Substrate, a LACMA Art + Technology Grant project by artist Nancy Baker Cahill, examines the equitable distributive properties of mycelial networks, and how they relate to emerging data-sharing technologies. Substrate connects civic institutions, cultural resources, and data storage systems as a collaborative test case for civic hubs citywide, including the Los Angeles Public Library, LACMA, and Long Beach City College working in tandem, imagining new ways of eliminating barriers to access, of structuring permission, and of producing and sharing knowledge. Using blockchain, Substrate connects these public resources as metaphoric "Mother Trees" with the potential to nourish communities through distributed networks of multi-stakeholder cultural initiatives. Substrate creates fertile ground for the movement of resources, giving way to the production of artifacts and artworks that will then be given unique content addresses using the InterPlanetary File System (IPFS) and housed in the decentralized file storage network Filecoin. Through IPFS and Filecoin, Substrate coalesces as a prototype for new models of data protection, provenance, and distribution. The resulting cohesion of these interconnected systems and institutions establishes a new approach that could ultimately be adapted to strategies of mutual aid, information access, reparation and preservation. Part 1 of Substrate will appear on the Central Library Video Wall, from June 27 to Dec 31st. Universum is a collaborative and interdisciplinary art exhibition organized by curatorial students at Long Beach City College, under the guidance of Karla Aguiñiga, Art Gallery Manager. This selection of artworks is the result of the students’ rigorous research into the digital collections archive of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, a publicly accessible online storehouse of historical artifacts. Universum brings together artworks across media, historical periods, geographies and cultures, illustrating the essential connectivity of human expression by touching upon themes of geometry, astronomy, and the collective unconscious. The artworks are presented in sequence, connected by an interpretive animated piece Shereen Moustafa and Mark Sosa. Alongside the curatorial process, in conjunction with LACMA, Universum is presented at the Los Angeles Central Public Library as a video presentation and education guide, available as a zine. For more information about the video wall and its location visit: https://www.lapl.org/branches/central-library/video-wall For more information about Nancy Baker Cahill’s Substrate project visit: https://nancybakercahill.com/work/substrate Image: Amnesty by Shereen Moustafa, acrylic on canvas, 5’x4’. Image by Mark Sosa