adventure? there will be pockets of joy along the way.
in solidarity, with gratitude, & connected to fungi always,
kitty
Mad
LIFE
understanding life, as not having one origin point but many, allows for the exploration of being inside out while being outside in. what is privacy and what does it mean to be out? we have spent large portions of our life living in public as:
- a s3x w0rker
- a psychedelic accessibility advocate
- a system diagnosed with Dissociative Identity Disorder
- a music + culture writer
- a poet
- a SA survivor
this is the year that we start living our Mad life out in public through our art, bringing our world of words to life - one zine at a time.
Mad
COLLECTIVE
The NFT Club is a connected experience, through public art that is intimate, dynamic, and one-of-a-kind. what is the origin of the origin of the story but simply the original mythos.
the vision of this Mad adventure is that it will be weird, and magical, and mysterious, and most definitely - a collective experience.
as beings on this cosmic rock in the universe, we are interdependent, internally and externally.
we are Mad & multiple, so a collective within, and The NFT Club is a collective with the outside. let's embody the collective.
Mad
ART
the root of this Mad art project is a curious invitation to understand the creative process through the lens of multiplicity and madness. what does Mad art look like and how can the process of that experience be another form of creation?
this type of creativity requires vicarious embodiment, a commitment to the art of the connected + collective witness.
this Mad art project calls into question the normalcy of how a body of work is formed, when in fact - this collection of creations is Mad art multiplicity. each trinket in The NFT Club is part of this body of work - a collection that is connected by its scattering into a Mad art web.
what is a body of work but the very collection of multiple creations in one?!
Mad
PRAXIS
praxis: (noun) practice; as distinguished by theory
we are deeply connected to understanding the political nature of the Mad identity, which has often been positioned through two paths: Mad Studies and Mad pride
both of these paths fall short on the practical wisdom on how to connect the state of madness to the political identity of being Mad through the practice of doing + creating from the chaos state of the transformational timeline.
so this is our leap of faith action towards the Mad praxis of being creative beings in this world, dominated by Empire and all its systems of oppression. Mad praxis is anti-sanist direct action.
the praxis of this project challenges the idea that Mad art is made in a silo. we believe it is actually created through the Mad lives of the Mad collective.
MAD
Liberation
the curious nature of liberation is that it requires a commitment to break down, break out, and radically challenge the consensus reality of socially accepted normalcy.
nothing is normal and yet - our normal is Mad normal, which is far from the sanist's dream of normalcy.
so how do we liberate our Mad art? how do we tear down the barriers of the digital world, the art world, and the creative world as a practice of madness?
we are the destroyer of paywalls.
The NFT Club is not just a reclamation of artistic creativity - it is also complete destruction of the commodification process of digitally gatekeeping the artistic process.
this means every piece of Mad art we make for The NFT Club will be digitally free for download + liberated under creative commons.
“But I don’t want to go among mad people," Alice remarked.
"Oh, you can’t help that," said the Cat: "we’re all mad here. I’m mad. You’re mad."
"How do you know I’m mad?" said Alice.
"You must be," said the Cat, "or you wouldn’t have come here.”
The NFT Club
Intermission
Transmission
FAQ
~ fungi are queer ~
this is a very long + wordy section that answers a bunch of questions we wanted to answer about the project. most questions have two answers: a word salad mix answer & a plain language access answer.
what is a NFT? what is a zine?
excellent question!
for most of the digital world, an NFT is a non-fungible token. in more specific terms, a non-fungible token is a name for a unit of data that cannot be interchanged and is considered unique (one-of-a-kind). digitally this unit of data can be represented by photos, video, and all forms of digital art. NFTs are secured and validated through blockchain technology.
The NFT Club redefines an NFT through the lens of madness - what would an NFT be without the internet? can an antithesis to an NFT exist on the internet?
this is how we came up with Nifty Fungifemme Trinkets, the analog-love version and the anti-NFT version.
Nifty: imagine if the word magnificent were multiple; system-mate with the word magnificent
Fungifemme: that's us! also FUNGI
Trinket: imagine if the word token were multiple; the femme magical penguin pebble
and the zines!
so a zine is a shortened version of the word 'magazine' and is typically used for self-printed/self-published written materials that are handmade. basically - they are radical publications that have historical lineages to early amateur presses and pamphleteering. many of these radical publications were critical to liberatory movements and cultural revolutions, through reclamation of the printed word and the need to share radical information, community wisdom, and resources.
so the NFTs in The NFT club are the zines, stickers, and magic notes - which existed before the internet was a glimmer in our digital eyes.
and the anti-NFTs are the liberated version of the zines, stickers, and magic notes - all available for free digitally.
plain language access: NFT is an acronym for a 'non-fungible token'. A non-fungible token describes a unique piece of data on the internet. This piece of data can represent a piece of artwork. I am making art called Nifty Fungifemme Trinkets. I will make mini magazines and stickers. The mini magazines and stickers will have physical copies and free digital copies. My art has the same acronym as non-fungible tokens.
how does the NFT Club work?
the NFT Club will be created through a radical donation-only model.
there are four levels of donation support to offer this project: spore, mycelium, mushroom, and slime mold.
the basics: if someone is interested in donating to The NFT Club, they would set up a donation, either one-time or monthly until December 2022. the donation amounts are fixed in the form for easier access. every donation amount allows The NFT Club's digital trinkets to be liberated on the internet for free - essentially creating the anti-NFTs for the whole project.
the analog-love trinkets: if someone chooses the mycelium/mushroom/slime mold donation option, those donations allow us to make physical, tangible, analog-love trinkets. since The NFT Club is a radical donation model, the same applies to the analog-love trinkets. a donation allows for them to be made but what happens to them after is up to the person who donated. there are two options.
option 1: the donation-inspired monthly analog-love trinkets can be gifted from me to you, as trinkets of gratitude.
or
option 2: the donation-inspired monthly analog-love trinkets can be gifted from me to some other magical place that is not you, like a zine library or radical resource space.
or (for mushrooms/slime mold)
option 1/2: the donation-inspired analog-love trinkets can be split - some gifted from me to you and some gifted from me to some other magical place, like a zine library or radical resource space.
the analog-love trinkets of gratitude gifted to you will travel to the snail-mail address provided in the donation form by you.
the final femme zine: this analog-love trinket will be gifted to every person who has a recurring monthly donation at the mycelium, mushroom, and slime mold levels. this analog-love trinket will be made as the final NFT of The NFT Club. this trinket will be free + liberated as an anti-NFT digital trinket released at the completion of The NFT Club.
for direct clarity: there will be no non-fungible tokens associated with The NFT Club.
plain language access: The NFT Club is supported through donations only. You can make a donation one-time or you can make a monthly recurring donation. All the zines and stickers I create will be free to digitally download. I will create physical copies of the zines and stickers each month. You can choose how those physical copies are donated. The choices are:
A. I can donate the physical copies back to you.
B. I can donate the physical copies to someplace else like a library.
C. I can donate the physical copies back to you and to someplace else like a library.
The NFT Club does not create non-fungible tokens.
can you clarify what you mean by 'free + liberated' for all the digital trinkets? why are you calling them anti-NFTs?
I really like the linguistic curiosity of the phrase 'free + liberated' when applied to art. the phrasing is intentional though.
the 'free' aspect of the digital trinkets means that all the Mad art we create for The NFT Club will be uploaded on our website. these digital trinkets will be free for anyone to enjoy!
the 'liberated' aspect of the digital trinkets means that all the Mad art we create for The NFT Club will be liberated under creative commons licensing BY-SA (Attribution-Sharealike), allowing anyone to print out the zines and stickers for personal use. i will even include directions on how to print and fold the zines for easier DIY creation!
all original sticker art can be self-printed as well. these Mad art stickers can turn any flat surface into a talking wall!
as for the curious name of these digital trinkets, try saying 'anti-NFT' three times fast! auspicious homophones are my favorite.
plain language access: The digital trinkets will be free to enjoy under creative commons BY-SA licensing. This is how we define our art as free + liberated.
how will I find the digital trinkets (anti-NFTs) on this site?
for this moment in time, the digital trinkets will be linked in The NFT Club anti-NFT Timeline.
this section will be updated when a permanent archives page is created for The NFT Club.
why are we doing The NFT Club?
in its framework + intention, The NFT Club is about redefining the creation of Mad art as Mad praxis through the collective experience. in its execution, The NFT Club is our birthday wish to ourselves to touch the ground of our public madness in an increasingly sanist world. in its completion, The NFT Club is a Mad life approach to accountability to *finally* publishing a book.
in theory, The NFT Club is about the radical gift of creation. in reality, The NFT Club is about radical levity in destruction.
plain language access: The NFT Club was created so I can write and self-publish a book.
what is the timeframe of The NFT Club?
I don't believe that linear time is a grounded system of measurement for the human experience but for The NFT Club - there is an intentional schedule.
the project has already started because magic has no timeline. the launch of The NFT Club will be in November 2021. the first anti-NFTs will be digitally uploaded in early December 2021 and the first tentative shipping of analog-love trinkets of gratitude will be mailed by end of December 2021.
digital trinkets (anti-NFTs) will be updated on a dedicated page at the beginning of every month until December 2022. until then, you can find them at The NFT Club anti-NFT Timeline.
analog-love trinkets will be made monthly but physically delivered in the mail on a 3-month basis. the tentative mailing schedule of the trinkets of gratitude will be as follows:
December 2021
March 2022
June 2022
September 2022
December 2022
this tentative schedule will have donation packages mailed at the end of each listed month. arrival times of deliveries may vary depending on shipping address.
delivery time distortions may occur by systems outside of our control, like the state of the mail service (nationally in the US and worldwide), the collapse of supply chains, or potentially some other unprecedented world event.
plain language access: The duration of The NFT Club will be November 2021-December 2022. Digital trinkets will be uploaded at the beginning of each month. Physical trinkets will be mailed at five different dates during November 2021-December 2022. Delivery dates are subject to change and are tentative.
how do I join the Mad adventure of The NFT Club?
we are calling the radical donation model - 'Choose Your Mad Adventure'. this was a donation model that we designed, that fit somewhere between a Kickstarter and Patreon experience. we built all the donation forms ourselves through Payform and all donations will be processed through Stripe.
here are some general notes about information collected in the Payform donation form I created.
the form asks for this information:
Name
Email
Address
Few questions about donation type
Payment information
if providing any of this info does not feel okay with privacy boundaries, no worries! I totally understand. there is another way!
the only required information to donate through the Payform donation form to The NFT Club is:
Email
Payment information
donating this way to The NFT Club allows for a different kind of navigation with privacy concerns. if the donor wanted to receive analog-love trinkets mailed as gifts of gratitude, all the other information in the Payform donation form would be required, as well.
Payform and Stripe are integrated together through the donation form, so information captured is shared as donor metadata on both sites.
if you choose a one-time donation to The NFT Club, you will receive an email from us through our Payform account confirming the one-time donation and amount.
if you choose a recurring monthly donation to The NFT Club, you will receive an email from us through our Payform account confirming the recurring monthly donation and amount. this email will also allow you to set up a user account through Payform to manage your recurring monthly donation. if you would like to cancel your recurring monthly donation, you can do this thru your Payform user account.
December 2022 will be the final month of The NFT Club and all recurring monthly donations will end by December 31, 2022. all recurring monthly donations will be terminated by us at the end of The NFT Club through our Stripe and Payform accounts.
if you would prefer to donate instead through Venmo, please send an email to fungifemmekitty@gmail.com
if you choose/are unable to donate to The NFT Club, no worries! all the digital trinkets (anti-NFTs) will be free + liberated on this site for you to print yourself! for this moment in time, all the anti-NFTs can be found linked in The NFT Club anti-NFT Timeline.
plain language access: You can join The NFT Club by donating one-time or through a monthly recurring donation. You can donate through the donation form that I created thru Payform. The only required personal information for donation is your email and payment information.
All donations will be processed through Stripe. You will receive an email confirming the type of donation you submitted. You can send an email to fungifemmekitty@gmail.com if you want to donate through Venmo. All digital trinkets will be free to download. You do not have to donate anything to access the free downloads.
why is The NFT Club a radical donation model?
dang, this is a great question!
I truly hate capitalism because it is an economic model of exploitation and coercion. we never wanted to sell our art nor do we want to be bound by the idea of transactional commerce for this project. so we created a radical donation model that worked with our values and access needs as a disabled radical being in this world.
this model tries to understand the connection between donor and donation, breaking down the barriers through a relational donorship.
the money made from The NFT Club would be split into these categories: analog-love trinket materials/printing, work/living expenses, other Mad art projects that we've wanted to do but couldn't afford to do, & monthly mutual aid donations.
also - we will also be reserving limited spots at the mushroom level for energetic exchange (free/trade). if you are interested in this exchange please email us fungifemmekitty@gmail.com
plain language access: The NFT Club does not sell anything. I created a donation model for this project instead. The donations will cover physical printing costs, personal living expenses, and mutual aid donations to other people.
why are there specific donation amounts set for each level?
this was the hardest part of creating this project - being okay to ask for financial support for our Mad art in a meaningful way.
so of course we invited madness into this process - allowing us to connect our love of math into numbers that resonated with us.
so all the donation levels are ODD NUMBERS and most of the price levels are also PRIME NUMBERS. Mad math magic - it's everywhere!
plain language access: I chose these donation amounts because I liked the numbers. I think odd numbers and prime numbers are special.
what is the mystery piece of Mad art included in the slime mold donation?
this is still a mystery. for whoever is curious enough to donate at the slime mold level, this piece of Mad art awaits you in the magic of the cosmic onion.
plain language access: The mystery piece of Mad art included at the slime mold donation level is a surprise.
why can't I just buy your zines?
some may think this would be the easier option, and I think the convenience of capitalistic exchange models discourages the dreaming of other radical models.
it is undeniable the amount of blood, sweat, tears + fears that have gone into building The NFT Club's radical donation model, which we consider as its own artistic skeleton.
so you can't buy our zines because we are not selling them!
The NFT Club challenges the convenience of the capitalistic seller-buyer relationship by creating a symbiotic mutualism through donorship.
plain language access: I will not be selling any of the zines created for The NFT Club. All the zines created for The NFT Club will either be available for free or by donation.
okay! I am interested but I'm not sure if I want to donate now. Can I donate later?
yes! we will be accepting donations throughout this entire Mad art project.
feel free to join in and support anytime before this Mad adventure ends in December 2022.
as a reminder - all the digital trinkets (anti-NFTs) will be free + liberated on this site each month!
plain language access: You can donate to The NFT Club anytime during November 2021-December 2022.
wait! What if no one signs up?
too late! my parents already signed up.
so this is actually happening y'all.
what are the trinkets?
printed zine
each printed zine will only be produced uniquely for that month as a single edition in The NFT Club.
the analog-love zines will be numbered and signed.
the content of the monthly zines will be written through the lens of madness and multiplicity, with previously unpublished personal writing + original photography.
imagine our mind as a zine, in monthly radical neuroqueer analog-love installments.
the printed zine will be released free + liberated as a digital trinket (anti-NFT) monthly on this site, to either just read or for DIY zine printing.
original art sticker
this will be an original design by us, with the space for the possibility of collaborations for a few amazing artists in our life.
WHO DOESN’T LOVE A COOL STICKER!?!?! we all need to get stuck to art every once in awhile.
the actual designs of the stickers may show up in other aspects of the project or some of our future projects, but these stickers in this specific form are just for The NFT Club.
all original sticker artwork will be released free + liberated as a digital trinket (anti-NFT) monthly on this site, for use to create DIY stickers.
pocket comic zine
these pocket comic zines will be hand-drawn and hand-folded single-sheet zines, filled with comic relief to the absurd nature of the cosmic onion (that’s what we call our life in relationship to the universe!)
comic relief can be filled with light or cloaked in darkness, and both are needed. so this pocket comic zine will be a cosmic mix!
these zines may have collaborations with special artists. each zine will be a single print unique to each month of The NFT Club.
these mini-comic zines will be pocket-sized. ridiculous pockets of joy that will *literally* fit in your pocket.
the pocket comic zines will be free + liberated as a monthly webcomic each month during The NFT Club.
final femme zine
this will be the final zine in The NFT Club, compiling all the previous zines into one finished book.
the final femme zine will be the last creative piece of the project and will be numbered and signed, like the previous monthly zines. each final femme zine gifted through The NFT Club will have a magic note included.
though the final femme printed zine will contain all the creative content of the previous zines, the previous content may be reorganized, nestled in between additional photography + writing.
the final femme zine will be liberated as a free PDF at the completion of The NFT Club.
magic note
imagine if the universe passed a musical note under the cosmic table and you caught it.
this note has magic just for you because it was cast into the cosmos and you are the cosmos.
the content of the magic note would include a song title because - to us - music is the best cosmic message. endless possibilities, all magical.
this trinket will come in the form of a short handwritten note in the monthly printed zine. the magic will be sourced from accessible streaming services. a Mad musical version of the oracle Marjory the Trash Heap.
all the printed zine anti-NFTs that are released free + liberated monthly will contain their own magic note.
"Books break the shackles of time. A book is proof that humans are capable of working magic."
Carl Sagan
choose your Mad adventure
+++++++
each donation level allows us to create the listed trinkets each month.
these donation levels can be a one-time or recurring monthly for the duration of this project.
spore
$3 donation
(one-time or monthly until December 2022)
+++
spores gratefully sustain The NFT Club to be liberated with free digital Mad art
+++
included in this donation:
sign-up to The NFT Club monthly email newsletter
mycelium
$13 donation
(one-time or monthly until December 2022)
+++
mycelium gratefully sustains The NFT Club to be liberated with free digital Mad art
+++
mycelium sustains us to create analog-love versions of Nifty Fungifemme Trinkets
+++
this donation allows us to create (one-time or monthly):
(1) analog-love copy of the printed zine
(1) analog-love copy of the pocket comic zine
(1) analog-love copy of the original art sticker
(1) magic note
included in this donation:
donation option for trinkets of gratitude
sign-up to The NFT Club email newsletter
(recurring monthly donations - mailed Jan 2023)
one (1) analog-love copy of the final femme zine
mushroom
$23 - donation
(one-time or monthly until December 2022)
+++
mushrooms gratefully sustain The NFT Club to be liberated with free digital Mad art
+++
mushrooms sustain us to create analog-love versions of Nifty Fungifemme Trinkets
+++
this donation allows us to create (one-time or monthly):
(2) analog-love copies of the printed zine
(2) analog-love copies of the pocket comic zine
(2) analog-love copies of the original sticker
(2) magic notes
included in this donation:
donation option for trinkets of gratitude
sign-up to The NFT Club email newsletter
(recurring monthly donations - mailed Jan 2023)
one (1) analog-love copy of the final femme zine
slime mold
$39 - donation
(one-time or monthly until December 2022)
+++
slime mold gratefully sustains The NFT Club to be liberated with free digital Mad art
+++
slime mold sustains us to create analog-love versions of Nifty Fungifemme Trinkets
+++
this donation allows us to create (one-time or monthly):
(2) analog-love copies of the printed zine
(2) analog-love copies of the pocket comic zine
(2) analog-love copies of the original sticker
(2) magic notes
(1) mystery piece of Mad art
included in this donation:
donation option for trinkets of gratitude
sign-up to The NFT Club email newsletter
(recurring monthly donations - mailed Jan 2023)
two (1) analog-love copies of the final femme zine
The NFT Club
Anti-NFT
Timeline
anti-NFT timeline for The NFT Club
(analog-love trinkets correspond to the month of donation)
emotional weather zine - November 2021
beautiful minds zine - December 2021
The NFT Club zine #1 - January 2022
The NFT Club zine #2 - February 2022
The NFT Club zine #3 - March 2022
The NFT Club zine #4 - April 2022
The NFT Club zine #5 - May 2022
The NFT Club zine #6 - June 2022
The NFT Club zine #7 - July 2022
The NFT Club zine #8 - August 2022
The NFT Club zine #9 - September 2022
The NFT Club zine #10 - October 2022
The NFT Club zine #11 - November 2022
Final Femme zine - December 2022