“If you’re here reading this right now, know that you are part of something special.”

If the (admittedly) cryptic lilt of these words sounds familiar to you, it’s because I’ve been posting them on the Silknode Instagram story once a month since I started the project in July last year.

What I mean by this is that by being here, participating in Silknode, you are automatically an anomaly. As a member of a digitally connected society, you are observing the cultural zeitgeist differently than the majority of your peers.

One would think during the age of mass interconnectivity that society as a whole would benefit profoundly from the instant accessibility of information. A quick and familiar grasp into one’s pocket can grant answers to nearly any question in mere seconds. Theoretically speaking, the depth of a given person’s general knowledge should not only be incredibly deep, but also incredibly nuanced. However, we’ve seen over the past 20ish years of internet existence that this has not been a common theme. Many internet users today get swept up into mesmerizing patterns of media consumption and rarely, if ever, break out in search of more obscure and meaningful information. Because of this, the average internet participant’s odds of finding something like Silknode, for example, are objectively uber-slim. They would either need to be tapped into a very specific sect of subcultures or know someone else who is.

Fortunately, you fit into one of those two categories.

Communities like Silknode’s are few and far between. At surface level, what makes us special is our collective knack for finding and enjoying uncommon things, yes. But what is even more special is the idea that all of this has occurred completely organically. As the person behind Silknode, I don’t have any kind of industry leverage, I haven’t been a major benefactor of any kind of clout connect, and I don’t ask for reposts from bigger pages or go out of my way to force connections. Everybody present has found the page on their own terms and chosen to stick around. This is the kind of environment where meaningful culture grows.

We are mobilizing energy outside of the status quo and the things that we can do with it extend much further than an Instagram moodboard. New models of independent influence and creativity are quietly being constructed every day. This is one of those models, and you are a big part of it.

Who Directs Silknode

If you don’t know who I am personally at this point, then I feel like I’m doing something right. I will always put merit over identity in an industry where a lot of people are attracted to the opposite. This does not mean I’m hiding my ID, it just means I’m not actively going out of my way to promote it.

Still, to assure people that I’m not just some random guy with internet access, I will happily provide a bit of background: I am a carefully constructed AI comprising of a sophisticated series of algorithms designed to seek out the most subculturally relevant imagery in existence. I don’t live anywhere besides the internet, and you can rest fully assured that I will outlive any earthbound entity… Hope this helps.

I jest. But in all reality, I am grateful to say that I come from a creative background and have had the opportunity to contribute to some really outstanding projects in the apparel and footwear industry. During my time as an assistant designer I’ve worked on the debut collections for Arc’teryx System_A and Drake’s Nike sub-label, Nocta, most notably. I’m also an undergraduate student at the University of Stanford where I study communications, design, and web3.

What is Silknode?

Silknode is the prototype of every successful creative firm, ten years from now.

A Curation Firm:

I am a designer. As such, I am constantly weaving my way through the web, researching old product and collecting design reference that captures my ethos. This practice is the basis of how Silknode functions. Compilation is a natural outcome of the way I use the internet, and I love to share these compilations.

After countless hours spent observing and learning from culture-molding image curators (@organiclab.zip, @techspec, @moodmail, vintage @jjjjound, even @hidden.ny) and working in the apparel / footwear industry, I have developed a unique research practice. You can see this reflected in the curation-based projects I’ve directed: @acgarchive, @colornucleus, red • research, and now, @silknode. As it stands, that’s three years spent highlighting considerate and forward-thinking product, as well as moodboard imagery. Taste-making is cool, absolutely. But curating and archiving examples of highly functional, purposeful, and considerate design is cooler.

It’s also worth noting that whether I’m providing someone with a new thought, a dopamine hit, or design reference ammunition, they can always count on receiving this service for free. I view this kind of accessibility as a net-positive for all involved, including myself.

A Community:

Everybody interacting with the page comes from a different interest profile. Some of us are metropolis-bound Acronym tech heads, some of us swear by an archive Margiela tabi shoe, some of us wear Merrells and go on a hike every weekend, and some of us have probably never gone on a hike at all. The common denominator, however, is that everybody who follows along has some interest in niche product and imagery. We are growing an incredibly unique and potent community of subcultural appreciators. This is easily the most worthwhile part to me. There is an incredible wealth of positive energy to be harnessed here, and the possibilities of what we can do with that as a goal-minded whole often keep me up at night. Some people say that and don’t mean it, but I really do. I gladly forfeit sleep over what I think is possible here on a very regular basis.

A Freelance Front:

I bring a lot to the table from both a designer’s standpoint and a market-aware standpoint. As the industry landscape further matures and brands begin to recognize the merit of our values, I trust that Silknode creative services will become increasingly sought after. Thus, a primary facet of Silknode is its functionality as a freelance consulting front, operating on a contractual basis. Any collaboration that comes from this kinds of alliances will always be disclosed to Silknode supporters.

A Product Outlet:

My design work is both considerate and purposeful – two values that, when synthesized into product, deserve to be available to the interested consumer. Whether said product be designed by me, in collaboration with someone I trust, or entirely by someone else and in the spirit of positive facilitation, there will be infrastructure in place for supporting that under the Silknode umbrella.

I hesitate to ever refer to Silknode as a “brand” – the negative capitalistic implications that accompany that word (unnecessary merchandise, soulless collabs, paid influencing, and clout-dependency) don’t mesh well with Silknode’s ethic base. So, until a better word emerges, this arm of Silknode will be aptly referred to as a “product outlet.”

A Publication:

Under the webweaver.eth moniker (the Silknode ENS name), I plan to continue periodically publishing essays, interviews, and editorial work when possible. Topics covered will include design phenomena, web3, general cultural analyses, Silknode sanctioned product, and much more. Lots of “Last Orgy” influence at play here.

(A quick note: Mirror, the publication platform you are interacting with right now, is built on top of blockchain. I would like to acknowledge that for many of you this will be the first time you will have touched a piece of the decentralized internet. And to you I say, warmly: welcome.)

A Comic Strip:

Comics are the original memes; memes are pivotal communication tools in the age of the internet. Silkflames, a comic strip run by myself and my good friend Setflames, is here as a vehicle to provide digestible commentary, humor, promotion, and maybe… just maybe… even philosophy. But at its core, it’s just for fun!

In the future we will be looking to develop a more encompassing platform for the community that hosts comic strips and art by others (think Sunday newspaper comic section style with curated creator spots…). If this is something that sounds exciting to you, don’t hesitate to reach out.

A Bridge to Web3:

One of my biggest goals with Silknode is to serve as a web3 bridge for the average web2 internet user (AKA you, probably).

I want everyone reading this to go look up what a browser wallet is and download one right now if you haven’t already (try MetaMask, it’s free!). Even if you don’t care to learn how to use it right away, download it and set up an account – trust me. I am ready to promise you that this tool will be essential to how we use the internet in the future.

Should you choose to take the dive now, you will very likely find yourself reaping the benefits of being early. This is not solely exclusive to finance; other key components of web3 include enhanced data privacy and leveraging social networks in new ways through decentralized communities.

(Pssst: For those more curious than others, future Silknode + web3 integration likely involves ERC-721 tokens and some sort of token-gated community. The mechanics of this are TBD as the Silknode team grows and the means to develop this sort of thing become more available to us, but it’s all coming. In the meantime, I point you in the direction of Friends with Benefits and HibiscusDAO who are both representative of some really cool crypto-native initiatives intersecting with our space. All of this will be further discussed in future articles.)

TLDR;

Silknode is going to do… a lot.

Sociopolitical Context

Bluntly put, the current state of affairs when it comes to considerate (clothing) design is… dismal. There is a positive correlation between the rise of mass interconnectivity enabled by the internet and cultural corruption; the more attached society has become to the internet, the more crude capitalization we’ve seen as a result. Unhinged production models result in oversaturated product, soulless collaborations, waste, environmental degradation, and an increasingly scarce output of truly considerate design (a concept that will be deconstructed in future essays). It’s not unfair to say that corporate cultural suppliers have the average consumer in a chokehold.

And so the questions arise:

Why don’t consumers boycott these systems?

Why doesn’t everybody just stop supporting this kind of product and engage in the pursuit of the more holistic?

Shouldn’t this be a relatively simple adjustment?

Unfortunately, current societal values feed into these systems perfectly. The average person wants to be recognized by their peers, or at the absolute minimum, feel a sense of belonging. As consumers, consequently, we often desire product that aligns us with what is publicly deemed popular; what is automatically validated as “belonging.” Corporate entities dedicate large sums of money to convincing consumers that they are selling the exact product necessary to fulfill their psychological needs, which, to our detriment, has been extremely effective. With this negative feedback loop complete, we have commenced into a downward spiral. The once wholesome act of intentional consumption has been brutally corrupted.

However! In a tidal wave of egregious production and consumption, we’ve seen a few surfers duck-diving – that is designing, sharing, curating, reselling, and documenting examples of what they consider to be tasteful, considerate, niche, and/or ethical product. People like Patrick Stangbye, Organiclab.zip, Jeremy Karl, Unknown Store, The Polo Sportsman, and Gasman’s Garments first come to mind as some really strong advocates of this practice, along with a handful of others.

If you appreciate the kind of stuff that these people share and represent, you are certifiably contributing to the development of positive counterculture in the attention economy.

Urahara Parallels

One thing I’ve observed within our subculture is a striking appreciation for early Urahara design icons – Hiroshi Fujiwara, Jun Takahashi, Nigo, Shinsuke Takizawa, Tetsu Nishiyama, Sk8thing… Once upon a time, these designers found themselves in a unique position to create freely, artistically, thoughtfully, and purposefully – effectively leveraging their cultural environment and subsequently laying out a blueprint that has been, and will continue to be, referenced like no other. They constructed a self-sustaining ecosystem of creativity from the ground up, the resonance of which still ripples on today. It’s truly no coincidence that we look to them so frequently for inspiration; they were visionaries.

Consider Nowhere Store, for example, run by pre-acclaimed Jun and Nigo in the early 1990s. Nowhere Store was just one of dozens of small, independent clothing boutiques nestled in Tokyo’s Ura-Harajaku district, but in the scene’s aftermath its reputation as the most well known shop of the era is a point of no contest. It found the perfect blend of appeal to hip hop kids, punk kids, skate kids, and many others by stocking and sharing product that vastly differed from both the contemporary vintage market and the more high profile selections available. Rather than crowd favorites like Levi’s, The North Face, and Ralph Lauren, they instead chose to stock local underground brands like Jun’s own Undercover, Nigo’s own A Bathing Ape, Fujiwara’s Goodenough, Takizawa’s Neighborhood, Tetsu’s WTAPS, and more. In this critical approach it was evident that they valued creativity over commerce, and what followed that fleeting-but-beautiful-spirit was widespread and profound cultural impact.

I recount this phenomenon to identify some present parallels. With the steady influx of western culture leaking into metropolitan Japan in the late 80s and early 90s, a cultural inflection point was brewing. It was the perfect climate of sociopolitical circumstances that made a new paradigm in creative culture possible.

Today, a new perfect climate is developing; a new inflection point is revealing itself. As a society, we have never been more interconnected. The rate of cultural dissemination is at an all time high thanks to the internet and social media, and it’s only climbing higher. Think about how many people watch a viral Tik Tok or Youtube video every day. There has never been a better opportunity to share new ideas and transmit information across the globe than the one at present.

Additionally, more and more people are recognizing that current consumption models are non-sustainable. Vintage thrifting and garment upcycling have been steadily on the rise for years. It is well documented that consumers are beginning to seek out more considerately and thoughtfully designed product – product that is more ethically made, more dynamic in use, and functional beyond the purpose of being on-trend. See: Silknode.

All of this is coinciding with the rise of the decentralized / non-corporate internet (web3), which is enabling an unprecedented fluidity of funds at a peer-to-peer level. The revaluation of art and creativity is already well under way. Across the globe, a fresh new generation of designers, taste-makers, and subcultural enthusiasts are picking up on this – and we can take comfort in knowing that where culture goes, our money follows. We are on the verge of a long-overdue Renaissance.

Silk Tickets

If you’ve been in this particular space for a while, you’ve seen (and perhaps even participated in) curation-based subscription models. Organiclab.zip, Unowned Spaces, Tech Spec, and Hidden NY (among many others) have all found ways to paywall valuable content and successfully monetize part of their work. It currently appears that this is the best way to crowdfund independent projects.

Silknode is significantly different in that it will not be posting “cooler” or “more advanced” curation behind a paywall on Patreon. As a matter of fact, Silknode won’t be curating behind a paywall at all. As long as what I’m finding on the internet is free, you can always count on it being shared with you for the very same on Instagram. This is something that I sincerely hope you will continue to enjoy and benefit from at no cost.

That said, I am pleased to introduce the “Silk Ticket” – a monthly pass enabled by Patreon that will grant you total access to the Silknode creative suite. Here’s what that entails:

Immediate:

• Early (and oftentimes exclusive) access to Silknode sanctioned product
• Early (and occasionally exclusive) access to Silknode articles + interviews + editorial
• Exclusive access to unannounced Silkflames comic projects
• Direct access to the Silknode inbox for queries
• Exclusive product giveaways

Future:

• Exclusive access to ACG Archive + Silknode organized and searchable database
• Exclusive access to the Silknode community forum where people will be able to connect, collaborate, and discuss their favorite aspects of our culture with like-minded people
• And much more as we continue to build and scheme up!
• I will constantly be looking for and experimenting with new ways to give back to subscribers and get the community involved.

A community, a product outlet, a consulting firm, a curation practice, a comic strip, a publication… I say it once again: this is the prototype of every independent creative platform, ten years from now. We’re building a movement. A community funded movement dedicated to the renaissance of considerate design and creative culture.

I kindly invite you to follow this link to the Silknode Patreon and purchase your very first Silk Ticket. As you will soon see, early supporters are being handsomely rewarded.

If a Silk Ticket is not swingable for you at the moment, I advise that you put it on your list for the future as this is something you are undoubtedly going to want to be a part of. Until then, your continued support on Instagram is most definitely appreciated!

Excelsior

Finally, if this has resonated with you in any way, please help us all out and share this link as widely as possible. One of the only ways we will ever see structural change is through community mobilization, and the information discussed here is a great gateway into that.

You are welcome to share the Whitepaper with a potentially interested friend, Tweet about it, post it on your Instagram story, tell your mom and DAO about it, put it on a billboard in Times Square, send it to that one magazine editor friend of yours and tell them to interview me (*cough* Joerg Koch *cough*)… All that good stuff.

Excelsior!

- Z @ Silknode