 
## **COPYRIGHT: ABOUT THE AUTHOR**

**Brinkley Warren is an artist, scholar, and entrepreneur. He holds a terminal degree in the fine arts and was awarded a Fulbright Fellowship for the Creative & Performing Arts in 2012. He has started over ten ventures, among others, a 501(c)3 arts education non-profit, and MegaBots, Inc. — a global sports league of giant human-piloted robots. Brinkley is the curator, agent, dealer, creator, writer, director, producer, promoter, publicist and outspoken evangelist for art heroes such as Actionaut and The Most Popular Artist, and he is the founder of SpacecClaims.org, a Swiss non-profit that mobilizes resources in support of the U.N.'s 17 Sustainable Development goals (SDGs) using art and outer space property and mineral rights claims on the blockchain. **

© 2016

**Brinkley Warren**

**All Rights Reserved**

No part of this publication or monograph nor its likeness may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of Brinkley Warren or his assigns, except by a reviewer who may quote brief passages in a review. This book is distributed and/or sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, hired out or otherwise circulated without the author's prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser. Whereas violation rights may result in irreparable harm to Brinkley Warren for which damages alone would be an inadequate remedy, in addition to their rights and remedies otherwise available at law, the Brinkley Thomas Warren and his assigns shall be entitled to seek to obtain equitable relief, including injunction, in the event of such breach.

**LEGAL DISCLAIMER**

THIS BOOK IS PRESENTED SOLELY FOR EDUCATIONAL, ARTISTIC AND ENTERTAINMENT PURPOSES. THE AUTHOR AND PUBLISHER ARE NOT OFFERING IT AS LEGAL, ACCOUNTING, OR OTHER PROFESSIONAL SERVICES ADVICE. THE AUTHOR AND PUBLISHER MAKE NO REPRESENTATIONS OR WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND AND ASSUME NO LIABILITIES OF ANY KIND WITH RESPECT TO THE ACCURACY OR COMPLETENESS OF THE CONTENTS AND SPECIFICALLY DISCLAIM ANY IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS OF USE FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. NEITHER THE AUTHOR NOR THE PUBLISHER SHALL BE HELD LIABLE OR RESPONSIBLE TO ANY PERSON OR ENTITY WITH RESPECT TO ANY LOSS OR INCIDENTAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES CAUSED, OR ALLEGED TO HAVE BEEN CAUSED, DIRECTLY OR INDIRECTLY, BY THE INFORMATION OR PROGRAMS CONTAINED HEREIN. NO WARRANTY MAY BE CREATED OR EXTENDED BY SALES REPRESENTATIVES OR WRITTEN SALES MATERIALS.

WARNING: PRIOR TO PURCHASING ANY ART AND/OR SPACECLAIMS TOKENS ASSOCIATED WITH THIS PROJECT (INCLUDING AT(HTTPS://WWW.SPACECLAIMS.ORG) YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE READ AND AGREE WITH THE TERMS AND CONDITIONS AND PRODUCT PURCHASE AGREEMENT AT SPACECLAIMS.ORG. YOU UNDERSTAND OWNERSHIP OF SPACECLAIMS ART AND/OR TOKENS CARRIES NO RIGHTS EXPRESS OR IMPLIED. PURCHASES OF SPACECLAIMS ART AND/OR TOKENS ARE NON-REFUNDABLE. PURCHASERS SHOULD HAVE NO EXPECTATION OF INFLUENCE OVER GOVERNANCE OF THE SPACECLAIMS PLATFORM OR THE UNITED SPACE CLAIMS INSTITUTE OR THE MOST POPULAR ARTIST OR ANYTHING ELSE RELATED TO THIS PROJECT.

BY PARTICIPATING IN THE SALE OF SPACECLAIMS ART AND/OR TOKENS, YOU EXPRESSLY ACKNOWLEDGE AND REPRESENT THAT YOU HAVE CAREFULLY REVIEWED THE TERMS, AS WELL AS THE SPACECLAIMS ART AND/OR TOKENS PRODUCT PURCHASE AGREEMENT AND FULLY UNDERSTAND THE RISKS, COSTS, AND BENEFITS OF PURCHASING SPACECLAIMS ART AND/OR TOKENS AND AGREE TO BE BOUND BY THESE TERMS. AS SET FORTH FURTHER BELOW (AND WHICH YOU AGREE TO AT TIME OF PURCHASE OF ART AND/OR TOKENS, YOU FURTHER REPRESENT AND WARRANT THAT, TO THE EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, YOU ARE AUTHORIZED TO PURCHASE SPACECLAIMS ART AND/OR TOKENS IN YOUR RELEVANT JURISDICTION, ARE OF A LEGAL AGE TO BE BOUND BY THESE TERMS, AND WILL NOT HOLD BRINKLEY WARREN OR THE UNITED SPACE CLAIMS INSTITUTE, ITS PARENT AND AFFILIATES, AND THE OFFICERS, DIRECTORS, AGENTS, JOINT VENTURES, EMPLOYEES AND SUPPLIERS OF THE UNITED SPACE CLAIMS INSTITUTE OR OUR PARENT OR AFFILIATES, NOW OR IN THE FUTURE AND ANY OTHER MEMBER OF THE SPACECLAIMS TEAM (COLLECTIVELY THE "THE UNITED SPACE CLAIMS INSTITUTE PARTIES") LIABLE FOR ANY LOSSES OR ANY SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES ARISING OUT OF, OR IN ANY WAY CONNECTED TO THE SALE OF SPACECLAIMS ART AND/OR SPACECLAIMSTOKENS.

WARNING: DO NOT PURCHASE SPACECLAIMS ART AND/OR TOKENS IF YOU ARE NOT AN EXPERT IN DEALING WITH CRYPTOGRAPHIC TOKENS AND BLOCKCHAIN-BASED SOFTWARE SYSTEMS

PURCHASES OF SPACECLAIMS ART AND/OR TOKENS, THE SPACECLAIMS PLATFORM'S CRYPTOFUEL, SHOULD BE UNDERTAKEN ONLY BY INDIVIDUALS, ENTITIES, OR COMPANIES THAT HAVE SIGNIFICANT EXPERIENCE WITH, AND UNDERSTANDING OF, THE USAGE AND INTRICACIES OF CRYPTOGRAPHIC TOKENS, LIKE BITCOIN (BTC), AND BLOCKCHAIN-BASED SOFTWARE SYSTEMS. ALL PURCHASES OF SPACECLAIMS ART AND/OR TOKENS ARE FINAL. PURCHASES OF SPACECLAIMS ART AND/OR TOKENS ARE NON-REFUNDABLE. BY PURCHASING SPACECLAIMS ART AND/OR TOKENS, THE PURCHASER ACKNOWLEDGES THAT NEITHER SPACECLAIMS.ORG, BRINKLEY WARREN, THE UNITED SPACE CLAIMS INSTITUTE NOR ANY OTHER OF THE SPACECLAIMS OR THE UNITED SPACE CLAIMS INSTITUTE PARTIES ARE REQUIRED TO PROVIDE A REFUND FOR ANY REASON, AND THAT THE PURCHASER WILL NOT RECEIVE MONEY OR OTHER COMPENSATION FOR ANY SPACECLAIMS TOKENS THAT IS NOT USED AS CRYPTOFUEL OR REMAINS UNUSED. BY PURCHASING SPACECLAIMS TOKENS, AND TO THE EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, THE PURCHASER AGREES NOT HOLD ANY OF THE UNITED SPACE CLAIMS INSTITUTE PARTIES LIABLE FOR ANY TAX LIABILITY ASSOCIATED WITH OR ARISING FROM THE PURCHASE OF SPACECLAIMS ART AND/OR TOKENS. THE PURCHASER EXPRESSLY AGREES THAT THE PURCHASER IS PURCHASING SPACECLAIMS ART AND/OR TOKENS AT THE PURCHASER'S SOLE RISK AND THAT SPACECLAIMS ART AND/OR TOKENS IS PROVIDED ON AN "AS IS" BASIS WITHOUT WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, WARRANTIES OF TITLE OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE (EXCEPT ONLY TO THE EXTENT PROHIBITED UNDER APPLICABLE LAW WITH ANY LEGALLY REQUIRED WARRANTY PERIOD TO THE SHORTER OF THIRTY DAYS FROM FIRST USE OR THE MINIMUM PERIOD REQUIRED). WITHOUT LIMITING THE FOREGOING, NONE OF THE SPACECLAIMS PARTIES WARRANT THAT THE PROCESS FOR PURCHASING SPACECLAIMS ART AND/OR TOKENS WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED OR ERROR-FREE.THE PURCHASER ACKNOWLEDGES AND AGREES THAT, TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY ANY APPLICABLE LAW, THE DISCLAIMERS OF LIABILITY CONTAINED HEREIN APPLY TO ANY AND ALL DAMAGES OR INJURY WHATSOEVER CAUSED BY OR RELATED TO USE OF, OR INABILITY TO USE, SPACECLAIMS ART AND/OR TOKENS OR THE SPACECLAIMS PLATFORM UNDER ANY CAUSE OR ACTION WHATSOEVER OF ANY KIND IN ANY JURISDICTION, INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, ACTIONS FOR BREACH OF WARRANTY, BREACH OF CONTRACT OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE) AND THAT NONE OF THE SPACECLAIMS OR THE UNITED SPACE CLAIMS INSTITUTE PARTIES SHALL BE LIABLE FOR ANY INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES, INCLUDING FOR LOSS OF PROFITS, GOODWILL OR DATA, IN ANY WAY WHATSOEVER ARISING OUT OF THE USE OF, OR INABILITY TO USE, OR PURCHASE OF, OR INABILITY TO PURCHASE, SPACECLAIMS ART AND/OR TOKENS.THE PURCHASER FURTHER SPECIFICALLY ACKNOWLEDGES THAT SPACECLAIMS AND THE UNITED SPACE CLAIMS INSTITUTE PARTIES ARE NOT LIABLE, AND THE PURCHASER AGREES NOT TO SEEK TO HOLD ANY OF THE SPACECLAIMS THE UNITED SPACE CLAIMS INSTITUTE PARTIES LIABLE, FOR THE CONDUCT OF THIRD PARTIES, INCLUDING OTHER PURCHASERS OF SPACECLAIMS ART AND/OR TOKENS, AND THAT THE RISK OF PURCHASING AND USING SPACECLAIMS ART AND/OR TOKENS RESTS ENTIRELY WITH THE PURCHASER .TO THE EXTENT PERMISSIBLE UNDER APPLICABLE LAWS, UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES WILL ANY OF THE SPACECLAIMS OR THE UNITED SPACE CLAIMS INSTITUTE PARTIES BE LIABLE TO ANY PURCHASER FOR MORE THAN THE AMOUNT THE PURCHASER HAVE PAID TO SPACECLAIMS OR THE UNITED SPACE CLAIMS INSTITUTE FOR THE PURCHASE OF SPACECLAIMS ART AND/OR TOKENS. SOME JURISDICTIONS DO NOT ALLOW THE EXCLUSION OF CERTAIN WARRANTIES OR THE LIMITATION OR EXCLUSION OF LIABILITY FOR CERTAIN TYPES OF DAMAGES. THEREFORE, SOME OF THE ABOVE LIMITATIONS IN THIS SECTION AND ELSEWHERE IN THE TERMS MAY NOT APPLY TO A PURCHASER. THE PURCHASER AND THE UNITED SPACE CLAIMS INSTITUTE AGREE THAT IF ANY PORTION OF THESE TERMS OR THE SPACECLAIMS ART AND/OR TOKENS PRODUCT PURCHASE AGREEMENT IS FOUND ILLEGAL OR UNENFORCEABLE, IN WHOLE OR IN PART, SUCH PROVISION SHALL, AS TO SUCH JURISDICTION, BE INEFFECTIVE SOLELY TO THE EXTENT OF SUCH DETERMINATION OF INVALIDITY OR UNENFORCEABILITY WITHOUT AFFECTING THE VALIDITY OR ENFORCEABILITY THEREOF IN ANY OTHER MANNER OR JURISDICTION AND WITHOUT AFFECTING THE REMAINING PROVISIONS OF THE TERMS OR SPACECLAIMS ART AND/OR TOKENS PRODUCT PURCHASE AGREEMENT, AVAILABLE AT TIME OF PURCHASE, WHICH SHALL CONTINUE TO BE IN FULL FORCE AND EFFECT. PURCHASERS AND/OR PARTICIPANTS ALSO RECOGNIZES THAT THE SPACECLAIMS PLATFORM MAY BE OPERATIONAL FOR A SHORT OR EXTENDED PERIOD OF TIME, AND MAY SUBSEQUENTLY BE ABANDONED BY THE UNITED SPACE CLAIMS INSTITUTE OR BRINKLEY WARREN FOR A NUMBER OF REASONS, INCLUDING A LACK OF INTEREST FROM THE PUBLIC, A LACK OF FUNDING, OR OTHER REASONS. SPACECLAIMS ART AND/OR TOKENS ARE NOT SECURITIES IN ANY JURISDICTION. THIS BOOK AND THIS PROJECT IS NOT A SOLICITATION FOR INVESTMENT AND DOES NOT PRTAIN IN ANY WAY TO AN OFFERING OF SECURITIES IN ANY JURISTDICTION. WARNING: CRYPTOGRAPHIC TOKENS OF VALUE MAY EXPERIENCE EXTREME VOLATITLITY IN PRICING. WARNING: THE PURCHASE OF SPACECLAIMS ART AND/OR TOKENS HAS A NUMBER OF RISKS AND PRIOR TO PURCHASE YOU SHOULD CAREFULLY CONSIDER THE RISKS LISTED ON THE PRODUCT TERMS AND PRODUCT PURCHASE AGREEMENT AND, TO THE EXTENT NECESSARY, CONSULT AN APPROPRIATE LAWYER, ACCOUNTANT, OR TAX PROFESSIONAL. OWNERSHIP OF SPACECLAIMS ART AND/OR TOKENS CARRIES NO RIGHTS EXPRESS OR IMPLIED.

## **DEDICATION**

**For now, the future.**

## **ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS**

There are so many people who have contributed directly to this project as well as countless others who have shaped my philosophical, professional, scholarly, and artistic journey to this point. To all of the souls who have been dedicated to possibilities such as this one, I express my sincere gratitude and thanks. First and foremost, I'd like to thank my colleagues who believe in the future, and who believe in the tenants of both autonomy and open collaboration which help make good things happen. Everyone who I highlight here deserves praise for helping this work come to fruition and for influencing me as a person.

Most importantly of all, I acknowledge my buddy and partner in this endeavor Wes Faires, without whom this project and especially the legal aspects would have been impossible.

Thanks and love to my close friends and family. My family has always believed in me and inspired me. Mom, Dad & Chris, Zev, Dean and Patricia and Isabella and all of my family, Grandma, Cousins, Uncles, and everyone. I love you all from the bottom of my heart. I have great friends, and you know who you are.

Finally, this project will not be possible without the goodwill and collaboration of people around the world, including art patrons and collectors, developers, and entrepreneurial and innovative people helping to make the world a better place.

Thank you, all.

## Contents

  1. COPYRIGHT: ABOUT THE AUTHOR
  2. DEDICATION
  3. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
  4. Welcome to the Exhibition, OUTER SPACE INSIDE. 
  5. CALL TO ACTION
  6. Preface — Key Resources:
    1. The Bold Idea in Brief — Crowdfunding Art for Spaceship Earth
    2. The Universal Space Compact 
    3. Creed of The Most Popular Artist
    4. The Meta-Claim Text
    5. Project Phases:
    6. Current Activities by The Most Popular Artist 
    7. FAQs:
  7. Prologue — Liberating Space with Art and Technology to Transform Spaceship Earth
  8. 1. Intro to OUTER SPACE INSIDE
    1. The Most Participatory Public Art Project in History
  9. 2. Welcome to the Great Collaboration
    1. Overview of the Chapters
  10. 3. History of this Project — Decade in the making
  11. 4. The Meta-Claim Full Text — Art in and of itself
    1. Photocopied Authenticated Claim Documents (following pages)
    2. Plain Text Version of the Claim — Same as above but easier to read.
  12. 5. What does this mean?
    1. Legal Precedent
    2. Treaty Interpretation through Authentication
  13. 6 — Building the Perpetual Art Machine (Blueprints for the Socio-Cosmograph)
    1. The Socio-Cosmograph
      1. Blockchains and Smart Property and DAOs, oh my!
        1. The SpaceClaims Blockchain Platform — Launching a Universal Deeds Registry for Outer Space Property and Mineral Rights Claims 
        2. United Space Claims Institute as Cultural Heritage Organization
        3. Spaceship Earth Art — The 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
        4. Organizational Operations
        5.  What is SpaceClaims.org?
        6. Partnerships, Advisors, and Teams
        7. The SpaceClaims Genesis Pre-Sale
    2. Legal Aspects — Socio-Cosmograph and SpaceClaims Blockchain
      1. SpaceClaims Tokens
      2. The SpaceClaims Blockchain Platform
  14. 7. Artwork Analysis — A Creative Exegesis Critically Situating and Contextualizing the work
    1. OUTER SPACE INSIDE as Exhibition
    2. Artist as Curator
    3. Confessions of a Constellation Artist
    4. Creative Justification 
    5. Conceptualism
    6. Appropriation Art 
    7. Institutional Critique of Exchange Systems
    8. Postmodern Conceptualism
    9. Pop Art
    10. Cybernetic Situationalism
    11. Has Anyone Else Claimed Space?
    12. Historical and Iconographic Analysis 
    13. Aesthetics of the Transmodern Avant-Garde
    14. Alternative Systems of Exchange 
    15. Social Practice Art
    16. Instructional Art
    17. The Faou Foundation — Moriko Mori 
    18. The Moon Arts Project — Lowry Burgress
    19. Discussion of the Work
      1. Claiming and Selling the Observable Universe 
      2. Becoming a Galactic Art Tycoon
      3. The Tycoon Plateau 
      4. Money for art. Artist as Provocateur.
  15. 8. About the Artist
  16. 9.Instructions for Participation

## Landmarks

  1. Cover
  2. Title-Page
  3. Frontmatter
  4. Table of Contents
  5. Start of Content

# **Welcome to the Exhibition,** OUTER SPACE INSIDE.

**The Most Popular Artist has legally claimed all outer space property and mineral rights claims in the Universe, and now he's selling it as art on the Blockchain.**

**This is the most valuable work of art in human history, and the most valuable art auction in human history.** OUTER SPACE INSIDE **is currently valued at 100 Centillion US Dollars. Included in the artwork are over 600,000 near earth asteroids including all mineral rights claims and mining licenses that guarantee claimants and operators the right to resources harvested in outer space in accordance with international law. At least 1000 of these 600,000 asteroids are currently valued at above $100Trillion each. Will** YOU **become the lucky patron?**

OUTER SPACE INSIDE **engages hyper-folk territories through exponential trajectories to create a perpetual art machine called the socio-cosmograph, a next generation smart property and decentralized universal deeds registrar platform for outer space property and mineral rights claims, integrated to art production and secured by the Blockchain in support of the U.N.'s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).**

**The sign at the exhibition entrance reads —**

**"For the exhibition, outer space has been liberated and transformed into fuel for Spaceship Earth. It will be converted into inner space and commodified as artwork. By exiting the gift shop, you agree that your public space will be dematerialized, digitized, democratized, and decentralized in an effort to positively impact current and future generations. Soli Deo Gloria!"**

# **CALL TO ACTION**

Dedicate a FREE Space Claim NOW by clicking

SpaceClaims.org 

# **Preface — Key Resources:**

This section includes key documents that you may find useful and so they are listed here for your convenience. Feel free to read through these first, or skip ahead to the Prologue and come back to this section as you learn more about the project.

The following resources are available in this section:

  * The Bold Idea in Brief
  * The Universal Space Compact
  * The Creed of the Most Popular Artist
  * The Key Text of the Legal Meta-Claim 
  * Project Phases
  * Current Activities of The Most Popular Artist
  * FAQs

## **The Bold Idea in Brief — Crowdfunding Art for Spaceship Earth**

> **Big Idea** : This is the most valuable work of art in human history, and hopefully the most participatory work of art in human history. The Most Popular Artist is creating a new space claims economy and selling it as art auction. He has legally appropriated all outer space property and mineral rights claims in the Universe, and he has the legal documents to prove it (Chapter 4). Now, he's selling this property as artwork to generate funds for the U.N.'s 17 sustainable development goals to benefit Spaceship Earth, and he's making use of cutting-edge blockchain technology to build a decentralized universal deeds registry for outer space property and mineral rights claims available to anyone in the world. To be one of the first 1-million people to legally own mineral rights claims in space, you must buy a limited-edition hard copy version of the artist's book at SpaceClaims.org, and anyone in the world can claim 1 star for free, and dedicate it to 1 of the 17 Spaceship Earth initiatives.

> **Benefits** : You can benefit now by being one of the first 1-million people in the history of the world to legally invest in outer space property and mineral rights claims. Limited-time offer, first come first serve!
> 
>   * Become a part of history, leave your legacy!
>   * Support good causes like ending poverty and hunger (SDGs).
>   * Support a novel blockchain technology platform for space claims and get in at the ground floor.
>   * Own unique works of art incorporated with your SpaceClaims tokens. Every book sold will be unique and personally signed to you!
>   * Bid on one of the SpaceClaims Mines which are unique pieces of wall-art that serve to make new space claims available on the system. It's likely each Mine will contain multiple or significant space claims, for instance well-known stars or constellations. 
>

> **Big Promise:** This is Art that transcends Art and Commerce, and it represents a viable and innovative model for blockchain technologies and a historically significant project that serves to benefit Spaceship Earth now and for future generations while opening up the infinite resources of outer space. You will cement yourself in history as part of the most participatory work of art and valuable work of art in history, and you'll become an asteroid mining pioneer.

> **Proof/Claims:** Great effort has been expended to ensure legal authentication and legal documentation in accordance with U.N. Treaty Law in regards to the original "meta-claim" documents included in full in Chapter 4. These documents guarantee the integrity of the genesis transaction output of the SpaceClaims BlockChain and also validate the legality of a digital marketplace to sell and track transactions related to outer space property and mineral rights claims and deeds. Chapter 5 includes a detailed legal account and background proof. This book includes extensive discussion about the salience of this artwork in the context of art history and the art world, including all of Chapter 7.

## **The Universal Space Compact**

**The Most Popular Artist announces the Universal Space Compact of 2016 with the following decree:**

Ah! Boundless as space are we, the cosmic splendor of the great beyond, ceaselessly tugging us into the future and deeper into our own imaginations, pure as light, infinitely bright. We, are the light. We thinkers and doers and makers and dreamers, we builders and artists and movers and shakers.

Let us venture together — we the peoples, stewards of Spaceship Earth — towards the final frontiers of outer space with the confidence that we have achieved peace and prosperity for all.

We, together, are interdependent creatures, part of creation. Makers of all, all unknowingly known. Art requires art; outer space, inner space. I requires you, and you requires me. Our collective actions matter, and we become the change we wish to see on our home planet.

We wish for mutual thriving and sustainability. We wish for making the world better, by solving global grand challenges, together. We are living in the age of the great collaboration, so let us collaborate. Our collective future will become what we make it, so let's make it better.

We wish for mutual thriving and support of the arts — we wish for empowering radical inclusion, so that a rich tapestry of human voices from different cultures and locations will be discovered and featured and promoted, and as human understanding and human compassion spreads, positive impact will spread.

We wish for mutual thriving by promoting outer space as the fuel we need to empower a more thriving and flourishing Spaceship Earth. We wish for catalyzing learning and community development outreach in celebration of outer space, and in celebration of Spaceship Earth.

We wish for mutual thriving through great collaboration and systemic change through the creative application of exponentially advancing technologies related to space and beyond.

As interdependent human beings, we agree that we are one with the Universe. We are the Universe, and the Universe is us. We are Universal. We are one with nature, and we are one with Spaceship Earth. We are one with each other — interdependent, striving creators.

We believe in the power of humanity to come together to save Spaceship Earth through creativity, innovation, and entrepreneurial leadership, and we believe that humanity's humanity is united in a collective embrace – bound by our heavens above, and our desire for universal peace and prosperity for all on this planet and beyond. Bound too are we all to the divine splendor of the universal human imagination and the ceaseless magic of the cosmos within. The gift of creative and mental power comes from the same mysteriously divine source that brought forth our little planet — our little harbor of water and life spinning at over 1000 miles per hour among 200 million galaxies and countless burning furnaces and dark voids. We, are the light. We are the stars in this play on the stage of life. We thinkers and doers and makers and dreamers, we builders and artists and movers and shakers. Let us act with purpose.

We believe. We believe in ourselves, because we believe in each other. We believe in the future, because we believe in right now. We believe in action.

Positive action. Creative action. Cooperative action. Peaceful action. A great collaboration is upon us the likes of which humanity has never known, and we need STEAM to get it churning: scientists, technologists, engineers, artists, astronomers, and mathematicians.

So let us join the fray with joy and love and peace in our hearts. Let us join the fray, We the peoples, on behalf of the future. Let us venture forth into the great beyond, and let us reach for the stars — but let us plant our feet firmly here on Spaceship Earth as we do so, and let's collaborate, let's innovate, let's cooperate, and above all — let us create. Let's create the world we want to live in. Let us tune ourselves to the divine source of the great beyond, and as we look outwards towards the mysterious heavens, let us dive deeper within. Let us seek to raise our consciousness, and together — let's rise, and light up the void. 

## **Creed of The Most Popular Artist**

  * I am daring mighty things and pushing boundaries that redefine possibility. 
  * I am creating a future of abundance that is bright, equitable, and leaves no one behind. 
  * I am acting with purpose to solve humanity's greatest challenges by leveraging exponential technologies and creativity. 
  * I am leading courageously and becoming a shining example for the power of art and technology and collaboration to change the world. 
  * I am embracing collaboration and an integral approach to community engagement. 
  * I am taking Moonshots, thinking big and taking bold risks to solve problems and impact billions of lives. 
  * I am combining big dreams, strong collaboration, and powerful tools to create an unstoppable force for good. 
  * I am artistically orchestrating new technologies and systems that stimulate progress, promote innovation, accelerate impact, and foster democracy in greater freedom.

## **The Meta-Claim Text**

The project involves the artist having successfully and legally claimed ownership to all outer space property and mineral rights, and then having this claim recognized, validated and authenticated by world governmental bodies in accordance with international law, including the U.S. government and the United Nations. A photocopied claim showing the great seal of the United States and signatures from the secretary of state and the justice department among others, along with full text of this historical legal document are included in this book. I say it's art, but it's called chapter 4 herein.

***Below is the core claim text upon which this project is based. Chapter 4 includes the authenticated legal documents that validate this claim under the great seal of the United States, the Secretary of State, and the Justice Department among others, in accordance with U.N. Treaty Law.***

**"The Meta-Claim"**

**Notice of Intent to Preserve Property Interest and Mineral Rights**

**NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN** that the undersigned individuals do have, own and claim to be the owners of undivided interest of all surface and subsurface mineral rights of any kind and nature, regardless of form or character, whether fugacious or non-fugacious, organic or inorganic, absolute or fractional, corporeal or incorporeal, including express or implied appurtenance surface rights, as well as to all extraterrestrial property and real estate situated _within the Observable Universe_ , whose identifying attributes, orbital elements, physical parameters classification and rights of the claim are fully described in section IV. The official date of this claim is October 4th, 2014.

**IV. Astrometry – The Claim – Doctrines, Astrometry and Identifying Attributes, Orbital, Physical, and Classifications for Objects Claimed**

The claimants hereby claim the "Observable Universe" which consists of the galaxies, celestial territories and other matter that can, in principle, be observed from Earth in the present day because light and other signals from these objects has had time to reach the Earth since the beginning of the cosmological expansion. The Observable Universe, according to calculations includes all objects within 14.0 billion parsecs (about 45.7 billion light years), while the commoving distance to the edge of the observable universe is about 14.3 billion parsecs (about 46.6 billion light years). Therefore, the "Observable Universe" claimed herein may be defined by a spherical boundary that stretches out from the Earth in all directions and is currently estimated to be 93 billion light-years across.

Hereby claimed absolutely via this document ("the claim" and/or "this claim") is all extraterrestrial land and real estate property and mineral rights to any and all objects, including galaxies and superclusters, within the Observable Universe, including but not limited to all objects within 50 billion light years of Earth that are now known or unknown, and including all galaxies, Local Superclusters, the Virgo Supercluster, our Local Galactic Group, the Milky Way Galaxy, and all objects and land therein, including those within Earth's Solar Interstellar Neighborhood, and including but not limited to any and all galaxies, asteroids, stars, planets, voids and/or other celestial bodies therein. This claim represents a valid, undeniable and irrevocable legal declaration of absolute control and dominion over all property and extraterrestrial territory in the Observable Universe.

This claim is legal and unconditional, and must not require that any other conditions be met such as action on the ground, movable property on the ground, visitation, or habitation. This claim shall be deemed legally immune from the doctrine of adverse possession, and the property claimed herein is not and never will be subject to future possession, rights, or usage through occupation or trespassing, and all such encroachment will be cause for legal action including injunction and equitable remedy. Neither this claim nor its claimants will be liable for any consequential, direct, indirect, punitive, exemplary, special or incidental damages arising from or relating to this claim or its use. This claim includes the right to create and maintain legal instruments for an exclusive, privately owned and operated, universal, perpetual, and legally-binding centralized deeds registry for outer space property and mineral rights claims to track legal ownership of extraterrestrial real estate and transactions of extraterrestrial property titles.

This claim includes the right to subdivide, sell, and assign ownership of claimed extraterrestrial property rights to third parties using a legally binding commercial exchange structure. As the legal recorder of outer space property deeds, this claim gives effect to the principles of statutory, case, and common law in relation to outer space property rights and claims henceforth and evermore insofar as it relates to vested ownership in land and mineral rights claims and other real rights.

The claimants will henceforth have the right to certify absolute ownership and certify transfer of title for all celestial properties located within the Observable Universe. This claim shall be enforceable through global laws, and if any part of this claim is found to be non-binding, invalid or unenforceable under applicable law, such part will be ineffective to the extent of such invalid or unenforceable part only, without affecting the remaining parts of this claim in any way.

Whereas violation of property rights or extraterrestrial real estate ownership (including advertising the sale of non-certified claims of ownership that violate the claimants' official extraterrestrial deeds registry) may result in irreparable harm to the claimants for which damages alone would be an inadequate remedy and, therefore, in addition to their rights and remedies otherwise available at law, the claimants shall be entitled to seek to obtain equitable relief, including injunction, in the event of such breach. For the avoidance of doubt, the claim of ownership herein includes the entirety of the Observable Universe, and this includes but is not limited to all objects located within 1 billion light years of Earth.

## **Project Phases:**

Below are the various phases of development for this project. These are intended to be adapted in collaboration with other participants into the future.

  * Phase 1: Initiate the claim and secure and encrypt the Genesis transaction output, including official authentication of the claim from governments in accordance with U.N. treaty law. Done (2004-2015)
  * Phase 2: Announce the claim publicly on October 4th, 2016. Release FREE digital version of the book OUTER SPACE INSIDE. Anyone can claim a star for free and dedicate it to 1 of 17 sustainable development goals at SpaceClaims.org
  * Phase 3: Sell the first 1-million space claim artworks and space claim tokens to the public at SpaceClaims.org. Patrons receive a personally signed, limited-edition hard copy version of OUTER SPACE INSIDE book, along with a space claim token
  * Phase 4: Promote the project, fundraise, and recruit talent to build out The United Space Claims Institute and steward key activities. 
  * Develop the protocol of the Space claims Blockchain/including ability to trace title history with reputation, app layer built on colored coins to allow for immutable public registry and frictionless transfer that is blockchain-secured, including a SpaceClaim Estate Planning transfer system, as well as alignment with other data such as celestial coordinate systems. 2-step authentication.
  * Phase 5: Initial Coin Offering (ICO) in 2017 makes more star and asteroid space claims available for purchase through blockchain smart property offering. 
  * Phase 6: Build out infrastructure, mobilize great works projects aligned with the U.N.'s 17 Sustainable Development Goals and produce the annual Outer Space Festival. Similar to Kickstarter projects organized by SDG. 
  * Phase 7: Game/Visualization System to Bring the Socio-cosmograph online. This is data visualization and searchability of the social graph mapped to the Universe. Like a Star Atlas VR Interface. 
  * Launch a distributed supercomputer that helps for space commercialization, similar to SETI@Home while also space mining

## **Current Activities by The Most Popular Artist**

  * Visit SpaceClaims.org for updated list of activities 
  * The artwork is currently in the form of _an invisible human sculpture_. 
  * The artwork is currently being publicized and actively promoted.
  * You are reading an artist publication that includes instructions, and which is both standalone artwork, and also part of a greater artwork. This book is free for download, and it's called OUTER SPACE INSIDE — it's what you're currently reading.
  * 1-million limited-edition hardcopy versions of the book are for sale at SpaceClaims.org and include a star or asteroid claim with purchase.
  * The Most Popular Artist is auctioning SpaceClaim "Mines" via his instagram channel, @themostpopularartist which include space claims integrated into unique wall-art produced by The Most Popular Artist.
  * Global Art Auction: The Most Popular Artist has an open call for other artists from around the world who want to produce artwork that is integrated with outer space property and mineral rights claims and that speaks to 1 of the 17 SDGs. Profits generated for art auctioned will benefit 45% to the artist, 45% to the SDG of the artist's choice, and 10% as a curatorial fee for The United Space Claims Institute.
  * Events and art auctions — The Most Popular Artist is hosting "Art Mining" events and commissioning work from other artists to auction off during live pop-up gallery events around the world, again using the space claims system and property claim tokens as fuel for these activities.
  * A book tour to speak at Biennials, museums, galleries, classrooms, is in the works.
  * The Most Popular Artist is donating 62 of the "Mine" wall-art pieces to private collections. Interested museum, galleries, and dealers should email me@brinkleywarren.com and express interest.

## **FAQs:**

  * **What is the SpaceClaims Blockchain Platform?**
    * The SpaceClaims Platform combines a peer-to-peer networking platform with a next-generation blockchain architecture to deliver a decentralized consensus-based, full-stack platform for buying, selling, giving, receiving and transferring outer space property and mineral rights claims in accordance with international law. This platform will be built using funds from the current art auction pre-sale. 
  * **What are SpaceClaim Tokens?**
    * Think of these as cryptographic fuel for the SpaceClaims Blockchain Network. Everyone can claim a free token and dedicate it (like a pledge) to a Spaceship Earth Initiative. Personal SpaceClaim 
    * Tokens are only available with a purchase of a limited-edition hardcopy version of the book OUTER SPACE INSIDE. Each token is a form of payment donation made by patrons of the SpaceClaims Blockchain Platform to the machines executing the requested operations. Patrons who want to own their own star or asteroid claim and activate their spaceclaim property deed on the Network are required to have a SpaceClaim Token.
    * There are two types of SpaceClaim tokens available: star tokens, and asteroid mining tokens. 
    * The price of SpaceClaim tokens varies different depending on the category, and the multiple purchased, and will be discounted during the SpaceClaims Genesis Pre-sale, going on now at SpaceClaims.org.
    * The prices are as follows: 
      * The price to dedicate a star to a good cause (FREE)
      * The price your own star token is $29.97
      * The price of your own asteroid mining token is $599.97
  * **Are the SpaceClaims Tokens that accompany hardcopy book sales considered equity securities?**
    * No. A book is a consumer good, and each book/tokens artwork is created as a unique work of art, and are being sold to help generate cash flow for The Most Popular Artist's continued hobby activities related to public art production. Each SpaceClaim Token is integrated into a limited-edition collectible — a unique work of art that includes SpaceClaims property deeds and bills of sale. SpaceClaim tokens that accompany hardcopy book purchases are a product, NOT a security or investment offering. A SpaceClaim Token is useful for paying transaction fees or on the SpaceClaims Platform; it does not give you voting rights over anything, and we make no guarantees of its future value. No refunds are eligible in this art auction, and all purchases have warranties as listed in the terms and product purchase agreements
  * **Where does the money go after I buy a limited-edition book package?**
    * Your generous support allows The Most Popular Artist to continue his career as a professional artist, including ongoing activities including developing the protocol for the _SpaceClaims Blockchain Platform_. Every dollar from every purchase on SpaceClaims.org goes towards stewarding and curating these and other cultural activities through The United Space Claims Institute, a Swiss Foundation that serves to steward the universal SpaceClaims deeds registry and protocol. For instance, the revenue generated will be used to allow The Most Popular Artist to continue creative activities such as: 
      * Development of the SpaceClaims Platform and Tools 
      * Community Outreach
      * Creative Research 
      * Spaceship Earth support
      * Art. 
  * **Can SpaceClaims tokens be sold or transferred to somebody else?**
    * SpaceClaims tokens will NOT be usable or transferable until the launch of the genesis block, currently estimated to be Summer of 2017 in time for the 50th anniversary of the Outer Space Treaty, and even then they must be activated on the system by the original owner. When you buy a hardcopy version of OUTER SPACE INSIDE and accompanying SpaceClaims tokens, you will not be able to do anything with your tokens until the genesis block launches. 
  * **What are my rights when I buy a book and space claim tokens?**
    * You are buying a work of art, and no refunds are offered, and there are no guarantees of any kind. 
    * There are several papers available on SpaceClaims.org to help you understand your rights regarding the sale, including: 
      * Terms and Conditions of the SpaceClaims Genesis Sale
      * SpaceClaims Product Purchase Agreement 
  * **Will I need a crypto wallet to store SpaceClaims Tokens?**
    * Yes, but you won't need a wallet immediately when you purchase. You will be emailed about setting up your SpaceClaims Token wallet and this information will be integrated into the unique work of art that is physically mailed to you in the coming months. Don't worry if you don't receive your wallet until your art physically arrives at your physical address, you should not be concerned about your wallet until after you receive your hard copy book. 
  * **What are "Mines"?**
    * Mines are pieces of "wall-art" that are fundamental to pre-mining the Genesis Block of the SpaceClaims Blockchain launch in 2017. There are mini-mines, major-mines, and mega-mines for each category (stars and asteroids).
    * Star Mines: 
      * Mini-mine = $1000 
      * Major-mine = $10,000
      * Mega-mine = $100,000
    * Asteroid Mines: 
      * Mini-Mine = $100,000 (200 asteroid claims)
      * Major-mine = $1,000,000 1500 asteroid claims)
      * Mega-mine = $30,000,000 (85,000,000 asteroid claims)
    * The Most Popular Artist is selling unique works of art that are encrypted with lucrative space claims. Over time, these "mines" serve as genesis transaction outputs for not only a single space claim, but they continually generate new space claims over time, similar to new bitcoins being mined on the blockchain, the earliest mines that The Most Popular Artist sells will likely be the most valuable — economically. Indeed, the funds used from auctioning off these works of art will support a global network for P2P computing power that will form the foundation of the SpaceClaims blockchain system. Serious patrons should reach out directly to TheMostPopularArtist@gmail.com
  * **I'm an artist, can I participate?**
    * Yes, you can apply at SpaceClaims.org to be a part of the most popular art auction in world history to benefit Spaceship Earth actions. Include a photo of your unique artwork object to be auctioned, along with an application, and a statement about how your unique work of art addresses 1 of the 17 SDGs. If selected, your art object will be combined with an outer space property or mineral rights claim and auctioned off and the proceeds will benefit 45% to you, 45% to the SDG of your choice, and 10% to the curator. 
  * **I'm in the art world as a museum, curator or art dealer or gallery, can I get more involved?**
    * Yes, you should use the form on the contact page and be in touch by emailing TheMostPopularArtist@gmail.com.
  * **What about the Moon and Mars?**
    * At this time, SpaceClaims.org and the SpaceClaims Blockchain are NOT offering claims related to any of the planets or moons within our solar system, and therefore we don't comment on any questions related to property or mineral rights claims on the moon and mars. We are committed to translateral approaches that accelerate space exploration and development within our solar system, and are against any policies that seek to exclude any party or group from the peaceful uses of the moon and neighboring planets, or that hinder free and transparent space exploration. 
  * **What about rockets and probes owned by others?**
    * SpaceClaims.org and the United Space Claims Institute are committed to the free, open, and inclusive exploration of outer space and in no way do we wish to prevent rockets, probes, or any other form of space mission — so long as these missions are operated peacefully and do not seek to utilize space-based resources and minerals for profit.
  * **What about asteroid mining?**
    * This entire project guarantees claimants and operators the right to resources harvested in outer space in accordance with international law. This entire project is designed to support and accelerate commercial space launch and space resources utilization industries. We are committed to ensuring that the world's first asteroid mining missions are conducted with ample crowdfunding, transparency, and in accordance with international law in a way that benefits both speculators and operators, including serving as the official ombudsman institution for asteroid mining operators and claimants to collaborate and operationalize successful missions.
  * **What if my space claim is found to have life on it?**
    * At this time, any space property or mineral right claim that is found to be on an object where any form of extraterrestrial life is known to be present (including bacteria or liquid water) will NOT be available on the SpaceClaims Blockchain, and will NOT be available to any space claimant. These space objects will be treated similar to a wildlife sanctuary. If your property or mineral rights claim is found to harbor life of any kind, it will be removed automatically from the active ledger database and your claim will be replaced by a different claim of equal value. This policy will evolve in response to democratic self-governance of the system and might change from time to time in terms and conditions of purchase or transfer. 
  * **Is this project legal and safe?**
    * Yes. There is an entire book about this project and the legal aspects called OUTER SPACE INSIDE – you can download it free at SpaceClaims.org to find ample legal documentation that proves that this project is legal and valid. Much care has been taken by The Most Popular Artist over the last ten years to ensure this project, and all of the space claims on the system are protected and authenticated in accordance with international law. Chapter 4-5 in the book have comprehensive legal documentation.

# **Prologue — Liberating Space with Art and Technology to Transform Spaceship Earth**

_"Reality is a historical process."_ ~ George Hegel

Through art, we make ontological frames that help us all see more clearly and with fresh emotional resonance. Most art removes us from reality, but very rarely does a work of art also re-adjust our relationship to reality itself. Throughout history, the stars have guided our thirst for discovery, exploration, expression, and knowledge. So, here we are again, except this time, we're not navigating wooden ships and crossing the salty seas, we're the cosmonauts setting sail for the stars themselves, boldly going where no humans have gone before. Jason and the Argonauts had their time in the stars, and now it's our time. The good news is that there's more than enough space for all of us.

It's important we remember that reality is a historical process. We might think that certain constants are the law — but many of our limiting frames are artificial, and just because something has been a certain way, doesn't mean it's the only reality. Reality, is relative. Traditions change, and new mythology deserves to have a shot on the world stage, and in these times of thriving human knowledge, globalization and exponentially advancing technologies, it makes sense that a diversity of perspectives fueled by transformative technologies are finding their way into the zeitgeist of our collective consciousness and making real impact on an unprecedented scale. We must, however, take the reins wholeheartedly. Lest we forget the importance of art and technology since time immemorial — from flints to swords, wheels, pulleys, presses, pens, engines, and electricity. Early adopters always benefit the most. Early adopters are those who join the band of heroes and accept their destiny as actors on the world stage before others, but even then we must fight to protect our collective legacy against the small-minded. Art and technology are only as good as their creators and actors. Art is the barometer and sword of freedom. Let us wield it.

Consider the fate of the constellation Argo, named for the ship of the band of Greek heroes known as the Argonauts. Argo was the biggest and most important constellation in the southern sky for hundreds of years...until it wasn't.

The current 88 "official" constellations are only official because scientific-institutions founded in the 1920s in Paris simply tell us that these are the "official" constellations that we should recognize and care about. Among the 88 "official" constellations, the truth is that 48 of these were originally listed by the 2nd century Egyptian astronomer Ptolemy. Well it turns out that the Argo constellation — the biggest and most important constellation for sailors in Classical times, not to mention a great mythological story where we get the word "actor" from — has been removed from the sky atlas and had its "official" status revoked by our modern day "experts." Citing its large size, Argo is the only constellation from Ptolemy's 48 that is no longer recognized as an "official" constellation. This makes sense, because when confronted by big ideas, it's always easier to simply ignore and pretend that they don't exist or don't deserve to be recognized, "officially." Experts, by definition, have narrow minds — it's their job to tell you why something can't be done. History has some lessons for us about this.

Dr. Seuss was told by 29 publishers that he would never sell a single book, and he went on to sell the most children's books in history. Harry Potter was rejected over ten times before getting picked up. Google was ignored by over 300 investors who didn't believe there was room in the economy for another search engine and now it's become one of the most important skunkworks companies in the history of the world. Edison failed over 1000 times while inventing the lightbulb. Can you imagine what the experts of his day said about him? Experts told Albert Einstein that he was mentally handicapped and he won the Nobel Prize. Vincent Van Gogh created over 800 paintings in his lifetime, but he only managed to sell one of them during his lifetime — and yet he kept on painting. Experts said Michael Jordan would never play basketball, and now he's the greatest. Nikola Tesla gave us the future, but he died penniless, his ideas and inventions pillaged by the vultures of the age, and we needed The Oatmeal to kickstart a Tesla Museum in our contemporary era.

A New York Times editorial on December 10, 1903, questioned the wisdom or validity of the Wright Brothers who were trying to invent a machine, heavier than air that would fly. One week later, at Kitty Hawk, the Wright Brothers took their famous flight. Walt Disney was fired and told by a boss he didn't have any imagination, then he bankrupted one company before starting Disney which has spread art and creativity around the world. So many stories like this. Milton Hershey, Henry Ford, Abraham Lincoln, HJ Heinz, and even P.T. Barnum — all of them went bankrupt in pursuit of their dreams, but never gave up even though experts said their ideas were bollocks. The truth is that if experts tell you your idea is great, then it's probably not a big enough idea.

Can you imagine what our world would be if we didn't have big dreamers who created what they believed in, even though experts told them it couldn't be done? Actually.... can you imagine how great the world could be if we had more people like these? More creators and makers and dreamers with big ideas who don't give up on the dreams that have been put in their heart. It's the ideas that are so big that they don't squeeze into a neat little box that push the world onwards into brighter pastures.

Instead of squeezing constellations of Greek heroes out of the night sky, let's expand our vision, let's add new constellations to the sky — let's add our own personal mythologies to the cosmic canon; let's chart our own course, let's go further faster into space development, let's take up the brushes and easels of our day, and let's paint the stars anew.

This is my goal with OUTER SPACE INSIDE. With this bold moonshot art project (10+ years in the making) The Most Popular Artist wants to kick the tires and light the fires of the 3rd Industrial Revolution and usher in the Age of the Great Collaboration! During the last few years, he has continued bringing this project to life even though people thought he was wasting his time. Experts have questioned the validity of his ideas, art critics have questioned his praxis — but The Most Popular Artist has persisted on. As we know, it's never wise to underestimate the ability of veracious creative forward-thinking people to change the world. Many people never believed this project would get as far as it's gotten — but here we are. The Most Popular Artist is now the #1 real-estate owner in the Universe, technically speaking; and with an opportunity to help launch one of the most epic global good works projects in history.

This comprehensive art project and platform and system provides the world's first secure legal framework for space resource utilization, including the explicit and exclusive right to distribute mineral rights licenses to operators and guarantee the operators the right to resources harvested in outer space in accordance with international law. This project guarantees self-regulation in accord with the Outer Space Treaty, using an innovative approach that incorporates blockchain-secured technologies and decentralized supercomputing. This project is intended to be inclusive, and we look forward to supporting and working in harmony with space commercialization firms and startups as well as all governmental bodies and space agencies and NGOs of all stripes. We are living in an age of transnational economics, and translateral culture, and we believe that translateral approaches are needed now, more than ever.

This project and the legal doctrines and instruments upon which it is based, are designed to protect international law and the interests of the general public on the basis of the freedom and liberty of space activities in a larger translateral freedom, including all the freedoms granted in the Declaration of Human Rights.

As the legal proprietor to all space mineral rights claims, The Most Popular Artist wants to democratize space claims in a way that benefits Spaceship Earth and the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of 2030, while also ensuring viable pathways for commercial space resources utilization as well as innovative funding models for those initiatives. We want to help Elon Musk get to Mars. We want to help Peter Diamandis mine those asteroids; and we want to get more people involved in these activities.

As the legal proprietor who has absolute dominion and control over all outer space property and mineral rights claims in his possession, The Most Popular Artist is now actively giving space claims away at SpaceClaims.org and making them freely available to the general public using an innovative system built using cryptographic blockchain technologies, distributed supercomputing, and art production to help this project become the most participatory art project in human history, and the most valuable work of art ever created in human history.

You, your friends, and all of us can purchase space claims legally for the first time in world history, but visiting SpaceClaims.org. This includes the ability to invest in mineral rights claims and licenses for asteroid mining, and these are being sold as unique works of art for a limited time only, so act fast if you want to get in at the ground floor.

# **1. Intro to OUTER SPACE INSIDE**

_"To what purpose should I trouble myself in searching out the secrets of the stars, having death or slavery continually before my eyes?"_ ~ A question put to Pythagoras by Anaximenes (c. 600 B.C.), according to Montaigne

_"I am a citizen of the world (kosmopolitês)."_ ~ Diogenes of Sinope (c. 412 B.C.)

Today's reality is that we are citizens not just of a nation, but of the Cosmos. These are exponentially cosmopolitan times. Even though cosmopolitan beliefs have been around for centuries, in the words of Rachel Carson in her 1962 book _Silent Spring_ , "It is only in the moment of time represented by the present century that one species has acquired the power to alter the nature of the world."

OUTER SPACE INSIDE is a cybernetic people-powered art project designed for these cosmopolitan times — it transmutes our collective awe of space into fuel for Spaceship Earth. It is guided by a supremely ambitious and transformational vision, whereby we use international law, cutting-edge technologies, and creative practice to rewrite history and help make a better collective future, all for one and one for all. This book is integrated into the greater artwork, and it also serves as a companion that serves to situate the artwork contextually amidst art history.

The project envisages a world of universal respect for human rights and permitting the full realization of individual human potential — contributing to shared prosperity for all. A world where production and consumption are sustainable, a world where there is peace and sustainable economic growth for all that takes into account our impact on the planet and each other. There is reason to believe that radical inclusion is the only way towards a fully thriving Spaceship Earth that harmonizes at the democratic, economic, cultural, and environmental levels, grounded in universal peace throughout the cosmos, both inner, and outer.

OUTER SPACE INSIDE is guided by the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations, including full respect for international law, including the right of natural individuals and natural persons to property claims and the rights to freedom of expression, as well as full protection of the arts.

In fact, this project would not be possible without the United Nations, and a general human consensus for law and order balanced with personal freedom economic growth, and ecological _sustainability_.... nay, _flourishing_ – all of which are situated by powerful collective technologies based on holographic communications.

The entire legal basis of this project is based on international treaty law enacted through the U.N. in regards to Outer Space, and our claim has perhaps the ultimate protection of legitimacy because of the Declaration of Human Rights.

The legal documentation and foundations of this project has been informed by traditional real-estate property claims in historical common law, as well as grounding in the Declaration of Human Rights, The Peaceful Uses of Outer Space Treaty, the Declaration on the Right to Development, the Millennium Declaration, the 2005 World Summit Outcome, and the U.N. Agenda for Sustainable Development Goals among others.

OUTER SPACE INSIDE can be seen as a humble artist's way of taking a moonshot for Spaceship Earth.

The U.N. and the leaders of the world have done a pretty admirable job in terms of laying out a framework for how we improve peace, planet, and prosperity for all of the peoples of the world and save Spaceship Earth — and this initiative is called the United Nations' Agenda for 2030, and includes seventeen ambitious sustainable development goals...goals like ending poverty, promoting peace, gender equality, green energy, clean water and sanitation, and so on.

The cost for humanity to achieve the 17 SDGs by 2030 is estimated by Jeffrey Sachs of the Sustainable Development Solutions Network to be $2.5 Trillion a year, and the Secretary-General of the U.N. has said it could cost more than $50 Trillion total.

This sounds daunting, but then consider that a single asteroid could be worth over $100 Trillion in value, and now consider there are over 600,000 near earth asteroids that we could mine. Through this project at SpaceClaims.org, starting in 2016, there is now an official and legitimate source for claiming outer space property and mineral rights, and this will likely unleash an entirely new economy that can help us address and achieve the 17 SDGs by 2030 – this is our plan. We are currently auctioned off as art to benefit the good causes associated with the SDGs – we are putting art and technology into action for peace, prosperity, and planet for all.

It's important to note that this project is not simply about money or GDP – in fact what we need more than anything, is creative thinking, and innovative approaches to address the global grand challenges and existential threats we are facing.

You know it's true. Spaceship Earth needs some moonshots. We need to reach for the stars in our thinking.

Let's use the stars as fuel. In the words of Frank Lloyd Wright, "The insolence of authority is endeavoring to substitute money for ideas."

The challenges and opportunities of the new millennium require massive collective action and creative collaboration. Integrated strategies and cohesive cooperation are needed. A sustainable ecosystem for the planet, sustained economic growth, and fostering social inclusion are interdependent realities, and thus OUTER SPACE INSIDE is artwork designed to catalyze and accelerate such pathways. All for one, and one for all. The good news is we have all of the ingredients we need to achieve the 17 SDGs by 2030 – now we just need some creative recipes from innovative chefs to transform ingredients into sustenance.

Bringing attention to global grand challenges such as resource depletion and catalyzing funding and engagement to address global health threats, natural disasters, conflict, extremism, terrorism, community displacement, unemployment, poverty, environmental sustainability and other existential threats is a way that this project seeks to turn risk into reward, challenges into opportunities. Stars, into fuel for Spaceship Earth.

The spread of information and communications technology and universal interconnectedness has great potential to accelerate human progress and lead us into a thriving transcultural free society, especially when combined with the creative action and open participation of we the peoples, a rich and diverse tapestry of folk life.

On World Information Society day in 2016, the U.N. Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon, addressed We, the Peoples of the World, and implored us:

> _"People everywhere can reap the benefits of connectivity, so let us empower individuals with these transformative technologies, so that they can advocate, and innovate — for our common future."_

This art project is performative and aligned with appropriation art in the conceptual art tradition, yet it is also aligned with the spectacle production of the Situationists and Fluxus movements and exists beyond any single artistic tradition or style....and this form of social art practice engenders a certain sense of social entrepreneurship, and indeed The Most Popular Artist has made a career out of both art and entrepreneurship.

In fact during his Fulbright fellowship in the arts, The Most Popular Artist researched and theorized about social entrepreneurship being part of an emerging form of transmodern creative praxis, and indeed you can read a blog post he wrote on the Fulbright blog entitled "Calling all Fulbrighers: Embrace Social-Entrepreneurship and Reach for the Stars" (BY CLICKING HERE).

Phenomenal real estate theatre has proven a recurring theme among prophets, explorers, killers, and kings throughout history – and it continues today with tycoons like Donald Trump using bold real estate theatre to impact humanity's future. The Most Popular Artist wants to join the ranks of these tycoons, and help to steer Spaceship Earth onwards towards blue skies, still waters and green pastures.

You can read more about the The Most Popular Artist in later chapters, including a deep creative analysis and exegesis in Chapter 7 that puts the project in context historically from the perspective of art history and the contemporary vanguard, and you can read an open and honest history of the project in Chapter 3, tracking the project from the 1990s in Milton, Georgia up until present day.

This art project is intended to create a perpetual art machine that The Most Popular Artist calls a "socio-cosmograph."

The socio-cosmograph requires a range of ongoing activities and associative elements – including the launch of a Swiss non-profit called The United Space Claims Institute, the development of a new cryptographic protocol and network called The Spaceclaims Blockchain Platform, as well as public outreach and community development at SpaceClaims.org. Chapter 6 details all of these activities in detail. The socio-cosmograph is designed to mobilize people and resources to support projects that benefit "Spaceship Earth," as defined by the U.N.'s 17 sustainable development goals, which are also detailed in chapter 6.

In 1968 humans first saw the first image of the Earth from space, and for the first time the imaginary of our world disappeared, and we saw ourselves for what we actually are – a small pale blue dot with no borders, no boundaries, and no division. We are Spaceship Earth, floating silent through the cold dark void. With this knowledge, why would we spend so much of our time fighting against each other and embracing our minute differences rather than our overwhelming common fate?

The truth is that to achieve a better collective future, humanity is going to need to unite behind mutually beneficial values and take massive positive action together. All of us are in this together, and the good news is that if we act as one — if we can act together — then we can become the change we wish to see, but to make that happen, more than ever — we need art that transcends, and art that activates Spaceship Earth. This, is one such project, and the SDGs represent a great frame that guides our approach to positive collective change and the evolution of human consciousness.

A bit of history here — it's important to remember that the Sustainable Development Goals are essentially replacing the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) that were a result of the Millennium Declaration Heads of State agreed to in 2000.

The SDGs are different than the MDGs in a fundamental way — which is that the SDGs are radically inclusive. They apply to every country, and they don't just address development, but also economic and environmental issues and also governance. The MDGs addressed the symptoms of our collective challenges, but the SDGs address the causes of our collective challenges. This is a huge step forward.

The MDGs were developed not by we the peoples, but by experts — and they focused action in eight areas only for developing countries. By 2011, it was clearer that in the future there couldn't be any _development_ which was not _sustainable development_ and that ALL countries needed to redress their development to keep it within ecological constraints. We – humanity — did not achieve the MDGs that we set out to achieve in 2000. We came up short. However, it's clear that the MDGs had a huge positive impact in the world, and it showed us that striving for collective goals is a pathway towards a brighter future.

The time is nigh for action! The Living Planet Index shows a decline of 52 percent in biodiversity in the last 35 years. Two-thirds of the world's fish stocks are either fished at their limit or overfished. Climate change is already being impacted across the planet with changes in weather patterns and 2016 was literally the hottest summer in the history of the planet. These are global, collective problems.

Although most politicians are making a living out of pandering to their constituents and focusing inwards, the reality is that all of us together are facing critical existential threats that impact all of us as a human species. The only way to address these global grand challenges, is with global grand solutions. OUTER SPACE INSIDE is one such global grand solution, and hopefully just one project of many others. 

## **The Most Participatory Public Art Project in History**

> In 1965 Adlai Stevenson made a famous speech to the U.N. in which he said:

> _"We travel together, passengers on a little space ship, dependent on its vulnerable reserves of air and soil; all committed for our safety to its security and peace; preserved from annihilation only by the care, the work, and, I will say, the love we give our fragile craft. We cannot maintain it half fortunate, half miserable, half confident, half despairing, half slave—to the ancient enemies of man—half free in a liberation of resources undreamed of until this day. No craft, no crew can travel safely with such vast contradictions. On their resolution depends the survival of us all."_

In September of 2016, as part of the one-year anniversary of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) initiative by the United Nations, what has been dubbed the "World's biggest lesson in human history" was enacted for the general public. It makes sense that when it comes to Spaceship Earth — it takes a village, and that village is McLuhan's global village, and as a result, projects that are associated with driving the SDGs have the real opportunity to become historic in terms of participation and reach because of pervasive media and the Internet. The entire world is very close to dancing to the rhythm of a single drum beat, and this is a transcendent possibility.

Likewise, The Most Popular Artist believes that OUTER SPACE INSIDE can become the most participatory art project in human history, and why wouldn't people want to collaborate? What could be more fun than claiming the stars and helping us achieve the 17 Sustainable Development Goals that will make the Earth a much better, safer, more prosperous and peaceful place to live and raise our children.

As previously mentioned, contained within this artwork is the legal claim to all outer space property and mineral rights. A single asteroid alone is currently valued at over $100 Trillion, and there are over 600,000 asteroids within travel-distance to Earth. For this reason, The Most Popular Artist believes that not only can OUTER SPACE INSIDE break the world record for most participatory art project in history, but he thinks we can also break the world record for the most valuable work of art ever created. This is simple math if you think about it, and it makes sense! What could be more valuable than Spaceship Earth? 

# **2. Welcome to the Great Collaboration**

_"The Lord God shall throw open the doors of his sky vaults and unto thee his good treasure, the heavens, will rain unto thy land in his season, and to bless all the work of thine hand: and thou shalt lend unto many nations, and thou shalt not borrow."_ ~Deuteronomy 28:12, The Bible

_"You pervade the universe and the universe exists in you. You are by nature Pure Consciousness. Do not be small-minded!"_ ~Astavakra

_"What you do, is what the whole universe is doing in the place that you call the here and the now. You are something that the whole universe is doing in the same way that a wave is something that the whole ocean is doing. The real deep down you, is the whole universe."_ ~Alan Watts

«The seat of the soul is there, where the outer and the inner worlds meet.» ~Novalis

The Most Popular Artist thanks you for your patronage. The arts are nothing without patronage, and it is precisely because of the transformational times that we're living in that the popular codices that guide our actions in modern life should always remain a target for critical intervention.

Let it be acknowledged — the most important tools of our modern trade and of creative praxis, are systems. Let it also be acknowledged — we are facing a fundamental crisis on our planet, and this crisis is systemic. It's up to us to be the interdependent change we wish to see. This work, is an exponential expression of that wish. This work, is a moonshot project for Spaceship Earth.

Walter E. Massey, the only individual to serve as President and Chairman of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and Chair of the Association of Independent Colleges of Art and Design (AICAD), was quoted in the New York Times in 2016 saying, "Young people increasingly want their work to matter, to have their art make a difference in the world." This project encapsulates this truth.

The future of humanity and Spaceship Earth is in our hands, so let us act boldly in the name of peace, prosperity, and planet. The book you're reading now is intended as part of a major work of art called OUTER SPACE INSIDE which has been in development for over ten years, and which has been crafted to serve we — the peoples of the world — by commercializing outer space property and mineral rights claims in order to stimulate action and mobilize resources for the U.N.'s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) which address global grand challenges in areas of critical importance. In Chapter 3 you can read more about how this project relates to the U.N.'s SDGs, and in Chapter 6 you will find details about the seventeen SDGs and why they matter.

The project involves the artist having successfully and legally claimed ownership to all outer space property and mineral rights, and then having this claim recognized, validated and authenticated by world governmental bodies in accordance with international law, including the U.S. government and the United Nations. A photocopied claim showing the great seal of the United States and signatures from the secretary of state and the justice department among others, along with full text of this historical legal document are included within this book, and so if want to validate that we own all space property in the universe, skip ahead now to chapters 4-5.

It's important to emphasize that the legal documents in chapter 4 are 100% real and have historical significance and major implications for the future of space exploration and development, as well as sustainable development here on Spaceship Earth. Through this artwork, we will be bringing the limitless resources of space into the economic and cultural sphere of humanity in unprecedented ways.

As part of the project, we are launching a blockchain-secured free market system for legally transferring and selling space property and mineral rights claims, and this system will be available to any natural person with Internet access using a secure, permanent, and transparent distributed database ledger, henceforth known as the _SpaceClaims Blockchain Platform_ , available at www.SpaceClaims.org (for more info on blockchains and details of this system, read section in Chapter 6).

This art project offers a demonstration of the potential for blockchain technologies to redefine the relationship between governments and the citizens of the world in terms of self-governance, data sharing, transparency, and trust while unleashing unlimited economic growth and sustainable development in the process. For the first time, people can control their own assets (including property deeds) with no oversight from brokers, governments, or big banks – thus making many of the most critical systems of humanity more secure, more reliable, more transparent, and more efficient. The invention of the blockchain is one of the greatest innovations in the last 50 years, and we're just now starting to see the type of impact it will have for our future. This art project is both a critique and proposal related to the exchange systems of our global society. Hopefully it's an offering of interdependent mutual support, and an offering of generosity.

To ensure proper stewardship and reciprocity for this new system, the artist is launching a new Swiss NGO called The United Space Claims Institute which will serve as steward for the SpaceClaims Blockchain and protocol using a decentralized autonomous organization structure (i.e., a DAO) — see chapter 6 for description of DAOs.

At SpaceClaims.org, The Most Popular Artist is giving star claims away for free — so that anyone can make a free space claim and dedicate it to the SDG of their choice. In this way, outer space becomes democratized – and a new data graph is born that connects people, SDGs, and outer space objects.The socio-cosmoraph is officially under construction.

Through this decentralized structure, for the first time in human history, there is now a legally authenticated free-market system that recognizes land claims off planet and offers the possibility of legal, tradable land titles for space claims, allowing the land and mineral rights to be used as loan collateral or an asset to be sold to raise funds. Due to the legal ramifications of this art project, outer space property rights and space claims — as a legal concept — has now been officially codified and formalized in a translateral way, and in accordance with U.N. Treaty Law for the first time in human history, ending the fifty year debate about outer space property rights for natural persons, and operationalizing an international space resource utilization system that is free from any form of governmental or inter-governmental hegemony or interference.

The artist will begin selling outer space property and mineral rights claims, including stars and asteroids to the general public by offering 1 million space claims tokens for sale, which may be acquired by purchasing a hard copy version of the book OUTER SPACE INSIDE at SpaceClaims.org. The artist will also begin selling space claim "mines" which will continually release new space claim tokens into the SpaceClaims Blockchain economy. These SpaceClaim Mines are integrated into works of wall-art, and likely to be some of the most valuable space claims within the entire space claims ecosystem. These mines are likely to end up in major museums and galleries and private collections.

OUTER SPACE INSIDE is art, but not only art; it is innovative technology, but not only innovative technology; it is commerce, but it isn't only commerce, it is a platform but more than a platform — instead, in the tradition of transformative art, this project transcends. It is complex system design and experience design as art, a transmodern approach to creative praxis...a creative research area for which The Most Popular Artist was awarded a Fulbright Arts Fellowship in 2012. This is an "economic system of exchange" backed up by historic translateral legal doctrines as art form. The Most Popular Artist embraces diplomatic stagecraft as part of his responsibility as steward for this project.

The Most Popular Artist is your co-conspirator, your interlocutor. He is grateful for your participation in this most recent spectacle, and he is looking forward to serving you and working with you as patrons.

Please accept this open invitation NOW to make a free space claim and "dedicate" it to 1 of the 17 SDGs at SpaceClaims.org...and cement your place in history in the name of Spaceship Earth.

In totality, OUTER SPACE INSIDE is guided by a supremely audacious and transformational vision, whereby outer space property and mineral rights claims can be appropriated and sold for profit on the Internet in order to fund Spaceship Earth initiatives and contribute to a world free from poverty, hunger, fear and violence, and affirm peace, ecological sustainability, human rights, and protection for freedom of speech and creative expression.

This is a public intervention situated via spectacle across the spectrum of Internet life; this is a site-specific work designed to interact with natural surroundings. It is designed to hack global consciousness and benefit Spaceship Earth. It follows an integral logic, through appropriation and transformational activities synchronized across economic, social, environmental, and psychological spheres in transmedic orchestration.

The Most Popular Artist works with almost any material or medium, and in this case the materials of the piece include an extensive cocktail of legal instruments, the formalization of international treaty law doctrine, art theory, cybernetics, Performance Art, curatorial theory, psychology, media arts, Performance Art, advanced technology development, transcultural theory, emergent systems design, social-entrepreneurship and conceptual art praxis in order to produce a sustainable and perpetual art machine, whereby the output is forever aimed at driving positive impact for Spaceship Earth and promoting the peaceful uses of outer space through the arts.

Welcome to the fray dear reader. This project is all about lowering the heavens by heightening the spirit, and we believe that there are many wonderful souls out there, and that together, we can be the change we wish to see in this world.

In brief — for the last 10 years, The Most Popular Artist has secretly been working on the most audacious and bold art project in history with the intent to legally appropriate and sell space property and mineral rights claims to fuel Spaceship Earth.

It is a project he dreamed up, conceptualized and operationalized, but would not be possible without his heroic legal cohort Wes, who you will read about in Chapter 3. There are many who have supported us along the way. Together, we have become the legal worldwide owners of all outer space property and mineral rights claims.... for the entire Universe, and with the explicit license (authenticated in accordance of U.N. treaty law) to divvy it up and sell it to the public and serve as the ombudsman for the universal registry of deeds for said outer space claims for evermore. This is a pretty big deal to say the least.

Ladies and gentleman, it brings us great honor, and we are very happy to tell, that the city of the shining jewels is officially under construction. This... is art. It is art cited directly, strategically, and compellingly, in the flux of our changing world, for the collective benefit of our changing world.

In 2014 over $68 Billion in global art sales took place, and in 2015 Christie's sold $1 Billion worth of art in one week alone, breaking the world record for auction house history. In fact, 2015 was a record-breaking year for the art market, with unparalleled sums being paid across the spectrum of Modern, Contemporary and Post-War categories.

OUTER SPACE INSIDE is artwork designed to hack the economics of the art world, and become the most expensive (i.e. — valuable) art project in world history. Mineral rights on a single asteroid have been valued at over $100 Trillion, and now all of the asteroid minerals in the universe belong to art – and through art, it belongs to we the peoples. No economist can deny that this represents the most valuable artwork in world history.

OUTER SPACE INSIDE also has the opportunity to become the most valuable art auction in world history. The Most Popular Artist is currently openly accepting and commissioning artwork from contemporary artists who submit artworks that addresses 1 of the 17 SDGs, and he's matching these artworks to space claim tokens that integrate into the work, and then he's auctioning off these integrative artworks to benefit the artist, and the SDG of the artist's choice – thus this project is generating new forms of public funding of the arts, and helping align art around the world to the SDGs.

The foundation of OUTER SPACE INSIDE is an authenticated legal instrument of practical significance, the import of which stretches across legal, political, economic, ecological, and cultural realities. The Most Popular Artist and his cohort have spent the last 10+ years working behind the scenes to produce this authentic legal document that recognizes our claim to all outer space property and mineral rights and validates our activities in accordance with international treaty law and the Declaration of Human Rights. This authenticated and historical document finally became a reality on December 31, 2015, and you can see it in its entirety, along with documentation in Chapter 4.

Now that The Most Popular Artist has valid title to all outer space property and mineral rights claims, he's going to give it away and sell it to the general public to fund Spaceship Earth initiatives. This begins with the SpaceClaims Genesis pre-sale — beginning in October of 2016.

If you are reading this now, it's likely that you can be one of the first people in history to purchase a space claim from The Most Popular Artist — making you a legal and rightful owner of a star or asteroid claim that you can pass down to your family as part of your legacy.

At SpaceClaims.org, patrons can dedicate a space claim for free to one of the SDGs.

There will only be 1-million space claims available for private purchase until the initial SpaceClaims Genesis block public offering in 2017, and these first 1-million claims come with limited-edition, hardbound printed versions of OUTER SPACE INSIDE personally signed to the owners by The Most Popular Artist along with a collectible space claim property deed and bill of sale and space claim token. These 1-million hardcopy books shall be approached as individual works of art that connect with the whole, and each one will be unique and different than the other.

OUTER SPACE INSIDE has been inspired by a meta-question that The Most Popular Artist has been exploring in practice since at least 2009 related to the notion of _art as social entrepreneurship_ and social _entrepreneurship as art_.

The meta-question The Most Popular Artist is asking is this:  How will we inspire humanity to reach for the stars, become more universal, and transform the future using creativity, innovation, and entrepreneurship to positively impact current and future generations?

We must accept that the contemporary art world, much like Hollywood or Silicon Valley, is a star market; it's a market ripe for parody as-is the pop techno-optimism of the contemporary tech startup world. Brilliant "Unicorns" and tycoons in each world are deserving not only of our emulation and praise, but also our bold emulation, and our bold praise. It is known that The Most Popular Artist rides unicorns. Of this, it is well known. The Most Popular Artist's first spaceship is called _Space Unicorn 1_.

Like all works of art, the destiny of this artwork is you, and we — the readers, the artists, the curators, the patrons, the press, the tycoons and the critics as an ecosystem of interdependent being. Laissez-nous faire! Laissez faire et laissez passer, le monde va de lui même!

SpaceClaims.org is home to the gift shop for OUTER SPACE INSIDE. At SpaceClaims.org, anyone can buy space claims legally from The Most Popular Artist, and anyone can make a free claim and dedicate it to a Spaceship Earth cause.

Appropriating the entire cosmos so thoroughly such as The Most Popular Artist has done — through legal, cultural, and economic means, and then giving away and selling space claims on the Internet to mobilize resources for Spaceship Earth Art is bold to say the least, but can you really honestly say you didn't see this coming!?

Settle in my dear citizen — this is real life reality, this ain't no joke. This is art situated in the real world, in radical and forward-thinking ways.

This book is intended as the first artist publication of The Most Popular Artist that accompanies OUTER SPACE INSIDE. So first things first — it must be documented that he has projected positive mental vibrations onto you – the patron — and also onto this project. He believes the Universe wants this to happen, and he is simply a humble vehicle for its manifestation. When Richard Feynman said that the imagination of nature was greater than the imagination of man, he meant that if you just keep following the source of the divine creative truth, you'll likely transcend and include the imagination of nature, and the results will likely be even more magical than what you had at first imagined. So has been the case with this project.

Hopefully you will emanate your own blessings and share these positive vibrations for all of the other people who are participating in this project and through which you are now intimately connected. Hopefully this can be an integral space – art and life that unites us in the here and the now around the idea, the concept, the noetic object of what we might call the reconciliation of the "here and the now" with "the great beyond."

We are universe, universe is we. Together we will return the Universe to its rightful place at the center of the head and the heart of every child, woman, and man forever more. Let us bring the perpetual art machine online, and put it into service of human rights, sustainable development, and towards the peaceful prosperous and thriving Spaceship Earth!

The creative work detailed in this book is intended to present outer space and the great mysteries of the cosmos as being embedded within every single person, and hopefully this helps to nullify the calcified notion that the heavens are void of life. The Most Popular Artist wants to restore mindful spirit to art praxis.

This book details how this project has come to be in the last ten years, and expounds upon future developments. This book helps to contextualize the work and present it in an organized and formal way. This book, and this entire project, is nothing less than the expression of a dream.... the dream of The Most Popular Artist, and the dream of the Universe.

During his Fulbright Arts Fellowship, when considering how he might embed the Universal more deeply within the human psyche, The Most Popular Artist became convinced that he could indeed create a system capable of producing commodifiable space objects through art by enmeshing future objects with the real-time of embodied human activities.

However, it is only by The Most Popular Artist's willingness to incorporate the semiotics of entrepreneurship, technological innovation, creative destruction, complex systems design, advertising, and the Internet into art praxis that the artwork was able to develop as it has.

Your participation in this project means that you are daring mighty things — this is not a painting hanging in your local museum, this is an effort to free global culture from epistemological entrapment that leaves us bound and bobbing, ceaselessly borne into the past.

The Most Popular Artist hopes that by inspiring the metaphysical beyond, appropriating it, hacking it and selling it to benefit Spaceship Earth, that we can produce a unifying and peaceful embrace among every human being on Spaceship Earth, for the benefit of Spaceship Earth.

So, my dear patron, thank you! Thank you in advance for your further engagement with this project – please become a part of history and make your free space claim now at SpaceClaims.org and buy a hardcopy version of this book. The arts are nothing without patronage, and not only will you support the arts, but your actions are helping to leave a positive legacy for future generations.

Buying a hardcopy version of this book means you can pass down space claims to future generations. Buying a hardcopy version of the book is your ticket to the full experience of this art project, including participating further in the development of the SpaceClaims BlockChain Platform and The United Space Claims Institute.

After buying the book, you will become one of the first 1-million people in world history to become legally-recognized space claimants. This puts you in a select group. The first claims made will likely become the most valuable of all of the space claims in the universe for centuries to come.

After 1-million claims have been made, the pre-sale will end, the SpaceClaims BlockChain protocol and platform will be developed, and will go public in 2017, and your space claim will likely become exponentially more valuable as unique works of art.

Each space claim and space claim token comes with legal documentation that is validated and protected through international law, including legal authentication from governments, including the U.S. government. Your book purchase will include a deed and bill of sale from the original owner — The Most Popular Artist, including a SpaceClaims Token for accessing secure and private storage on the SpaceClaims BlockChain Platform.

This project, and this book, and your participation in this art project, represent a transformative and revolutionary historical act, and you can be sure that you are now the part of a larger work of contemporary art that purports to be of lasting historical significance. Art students will surely read about and reference this project in the future.

As you are hopefully starting to realize – this project is artwork in action and history in the making — a project with major implications for our mass society.

The mission of The Most Popular Artist has been to creatively and peacefully appropriate outer space inside out through art, culture, and commerce to save and transform Spaceship Earth, and thus far – it's working.

Every space claim will be recorded onto a universal deeds registry that is distributed and stewarded by a permanent NGO and perpetuated by an autonomous system of intelligent machines for millennia to come. The United Space Claims Institute will steward the development of the protocol and ensure the system can guarantee transparent chain of ownership, and the entire project will be operated transparently through democratic translateral public engagement.

This project is one of compression – it's compressing all of the Universe into a work of art, and compressing all of the human experience into the Universe. It is compressing art into the cultural economy, and the cultural economy into art. It is compression of The Most Popular Artist's art into his life, and his life into his art. This project is by far the most audacious of any creative or entrepreneurial venture that he has ever undertaken, and yet – it is the one of which he is the most certain.

The reason, is that this project did not come from him, but rather – it came through him, as an expression of the Universe. He is but a humble servant. He is grateful to serve as the steward of such a bold and inspiring project, but in the words of Nikola Tesla, "The gift of the imagination comes from the divine, and if we concentrate our minds on that truth. We become in tune with this great power."

The benefits born from peaceful outer space development in just the past decades include breakthroughs such as digital cameras, medical devices, communications, remote sensing, satellites, and even the jaws of life, and these continued efforts are clearly worthy of further public engagement and investment; but we believe the treasures of the heavens are inclusive of other treasures much more fundamental and universal. All humans throughout the ages from caveman to the age of the internet have found the magic of the stars — the magic of looking upwards into the infinite cosmos of wonderment and mystery and awe, and questioning our place in the universe. All of us are one with nature in every generation.

The purest of life's grand majestic mysteries is the outer space that is outside, inside and everywhere in between. After all, all art is experienced as an invitation to voyage into the cosmic hum of infinite regress.

Consider that this _art book_ is the embodiment of an infinite contradiction in a finite product just as this _art project_ is the embodiment of a perpetual art machine, designed to constantly provoke the Universe to express itself through the creative force and infinite mystery of the creative impulse within all of us. This creative impulse shines through the cultural, economic, and ecological realms. In this way the action of this artwork is enfolded toward infinite regress, as nature is the beginning and the end of art.

This art project is intended as a software patch for our modern moment, inspiring us all, together, to teach our inter-dependent ego the logic of its own consciousness. So let us focus now on the purity of the doing, the purity of the action in this artwork in which you are participating.

The Most Popular Artist desires to show us the way out of civilization and its discontents, but the way is both outward and inward, and it requires your active engagement. The way is towards an inclusively trans-spiritual, transpersonal, peaceful, uplifting and nature-based relationship to culture, the superstructure and the economic base. Transformational use of all, for the betterment of each.

Participating in this project has already begun, because by reading this book and registering your free and unique claim at SpaceClaims.org, you are helping to guide the positive evolution of the human race, on Earth and beyond through art. You are already a part of art history, and hopefully, as time goes by, you will become part of cultural and societal change for the better. It's likely that you are now officially a part of the most participatory work of art in history and the most valuable work of art in history. There is a real chance for this, for art to unite us in our humanness with the Universe!

Our translateral global culture is one where subjects desire and actually _expect_ to control objects more and more, and this urge is what the freedom to own property is all about, it's what technology is all about, and it's what art praxis is all about. This is why the U.N. has protected individual property rights in the Declaration of Human Rights. This is why the Secretary-General of the U.N. is urging artists and social entrepreneurs to use transformational technologies to empower individuals. These tendencies to exert agency over our fate are natural to our universal human striving and freedom as a species, and as a planet.

As an artistic service and conscious global citizen effort, this project is designed to change reality for the better, inside out, because as much as any ideology will attempt to occupy our mutual belief-systems, metaphysics cannot be occupied as much as some like to try. This art project serves to protect the fundamental freedom of expression, as well as to help defend the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights as well as the U.N.'s Sustainable Development Goals which bode well for transforming Spaceship Earth in the here and now. The Most Popular Artist seeks to adjust our contemporary ontological frame.

Let us remember that the human emotional behaviors such as mercy, empathy, or compassion were late to appear in the evolution of our species, yet evident in the play and care of their young of the higher mammals, including us humans. Similar to the will to plunder, compassion is an impulse launched from our eyes, our linear scanning eyes as Alan Watts called them, and our scan is not based on tribes but rather, it's viable among the whole range of living beings, and as such, this impulse speaks to a universal principle. Part of the fundamental principles of life and the cosmos seemingly involves the agency of _compassionate plundering_. Combining our natural tendency to plunder with our natural tendency to act compassionately is a key effort of The Most Popular Artist's work.

Some of you may be wondering why we believe that massive participation and public engagement is the best way to create this art project and express freely what we hope to express.

As Plotinus once said,

> _"Not all who perceive with eyes the sensible products of art are affected alike by the same object, but if they know it for the outward portrayal of an archetype subsisting in intuition, their hearts are shaken and they recapture memory of that Original."_

When you personally think back to your earliest memories of the stars...what emotion do you remember?

For The Most Popular Artist, naturalism is the beginning and the end of art, and being a student of the greatest of our art masters (especially their philosophical renderings) is one of the higher pursuits of contemporary masters. Therefore, this natural urge towards the compassionate plundering of nature is an homage to the artistic and philosophical masters of the past who have influenced so mightily.

The astronomical precession of the equinoxes has long served as the cosmic clock for our collective human civilization, at least by the end of the third millennium B.C. throughout the Nile valley, from the Aegean Sea to the Indus. At least this long, the stars have guided our collective inner-engineering. Like some great masterwork, inspiration from the stars has been a critical part of the history of humanity's transcendence regardless of time-period, location, or culture – and we can all wonder about the mysteries of the past, including massive pyramids in Guatemala and Egypt and elsewhere which were built to be perfectly aligned with the stars above. The stars are where our dreams and heroes and saviors dwell immortal in stories that outlast entire civilizations.

The stars unite us. When we grasp for them, we find magic and touch the mystery of the cosmic consciousness of the human spirit. Ladies and gentlemen, presented herein this art project is the universal hermetic theatre born anew – and we welcome you joyfully to the stage of life, and wish that our collective vision and collective actions will serve to expand the cosmic range!

The stars are spiritual mythology containers. In folk tales found common to all global cultures, religions, and societies – there exists a foundational concept which acknowledges the existence of "a universal" and "a local" in every single human culture to ever exist in recorded history. The Most Popular Artists loves attacking this notion from oblique angles, and this is a major aspect of this art project.

Ever since he was a kid, he's been curious about how big ideas are constantly impacting the creation of culture and history and art history. We all know that history is about storytelling, about mythmaking, and above all, we are all lifelong consumers of mythology. Myths are the software patches of our collective consciousness.

Partly for this appreciation of the performative arts, it's natural to see why The Most Popular Artist would prefer to alter art discourse directly; not by making a dent in the Universe, but by making a hole in the imaginary walls that separate us _from_ the Universe. This project represents this style of performativity.

Much gratitude is expressed for the historically diverse and inclusive tradition of "Conceptual Art" without which this project would not be possible. The Most Popular Artist is clearly following _Conceptual Arts'_ procedures of designation and contextualization, and seeks to universalize the tradition so as to both include it, and to transcend it for the perpetual here and now.

Truly this project is designed to question the process of validation in the art world – and thus question how art history is made, including how art is valued and sold into canonization. Naturally, The Most Popular Artist seeks to maximize and widen arts' constituency, and also perform a thesis – which is that art is social entrepreneurship, and social entrepreneurship is art. Therefore, the ultimate validation of this art project would come not from wide scale participation or positive impact, but rather might be more narrowly critiqued based on the ability of The Most Popular Artist to become a captain of creative industry — transforming himself through the artwork itself into a creative self-made art magnate asteroid mining tycoon. 

## **Overview of the Chapters**

Carl Sagan once said, "Extraordinary claims require exceptional evidence." It is for this reason that The Most Popular Artist was compelled to write this book to provide such rich evidence and to document accompanying proclamations and context. Liberating all outer space property and mineral rights in the universe is a responsibility not to be taken lightly.

In the next chapter you will read about the history of this project from a personal first-person account, and you'll learn about the people involved, including some of the backstory of The Most Popular Artist and his legal cohort.

In Chapter 4 you can see the official meta-claim documents photocopies that include document numbers for open records requests and the signatures of the Secretary of State and the Attorney General of the U.S. among others.

Chapter 5 includes a rich review about the ramifications of this project from a very objective point of view, including legal, cultural, and economic — those who are curious about legal doctrine should dive in there. Chapter 6 details some of the heart of this project (the socio-cosmograph), including SpaceClaims.org, the blockchain, the DAO, sustainable development goals and building the perpetual art machine that serves Spaceship Earth.

In Chapter 7 you'll find extensive writing by The Most Popular Artist offered as an exegesis for this project, including artistic justification, intent, and the precedence of the work within the art world context and situating the artwork through theory and sophisticated inquiry.

In Chapter 8 you can read more about The Most Popular Artist, and in Chapter 9 you have instructions for further participation.

The following bullet-points include some of the key points to note concerning this project, and are expounded upon in the coming chapters:

  * The Most Popular Artist wants to expand the idea of an exhibition and encourage a certain kind of global participatory production.
  * The Most Popular Artist wants to use this art to promote and mobilize resources for the SDGs and great works projects that benefit Spaceship Earth.
  * This artwork is intended as an infinitely inclusive and infinitely transcendent perpetual art-machine called the socio-cosmograph which successfully appropriates the observable universe into the realm of art, while also imbuing the observable universe with creative meaning.
  * The Most Popular Artist has positioned this work as both a question and an answer inasmuch as our questions are usually the answers, and our answers are usually the questions.
  * Many will comment on the connection to cognitive capitalism and the promoting power behind cultural producers and how they either exploit or are exploited globally, and The Most Popular Art is proud to bring wider attention to these issues.
  * The Most Popular Artist is following in the footsteps of so many legendary influences, including of course Siegelaub, Duchamp, Koons, Fletcher, Hirst, Klein, Huebler, Laurette, Matthieu, July, DeBord, Eno, Cage, George Lucas and many others.
  * The top 3 economic goals of this project include sustainability, growth, and positive impact. 
  * The top 3 cultural goals of this project include stewardship, transpersonal growth, and innovation.

# ******3. History of this Project – Decade in the making**

_"Great things are done by a series of small things brought together."_ ~ Vincent Van Gogh

This is the story of how a couple of normal dudes became the legal proprietors of the entire Observable Universe, including all of the space objects (including property and mineral rights) within it (including all of the stars, planets, exo-planets, and asteroids) – a claim that has been validated and authenticated in accordance with international space law by the U.S. government, including multiple Secretary of States and the Justice Department. Funny to think, it all started when The Most Popular Artist was 14 years old in the small town of Milton, Georgia, and none of it would be possible without a guy named Wes Faires who has become an expert on international space law through this project.

His first semester of High School, The Most Popular Artist took a video production elective class, and during the second week of school, the class was allowed to check out a camera and encouraged to go shoot video outside of class to complete the first production assignment. This is where The Most Popular Artist first met Wes Faires, the man who would later go on to successfully claim Orion's Belt, and the cohort without which OUTER SPACE INSIDE would have been impossible. It was the mid-1990s, in a suburb outside of Atlanta.

Producing a collaborative public art spectacle that inspires humanity to reach for the stars is one of those projects that doesn't happen overnight, and it's so audacious and bold that it takes an extreme amount of perseverance – but it's really serendipitous also. As a work of art, it is more than the sum of its parts.

Back in the 90s, the two men who would become the legal proprietors of the Universe didn't sit next to each other in that freshman video class, and the first time they actually got to know each other was in the second week of class, upon being released from class with a camera to make the first video project of the semester. They met in the giant storm sewer drain below Milton High School.

The Most Popular Artist was sad when he first arrived on the scene, learning that somebody else had also thought that this location would make for the best scene from which to build an entertaining story. It's amazing what lurks just below the surface of our human infrastructure – there's great opportunities to find in these dirty, grimy places. If you are willing to wade through some muck, you'll eventually find the diamonds. Both of these guys were thinking along the same lines.

They evolved in parallel. The never worked together on a video project the remainder of high school, but they both made amazing video projects and ended up taking the most video elective courses in the history of the high school. They never hung out in the same friend circles. The Most Popular Artist played on the football team, Wes was breaking school records in the poll-vault for the track team.

During football games Wes made a legend of himself to become one of the great rabble-rousers of the gridiron. He would paint his entire body, he would get others to paint their bodies, and when called by the football gods – he would hop the fence and run around the field to disrupt gameplay, only to be tackled by authorities to rousing cheers and boos, and then cheers again when tackled again.

They both found their own way into the early limelight. By the end of Junior year, The Most Popular Artist had used his knowledge and skills of propaganda production in order to become voted as the Student Body Vice-President through the use of strategically orchestrated mass media spectacles.

Throughout his campaign, every step of the way he was accused by administrators and teachers as going out of bounds with his aggressive (and effective) mass media campaigns. It didn't stop at sexual-innuendos on posters taped to the inside of the girl bathroom stalls, or the bravado displayed on the other posters in the boy's locker room walls, or the tongue-in-cheek "Think Brink" stickers plastered on every single locker at the school. This was his first taste of publicity production, and it seemed he had a knack for it.

He approached the campaign from every angle. It was a textbook political propaganda machine, backed up by theory and driven-home with ironic execution at scale (thanks to his brother Dean and small group of dedicated friends, his Dad's credit card, and a mountain bike to scoot around town making shit happen).

His favorite trick? It was that he never played badminton professionally, but most people at Milton High school thought he did. The reality is that he sometimes played in the intramural badminton team dressed in a Hawaiian shirt and acting crazy all the time on the court. With this nonsensical platform, The Most Popular Artist started planting stories that were read over the morning announcements alongside all of the other individual athletics accolades. Ian Dickinson was always winning cross-country, Wes Faires was always winning the poll-vault, and congratulations to Brinkley Warren who won the International Badminton Junior Championships in Seoul Korea this past weekend, making it the second straight global tournament win for Brinkley.

A key part of his SBVP campaign was that he made people believe he was a quirky international badminton champion – he wrote the part, he directed the lead, and he acted it out flawlessly, and documented it publicly, disseminating it as-if fact in the minds of the student body, and even his own teachers. To this day he doesn't have natural talent at badminton, but he plays hard and he comes to play.

One of the guys who counted the votes couldn't resist – he told that The Most Popular Artist 's victory for Student Body VP was the most overwhelming landslide vote in the history of counting votes at Milton High going back fifty years. The Most Popular Artist had never served in student government, not even as a junior-member – but he knew how to give the people what they wanted, and he had a nice story to tell for his college entrance exam essays.

By the Spring semester of his junior year in high school, he had gotten my first car, and he was feeling lucky. Before long his Dad gave him the career speech. The Most Popular Artist needed to get serious about what he wanted to do with the rest of his life. He told his dad his dream was to make movies. His Dad said Atlanta doesn't make movies. Atlanta just has Ted Turner.

So, The Most Popular Artist wrote a letter to Ted Turner through a connection his Dad had with a friend of a friend. The letter was received, and at a ripe age, he became the youngest person ever hired by CNN in Atlanta to produce the news. He worked under the Director of News Production, he got to shadow anyone he wanted and he ended up spending lots of his time either in the main control room – the nerve center of the ongoing live broadcast – or else with the Special Projects team who worked with the top in-house camera operators to make stories and packages that were more feature-oriented, pop cultural, or strategic long form content.

That was the first summer The Most Popular Artist ever worked with Bob Furnad, a legend in TV news. The Most Popular Artist got to edit on Avid and had to file away giant Beta Tapes as the entire system transitioned onto digital servers for the first time. He was there as the satellite feeds were getting cheaper, and something called FOX News was starting to have a real impact on the competition of the journalism industry, forcing CNN to turn towards more infotainment programming to plug in all the airspace.

Junior year The Most Popular Artist also became the lead EP and the host on his school-wide TV variety show – Milton Weekly — where he would cover the zany stories of Milton High School, including news, sports and features on interesting or noteworthy students. He took the job seriously, now in hot pursuit of a future career at one of the usual suspects of the late 1990s television — the Discovery Channel, or CNN, or Sportscenter, or Comedy Central, or MTV. Landing a gig at one of those places was the dream, a stepping-stone into movies or so he thought. If The Most Popular Artist had access to Youtube in high school, it's likely he would have become a YouTube celebrity and OUTER SPACE INSIDE wouldn't have come to fruition.

Having read the "Society of Spectacle" while working at CNN, The Most Popular Artist discovered his true zest was for comedy and disruption and people-powered stories benefiting positive impact. He made fake commercials advertising fake products which would air in between the news segments at high school – his creative homage to his true interests and taste. His love for art starting to emerge.

During these same years where The Most Popular Artist was moving towards a career in broadcast news, Wes was focused on videos that featured him wearing a box on his head and asking people to try to karate-kick it off his head, or painting graffiti on school property and then getting in fights over the content with the teacher. One of his more popular projects was simply him going to random phone booths and making prank phone calls to nearby establishments, and then immediately going from the phone booth to the establishment to get their reaction on camera. Needless to say – most of Wes's stories never made it to "air" school-wide.

In a strange cross-over, both men made their most notorious imprint on Milton high school heritage as sports journalists. Wes produced a story about the outdated equipment used by the track team and soccer team, and although it was hilarious – it led to brand new equipment for the athletic teams. The Most Popular Artist produced a story criticizing the new football coaching staff that took over his senior year – it started with a huge expose he wrote in the student newspaper (The Milton Squawk) which got passed out to teacher's mailboxes once per month. Turns out a lot of the players and parents felt the same way about the new coaching staff taking the team in the wrong direction, and the football coach promptly removed all of the school newspapers from teacher's boxes before homeroom and burned them – effectively admitting guilt and causing a student backlash that centered on freedom of speech (which ultimately The Most Popular Artist would lose because sadly, it was determined the State of Georgia has rule over student speech and student journalism produced with money from the state didn't qualify as true journalism). The Most Popular Artist zero, Power one. It was his first taste of censorship, and a lesson he wouldn't forget. Freedom of Expression and the protection of the arts and free speech is the cause to which The Most Popular Artist remains a staunch, non-partisan and proud champion.

Both Wes and The Most Popular Artist were always change makers attempting to use media to have fun, inspire people, and make an impact in the real world. It took their passion for sports journalism to bring that aspect of their abilities to the fore for the first time.

The Most Popular Artist didn't hang out with Wes after high school graduation. They didn't go to the same parties, and they didn't run in the same circles. Wes went off to University of Tennessee, The Most Popular Artist went off to University of Georgia. The annual Vols/Bulldogs tailgate is a popular haunt for these guys.

The next time The Most Popular Artist heard anything about Wes Faires was four years later, the year that Facebook came out. He saw someone post a TV news story that showed Wes, in a Hawaiian shirt, being interviewed on the news about having successfully claimed Orion's Belt, similar to how Dennis Hope had claimed the Moon in the 1980s and made millions by selling lunar property. The Most Popular Artist remembered seeing Dennis Hope on Conan, and now he saw his old pal Wes on TV too for claiming space property – something that didn't even seem possible.

The Most Popular Artist felt a spark of a fire coming alive on the inside. This was somehow connected to his destiny. Always the aspiring artist and entrepreneur, he saw the potential immediately – not for claiming specific constellations, but for democratizing and legitimizing the entire process for future generations in order to produce positive impact and hopefully generate lots of capital to fuel other worthy projects, and do all of this in the name of art and freedom, using the principles of art and freedom.

The Most Popular Artist began scheming on what could become perhaps the boldest public art project in the contemporary era, and from that day he set about making this dream a reality. – he re-connected with Wes, began collaboration, both of them have been working tirelessly the last years in pursuit of this bold idea, and tomorrow is the rest of history.

During the last decade, slowly but surely chugging away behind-the-scenes, this project which you're reading about now.... has steadily come to life.

In the years after the initial spark, Wes went off to law school in Scotland where he put together a customized curriculum for himself centered on outer space property law, and The Most Popular Artist went off to art school and started over ten ventures including non-profit and for-profit projects. He progressed his creative praxis, and he was awarded with several accolades, including a Fulbright in the category of the Creative & Performing Arts, a Computer World Gold Laureate, a global impact scholarship to Singularity University, and a top spot in Richard Branson's Extreme Tech Challenge.

This art project came from an idea, sparked by an idea, sparked by an idea, sparked by an idea – but throughout, The Most Popular Artist has been driven by this question: H _ow can he inspire humanity to reach for the stars, and benefit Spaceship Earth through art?_

His idea was to reposition and appropriate Wes's initial claim and to go beyond it so as to validate it cross-functionally, translaterally, and to open it up to everybody, but also to open it up to other dimensions beyond international law... The Most Popular Artist wanted to impact culture and society and economics too like transformational art does. With this work, he wanted to democratize outer space property and mineral rights claims, while also capitalizing on it enough to positively impact the future of humanity. He became committed to trying to produce the most valuable work of art in human history, by producing the most participatory work of art in human history.

In 2011, he won a global impact competition and spent the summer at NASA Ames Research Center in the heart of Silicon Valley as part of one of the first Global Solutions Programs at Singularity University — an educational think-tank launched by Dr. Peter Diamandis (Founder of XPRIZE and the asteroid mining company Planetary Resources) and Ray Kurzweil (legendary inventor genius, futurist, and head of engineering at Google). It's fair to say that his affiliation with Singularity University gave him the confidence and the community to get OUTER SPACE INSIDE and this whole project closer to the finish line. He first started drafting the meta-claim legal instrument around this time.

While at NASA, The Most Popular Artist started calling this idea of legally claiming the entire Universe in one fell swoop, the "Meta-Claim" idea. This is how he and Wes talked about it. The concept was that it would be a claim to the entire universe, which would then be subdivided and made available in a marketplace available to everyone living and yet to be born, from which a legally binding universal registry of deeds for outer space property ownership would be built to facilitate ongoing legal transfers of ownership using cryptographically-secured decentralized blockchain technologies.

The idea has been through countless iterations over multiple years – it has evolved in its scope and tactics to the point that there are multiple layers of meaning that have transformed the original idea again and again. Hopefully the project will become increasingly collaborative and autonomous.

The process of this art project has encountered countless mishaps and missteps along the way and the proprietors have jumped through countless legal hoops while wrapping their minds around the inconsistent and often ludicrous and sometimes shameless behaviors of stilted bureaucrats confused by international treaty law, or the jealous detractors and naysayers. It is with holy determination that they've manifested the legal validation and formal legal recognition that they have. Through the efforts of The Most Popular Artist , outer space is now ours. Like Eleazar, his hand is frozen to the sword of free expression.

During the last decade, The Most Popular Artist has had countless documents notarized, authenticated, and serviced at the county, state, federal, and international level. Their work has been heard and accepted at the United Nations, where the team was invited to represent the "private sector" before committee hearings – the first time in history that the U.N. has allowed any "private sector" outsider to preside over hearings related to outer space.

Around 2012, Wes began creating a series of test documents to figure out how to navigate the obscure legal system that would make the Meta-Claim (Chapter 4) part of the international legal canon, and make it air-tight. Most lawyers don't even understand this stuff – but since 2003, these guys have been learning this stuff. There are likely only ten people in the world who are as versed as Wes is in regards to international space law, and maybe less than ten.

During his Fulbright in New Zealand, The Most Popular Artist publicly executed his claim of the Southern Cross constellation (known as Te Punga, meaning the "great anchor of the sky" in Maori Polynesian tradition). He presented his claim at an art exhibition in Wellington, New Zealand, making it the first legal outer space property claim to go into the art canon. It was covered in the press, world experts in space law weighed in and agreed with the legality of the claim. During his presentation on opening night at the exhibition, The Most Popular Artist rented a police uniform and impersonated a Kiwi police officer – standing guard next to the gallery space to protect the claim against detractors — none came. It was received by those in the art world as a kind of Frankenstein project that blurred lines between Performance Art, installation art, media art, conceptual art, relational art, institutional critique, and appropriation art. The Most Popular Artist described it as "culture hacking."

After this test claim was validated both legally and culturally in 2012, the idea was to push quickly into executing the Meta-Claim to add economic validation into the fray, but alas, this most audacious step has been delayed, due in some part to funding. Much of the delay stemmed from the final piece of the puzzle – which was having the Justice Department and the Secretary of State validate the Meta-Claim and authenticate it for legal use abroad, meaning not only that the claim would be made legal in accordance with international law, but also that the claim would live on forever in the records of the National Archives. This step was critical, because authentication meant that a formal interpretation by the U.S.A. in accordance with U.N. Treaty Law. This took a lot of trial-and-error, lots of back and forth with different levels of government and different units of the federal government. After much trial and error, and after defending the legal precedent of their unique approach to the Meta-Claim, it was finally validated and authenticated during the final months of 2015 – officially making The Most Popular Artist and Wes Faires the legal proprietors of the entire observable universe and everything in it (including land and mineral rights) starting at 62 miles above the earth's surface, and out into infinity in all directions. After ten years and a spark for a zany art project — Zing! The Most Popular Artist owns the stars and now so can you!

Over the course of the last decade, these men have pursued their claim around the world in search for validation from the most competent legal authorities. They have correspondence with NASA, OSAT, The Secretary of State, the Justice Department, Library of Congress, State Governments, the United Nations, and other International bodies and have sought to comprehensively and undeniably test and validate our claim every step of the way without litigation. This process involved navigation of the uncharted waters of private individuals interacting directly within the arena of international treaty law concerning _territorial jurisdiction beyond national borders_ , and even involved engagement with the Legal Subcommittee on the U.N. Committee of Peaceful Uses of Outer Space – the source of space law – as a representative to the private sector....the first time in human history that a natural person has been able to represent humanity at such a high level of international governance of the cosmos, and setting the precedent for further public engagement and self-governance into the future. In Chapter 5 you can read more details about how The Most Popular Artist and his cohort navigated through the legal environment to make this project come to life. It's a detailed account of international legal doctrine.

The official date of the Meta-Claim document (documented in ch.4) was October 4th, 2014, although The Most Popular Artist was dreaming it up as early as 2004 and writing it in 2011. It was finally ratified and authenticated into international law on December 31, 2015. However, October 4th is a meaningful date because it's the first day of the annual World Space Week — the largest celebration of space on earth, a world-wide space education and outreach event created by the U.N. in 1999. It's also the date this book you are reading was released in 2016. This art project is designed to promote World Space Week celebrations into the future.

As expounded upon in Chapter 5, this entire project has benefited greatly from good timing — another signal that this is an idea whose time has come. If you can believe it, it just so happens that in November 2015 — one month before the Meta-Claim was authenticated by the U.S. government — a historic step was taken toward opening up the reaches of the solar system and beyond for humanity when President Obama signed the Commercial Space Launch Competitiveness Act.

Most importantly, this new law explicitly grants the right of U.S. citizens to explore, use, and own the materials extracted from asteroids and other space resources. This is huge, because it gives even further protection and validation to the Meta-Claim, and this entire project.

Under Title IV of the law, U.S. citizens are now entitled the explicit right to own resources extracted from space, such as water ice or platinum extracted from asteroids. These rights, in accordance with international law and treaties, were set to encourage the development of a space resource industry and a vibrant space economy as humanity expands its reach into the solar system.

The law requires the U.S. president to facilitate commercial exploration for and recovery of space resources, discourage government barriers to the development in the U.S. of space resource utilization industry, and promote the right of U.S. citizens to engage in the claim of ownership of space resources, free from harmful interference. Even the world's leading space law experts at the Europe-based international space law and policy organization, the International Institute of Space Law, acknowledged that the use of space resources is permitted. This is notable because this same group had previously argued against outer space property and mineral rights claims earlier in the decade. So even this most conservative of all space law groups is coming around to embracing private ownership of mineral rights claims off planet. To put it simply, the timing of this new U.S. law was perfect, and completely serendipitous.

Now herein, for the first time, you will find the official claim documents that prove beyond a doubt that The Most Popular Artist is the legal proprietor of the Observable Universe, which encompasses the entirety of outer space as we know it, and everything within it — including property and mineral rights claims to all asteroids and other space objects and all mineral rights on them – and with the explicit and exclusive right to subdivide and sell these claims using a commercial exchange structure. In terms of launching a new cryptocurrency, this means that the genesis transaction output has been secured and authenticated in accordance with international law.

This book you're reading now not only includes these historical foundational legal documents, but it also includes an artistic exegesis to help contextualize, expound upon, and extract meaning from what will hopefully become a significant contribution to the field of the creative and performing arts, and also to the future of humanity's cultural superstructure and economic base as we enter as a species into transmodernity.

# **4. The Meta-Claim Full Text — Art in and of itself**

"Some run. Some make _runways." ~_ Michael Jordan

On the next pages you'll find full-photocopied version of the legal documents that form the foundation of this entire project. After those images you can also read a plain text version so that it's easier to read. A deep explanation of legal doctrines is given in chapter 5.

Authentication of this document for legal use abroad serves as formal confirmation from the U.S. Secretary of State, under the Great Seal of the U.S.A, that the fundamental text of the underlying document — an assertion of a claim of property interest over a celestial body by a private entity — is NOT prohibited by treaty law. Had private property rights not been allowed by the Outer Space Treaty, (or any other treaty binding on the U.S.), the document would NOT have been authenticated. Had our claim and/or our plan to subdivide and sell it to the public not been allowed by domestic or international law, the document would NOT have been authenticated.

In addition, these documents have put into legal force the underlying contents of the document, and have been certified at multiple levels of government where the documents are also available through Open Records Laws.

Certifications of note:

  * Page 1 — Authentication Certificate (16013705-9)
  * Page 2 — DOJ Attorney General Certificate
  * Page 3 — Certified Federal District Court Seal on Intro Page
  * Page 4 — Georgia (Cherokee County) Certificate of Recording
  * Page 10-12 — Signature and Notary Verification Pages (Georgia and California)
  * Page 13-14 Federal Court Cover Sheet

### **Photocopied Authenticated Claim Documents (following pages)**

## **Plain Text Version of the Claim — Same as above but easier to read.**

**Notice of Intent to Preserve Property Interest and Mineral Rights**

 ****

**NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN** that the undersigned individuals, Mr. Brinkley Thomas Warren, a natural person residing at 950 Redwood Shores Pkwy, Unit L104, Redwood City, California within the United States of America, and also Mr. Charles Wesley Faires, a natural person residing at 2065 Country Ridge Road, Milton, Georgia within the United States of America, do have, own and claim to be the owners of undivided interest of all surface and subsurface mineral rights of any kind and nature, regardless of form or character, whether fugacious or non-fugacious, organic or inorganic, absolute or fractional, corporeal or incorporeal, including express or implied appurtenance surface rights, as well as to all extraterrestrial property and real estate situated _within the Observable Universe_ , whose identifying attributes, orbital elements, physical parameters classification and rights of the claim are fully described in section IV. The official date of this claim is October 4th, 2014.

**I. Applicable Legislation – 1967 Outer Space Treaty**

The fundamental text of this document is 'an assertion of a claim to property ownership interest executed by a "natural/juridical person", upon a celestial body. The territory designated in this instrument is outwith the jurisdiction of national borders – in this case, interplanetary space, two treaties overlap. The applicable legislation for the territory claimed is the _1967 Treaty on Principles Governing the Activities of States in the Exploration and Use of Outer Space, including the Moon and Other Celestial Bodies_ (henceforth, Outer Space Treaty).

A. 1979 Moon Agreement : Not Applicable

Bearing in mind the principle set forth in Article 34 of the Vienna Law of Treaties, that treaty does not create either obligations or rights for a third State without its consent: Neither the country of origin for this instrument (United States of America) nor the intended country of destination are bound (through ratification or accession) to the Agreement Governing the Activities of States on the Moon and Other Celestial Bodies (henceforth, Moon Agreement). _Therefore, adherence to the provisions of the Moon Agreement within the context of this document is NOT a salient issue._

B. Outer Space Treaty Article II – National Appropriation

Exercise of supreme territorial authority by States-Parties over territory in Outer Space was explicitly forbidden by Article II of the Outer Space Treaty, by the prohibition of 'national appropriation'. However, no direct provisions affecting a private individual's ability to claim property rights are included in the Treaty's text, as opposed to explicit language in other treaties affecting territory beyond national borders, which:

1. Prohibit any act of Assertion of a territorial claim

(Antarctic Treaty Art IV p2)

2. Exclude territory/resources from all property ownership

(Moon Agreement, Art.11 p3)

3. Forbid "natural persons" from appropriation/rights to minerals

(Law of the Sea Art137)

The assertion of a claim to property ownership interest upon a celestial body executed by a "natural/juridical person" within this instrument is NOT in violation of the Outer Space Treaty.

C. Outer Space Treaty Article VI – International Responsibility

Supervision/Authorization of Non-Governmental activities in Outer Space by State-Party, as required under Article VI of the Outer Space Treaty, takes place once this document receives necessary Authentication required for use abroad (also described in section II paragraph (b) of this instrument). Prior to Authenticating the instrument for international legal use, the document's contents are analyzed [22 C.F.R.131.2]. Authentication is granted upon confirmation that the fundamental underlying content of the document and the notarial act requested are not in violation of binding treaty law [22 C.F.R. 92.9]. Authentication affirms, on behalf of the United States, that the fundamental content of this Notice of Intent to Preserve Property Interest and Mineral Rights is not in violation of U.S. public policy or binding treaty law, specifically, The Outer Space Treaty.

**II. Method of Registration**

This Instrument may be publicly executed through channels available on local, state and federal levels, archived in a legally verifiable manner and presented to competent national and international authorities, in preparation for final archiving abroad. All activities will be undertaken in a manner consistent with obligations of the Outer Space Treaty for States-Parties, and non-governmental entities (individuals).

_**Note: The Outer Space Treaty forbids nations from appropriation, or executing any autonomous authority to territory in space; No certification on the national level may confer any form of title, or endorsement; rather, seals/stamps/signatures merely confirm execution of this instrument._

A. Local, State, and Federal Actions

In the interest of obtaining a physical time stamp and initial publication documenting the execution of the claim herein, one or more of the following options may be utilized for this instrument (in the U.S.A): County Registrar Records, State Archives, District Clerks of Courts, U.S. Copyright Office, and official legal publications serving local jurisdictions.

B. Authentication For Legal Use Abroad

Authentication of this document for legal use abroad, issued under seal and signature of U.S. Secretary of State, is a procedure required for foreign use of this instrument. As described in Section I, paragraph (c) of this instrument, underlying document content is analyzed against domestic, foreign and international treaty law prior to certification. Authentication granted for this instrument — an assertion of a claim of property interest executed by a private entity upon a celestial body — serves as confirmation that such a claim, in and of itself, is NOT patently unlawful, under the Outer Space Treaty, and execution of the certifications for foreign legal use by the U.S.A do not constitute national appropriation.

_*NOTE: The seal/signature of the Secretary of State confirms the document is treaty-compliant and fit for foreign legal use._

C. Intended Foreign Use

Record of the claim's publication and Authentication in compliance with the Outer Space Treaty shall be created in a foreign nation meeting these criteria:

1. Accepts instruments for legal use which have undergone Authentication in the United States

2. Has ratified/acceded to the Outer Space Treaty, but

3. Is _NOT a State-Party to the Moon Agreement,_ by accession or ratification

4. Offers, an avenue through which a public record of this instrument, including certifications, may be created and archived in some official capacity.

**III. Disclaimers**

A. Fundamental Underlying Text

1. Nothing in this document is to be construed as having any affect on

nationality, U.S. citizenship, nor shall any change in diplomatic status be assumed. No part of this instrument shall be interpreted to imply exemption from taxes or other obligations under U.S. jurisdiction.

B. Actions

1. No action in regards to this instrument's use abroad is intended within nations bound by the 1979 Moon Treaty via ratification or accession.

C. Implications

1 **.** No seal, stamp or signature may confer any form of title or validation for the text herein, nor shall any form of appropriation on the national level be assumed from any certification.

2. No endorsement will be implied on behalf of any nation for the context herein.

**IV. Astrometry – The Claim – Doctrines, Astrometry and Identifying Attributes, Orbital, Physical, and Classifications for Objects Claimed**

****

The claimants hereby claim the "Observable Universe" which consists of the galaxies, celestial territories and other matter that can, in principle, be observed from Earth in the present day because light and other signals from these objects has had time to reach the Earth since the beginning of the cosmological expansion. The Observable Universe, according to calculations includes all objects within 14.0 billion parsecs (about 45.7 billion light years), while the commoving distance to the edge of the observable universe is about 14.3 billion parsecs (about 46.6 billion light years). Therefore, the "Observable Universe" claimed herein may be defined by a spherical boundary that stretches out from the Earth in all directions and is currently estimated to be 93 billion light-years across.

Hereby claimed absolutely via this document ("the claim" and/or "this claim") is all extraterrestrial land and real estate property and mineral rights to any and all objects, including galaxies and superclusters, within the Observable Universe, including but not limited to all objects within 50 billion light years of Earth that are now known or unknown, and including all galaxies, Local Superclusters, the Virgo Supercluster, our Local Galactic Group, the Milky Way Galaxy, and all objects and land therein, including those within Earth's Solar Interstellar Neighborhood, and including but not limited to any and all galaxies, asteroids, stars, planets, voids and/or other celestial bodies therein. This claim represents a valid, undeniable and irrevocable legal declaration of absolute control and dominion over all property and extraterrestrial territory in the Observable Universe. This claim is legal and unconditional, and must not require that any other conditions be met such as action on the ground, movable property on the ground, visitation, or habitation. This claim shall be deemed legally immune from the doctrine of adverse possession, and the property claimed herein is not and never will be subject to future possession, rights, or usage through occupation or trespassing, and all such encroachment will be cause for legal action including injunction and equitable remedy. Neither this claim nor its claimants will be liable for any consequential, direct, indirect, punitive, exemplary, special or incidental damages arising from or relating to this claim or its use. This claim includes the right to create and maintain legal instruments for an exclusive, privately owned and operated, universal, perpetual, and legally-binding centralized deeds registry for outer space property and mineral rights claims to track legal ownership of extraterrestrial real estate and transactions of extraterrestrial property titles. This claim includes the right to subdivide, sell, and assign ownership of claimed extraterrestrial property rights to third parties using a legally binding commercial exchange structure. As the legal recorder of outer space property deeds, this claim gives effect to the principles of statutory, case, and common law in relation to outer space property rights and claims henceforth and evermore insofar as it relates to vested ownership in land and other real rights. The claimants will henceforth have the right to certify absolute ownership and certify transfer of title for all celestial properties located within the Observable Universe. This claim shall be enforceable through global laws, and if any part of this claim is found to be non-binding, invalid or unenforceable under applicable law, such part will be ineffective to the extent of such invalid or unenforceable part only, without affecting the remaining parts of this claim in any way. Whereas violation of property rights or extraterrestrial real estate ownership (including advertising the sale of non-certified claims of ownership that violate the claimants' official extraterrestrial deeds registry) may result in irreparable harm to the claimants for which damages alone would be an inadequate remedy and, therefore, in addition to their rights and remedies otherwise available at law, the claimants shall be entitled to seek to obtain equitable relief, including injunction, in the event of such breach. For the avoidance of doubt, the claim of ownership herein includes the entirety of the Observable Universe, and this includes but is not limited to all objects located within 1 billion light years of Earth, including within Superclusters with identifying attributes as follows:

Scientific definition of columns describing supercluster data above:

Column 1: Usual name for the supercluster if it has one.

Column 2: Right Ascension of the supercluster for epoch 2000.

Column 3: Declination of the supercluster for epoch 2000.

Column 4: Supergalactic longitude.

Column 5: Supergalactic latitude.

Column 6: The supercluster's redshift.

Column 7: Distance to the supercluster in millions of light years, assuming that the Hubble constant is 70 km/s/Mpc.

Column 8: Size of the supercluster in millions of light years. This is a rough figure based on the distribution of the Abell clusters in the supercluster.

Column 9: Constellation(s) in which the majority of the supercluster lies.

Column 10: All known Abell clusters that make up the supercluster.

**V. Conclusion**

 **Recalling the concepts expressed in the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 17:**

- _That everyone has the right to own property, alone or in association with others-_

 _-That no one shall ever be arbitrarily deprived of the right to property_

**Recognizing that the fundamental text of this instrument does not violate binding treaty law:**

 _-That the Outer Space Treaty does not prohibit the exercise of property in outer space, nor does it forbid natural persons from assertion of rights with regard to celestial bodies._

 **-** _That the Moon Agreement is not binding upon States non-party nations (Vienna Law of Treaties Article 34)_

Noting that this instrument is being executed in the interests of justice and public policy

- _To establish a favorable climate for property rights beyond national borders for private entities._

 _-To set precedent beneficial to forward progress for the expansion of mankind's off-planet ventures._

 _-To utilize available channels ensuring cooperation across private, national and international levels_

**KNOW BY ALL THESE PRESENTS :** Upon execution of this Notice of Intent to Preserve Property Interest and Mineral Rights we, Brinkley Thomas Warren and Charles Wesley Faires, the undersigned, hereby assert claim to sole ownership of all property and mineral interest described herein for the Observable Universe. No other party took place in the creation of this document. We affirm that this instrument was executed in the best interests of justice and public policy, that it was not created for the purpose of slandering title to property, and I am informed and believe that the information contained in this notice is true.

# **5. What does this mean?**

_"The known is finite, the unknown infinite; intellectually we stand on an islet in the midst of an illimitable ocean of inexplicability. Our business in every generation is to reclaim a little more land."_ ~ T.H. Huxley, 1887

No this is not a joke or a hoax, and in fact it's a federal offense for The Most Popular Artist to try and forge the documents or signatures upon which the Meta-Claim is based, and which you saw in the last chapter.

Indeed, the ramifications of this project stretch across the spheres of art, culture, economics, law, and politics. Many readers and participants are likely wondering how this came to be and may even be questioning the validity of the Meta-Claim — and this is understandable. Some others might be looking at Chapter 4 and be curious as to what exactly they're looking at when they see the great seal of the United States along with documents and seals from the Secretary of State and the Justice Department. This chapter will explain.

To assuage these inclinations, this chapter focuses on the validated legal aspects in terms of what this project means and what the documents in Chapter 4 mean, while also touching on some of the other ramifications.

The Outer Space Treaty of 1967 forbid _countries_ but not _people_ from acquiring property or mineral rights in space. The documentation in this chapter proves beyond a doubt that the execution of a claim to property ownership interest by a natural person upon a celestial body is not in violation of the Outer Space Treaty. Over the last ten years, and exhausting all possible options on local, state, federal and even the U.N. Level, The Most Popular Artist has obtained documentary evidence from the competent authority to render a legally binding decision – not an "administrative opinion" — on whether or not space claims are in violation of the outer space treaty — all without a single instance of litigation, meaning that if this entire project were approached as a form of activism — this could be said to be a 100% peaceful demonstration, without a single instance of violence.

While no authority exists to grant or deny title to property in space, there _is_ a legal channel whereby a claim of ownership to off-planet property can be tested and validated against the Outer Space Treaty framework, and authenticated for legal use abroad. Nations are responsible for implementing and upholding the Space Treaty with the other countries party to the treaty, and the Great Seal of the United States, including signatures from the Attorney General and Secretary of State would not have sanctified these documents if they were found to be invalid claim or in violation of treaty law, or domestic law.

The documents in Chapter 4 represent the highest form of certification that a legal document can receive in the United States, and prove that The Most Popular Artist and his cohort are the #1 real-estate moguls in the Universe, and with the exclusive right to sell legally validated space claims to the general public.

Objectively, this is a significant historical legal document and it has major implications across the range of human experience, including culturally, politically, and economically.

Legally it's historic because the documentation validates the fact that ownership of space claims by private individuals is allowed under U.N. Treaty Law (putting to rest 50 years of ambiguity), as these claim documents wouldn't have been authenticated for legal use abroad at the highest level of the U.S. government if they were found to be illegal or not valid. These documents provide proof and evidence that proves beyond legal doubt that The Most Popular Artist's claim of ownership is legal and validates that his economic and cultural usage of the claim is legal.

Economically, this project is historic because it's the first blockchain currency use-case based on real estate property and mineral rights claims. Through the generous and inspiring vision of The Most Popular Artist, SpaceClaims.org exists as a permanent marketplace for space claim sales and transfers, organized in a way that benefits global good works projects associated with sustainable development goals. Economically, this project represents a strategically valuable creative experiment into P2P economic systems, smart-property, and decentralized autonomous non-governmental organizations (DANGOs).

Politically, this project envisages a world in which every country and every individual has the right to own property and to invest in space claims in order to help sustain inclusive and sustainable economic growth, social development, environmental protection and the eradication of poverty and hunger, as well as the commercial exploration of outer space. This project is translateral, radically inclusive, innovative, creative, and serves as a democratizing, disruptive, and digitizing force that has positive implications for self-regulating democratic P2P organizations and their development into the future.

This project is guided by the purposes and the principles of the Charter of the United Nations, including full respect for international law. Great care has been taken by The Most Popular Artist to ensure that this project is grounded in the Universal Declaration of Human rights, international human rights treaties, the Space Treaty, the Millennium Declaration, the 2005 World Summit Outcome, the U.N. Agenda for Sustainable Development and other instruments such as the Declaration on the Right to Development. This project seeks broader public engagement in order to catalyze positive impact for current and future generations.

Culturally, this project is historic within the context of the creative and performing arts. All of Chapter 7 is dedicated to contextualizing the artwork critically and historically. OUTER SPACE INSIDE is expected to be the most valuable work of art in history, the most participatory work of art in history, and the most valuable art auction in history.

The Most Popular Artist believes in the 1947 Declaration of Human Rights which guarantees the inalienable human right for property ownership and for preventing arbitrary deprivation of property claims.

The Most Popular Artist believes in the unalienable right of free speech. Artistic expression is critical to culture, heritage, identity, and the relationships we all forge with each other and the world around us. Besides the extensive legal/policy work that The Most Popular Artist has accomplished to realize this artwork, it must be critically noted that this project, including the appropriation of all outer space property and mineral rights claims, and including the legal and economic aspects of the project — are part of an integrated, holistic, and transformational art project, and therefore deserve protection as a work of art in accordance with freedom of expression rights, including the First Amendment in the United States, and also Article 19 in the U.N.'s Declaration of Human Rights. If the U.N. where to seek to deprive this project of claims, it would be in violation of the Declaration of Human Rights in violation of the First Amendment. It would be an act of censorship, plain and simple.

This entire project serves as a radical reaffirmation for the right to freedom of expression which is enshrined in Article 19 of the ICCPR [International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights] and guaranteed to all without discrimination. The scope of Article 19 includes creative and artistic expression — as the ICCPR specifically addresses expression "in the form of art."

States Parties to the ICESCR [International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights] recognize the right, under Article 15, to participate in cultural life and benefit from the protection of interests resulting from one's artistic production. Under Article 27 of the UDHR [Universal Declaration of Human Rights], everyone has the right "to enjoy the arts."

The Most Popular Artist has taken bold steps to engage and empower the public to celebrate the arts via this project, and indeed it is a project that maximizes participation through radical public inclusion, and it is a project that represents the most valuable public art auction in world history. To shut down this project would be in direct violation of Article 27 of the UDHR and Article 15 of the ICESCR and Article 19 of the ICCPR.

In addition to being an integral aspect to the human right to freedom of expression, artistic expression is critical to the human spirit, the development of vibrant cultures, and the functioning of democratic societies. Artistic expression connects us all, transcending borders and barriers, and transcending the universe within, and the universe without. Artists are the great Sherpas of human consciousness.

Artistic expression can challenge us, indeed – it often intends to challenge us. Art can change the way we view the world, and how we accommodate our own values and belief systems, regardless of the culture. Art often helps to guide humanity towards greener pastures, for instance by highlighting the horrors of warfare, and inspiring collective action in the name of freedom and justice.

Art often helps to create solidarity against tyranny, violence, and repression. Art is both the barometer and sword of free speech and creative expression. OUTER SPACE INSIDE, in this rich tradition, offers a narrative of positive collective human potential, and unabashedly holds up the torch of human freedom and liberty.

Most of the free world agrees with protecting controversial artistic express. The following quote is from a joint statement prepared by 57 countries (including the U.S.A.) and delivered before the 30th U.N. Human Rights Council session in October of 2015:

> _"Those who suppress artistic expression fear its transformative effect. We have seen artistic expressions and creations come under attack because they convey specific messages and articulate symbolic values in a powerful way. There are many reasons used, wrongly, to silence artists, to quell their music, to hide their works from the world. Reasons for censorship may include the suppression of political dissent and of different values or beliefs. Artists in many parts of the world are facing threats, censorship, and violations of their human rights. We condemn such violations, which may include extrajudicial executions, attacks on their physical integrity and arbitrary detentions. We strongly believe that reactions to controversial artwork should be expressed not through violence but through dialogue and engagement that are based on the exercise of the rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly. States must protect against and ensure accountability for violations of the right to freedom of expression. We will continue to engage in the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of expression, including controversial artistic and creative expression, wherever it is threatened."_

The Most Popular Artist understands that despite his desire to produce an artwork and good works project that benefits all of humanity, there will inevitably be detractors and naysayers who will complain, criticize, and attempt to invalidate the claim legally or blindly call it a hoax or a scam. Inevitably, some will seek to censor this artwork, but together we can ensure that the torch of creative expression continues to shine on. Your participation means everything to this art project.

However, it must be acknowledged that the legality of the Meta-Claim is valid, authentic, and air-tight. It's an unprecedented legal document. What follows is a discussion about the historical legal precedents relating to this claim and this art project, including a legal recount of how this claim came to be, and explaining all of the ways that we know the Meta-Claim is real, legal, and in perfect harmony with international space law. It's important to acknowledge the work and efforts of Wes Faires, who has become an expert in international space law and outer space property and mineral rights claims because of this project. Without Wes Faires and his bulldogged determination, this project would not have been possible. 

## **Legal Precedent**

For nearly half a century, the ambiguity surrounding the legality of private property rights under the Outer Space Treaty has hindered forward progress in space commercialization...until now.

This art project involved The Most Popular Artist seeking formal interpretation of the Outer Space Treaty to determine if private property rights in outer space are legally allowed – something that had never been done in the 45+ year history of the Outer Space Treaty. He determined that property and mineral rights claims are indeed legally allowed, and as a result of his pioneering work – he is now the legal proprietor of all outer space property and mineral rights claims in the entire Universe.

The Most Popular Artist took on the role of an intergalactic diplomat, and his tradecraft utilized an adaptive array of administrative and legal policy activities over the course of ten years, and the results of his stagecraft thus far include the following:

  1. His work has rendered a formal determination proving that assertion by a natural person to property rights upon a celestial body situated in territory beyond Earthly and National borders is indeed lawful under binding international treaty law.
  2. His work has rendered an official legal decision from the competent administrative organ, resulting in the clarification of outer space property rights after 50 years of U.N. legislation.
  3. He has tested a private property claim in Outer Space directly against the 1967 Outer Space Treaty, to force interpretation, navigating through the appropriate avenues, and to do so without litigation. 
  4. He has achieved legal force, legal precedence, artistic salience, and economic authority to OUTER SPACE INSIDE, The United Space Claims Institute, SpaceClaims.org, the SpaceClaims Blockchain Platform. 
  5. He validated his legal right to subdivide and sell space claims to the general public and host a universal deeds registry for outer space property and mineral rights claims, legally binding but independent of any government party.

If you're thinking to yourself that this can't be the first time somebody has tried to claim space, you're absolutely right. Claims to celestial bodies have been attempted for millennia (see chapter 7 for a list) – but the most important thing to remember is that none of these previous claims has been recognized by customary law – and indeed, no single outer space property or mineral rights claim has been recognized under full authority of international law — until now. Furthermore, The Most Popular Artist is the first individual to make an off property mineral rights claim as part of an art project.

The Outer Space Treaty of 1967, signed by a majority of the nations of Earth, is the primary governing instrument concerning space law for human society. Article 2 states that outer space shall not be subject to national appropriation, thus forbidding nations from extending their borders outside of Earth or claiming outer space property and mineral rights. This does not, however rule out the possibility of a private citizen executing property claims in space. In fact, The Declaration of Human Rights guarantees right to property, and prevents any government, inter-governmental body, institution or individual from arbitrarily depriving someone of property.

In accordance with the Space Treaty, there can be no centralized governing body for managing off planet property claims and mineral rights managed or maintained by governments, because nations do not have any legal agency to manage such claims, as doing so would be in violation of international law as defined by the Outer Space Treaty, the Declaration of Human Rights, and several other legal ordinances. However, it is completely feasible for there to exist a privately owned, de-centralized governing body comprised of natural persons for the management of off planet property claims and mineral rights. Indeed, it is this form of system which embodies this art project.

For nearly half a century, the ambiguity of the legality of private property rights under the Outer Space Treaty has hindered forward progress in space commercialization, and with interest in private ventures at an all-time high with firms like Planetary Resources and Space-X and Blue Origin vying to make history, it was time to help us all move forward. To this end, The Most Popular Artist has liberated the cosmic kingdom for we the peoples, including the innovative entrepreneurs and bold creative thinkers of our age.

The documentation within this book, and the body of work associated with this art project showcase a formal determination of the status of private property rights in Outer Space under the current U.N. treaty system – for the first time in history.

To accomplish this feat, it required that The Most Popular Artist and his cohort enter into the international legal arena of territorial jurisdiction beyond national borders, where private citizens and treaty law intersect. To say the least, this is a complex environment.

The process to get a formal determination and recognition of the Meta-Claim required a lot of trial and error, and involved multiple smaller space claims being made prior to claiming the entire Universe – these smaller claims (not documented in this book) helped to test different legal methodologies and policy pathways. Therefore it's important to note that the documents photocopied in Chapter 4 are not inclusive of the entire legal body of work of this artwork, but rather, the photocopied "Meta-Claim" documents in Chapter 4 should be viewed as the crown jewel of the project – not the keystone – and are representative of over ten years of legal work and discovery, and represent a comprehensive claim of all outer space property and mineral rights, except celestial bodies already claimed by The Most Popular Artist and his cohort through the same process earlier.

Indeed, they have received formal clarification and hold authenticated space claim documents certified by the past three U.S. secretaries of state (from both political parties) verifying that private property claims do not inherently violate the Outer Space Treaty, thereby affirming that individual property rights and claims are legal under the current treaty framework. For instance, one of these smaller test claims from 2012 involved The Most Popular Artist claiming the Southern Cross constellation while on a Fulbright Arts Fellowship in New Zealand, and this was exhibited as art and documented in news media.

In the following paragraphs, you'll learn how The Most Popular Artist and his cohort went about establishing and legalizing the Meta-Claim.

Since there was no entity to "grant" a legal title nor "deny" space claims, focus shifted to obtaining recognition of the claim itself by getting it placed on file with local, national and international entities in order to protect it and canonize it legally. What ensued was an intense journey of signatures, placement in archives and certified letters to and from governmental institutions confirming receipt of the claim, and lack of jurisdiction on the matter. It was a process of bureaucratic jockeying and getting the run around and facing inconsistent policy behaviors and jumping through hoop after hoop after hoop.

After dreaming up and authoring the "Meta-Claim" document and thus claiming ownership of all outer space property and mineral rights in the universe with the right to sell the property to the public, The Most Popular Artist had it notarized, and shipped it to his legal cohort in Washington D.C.

Notarization makes it a legal document in the U.S. After that, The Most Popular Artist went around to a variety of city, county, and state government buildings and asked the register of deeds departments to file it as an affidavit. In the U.S., it is the state government rather than federal that deals with filing land claims, and with this action the claim is officially recorded with a government entity. The Most Popular Artist and his cohort have done this at multiple state levels, including California, New York, Georgia, Colorado and others. Filing with multiple states was not required, but was done as a form of testing different methodologies, and backing up the claims for redundancy.

Next, the effort turned to the national level. The Most Popular Artist ensured federal copyright protection, preventing anyone from reproducing the claim. This process also places a copy of the claim in the U.S. library of congress. Thanks to the World Intellectual Property Organization, The Universal Copyright Convention, and The Berne Convention, protection of copyrights granted in one country are enforced within all member nations.

However, even though these filings established the claim and put it on public record, none of these filings substantiate a formal determination in regards to U.N. Treaty Law. Discovering the appropriate approach to acquire this formal determination took a lot of time and effort.

It's important to note that over the last few decades there's been a fair amount of confusion and ambiguity about the legality of space claims by individuals and natural persons in accordance with the Space Treaty.

For instance, the Europe-based International Institute of Space Law has released multiple draft board statements over the years with the sole purpose of promoting an interpretation of the Space Treaty that is unfavorable toward property claims. In their typical argument, they contend that private ownership by natural persons is impossible without a territorial sovereign functioning to convey such ownership, and because activities of non-governmental entities are "national activities," they interpret _natural persons_ to be mere sub-national entities. The fact is, this argument has been proven null and void through the work of The Most Popular Artist and his cohort. The argument of some lawyers is that the rights of natural persons must be conferred upon them by their national government – and this argument by the way, seems to ignore the Declaration of Human Rights. Their argument is that because your nation cannot attain title to a space property claim, it has none to pass down to you, and thus rendering private property rights impossible. The documentation in this book invalidates this argument at the very highest level of international law. To be fair, as mentioned in the beginning of this book, the IISL has evolved their position in recent times to become more favorable to mineral rights claims by natural persons, and especially after the 2015 Commercial Space Launch Competitiveness Act was signed into law by President Obama.

However, it's understandable that people will continue to bring up this argument because it can be confusing. In fact, there's even some ambiguity about the linguistics of the term _ownership_ in the traditional sense in regards to ownership by natural persons. To be clear, it's true that property claims passed down through the national level are indeed precluded by law – there is no doubt about this. No governmental authority can bang a gavel and "grant" property rights or mineral claims without being set up to do so, but the law prevents any governmental authority from doing so, and so because no such institutional agency exists on a national level, no property rights can be obtained via any action made by a government or inter-governmental body. Again, the documentation in this book along with the body of work conducted by The Most Popular Artist and his cohort invalidates these arguments absolutely. The truth of the matter, in terms of international and domestic law is concerned in this situation, the outer space property and mineral rights claims of The Most Popular Artist and his cohort cannot be denied, legally, by any international body including governmental and intergovernmental. This, is a very unique situation.

According to international law, States party to a treaty are under a duty to implement the terms of that treaty within their national legal systems, and our documentation proves that our claim is in accord with not only U.N. Treaty Law, but also U.S. Law, otherwise the Secretary of State and the Justice Department wouldn't have authenticated claims documents multiple times over the last decade on behalf of The Most Popular Artist and his cohort. The truth is that the concept of property rights has been rendered to be NOT _patently unlawful_ within the bounds of the Outer Space Treaty.

Analysis of the scope of "national appropriation" outlawed in the Outer Space Treaty requires a comparison of its execution within all United Nations treaties on Outer Space. As detractors and naysayers claim, national appropriation trickles down to individuals, but we can see this is simply not the case.

Specific attention to the wording of the framework was needed to deduce the legal implications. Instead of looking at what the Outer Space Treaty _doesn't say,_ you can look at what other similar treaties _do say,_ that the Outer Space Treaty _could have said,_ but didn't.

This analysis demonstrates that the Outer Space Treaty doesn't prevent appropriation of property and/or mineral rights claims by natural persons, but that other similar treaties do prevent such appropriation. We can see that the Outer Space Treaty was designed to empower, rather than stifle, outer space property and mineral rights and claims by individuals in accordance with the Declaration of Human Rights.

The 1982 U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea states that, "No state or Natural or juridical persons shall claim or appropriate any part of the Area claim, acquire or exercise rights with respect to the minerals recovered from the Area..." (Article 137).

Here we learn that there is a legal term within the U.N. Treaty System to apply treaty provisions directly to private individuals. That term is "natural person" (aka 'juridical person'), and in some treaties, they are expressly prohibited from appropriation or even making claims to mineral interest. There is no such language in the Outer Space Treaty.

Unlike the Law of the Sea Treaty, where "natural persons" are forbidden from appropriation of the Deep Sea Bed, including claims and exercise of rights with respect to minerals – however, these claims are not expressly prohibited by the Outer Space Treaty.

Likewise, unlike the Antarctic Treaty, which forbids the act of asserting any new claim in the Antarctic region, the act of a private individual asserting a space claim is not prohibited by the Outer Space Treaty.

The 1979 Moon Treaty is a terrible piece of legislation – and even though it has not been and likely never will be ratified into law – it deserves closer inspection to help drive this legal point home. The Moon Treaty says that, "The moon is not subject to national appropriation by any claim of sovereignty, by means of use or occupation, or by any other means." (Article XI, Paragraph 2).

This is the exact same clause prohibiting "national appropriation" as found in Article II of the Outer Space Treaty (replacing the words "Outer Space" with "The Moon").

The Moon Treaty, however, goes further when it says, "Neither the surface nor the subsurface of the moon, nor any part thereof or natural resources in place, shall become property of any State, international intergovernmental or non-governmental organization, national organization or non-governmental entity or of any natural person..." (Article XI, Paragraph 3).

So in this example we find the prohibition of property rights for natural persons _unattached_ to the provision related to "national appropriation," within an entirely separate clause of the Moon Agreement. This proves that national appropriation and private appropriation are different concepts, and are treated separately in treaty legislation, and it's therefore not the case that limits on national appropriation trickles down to natural persons. In fact, they are separate clauses within the Moon Treaty, and thus this fact invalidates the argument by some naysayers who interpret the Outer Space Treaty to mean that national appropriation "trickles-down" to private individuals and prevents appropriation of any kind. This form of trickle-down interpretation would also be a violation of the Declaration of Human Rights anyways.

Analyzing treaty law makes it crystal clear that "National Appropriation" in the Outer Space Treaty cannot logically be assumed to automatically apply to property rights for "natural persons."

The Most Popular Artist decided to flip the argument in order to achieve a formal determination of the law by asking the question, "Does my claim of ownership to all outer space property and mineral rights claims a private citizen, in and of itself, constitute a violation of the Outer Space Treaty?"

If the answer was yes, then this project wouldn't have continued and likely wouldn't exist today. However, it has been demonstrated through the tradecraft of The Most Popular and his cohort that the answer is 'no' – property claims by natural persons are NOT in violation of treaty law.

The documents in Chapter 4 prove that the Meta-Claim is not patently unlawful under the Outer Space Treaty, as opposed to other similar treaties pertaining to territory situated outside of national borders where the claim would be precluded. This makes legal sense, as we have seen, each of those other treaties (Antarctic, Law of the Sea, Moon) contain specific clauses prohibiting some aspect of assertion of claims to property and mineral rights with respect to territory beyond national borders by natural persons, whereas the Outer Space Treaty doesn't.

Evidenced by the execution of the definition within the U.N. Treaties on Outer Space, there is a clearly defined separation of private citizens and property rights from legislation concerning national appropriation.

So now that you're all caught up on treaty law, the following section describes how The Most Popular Artist successfully claimed the entire Universe to ensure legal validation and canonization into international law to protect the genesis transaction output of the SpaceClaims Blockchain Platform.

## **Treaty Interpretation through Authentication**

After exhaustive search for a competent authority to validate our claim revealed nothing, The Most Popular Artist and his cohort discovered a legal administrative process by which the claim could indeed be tested and validated by governments that are party to the Space Treaty, while also operationalizing the contents of the Meta-Claim into international law. This process has different practices in each nation, but in the U.S., this process is called "authentication for legal use abroad." Discovery of this obscure administrative process within the federal government ended up becoming the rabbit out of the hat, but it took a lot of time and effort to get it done.

Legalization of a document for foreign use requires a series of certifications – the notary public's signature is certified by the county clerk, the county clerk's seal is authenticated by the secretary of state (ex: California) then sent for certification to the attorney general, and finally _that_ document is authenticated by the U.S. Secretary of State in D.C. (Authentications Office – Department of State). It is this process that ultimately validated the legality of The Most Popular Artist's space claims herein.

Authentication is the certification process through which legal documents originating within the U.S. and intended for use abroad must undergo in order to be recognized as a legal instrument abroad, in accord with international legal doctrine, and with the legal stamp of approval of the Great Seal of the United States Government.

Their was a key _aha moment_ when The Most Popular Artist and his cohort discovered that the U.S. legal code states the following: " _Before Authentication is granted, it is the responsibility of the Department of State to analyze the fundamental text of the underlying document presented for Authentication [22 CFR 131.2]. If any aspect of the underlying document is found to be patently unlawful, the document will not be Authenticated [22 CFR 92.9(a)]. The Department is also responsible for ensuring the act of Authentication take place in compliance with international treaty law [22 CFR 92.4(a)]."_

As you can see, the authentication for legal use abroad process requires strict oversight, including verification of the underlying seals as well as analysis of the fundamental contents of the underlying document to ensure that the contents are legal, and in accordance with international treaty law.

In addition, the policy states in 22 CFR 131.2: " _The regulation also provides that an authentication officer shall request such additional information as may be necessary to establish that the requested authentication will serve the interests of justice and is not contrary to public policy."_

For a document to be issued under the Great Seal of the U.S.A., the office of authentications is responsible for:

  1. Ensuring the legal instrument has passed through the appropriate channels, and
  2. Analyzing the contents of the fundamental underlying document against domestic, foreign and international law, to ensure it does not conflict. If the document contains unlawful statements, or if there is a potential for damage to U.S. interest implied within its text, the Office of Authentications will reject the document. [7 FAM 834; 22 CFR PART 131]

The fact that the contents of the documents are analyzed and compared to foreign law meanst that the U.S. is responsible for issuing a decision that would be upheld by other countries party to the Outer Space Treaty. If the Meta-Claim could be legally authenticated in one country party to the Outer Space Treaty, it would receive the same treatment in all countries party to the Outer Space Treaty and with the same results. Indeed, this has proven true.

If "national appropriation" (forbidden by the Outer Space Treaty) was meant to somehow forbid private citizens from property claims, then The Most Popular Artist wouldn't have been able to obtain formal recognition of the legal validity of any space claim documents from the U.S. and other governments. The Meta-Claim proves that claim of ownership to a celestial body by a private individual is not in direct violation of the 1967 Outer Space Treaty. If any provision of the Outer Space Treaty was being compromised, the Meta-Claim document would not have been authenticated in the U.S. or in other countries.

To be clear, document in Chapter 4 would NOT have been authenticated if:

  1. The Outer Space Treaty was interpreted to exclude "natural persons" from claims or exercise of rights.
  2. The Outer Space Treaty was interpreted to exclude the entire concept of property rights upon celestial bodies.
  3. The issuance by the U.S.A of certification for legal use abroad was interpreted as a form of "national appropriation." 
  4. The Meta-Claim as not a valid claim of ownership for found to have any content in violation of domestic or foreign laws.

Through the act of authenticating the document for international legal use, the U.S. government upholds its responsibility to the international community for authorization of the activities of non- governmental activities, as the document's contents are tested for conformity with all relevant treaties to which the U.S. is a State Party. The Great Seal of the United States and the signatures of the Secretary of State and the Attorney General serve as "Administrative" and legally binding, reflecting the position of the U.S.A. as a whole.

This is important to note. Nations are bound by treaty law to ensure implementation and interpretation of international law takes place with the corresponding interests of States-Parties to the Outer Space Treaty, and this means the U.S. would not take any action that another country wouldn't take. Between the Secretary of State, the Authentications Department, the Justice Department, NASA, OES/SAT, and COPUOS among others... the U.S. would not have made any "ostracizing" move with the handling of the claim documents that The Most Popular Artist and his cohort have been testing for the better part of the last six years.

The Most Popular Artist and his legal cohort experimented with hundreds of legal documents in order to test the legal processes, the legal language used in documents, and the authentication infrastructure not only of the U.S., but other governments also. Countless claim documents were rejected by the Secretary of State, and required that other departments of the U.S. government get involved, including the Justice Department, the Library of Congress, and even the Bureau of Oceans before finally learning how to craft the document so as to be in conformity with very obscure laws and legal codes. It was persistence through this process that ultimately led to authentication of the Meta-Claim on December 31, 2015.

It took a lot of trial and error, a lot of persistence, and spending a lot of time in Washington D.C. in order to expedite document handling, but after much effort, what began as a dream – had turned into a reality.

The Meta-Claim documentation proves beyond a doubt that lawful execution of an outer space property claim does not violate the Outer Space Treaty, and thus provides a formal confirmation (binding, not administrative) being issued by the U.S. Secretary of State in accordance with U.N. Treaty Law, which canonized our claim into the history books, and forged a new international legal doctrine to the benefit of all of humankind.

This alone is of major historical significance. Through this project, we have the answer to a 50-year-old question of the legality of off-planet property rights for private entities has been provided via a formal legal decision that has been directly issued by the administrative authority with the capacity to issue formal determination on whether such a property claim by a private entity is in violation or compliance with the Outer Space Treaty of 1967. That determination, is that our claim is valid and in compliance.

Surprisingly, there has only been one court case relating to space property in the U.S., which happened when Greg Nemitz, a space activist, said he claimed the asteroid Eros and then sent NASA a bill for parking fees when NASA landed the NEAR-Shoemaker probe on Eros in 2001. The U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals dismissed the suit because Nemitz was unable to prove actual ownership rights for Eros because he didn't have authenticated legal documentation of the claim in accordance with U.N. Treaty Law. The Most Popular Artist prides himself in diplomacy, and he and his cohort have never used litigation as a tactic, and have gone out of their way to embrace justice and peace while refusing violence or violent legal acts (i.e., lawsuits). Their body of work represents an innovative and elegant translateral framework for space resources utilization that is both facilitated by and protected by international law.

Finally, it must be said that The Most Popular Artist and this project have benefited greatly from good timing, and their actions were aligned with the overall zeitgeist.

In November 2015 — one month before the Meta-Claim to all outer space property and mineral rights was authenticated by the U.S. government — a historic step was taken toward opening up the reaches of the solar system for humanity when President Obama signed the Commercial Space Launch Competitiveness Act (H.R. 2262).

Most importantly, this law explicitly grants the right of U.S. citizens to explore, use, and own the materials extracted from asteroids and other space resources. So if all of the legal documentation provided in this chapter wasn't enough — which legally speaking, it is — now we have further confirmation from Uncle Sam and the international community that this entire project is valid.

Under Title IV of the law, U.S. citizens are now entitled the explicit right to own resources extracted from space, such as water ice or platinum from asteroids. These rights, in accordance with international law and treaties, were set to encourage the development of a space resource industry and a vibrant space economy as humanity expands its reach into the solar system.

The law requires the U.S. president to facilitate commercial exploration for and recovery of space resources, discourage government barriers to the development in the U.S. of space resource utilization industries, and to promote the right of U.S. citizens to engage in the ownership of space resources, free from harmful interference.

The Act determines in § 51303 that United States citizens engaged in commercial recovery of an asteroid resource or a space resource under this chapter "shall be entitled to any asteroid resource or space resource obtained, including to possess, own, transport, use and sell the asteroid resource or space resource obtained in accordance with applicable law, including the international obligations of the United States."

In addition, the law goes out of its way to include a disclaimer as to the notion of sovereignty over extraterrestrial real estate and property rights. In section 403 the law states:

> _"It is the sense of Congress that by the enactment of this Act, the_ _United States does not thereby assert sovereignty or sovereign or_ _exclusive rights or jurisdiction over, or the ownership of, any_ _celestial body. (403)"_

Even the world's leading space law experts at the Europe-based international space law and policy organization, the International Institute of Space Law, acknowledged that the use of space resources is permitted. This is notable because this same group had previously argued against outer space property and mineral rights claims earlier in the decade, but in a position paper released on December 20th, 2015 the IISL states:

> _"Therefore, in view of the absence of a clear prohibition of the taking of resources in the Outer Space Treaty one can conclude that the use of space resources is permitted. Viewed from this perspective, the new United States Act is a possible interpretation of the Outer Space Treaty."_

Another recent happening is that in the wake of the U.S. Law, other countries have become more interested in the multi-trillion-dollar market potential of space claims and mineral rights and asteroid mining. For instance, the country of Luxembourg has announced their desire to build a hub for asteroid mining companies there, and the UAE has announced similar ambitions.

It's critical to note that NO country, NO government, NO inter-governmental body — can offer to regulate asteroid mining or have anything to do with oversight of asteroid mining licenses or mineral rights claims in near Earth objects. This is against international law, as we have seen the Outer Space Treaty prevents government sovereignty over property and mineral rights claims. In addition, it's important to point out the benefits of having a decentralized system as opposed to a centralized system. Asteroid mining, like most outer space ventures, is a data-intensive activity. As opposed to centralizing data and data processing, the SpaceClaims Blockchain serves to decentralize it, making outer space a resource for all of the peoples of the world as opposed to centralizing data, influence, power, and the wealth to be generated from space claims into a single country or worse — a wild west scenario with different countries all vying to operate unilaterally or multilaterally with their own agenda. This is exactly the form of risky, outdated, inefficient, centralized, vulnerable, corrupt, and elitist governance that blockchain helps us to avoid. Unlike any governmental policy approach, the SpaceClaims Blockchain ensures the consent of the governed, not the control of the governed — it ensures that outer space is being managed in peaceful ways, and based in larger freedom. It ensures transparency, open access, radical inclusion, democratic-values, distributed decision-making, and distributed accountability.

In summary, over the last decade, The Most Popular Artist set out to determine first hand whether the assertion of the right to property by a natural person upon a celestial body was legally allowed by the Outer Space Treaty of 1967, and if he could claim all property in space, subdivide it, and sell it using a commercial exchange structure. The answer is 'yes' to all of these – the Meta-Claim has been demonstrated and tested and proven to be a legally validated and authenticated claim in accordance with international law. The authenticated documents in this book (also available through public open records laws) serve as formal confirmation, directly from the appropriate source, on the legality of off-planet property claims within the existing legislative framework, laying to rest the half-century old debate, and making The Most Popular Artist the leading real-estate owner in the Universe and the leading asteroid miner in the Universe and arguably, a space startup tycoon to be reckoned with. 

# **6 — Building the Perpetual Art Machine (Blueprints for the Socio-Cosmograph)**

_"You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete."_ ~Buckminster Fuller

_"I consider a work of art as a product of calculations, calculations that are frequently unknown to the author himself."_ ~ Pablo Picasso

In the sections that follow, the activities involved in producing OUTER SPACE INSIDE and all of the various components are reviewed.

The Most Popular Artist discusses the idea of building a "Socio-Cosmograph" through this artwork that exists permanently as a perpetual art machine. This requires a wide array of activities for the project.

Throughout this chapter, the various activities of creative production related to OUTER SPACE INSIDE are unpacked, including:

  * The Socio-Cosmograph as Perpetual Art Machine
  * Examining Blockchains and Smart Property, oh my!
  * The SpaceClaims Blockchain Platform as Universal Deeds Registry 
  * The United Space Claims Institute 
  * SpaceClaims.org
  * Ongoing creative activities

### **The Socio-Cosmograph**

_"We do not ask for what useful purpose the birds do sing, for song is their pleasure since they were created for singing. Similarly, we ought not to ask why the human mind troubles to fathom the secrets of the heavens. The diversity of the phenomena of nature is so great and the treasures hidden in the heavens so rich precisely in order that the human mind shall never be lacking in fresh nourishment."_ ~ Johannes Kepler, _Mysterium Cosmographicum_ , 1596

" _I thank you because you are the first one, and practically the only one, to have complete faith in my assertions."_ ~ Galileo Galilei, in a letter to Johannes Kepler, 1610

OUTER SPACE INSIDE is designed to establish a perpetual art machine — what The Most Popular Artist calls a _Socio-Cosmograph_ — whereby communal life is interpenetrated through ceremonies of investiture, pedagogic initiations, festivals, and a calendar of symbolic rites connecting inner and outer space, so that the community — the space claimants and participants in the art project — become mythologized and through participation become metaphorical of transcendence of the Universe itself.

The moment of making a claim on SpaceClaims.org is ritualistic and designed to engender creative artistic expression from participants, and will become more sophisticated over time. This project will sprout future happenings, including space festivals where people gather in joyous celebration of all things outer space. In the future, it looks like an entire economy of creative production fueled by people-powered space claims and art auctioning. It looks like people around the world drawing brand new constellations into deep space, turning the sky into infinite folktale fractals.

The Most Popular Artist seeks community action and participation and support from the general public, and requests that all patrons to visit SpaceClaims.org to become one of the first 1-million people to participate in this historical project. You will make a free space claim and dedicate it to one of the 17 SDGs that nourish Spaceship Earth, and your legacy in the stars will be forever remembered.

In astronomy, the word asterism is used to describe any pattern of stars — and through this project, traditional asterism production is getting disrupted, and making it so that everyday people will be able to design their own constellations, and tell their own stories in the stars, and the infinite abundance of the cosmos will be elevated within our collective consciousness — through hyper-folk territories and exponential growth vectors.

The quotes at the beginning of this chapter speak to the importance of the first followers — the first brave ones to have the courage to believe that the impossible might be possible. What if Kepler didn't have faith in the ideas of Galileo? How much more time would have passed with humanity thinking that the earth was flat instead of round? The fearless fast followers, the believers, the ones who are willing to embrace big ideas — they are the real unsung heroes of progress. Without participants, this art project is a blip on the radar, with all of you participating — it becomes a transformative historical art movement that makes the world a better place to live in.

The Most Popular Artist is convinced that outer space is humanity's most ripe morphogenetic field for make believe. Stars are the light and energy of consciousness disengaged from this field of time, transcendent and eternal, universal across the human experience through the ages.

Extending the tangible interface of the spectacle throughout this sphere and empowering transmodern art praxis through situated technology as an active story system built into the fabric of society through cultural, legal, and economic means is a mature work of art. Through the lens of critical urbanism and macro-public places, The Most Popular Artist is motivated by mythmaking and ontology.

The stories in our heads are what drive us forward as a species. Our shared experience is of this earth circling our sun, which is just one such star among several hundred billion stars that make up our galaxy, and this sun itself is zipping along traveling at the rate of 136 miles per second around the periphery of our native galaxy, circling it once every 230 million years. The nearest star to our star is Alpha Centauri, which is about 25 trillion miles away from us. Scientists have already discovered a likely exo-planet for life in this zone — Alpha Centauri Bb. The so-called Goldilocks zone is continually promising scientists' signs of life on other worlds besides our own, and it seems inevitable that life will be discovered somewhere beyond Earth at some point.

The Most Popular Artist grew quite curious about the connotation of outer space across human cultures, because after all it is a primal act, a universal act, and an inspiring act that is as old as perhaps humanity itself — it is the act of looking up at the stars and the galaxies and the mysteries of the cosmic beyond. For time immemorial, outer space has connected to our inner space through psychological and metaphysical tenants, and this is the focus of transformation for OUTER SPACE INSIDE. If there be intelligent life in space, we share our common embrace with these other beings, sensing our own relationship with the cosmos in which we exist, as we coexist — like any good intelligent species is want to do.

The Most Popular Artist wants to contribute to a world — and a universal embrace of coexistence — that is just, equitable and inclusive, and the creative intent of SpaceClaims.org is to promote, operationalize and accelerate sustained and inclusive economic growth, technological development, social development and environmental protection and thereby to benefit all, in particular the children of the world, youth and future generations of the world without distinction of any kind such as age, sex, disability, culture, race, ethnicity, origin, migratory status, religion, economic or other status.

We are living in an age of transcultural, connected global life. OUTER SPACE INSIDE and SpaceClaims.org infrastructure will exist as a permanent autonomous installation affixed among our global society, and will help current and future generations to know themselves and connect with their ancestors both future and past. Through the installment of this perpetual art machine, this socio-cosmograph... humanity will realize that we are consubstantial — not tied to a time or place, but universal. As it says in the Upanishad — "Thou art that."

The legendary mythologist Joseph Campbell hints at the cultural-hacking strategy deployed by The Most Popular Artist when he says,

> _"For all the symbolic narratives, images, rites, and festivals by which life within the cultural monad is controlled and defined are of the order of the way of art. Their effect....is to wake the intellect to realizations equivalent to those of the insights that produced them.......the social, as opposed to the mystical function of a mythology, is not to open the mind, but to enclose it: to bind a local people together in mutual support by offering images that awaken the heart to recognitions of commonality, without allowing these to escape the monadic compound. The psychologically significant features of any local social order, environment, or supposed history can become transformed through myth into transparencies revelatory of transcendence."_

In his discussion of space in _Prolegomena to Any Future Metaphysics_ , Immanuel Kant asks, "How is it that in this space, here, we can make judgments that we know with apodictic certainty will be valid in that space, there?"

The Most Popular Artist contends that all myth is psychologically symbolic — it is through metaphor that we extract knowledge from a morphogenetic ground that serves as humanity's source of universal knowledge and the memetic tendencies therein which we read and save using the most ancient of the social arts — myth and storytelling in the public sphere. The weavers of holographic histories.

These memetic tendencies are noumena — idea objects — that are concerned primarily for the _collective_ human will more so than the _individual_ human will. It is knowledge passed from generation to generation, it is wisdom from our elders — these archetypes are what Joseph Campbell calls the "ancestral forms."

Campbell recounts his pinnacle life experience when he says,

> _"It then occurred to me that outer space is within inasmuch as the laws of space are within us; outer and inner space are the same. We know, furthermore, that we have actually been born from space, since it was out of primordial space that the galaxy took form, of which our life-giving sun is a member. And this earth of whose material we are made, is a flying satellite of that sun. We are, in fact, productions of this earth. We are as it were, its organs. Our eyes are the eyes of this earth; our knowledge is the earth's knowledge. And the earth, as we now know, is a production of space."_

OUTER SPACE INSIDE gives rise to new "ancestral forms" by dematerializing outer space claims, democratizing them, and digitizing them for mutual-benefit. Imagine drawing new constellations into the sky, a socio-cosmograph so that each generation can leave their legacy imprinted into the stars. No longer shall constellations be Greek or Roman only. There is a star for every single human in history, and we must recognize that outer space is the epitome of abundance.

Like dreams, myths are collective productions of the human imagination and the global brain. The images and noetic objects are revelations of humanity's greatest hopes and deepest desires — our greatest suffering and heroic triumphs; mythology is a history of the dynamic human will to survive and thrive as a species. The Most Popular Artist is connecting the human capacity to reach for the stars with our human capacity to change our collective behavior based on knowledge and wisdom and creative agency.

The space in between the great beyond and the great within, is the wonderland of myth, the place where dreams are made. From the outer world the senses carry images to the mind, which do not become myth until they are transformed by fusion with accordant insights, awakened as imagination from the inner world of the body and mind and infinite cosmic spirit.

Again evoking Campbell. In his book intro to _The Inner Reaches of Outer Space,_ Joseph Campbell says:

> _"The life of a mythology derives from the vitality of its symbols as metaphors delivering, not simply the idea, but sense of actual participation in such a realization of transcendence, infinity, and abundance, as this of which the upanishadic authors tell......the first and most essential service of a mythology is this one, of opening the mind and heart to the utter wonder of all being. And the second service, then, is cosmological: of representing the universe and whole spectacle of nature, both as known to the mind and as beheld by the eye, as an epiphany of such kind that when lightning flashes, or a setting sun ignites the sky.......the exclamation "Ah!" may be uttered as a recognition of divinity."_

The cosmic mythology of OUTER SPACE INSIDE comes from "painting the stars" using space claims and the socio-cosmograph, made by the public using a revolutionary new class of art investment vehicle, validated by international law, and protected through an encrypted BlockChain-secured distributed-ledger system. This exchange and claim system has been imbued by The Most Popular Artist with creative interventions that help to produce a massive collective art project that seeks to transform future mythologies.

For instance, when making a space claim, patrons can dedicate their claim to one of the SDGs, and they can mark their claim with meta-data such as a photo, time of purchase, geo-location, and other data which then helps to create a digital graph with correlating data capable of perpetually producing more art. In future iterations people will design brand new constellations that relate to humanity's collective goals and achievements. When we achieve a hunger-free world — we will dedicate a new collectively created constellation to mark the occasion.

The creation of the socio-cosmograph includes the creation of a cutting-edge universal deeds registry based on blockchain technologies, and also a NGO entity called The United Space Claims Institute that helps to develop the protocol and channel resources gained from outer space property and mineral rights into positive impact for Spaceship Earth. The SpaceClaims Blockchain Platform will exist as a decentralized translateral self-regulating transparent democratic system that runs on intelligent machines.

These are discussed in detail in the following sections, beginning with an overview of blockchain technology, and then detailing the SpaceClaims Blockchain Platform, The United Space Claims Institute, and SpaceClaims.org.

### **Blockchains and Smart Property and DAOs, oh my!**

_"Is blockchain technology going to be fundamental? I think the answer is overwhelmingly likely to be yes._ " ~ Larry Summers, 2016 U.S. Treasury Secretary

_"It gives us, for the first time, a way for one Internet user to transfer a unique piece of digital property to another Internet user, such that the transfer is guaranteed to be safe and secure, everyone knows that the transfer has taken place, and nobody can challenge the legitimacy of the transfer. The consequences of this breakthrough are hard to overstate." ~_ Marc Andreesen, inventor of the first Internet browser, now a leading venture capitalist

_"The first generation of the digital revolution brought us the Internet of information. The second generation — powered by blockchain technology — is bringing us the Internet of value: a new platform to reshape the world of business and transform the old order of human affairs for the better. Blockchain is a vast, global distributed ledger or database running on millions of devices and open to anyone, where not just information but anything of value — money, but also titles, deeds, identities, even votes — can be moved, stored and managed securely and privately. Trust is established through mass collaboration and clever code rather than by powerful intermediaries like governments and banks._ " ~Don Tapscott, author of Wikinomics

_"You can't stop things like the Blockchain. It will be everywhere and the world will have to readjust. World governments will have to readjust."_ ~John McAfee, Founder of McAfee Security Software

Humanity's earliest accounting and real-estate records date back to Babylon, Assyria and Sumer, over 5000 years ago. Many clay tablets have survived as a record of the early technological revolutions in the development of writing, counting and money, but...needless to say, today's real-estate titles and deeds registries are operated using paper, and rely on powerful intermediaries to operate. This system is outdated, inefficient, and is ripe for disruption as are most calcified bureaucratic traditions. The Most Popular Artist is disrupting this system by launching a universal deeds registry and self-regulating organization for space claims built on blockchain technologies.

If you don't know what the blockchain is or what bitcoin is, don't worry you're not alone. It's fully understandable that much of the world has not wrapped their head around bitcoin, the blockchain, smart contracts, cryptocurrency and some of the other key concepts related to this art project. For many, blockchain technology is simply a confusing tech fad and is still related to Bitcoin in many people's mind. For the uninitiated, this section briefly describes these concepts so that you can see how blockchain technologies will empower this art project in meaningful ways. Using this technology, The Most Popular Artist will create a permanent and secure land title record system for outer space property and mineral rights claims (including asteroid mining licenses) that is decentralized and autonomous, outside the bounds of private or intergovernmental interference.

It could be argued that the cryptocurrency project called Ethereum which launched in 2014 is a great example to study. In the opening paragraph of the _Ethereum Whitepape_ r, Vitalik Buterin explains the importance of the blockchain as being an outcome of Bitcoin, but actually an offshoot of Bitcoin technology that opens up new possibilities:

> _"When Satoshi Nakamoto first set the Bitcoin blockchain into motion in January 2009, he was simultaneously introducing two radical and untested concepts. The first is the "bitcoin", a decentralized peer-to-peer online currency that maintains a value without any backing, intrinsic value or central issuer. So far, the "bitcoin" as a currency unit has taken up the bulk of the public attention, both in terms of the political aspects of a currency without a central bank and its extreme upward and downward volatility in price. However, there is also another, equally important, part to Satoshi's grand experiment: the concept of a proof of work-based blockchain to allow for public agreement on the order of transactions. Bitcoin as an application can be described as a first-to-file system: if one entity has 50 BTC, and simultaneously sends the same 50 BTC to A and to B, only the transaction that gets confirmed first will process. There is no intrinsic way of determining from two transactions which came earlier, and for decades this stymied the development of decentralized digital currency. Satoshi's blockchain was the first credible decentralized solution. And now, attention is rapidly starting to shift toward this second part of Bitcoin's technology, and how the blockchain concept can be used for more than just money."_

The _Harvard Business Review_ defines blockchain as a distributed ledger or database open to anyone. In theory, a blockchain approach allows multiple cloud computing users to enter a loosely coupled peer-to peer smart-contract collaboration. The term "blockchain" may be applied to any data structure which batches data into blocks which are timestamped and these blockchains serve as a distributed version of multiversion concurrency control (MVCC) in databases. Just as MVCC prevents two transactions from concurrently modifying a single object in a database, blockchains prevent two transactions from spending the same single output in a blockchain — in the case of OUTER SPACE INSIDE, that means ensuring no confusion as to who has rightful ownership over specific space property and mineral rights claims.

Blockchain technology can be used to create a permanent, public, transparent ledger system that also offers privacy to all users of the system.

It's critical to note that the encryption algorithms that enable the creation of distributed ledgers represents a powerful, disruptive innovation that will transform the delivery of public and private services and enhance productivity through a wide range of applications — not only real estate and currency.

Ledgers have been at the heart of trade and commerce since ancient times and are used to record many things, most commonly assets such as money and property. The evolution of ledger systems began as records on clay tablets, papyrus, vellum and then onto paper during the last centuries, and some societies have even stored their ledgers on giant boulders.

However, in all this time the only notable innovation has been digitization, which initially was simply a transfer from paper to bits and bytes. Now, for the first time, advanced mathematical algorithms enable the collaborative creation of digital distributed ledgers with properties and capabilities that go far beyond traditional paper-based ledgers in ways that ensure security, transparency, and privacy. This is huge.

This is the power of blockchain technology. A distributed ledger is essentially an asset database that can be shared across a network of multiple sites, geographies or institutions. All participants within a network can have their own identical copy of the ledger, and any changes to the ledger are reflected in all copies within minutes. The assets can be financial, legal, physical or electronic — so whereas Bitcoin represents a financial currency asset, the SpaceClaims Blockchain will represent land title deeds, space properties, asteroid mining licenses, and mineral rights claims.

The security and accuracy of the assets stored in the ledger are maintained cryptographically through the use of 'keys' and signatures to control who can do what within the shared ledger. Entries can also be updated by one, some or all of the participants, according to rules agreed by the network.

Deploying the SpaceClaims Blockchain means that all space claims are guaranteed to be authentic, and available to anyone in the world with access to the internet.

One of the key innovations that blockchain technology allows for is decentralization. In the past, central banks and mortgage brokers and governments were required to serve as the middleman for major asset transactions, but with blockchain, these powerful middlemen are not required.

Self-organizing, self-governance, and self-regulation become possible in a more democratic form because of blockchain technologies, through the decentralized model pioneered by the DAO (decentralized autonomous organization). Self-responsibility and trusted networks are critical infrastructure to establish and develop, and in this regard, this project could be seen as a compelling entrant into self-regulating fintech systems that embrace the peer-to-peer ethos.

Highly centralized systems present an incredibly high cost and become vulnerable because there is a single point of failure. Data often gets out of sync, and over time these centralized systems become vulnerable to cyber-attack, or more likely, malfeasance and corruption within the governing body of the powerful middleman institution that is charged with managing the asset transactions.

For instance, a bribe would result in a better land deed title. This was well known in the dark ages, and we can recall the notion of a king rewarding certain warmongering generals with handsome real estate property as a reward for their bloody accomplishments. Having supranational governmental bodies or agencies manage a centralized system of property deeds and records is not ideal, and because of blockchain technologies, it's no longer required. We the peoples, can do it ourselves.

Using a distributed ledger and encrypted blockchain technology for SpaceClaims provides the framework for providing a trustworthy system that reduces and eliminates fraud, corruption, error, and the cost of paper-intensive processes required for administration as the official recorder of deeds for all outer space property and mineral rights claims in the Universe.

A decentralized autonomous organization (DAO), sometimes labeled a decentralized autonomous corporation (DAC), is an organization that is run through rules encoded as computer programs called smart contracts. A DAO's rules and records are maintained on a blockchain, and the plan is that the SpaceClaims Blockchain Platform will eventually be operated in a similar, democratic fashion.

DAOs have been seen by some as difficult to describe. DAO — as a concept — became famous through its connection with the popular blockchain cryptocurrency system called Ethereum. Ethereum essentially created a platform on top of blockchain technologies that empowers developers to build blockchain apps.

In 2014, Ethereum was the biggest crowdfunded cryptocurrency project by far. It raised more than 31,500 Bitcoins in its presale, of which 3,700 was raised in the first twelve hours. Among those were a few Bitcoin whales who threw six figures' worth of Bitcoin to get the first-day price of 2,000 of Ethereum's ethers per Bitcoin.

Since then, from August of 2014 to today, Ethereum's market cap has soared from its implied presale value of $18.4 million to over $1 billion. The DAO came after this, and raised over $150M and is currently ranked #1 for most successful crowdfunding campaign in human history.

Indeed, the SpaceClaims Blockchain is hoping for similar success vectors.

In the _Ethereum Whitepaper_ , Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin describes decentralized autonomous organizations as follows:

> " _The general concept of a "decentralized organization" is that of a virtual entity that has a certain set of members or shareholders which, perhaps with a 67% majority, have the right to spend the entity's funds and modify its code. The members would collectively decide on how the organization should allocate its funds. Methods for allocating a DAO's funds could range from bounties, salaries to even more exotic mechanisms such as an internal currency to reward work. This essentially replicates the legal trappings of a traditional company or nonprofit but using only cryptographic blockchain technology for enforcement. So far much of the talk around DAOs has been around the "capitalist" model of a "decentralized autonomous corporation" (DAC) with dividend-receiving shareholders and tradable shares; an alternative, perhaps described as a "decentralized autonomous community", would have all members have an equal share in the decision making and require 67% of existing members to agree to add or remove a member. The requirement that one person can only have one membership would then need to be enforced collectively by the group."_

Ethereum is now used as a platform for decentralized applications, decentralized autonomous organizations and smart contracts, with "dozens of functioning applications built" on it by March 2016 according to the New York Times. The intended scope of applications include projects related to finance, the internet-of-things, farm-to-table produce, electricity sourcing and pricing, sports betting and property deeds.

The belief of The Most Popular Artist is that by curating and stewarding a DAO model alongside the SpaceClaims Blockchain Platform that we can enable organizational and regulatory efficiencies that empower entire ecosystems around this project to catalyze, thrive, and flourish.

The SpaceClaims Blockchain will not be switched on overnight, and will require resources and development hours to ensure security, performance, scalability, and privacy. The Most Popular Artist is committed to ensuring that the system is resilient to systemic risk or criminal activity to preserve the best interests of society for current and future generations. The goal is that the system will be launched publicly in the Summer of 2017, and crowdfunding efforts are now underway, similar to how Ethereum launched as a pre-sale prior to officially launching their platform. To participate in the pre-sale of the SpaceClaims Blockchain, you can purchase art books that include space claim tokens at SpaceClaims.org.

The Most Popular Artist has sought to engage with a community of blockchain experts to bring this system online, and The United Space Claims Institute NGO is intended as a way to foster collaboration and harness the efforts of top programmers and engineers that ensure system viability. In effect, The Most Popular Artist wants to bring the DAO model to NGOs – thus, he is calling this model the DANGO model (distributed autonomous non-governmental organization).

The DANGO will have curators whose job is to validate the proposals and the corresponding smart contracts that would disburse the raised funds towards specific Spaceship Earth initiatives associated with the U.N.'s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

The final technological solution has not yet been fully determined in granular detail — for instance services such as colored coins may be used, existing platforms may be used, etc.

The colored coins approach is one approach to property deeds on-blockchain which involves deploying "smart contracts" — systems which automatically move digital assets according to arbitrary pre-specified rules. Smart contracts contain the assets (in our case, space property and mineral rights claims or asteroid mining licenses) and encode the bylaws of an entire organization. Systems and tools and providers may be incorporated into the SpaceClaims Blockchain. For instance, Etherium, Ubiquity and other groups may be utilized and integrated into the system in customized ways — but The Most Popular Artist does not want to force any specific solution without further engagement with engineers and collaborators. To participate in this effort, you can apply to join the team at SpaceClaims.org. The project is already collaborating with the same group of developers responsible for the first real estate transactions on the BlockChain which they accomplished in early 2016.

### **The SpaceClaims Blockchain Platform — Launching a Universal Deeds Registry for Outer Space Property and Mineral Rights Claims**

In case you haven't realized it yet, clearly The Most Popular Artist is not keeping all space claims for himself, but on the contrary, he wants to put outer space property and mineral rights claims into action to catalyze positive social and environmental change for peace, prosperity, and planet.

Towards these ends, he's launching a marketplace and a universal deeds registry based on blockchain technologies that allows anyone in the world with access to the internet to claim, give, buy, sell, and transfer legally authenticated space claims forevermore, thus democratizing outer space property rights for all of humanity.

The system will securely validate and store each space claim deed and title transaction in a standardized way, and will provide certain title to space property and mineral rights claims — and these claims and certain titles shall be enforceable by international common law, yet automated and self-governed via the blockchain system. The space claims registry and deeds are organized in accordance with common law, meaning that claims are filed in chronological order with a grantor/grantee index. The chronological order of claims will also be incorporated into the first 1-million space claims that The Most Popular Artist is currently selling for a limited time at SpaceClaims.org which come in the form of SpaceClaim tokens and are integrated into unique works of art.

The SpaceClaims Blockchain Platform will not only develop the protocol and curate and steward the distributed ledger system, but will also maintain a space property catalogue and a global database of all known outer space property – including all known asteroids, planets, stars and objects in the universe, as well as plots on those objects. The United Space Claims Institute will work in partnership with the world's leading space observatory organizations to ensure a standardized "star atlas (including an advanced celestial coordinate system)" is kept up to date with the best known data. In this way, an evolving universal astrophysical space property catalogue will be maintained on the SpaceClaims Blockchain in perpetuity, and it's likely that the distributed supercomputer that runs the SpaceClaims Blockchain could also be used for crunching large data sets of deep space imaging and astrological sensing.

Through these methods, humanity will have a private, comprehensive and centralized yet decentralized deed registry for outer space property and mineral rights claims, and humanity will also have an NGO that will serve as the official steward and recorder of deeds for universal outer space property and mineral rights claims henceforth and evermore.

Interestingly, as the first and only recorder of outer space property deeds to have legal status, this project gives effect to the principles of statutory, case, and common law in relation to outer space property rights and mineral claims henceforth and evermore insofar as it relates to vested ownership in land and other real rights, including mineral rights and mining claims on all celestial bodies in the universe.

This system will simplify outer space property and mineral rights claims transactions and will certify to the ownership of an absolute title to outer space property that is legally binding and that guarantees a valid, permanent, and trustworthy chain of title for all space property and mineral rights claims.

The Most Popular Artist believes that by broadening participation and engagement with outer space property and mineral rights claims, we — as individual humans — can ensure that our free society shall serve as the territorial governors of outer space and outer space property and mineral rights claims, and that peaceful uses of outer space might be protected and promoted into the future through the active and participatory stewardship of we the peoples. This mass collaboration involves everyday individuals (natural persons), and doesn't require intergovernmental regulation or powerful intermediaries. Because of this fact, the SpaceClaims BlockChain system is historically significant.

Outer space is part of not only humanity's common heritage, but also the common heritage of all living beings throughout the Universe, and therefore we, as free and peaceful humans, intend to ensure that outer space property and mineral rights claims are held in trust for future generations — for and by the peoples — so as to be protected from exploitation by individual nation states or international political regimes or tyrannical multinational organizations, and to ensure only the peaceful uses of outer space. The cosmos should be in the hands of we the peoples, and now, because of The Most Popular Artist — it is.

The Most Popular Artist believes that individuals collaborating together through the use of P2P (peer-to-peer) methods, advanced blockchain technology and decentralized autonomous organizational structures is a way to prevent outer space property from becoming the scene or object of politically motivated war and discord, but rather it's a way to guarantee outer space property is motivated by mutual human thriving for peace, prosperity, and planet.

Participating in this project helps to protect, respect and fulfill the interests of human beings and the Universe at large, independently of any politically motivated sovereign state; on behalf of all humans wherever they are living, as well as their future generations; and on behalf of all living beings, wherever they are living, as well as their future generations.

In order to accommodate proper title registry for outer space property and mineral rights claims, a special organization is needed that is dedicated to universal management, and this organization can only be qualified and substantiated if The Most Popular Artist and his cohort create it in order to transfer the genesis transaction output onto the platform.

Through the Meta-Claim and the body of work through the years, The Most Popular Artist has obtained the special agency required by international law that is needed to launch and operate such a private-market system of space property and mineral rights claims and sales, and you can read the specific language of this exclusive right in the Meta-Claim document itself in Chapter 4. To put it bluntly, SpaceClaims.org is now literally the only place that a natural person can officially buy, sell, donate, and transfer legally-binding outer space and mineral rights claims.

Thanks to The Most Popular Artist, now we — all of us as a connected group of individual humans – have the agency to claim the cosmos, and autonomously generate collective value for current and future generations. Codifying space claims into property assets is a way to transform atoms into bits, so that we can begin to effectively create financial value from our desire to explore the cosmos, and then mobilize these new resources into a more prosperous Spaceship Earth, including funding space technologies and space ventures that help us go deeper into the mysteries of the human experience, as well as fund the hugely valuable opportunities associated with asteroid mining that will allow us to voyage deeper into the galaxy.

Participants and patrons can be assured that each outer space property and mineral rights claim and deed and mining license on SpaceClaims.org will be recorded against title so that the entirety of humanity's outer space real estate and mineral rights claims can be examined, and so as to ensure the portion of the bundle of rights that it includes can be determined beyond doubt. These records will be able to assist interested parties in researching the history and chain of title of any outer space property and mineral rights claim for centuries to come. The system will allow full access to deeds recorded on the distributed ledger, and several indexes will be maintained, which may include grantor–grantee indexes, tract indexes, astrometric data, star maps and plat maps, and where each claim transaction includes metadata associated with the claim owner history and the artwork contained therein. This will likely be one of the richest databases in human history.

The Most Popular Artist wanted to ensure that this SpaceClaims Blockchain Platform was operated in a fair and equitable fashion, and therefore part of his contribution and stewardship is the creation of a new NGO called The United Space Claims Institute, and the website home of www.SpaceClaims.org.

This NGO is meant to maintain the SpaceClaims Blockchain system and in the next session, the charter of The United Space Claims Institute and indeed the impactful vision of this entire art project is detailed further.

### **United Space Claims Institute as Cultural Heritage Organization**

It has been estimated that 93 cents of every U.S. dollar made since the 2008 crash has gone to the richest 1% of people on the planet. A combination of tax evasion, land grabs, debt servicing, punitive free trade agreements and corporate malfeasance guarantees a reverse flow of wealth from poor to rich that dwarfs the amount of aid remitted back to the poor.

The Most Popular Artist believes that we the peoples can do something about this by monetizing space property and mineral rights claims in order to mobilize financial resources that produce positive impact in the world, and for this reason a new NGO is required that helps to facilitate the type of collaboration that The Most Popular Artist is seeking to generate.

Appropriating and capitalizing outer space and preserving a democratic and transparent and trustworthy system for perpetual self-governance to guarantee space property and mineral rights claims into the future is no small task, and requires a vast quality of people and resources.

There is not only a rich history of artists launching NGOs as part of their artwork, but it's important to recognize that many of our human institutions are the result of collective action around a common cause. It's not like institutions are ordained, and indeed, it would go against our principles of international freedom and liberty if collaborative action needed to be ordained by some other institution in order to operate.

The United Space Claims Institute (TUSCI) will work collaboratively with other similar human institutions, including the International Astronomical Union — an NGO based in Paris, France which was started in order to help safeguard the science of astronomy in all its aspects through international cooperation, as well as International Dark-Sky Association, dedicated to protecting the night sckies for current and future generations.

TUSCI is the steward organization for SpaceClaims.org including the SpaceClaims Blockchain Platform and protocol, the space property catalogue and hosting the universal property deeds registry for outer space claims. The organization is intended to be inclusive and participatory, and eventually a DAO (decentralized autonomous organization) methodology will be deployed and utilized to ensure a trustworthy, participatory, perpetual, and transparent structure.

The "Massive Transformative Purpose (MTP)" of The United Space Claims Institute reads: Inspire. Humanity. To reach for the stars and fuel Spaceship Earth.

The current mission statement reads: To democratize outer space property and mineral rights by stewarding a secure, permanent, decentralized and trustworthy universal deeds registry for the benefit of all of humanity, including current and future generations; and to channel resources generated into global great works projects that benefit Spaceship Earth.

The vision is to make outer space innovation and discovery the world's most meaningful transcultural mythology while aiming that mythology towards themes of peace, mutual-thriving, innovation, transcendence, and prosperity for all. The vision includes eventually empowering new asterisms, and by democratizing outer space claims, folk mythologies will emerge and express a tapestry of meaning on the Socio-Cosmograph. The project is inclusive with an open invitation for any passionate citizens, astronomers, scientists, artists, activists, and investors who want to participate.

The Most Popular Artist hopes to help fuel the future of a new, peaceful, and inclusive global space race by making outer space exponentially more accessible to current and future generations. He wants to help spark and empower the new space economy alongside Richard Branson, Elon Musk, and Jeff Bezos.

As mentioned, is strong precedent for an artist presenting the launch of a new organization, including NGOs, as being part of an artwork in and of itself. Examples abound and include the Faou Foundation and the Moon Arts project which are detailed in the next chapter.

### **Spaceship Earth Art — The 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)**

The charter of The United Space Claims Institute is to host space claims, including gifts and sales, for the general public in order to accelerate the mobilization of resources into projects that benefit "Spaceship Earth," as defined by the U.N.'s 17 sustainable development goals and the affiliated projects and ventures which have been curated by the NGO. You can read about these 17 sustainable development goals later in this section.

In addition, The United Space Claims Institute will provide a range of cultural activities for the betterment of humanity. Fundamentally, this means building capacity for Spaceship Earth by helping to produce and fund "good works" projects that address the 17 SDGs, including catalyzing international arts and culture events, innovative social startup ventures, and providing emergency relief funds in times of crisis. Sharing knowledge as scientific ambassadors to the public, the press, and nations will remain a core activity, as will be the promotion of human rights and freedom of expression.

The United Space Claims Institute is dedicated to shared prosperity and mutual thriving, and seeks to fund global good works projects that lead to a world free of poverty, hunger, disease and want, where all life can thrive. The founders envisage a world free of fear and violence. A world with universal literacy. A world with equitable and universal access to quality education at all levels, to health care and social protection, where physical, mental and social wellbeing are assured. A world where there is universal access to safe drinking water and sanitation and where there is improved hygiene; and where food is sufficient, safe, affordable and nutritious. A world where human habitats are safe, resilient and sustainable and where there is universal access to affordable, reliable and sustainable energy.

The United Space Claims Institute will serve to promote universal respect for human rights and human dignity, the rule of law, justice, equality and nondiscrimination. Funds generated from the sale of space property and mineral rights claims will be channeled into projects that serve the children of the world. A world in which every woman and girl enjoys full gender equality and all legal, social and economic barriers to their empowerment have been removed. A just, equitable, tolerant, open and socially inclusive world in which the needs of the most vulnerable are met.

Spaceship Earth Initiatives are aligned with the U.N.'s 17 Sustainable Development Goals shown below. Any person in the world with Internet access can now visit SpacecClaims.org and make a free space claim, and then dedicate it to one of the 17 Spaceship Earth initiatives below in order to build support and mobilize resources for the cause. In this way the project is building value not only for the claimants, but also the Spaceship Earth initiative they care about the most. Positive collective social impact is thus generated by the system.

A description of each of the 17 sustainable development goals is described below...which one is YOUR #1?!

https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/sdgs

With every purchase of a space claim, patrons and participants will be able to dedicate their claim towards one of these 17 SDGs. As the platform becomes more robust and with more core team members, the plan is to build something like a crowdfunding activation platform, whereby profits generated by space claim sales are going into specific Spaceship Earth projects which are actively being led by the world's top social entrepreneurs, scientists, engineers, artists, and evangelists to develop scalable solutions that address one or more of the 17 SDGs.

This type of "space claim as spaceship earth vote" mechanism is interesting, because over time, through the expansion of the DANGO, it's possible to anticipate ongoing engagement between the platform and the user base — all centered on activating and mobilizing resources behind the 17 SDGs which our world leaders have set out for us to solve by 2030. This catalyzes and accelerates real-time feedback loops that connect cosmic speculation to positive impact.

### **Organizational Operations**

The United Space Claims Institute will be headquartered in Zug, Switzerland just outside of Zurich. The Most Popular Artist finds this location to be meaningful and compelling for a number of key reasons.

The name _Zug_ originates from fishing vocabulary; in the Middle Ages it referred to the right to _pull up_ fishing nets and hence to the right to fish. In the same way that ancient fishermen established their right to appropriate an abundant natural resource (i.e., fish), so too does this art project and The United Space Claims Institute establish the right to appropriate an abundant natural resource (space property and mineral rights claims).

Switzerland is ranked by the World Economic Forum as #1 in global competitiveness rankings (the U.S.A is #3). This means that Switzerland is the most prosperous country on the planet, and this bodes well for an NGO whose purpose is all about accelerating universal prosperity. Furthermore, the British Guardian once wrote that the town of Zug serves as 'a compass of the global economy'. So The United Space Claims Institute will be HQ'd in a city considered by many to be the vanguard of modern economic prosperity. Beyond these facts, it should also be noted that Zug has become known in the tech world as "crypto-valley" because it is home to the most blockchain and cryptocurrency-related startups in the world. Indeed, Switzerland is also the #1 ranked country in the world in terms of innovation.

Although the physical home of The United Space Claims Institute and this art project shall be in Switzerland, the most popular home will be known to most on the Internet, at SpaceClaims.org.

### **What is SpaceClaims.org?**

  * SpaceClaims.org is the only place in the world where you can purchase outer space property or mineral rights claims THAT ARE LEGALLY VALID AND AUTHENTIC.
  * SpaceClaims.org is the online home of The United Space Claims Institute — A cultural heritage organization dedicated to protecting and preserving Spaceship Earth by building and stewarding the SpaceClaims Blockchain Platform.
  * SpaceClaims.org is a part of a public participatory art project called OUTER SPACE INSIDE, and serves as part of a virtual gift shop.

At SpaceClaims.org, patrons will make a free space claim and "dedicate" it to 1 of the 17 Spaceship Earth initiatives they care about the most, and will thus leave a lasting mark for the betterment of humanity for the rest of eternity. In addition to free claims, private claims are also available for purchase.

### **Partnerships, Advisors, and Teams**

The SpaceClaims Blockchain Platform and underlying technology requires a broad range of collaborative support from the global community, including a devoted group of developers, artists, cryptographers, and others. The goal is to attract a talented and diverse team who will make up The United Space Claims Institute team, and who will work together to develop, launch, and steward the SpaceClaims Blockchain Platform.

Along the way, whitepapers and development plans and lots of code will need to be written and operationalized, and dedicated and trusted individuals will need to collaborate to bring this cutting-edge system online. It is for this need of patrons and collaborators — developers and end users — that The Most Popular Artist remains driven to evangelize the project so that people know about SpaceClaims.org and understand what it means and how to participate.

The United Space Claims Institute will seek to partner with a wide variety of parties, groups, governments, and organizations around the world, including the U.N. Foundation, the IAU, the International Council for Science, the U.N. Non-Governmental Liaison Service (U.N.-NGLS) the Global Innovation Exchange, the SDG Philanthropy Platform, the Global Entrepreneurs Council, and the Sustainable Development Solutions Network among others. There is an open invitation for social organizations, startups, artists, tycoons, entrepreneurs, governments and other partners to join the great collaboration.

The Most Popular Artist is hoping that ultimately this project attracts an ongoing supply of extraordinary individuals and teams who are developing solutions that address the Sustainable Development Goals.

### **The SpaceClaims Genesis Pre-Sale**

The United Space Claims Institute will serve as the central manager of a participatory, transparent, trusted, decentralized and democratic DANGO (Decentralized Autonomous Non-Governmental Organization), and both the SpaceClaims Blockchain registry and the DANGO will be supported using funds from a pre-sell crowdfunding campaign conducted by The Most Popular Artist, and which is currently already underway at SpaceClaims.org.

Borrowing from successful crowdfunding campaigns of other blockchain projects in the past, The Most Popular Artist will use supply-control in order to drive premium demand for the first 1 million space claims available for purchase, and yet because this project is intended as the most participatory art project in human history, the pre-sale tactics will deviate somewhat from past examples. This is natural, as blockchain technologies are still a new phenomenon and the industry is ripe for innovation and experimentation.

The SpaceClaims Genesis pre-sale will begin by The Most Popular Artist selling a limited-edition hardcopy version of this book, OUTER SPACE INSIDE. Each book will include SpaceClaim Tokens (different packages available) which will serve as a software access key (user token), and which will guarantee future space claims on the platform at lower cost or higher supply than what is available to the public. Each book includes a personally signed deed which transfers to patrons a star property claim or asteroid mineral right claim, and each book will be arranged and presented to the patron as a unique work of art by The Most Popular Artist, and each book will be chronologically numbered in the order they were purchased, and personally signed by The Most Popular Artist. Thus, the SpaceClaims Genesis Pre-Sale is essentially an art auction.

Through this innovative crowdfunding campaign, The Most Popular Artist's book and artwork will become more objectified and disseminated while also mobilizing resources for the NGO and the SpaceClaims Blockchain platform to be further developed.

The Most Popular Artist hopes to attract a world-class team of collaborators and advisors through this process, including technologists, artists, investors, scientists, sustainability experts and partnerships with other organizations.

Ultimately, the ongoing sale of space claims via the SpaceClaims Blockchain Platform will generate funds that will be at the discretion of The United Space Claims Institute and will be used not only to maintain the SpaceClaims Blockchain Platform, including technology stacks, distributed computing, marketing and administration, but the funds will also be used to catalyze action and resources for Spaceship Earth initiatives in alignment with the U.N.'s 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). In short, the idea is to sell the stars to provide fuel for Spaceship Earth.

More information about the SpaceClaims Genesis Pre-Sale is available online and will represent the most recent documentation, including other documents related to the sale, but these are some points to note at the time of this writing:

  * SpaceClaim tokens that accompany hardcopy book purchases are a product, NOT a security or investment offering. A SpaceClaims token is useful for paying transaction fees or on the SpaceClaims platform; it does not give you voting rights over anything, and there are no guarantees of its future value.
  * SpaceClaim tokens will NOT be usable or transferable until the launch of the genesis block, currently estimated to be Summer of 2017 in time for the 50th anniversary of the Outer Space Treaty. When you buy a hardcopy version of OUTER SPACE INSIDE and accompanying SpaceClaims tokens, you will not be able to do anything with your tokens until the genesis block launches. 
  * There are two types of SpaceClaims tokens available: star tokens, and asteroid mining tokens. 
  * The price of SpaceClaims tokens is different depending on the category, and will be discounted during the genesis pre-sale. The prices are as follows: 
    * The price of a star token is $29.97
    * The price of an asteroid mining token is $599.97
  * The annual issuance rate is expected to be 50% of the initial quantity of tokens sold.
  * The revenue generated will be used to allow The Most Popular Artist to continue his creative activities, including: 
    * Development of SpaceClaims Platform and Tools 
    * Community Outreach
    * Creative Research 
    * Spaceship Earth support
  * There are several papers available on SpaceClaims.org to help you understand your rights regarding the sale: 
    * Terms and Conditions of the SpaceClaims Genesis Sale
    * SpaceClaims Product Purchase Agreement
  * For serious collectors and dealers, The Most Popular Artist is selling unique works of art that are encrypted with lucrative space claims. These are called "mines." Over time, these "mines" serve as genesis transaction outputs for not only a single space claim, but they continually generate new space claims over time, similar to new bitcoins being mined on the blockchain. Likewise, the earliest mines that The Most Popular Artist sells will likely be the most valuable — economically. Indeed, the funds used from auctioning off these works of art will support a global network for P2P computing power that will form the foundation of the SpaceClaims Blockchain Platform and the intelligent machines that operate the system. Now available at SpaceClaims.org, for a limited-time only, there are mini-mines, major-mines, and mega-mines for each category (stars and asteroids). 
    * Star Mines: 
      * Mini-mine = $1000 
      * Major-mine = $10,000
      * Mega-mine = $100,000
    * Asteroid Mines: 
      * Mini-Mine = $100,000 (200 asteroid claims)
      * Major-mine = $1,000,000 (1500 asteroid claims)
      * Mega-mine = $30,000,000 (85,000,000 asteroid claims)

## **Legal Aspects — Socio-Cosmograph and SpaceClaims Blockchain**

Most importantly, please remember that this project is an art project that serves to offer both a critique and solution to contemporary forms of exchange systems.

Blockchain technologies have presented unique challenges for law and policy, because they exist legally in shades of gray, and they are accelerating faster than outdated laws can catch up. However, it behooves The Most Popular Artist to help address and navigate these issues in a transparent way, so the next sections include some discussion about your legal rights in terms of participating in this project as a paying patron.

### **SpaceClaims Tokens**

You should think of SpaceClaims Tokens as rights to use the SpaceClaims Blockchain smart-contract software in the future. Each SpaceClaims Token that comes along with OUTER SPACE INSIDE art books being sold to the general public during the SpaceClaims Genesis Pre-Sale are issued by the creator and seller (i.e.,The Most Popular Artist) as works of art. Only 1-million SpaceClaims Tokens in each class will be distributed by The Most Popular Artist, and each purchase will be physically mailed to buyers as a unique work of art, different from all of the others. The Most Popular Artist is an artist, not an administrator or money transmitter or exchanger.

These artworks should be considered collectibles, and patrons who participate in this art project shall be considered "casual collectors" in terms of tax code, not "investors." Like much of the creative arts, the buyers who purchase artworks are pursuing a leisure activity and hobby interest in the arts and outer space rather than pursuing a pure investment opportunity. Each purchase is basically a non-profit donation for art.

The Most Popular Artist is not a lawyer or accountant, and all patrons and participants should consult with experts concerning how to address capital gains or hobby losses associated with art and collectible purchases. Remember, as a participant, you are an artist in the artwork itself, and all of you should self-identify as the artist of the work that you purchase through SpaceClaims.org.

Remember also that by dedicating your space claim to one of the 17 sustainable development goals, you are making a non-profit donation.

In the United States there are a number of laws in place that encourage patronage of the arts, with tax deductions for individuals and organizations that donate artworks and cultural goods to foundations and nonprofit institutions. Generally, tax deductions for donations to charitable organizations vary between 20% and 50% of their value, with donations to cultural institutions resulting in a deduction of 30%.

### **The SpaceClaims Blockchain Platform**

The SpaceClaims Blockchain Platform is being set up as a next generation decentralized deeds registry for all outer space property and mineral rights claims. This system, stewarded by The United Space Claims Institute, seeks to foster a free and open Internet, and a thriving and flourishing Spaceship Earth.

This form of convertible crypto property will only become available for active exchange after the SpaceClaims Genesis Block is launched in 2017.

On March 21, 2014 the IRS issued Notice 2014-21, which describes how "virtual currencies" are treated for federal tax purposes. Under the Notice, virtual currency is treated as property, NOT currency.

A space claim that is purchased, sold, or transferred on the SpaceClaims Blockchain Platform is essentially a new form of "virtual property" – what we might refer to as "convertible crypto property."

The property claims purchased and held in secure trust by each owner and participant are claims — and these claims include most of the metadata historically associated with real estate and mineral rights registries — including deeds, bill of sales, mining licenses, owner information, property and claim information, scientific property descriptions, chain of title, etc.

In addition, the claims include unique artistic-related metadata such as a written dedication or work of creative expression attached to each claim by its claimant at time of transfer or acquisition.

Similarly, The United Space Claims Institute treats all space claims as inventory. 

# 7. Artwork Analysis — A Creative Exegesis Critically Situating and Contextualizing the work

"The reality to which the artist and the mystic are exposed is, in fact, the same. It is of their own inmost truth brought to consciousness: by the mystic, in direct confrontation, and by the artist, through reflection in the masterworks of his art. The fact that the nature of the artist (as a microcosm) and the nature of the universe (as the macrocosm) are two aspects of the same reality (respectively, as a minute part of the whole, experienced from within, and as the whole, viewed from without — equivalent, respectively to Schopenhauer's "world as will" and "world as spectacle or idea") accounts sufficiently for that creative interplay of discovery and recognition which alerts the artist to the possibility of a revelatory composition in which outer and inner realities are recognized as the same." ~Joseph Campbell

The Most Popular Artist has sought to situate this work compellingly within the historical context of the art world, and what follows in the coming sections is an extensive creative exegesis and analysis of OUTER SPACE INSIDE from its curator/artist to help us trace, frame, approach, and interpret the work critically, including an exploration of the theoretical assumptions underlying the artwork itself, as well as the creative praxis of The Most Popular Artist.

The artistic, philosophical, theoretical, historical, and cultural matrix and malaise within which this art project exists is examined in detail as an offering of intellectual reciprocity to spark independent interpretations by the masses which deepen, enrich, and promote broader and more diverse and inclusive forms of inquiry into the infinite imagination of the human condition.

The Most Popular Artist hopes that other art philosophers and critics will join the fray to help interpret the work herein and its impact on the art world and on Spaceship Earth. Through a layering of auteurs and further critical theory, emergent themes are expected.

## **OUTER SPACE INSIDE as Exhibition**

The connection between Minimalism and Conceptualism was perhaps crystallized by Sol LeWitt in his important " _Paragraphs on Conceptual Art_ ," published in June 1967 in Artforum. Famously, LeWitt valorized ideas rather than their physical instantiations, and openly praised unrealized concepts as works in their own right.

In some ways the most critical achievement of the Conceptual Art movement has been through the transformation of the art exhibition. This work was pioneered by an unsung hero of the conceptual arts movement — Seth Siegelaub. The Most Popular Artist is quite fond of Siegelaub's work, and his influence can be duly noted within OUTER SPACE INSIDE.

Siegelaub's work crosses boundaries — he is described as an art dealer, publisher and independent art exhibition organizer, political researcher and publisher, and textile bibliographer and collector, and a researcher studying the theories of time and causality in physics. He represents a perfect example of a curator/artist hybrid figure.

After working at the Sculpture Center (New York) in the early 1960s, he opened his own gallery, Seth Siegelaub Contemporary Art, in the Fall 1964 which briefly existed through Spring 1966. Later in 1966, he evolved into a private dealer working closely on projects with the artists Carl Andre, Robert Barry, Douglas Huebler, Joseph Kosuth and Lawrence Weiner. Not only was Siegelaub helping to canonize instructional art as a curator, but he was doing so in innovative ways as a creative producer himself by re-imagining the contemporary art exhibition.

In 1968, lacking an exhibition space, he decided to simply publish the artwork of one of his artists — Douglas Huebler — in a catalogue and submit that as the exhibition itself. Publication as exhibit. Publication as canonization.

In the catalogue, Huebler's pieces — space-time construction imperceptible at any one time or place — appeared as verbal descriptions, maps and other documentation.

One month after this catalogue exhibition, Siegelaub published _Lawrence Weiner. Statements_. Weiner's works consisted of written instructions that specified a material process that could be carried out in the world.

In January 1969 Siegelaub mounted his most famous exhibition in an unused office on East 52nd Street in New York, yet even here the use of publication and publishing became paramount in the work, even announcing that the physical presence of the art objects was supplementary to the catalogue.

By 1969 the international art world was exploding with instructional art throughout Europe and North America, thanks in many ways to Siegelaub, and it continues to this day with successful art projects such as _Learning to Love You More_ by Miranda July and Harrell Fletcher.

Siegelaub was also the originator and author, with lawyer Robert Projansky, of _The Artist's Reserved Rights Transfer and Sale Agreement,_ published in 1971, and famously known as _The Artist's Contract_. This showcases Siegelaub's crossover into praxis, and highlights a direct link with The Most Popular Artist's work herein, especially in terms of it being an actual legal document, created in partnership with a legal expert, and designed to disrupt the contemporary art economy and the relationships involved in common systems of exchange related to the art world.

_The Artist's Reserved Rights Transfer and Sale Agreement_ , according to Siegelaub, defined and attempted to protect the rights and interests of the artist as their work circulated within the art world system. It was an attempt to take back power from the art world that he felt had gone too far in terms of the behaviors of art dealers and investors and collectors. Siegelaub was interested in addressing power structures using the language of contemporary power structures. Does this seem familiar?

_The Artist's Reserved Rights Transfer and Sale Agreement_ was first published by the School of Visual Arts, New York, as a fold out poster. One side features an introductory text by Siegelaub on the need for artists to have such a document, and on the reverse is the contract itself, authored by Projansky with guidance from Siegelaub. The contract side of the poster, or the final page of the contract, features a form that must be signed by the artist and the collector of their work, and is intended to be affixed to the artwork itself. Artists were encouraged to reprint the document multiple times and to use it in any transfer of their work.

The contract remains controversial for including clauses that are atypical for the terms governing the sale of artworks, including clauses requiring that artists approve of any exhibition of their work, and that collectors agree to give the artist a resale royalty of 15% of the increase in price over the initial sale. In addition to receiving this royalty, artists would also receive the name of the new collector. We can only imagine what Siegelaub would have done if he had blockchain technologies and the Internet at his disposal in 1971!

Siegelaub often emphasized the collaborative nature of the radical advances being made in art in the late 1960s, in which he played a leading part. "This was a very collective art," he said on a panel at MoMA in 2007, adding, "It's not like I had these great ideas that I came up with like magic, or whatever, all by myself."

Similarly, it's not like The Most Popular Artist came up with the idea to claim space or the magic of blockchain technologies — synthesizing collaboration is where the true magic happens, and The Most Popular Artist excels as a facilitator and synthesizer.

At the turn of the 21st century, Seth Siegelaub founded the Stitching Egress Foundation (a cultural heritage institution) in Amsterdam to bring together his varied range of projects: contemporary art, textile history, and time & causality research. This is a great example of an artist/curator starting an NGO.

Siegelaub once explained his interest in textiles in the pages of ArtForum, saying, "I was intrigued by this specific relationship between beauty and commerce, but I was also struck by the fact that, unlike artmaking, the production of textiles is a social activity—it is _always_ a collective endeavor."

When situating OUTER SPACE INSIDE, The Most Popular Artist took into account the history of Conceptualism from avant-garde modernism through the performance and pop art stunts of the 1980s and the relational aesthetics of the 1990s and 2000s, but also more transmodern approaches that are pushing the vanguard of interactive art, space art and Performance Art in the here and the now.

Let us also not forget that the 2010s has been an epic era for Performance Art – we are living through the great digital convergence, and it makes sense that Performance Art would be peaking now. Consider that from March 14 to May 31, 2010, the Museum of Modern Art held a major retrospective and performance recreation of Marina Abramović's Performance Art which was the biggest exhibition of Performance Art in MoMA's history. Just as The Most Popular Artist can perform activities as a diplomat or a lawyer or an attorney or a tech tycoon – so too can he perform activities as a curator. 

## **Artist as Curator**

Though certainly a controversial work, this project is not meant to be desirable nor to be feared, but is meant as a statement concerning the cosmic nature of being. The hope is to bring the human social order more into accord with a shared intuited order of the cosmos in order to promote peace, harmony, and well-being for all.

Through the transformative use of outer space, international law, the blockchain, and art itself — The Most Popular Artist hopes to serve as a curator for this project, as well as a service leader and spokesperson for the new cultural heritage organization, The United Space Claims Institute. The Most Popular Artist has put effort into exhibiting the experience of the work in intentional and meaningful ways, and will continue to do so into the future.

Since the 1960's the contemporary curator has come to be seen as a kind of artist in their own right, an auteur creating visual and conceptual experiences related to those of the works exhibited. Rearranging the artwork, the exhibition, and the curator as a form of creative praxis and agency indistinguishable to the work of non-curatorial artists is a common strategy among pioneering curator/artists.

Serving as curator and steward, the intent is to build out a cultural heritage organization for space resource commercialization so as to maintain a permanent universal deeds registry for all outer space property and mineral rights claims from henceforth and evermore, and to connect those claims with sustainable development and positive impact.

The Most Popular Artist, as curator, is responsible for the continuity of a universal and perpetual deeds of records for all outer space property and mineral rights claims, and as such, The Most Popular Artist is the curator who is responsible for his institution's collections, and as such The Most Popular Artist is intimately involved with the interpretation of heritage material (including immaterial Forms).

The intent of this exhibition is to uplift positive social power in the tradition of the avant-garde — to accelerate social, political, cultural, and economic reform through the arts. As an activist artist, social change can be directly pursued, albeit indirectly, through the mediation of art objects with targeted relational outcomes.

In the case of OUTER SPACE INSIDE, The Most Popular Artist is performing like a _culture hacker_ — he is hacking the cultural superstructure using revolutionary economic systems of exchange made available through digital networking technologies combined with the deft use of international legal frameworks and human diplomacy.

Other curatorial activities abound — for instance at SpaceClaims.org, The Most Popular Artist has put out an open call to the artists of the world to submit proposals for works of art that would integrate into specific space claims and benefit 1 of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals. The Most Popular Artist has the ability to then transfer claims over to the artists and auction off these artworks so that the buyer will receive space claim tokens integrated into the artwork itself, and so this auction structure not only benefits Spaceship Earth initiatives, but also the patrons and the artists who submit and sell works of art through this system.

The Most Popular Artist is also hosting "Art Mining" events and commissioning work from other artists to auction off during live pop-up gallery events around the world, again using the space claims system and property claim tokens as fuel for these activities.

The sublime may be defined as that which arouses sentiments of awe and reverence and a sense of vastness and power outreaching human comprehension. In this way, cosmic space is experienced as sublime, as is the notion that a single human individual can own all of it or most of it.

In this regard, the intent of The Most Popular Artist is to embrace this sublime persona, so that the mind of the patron transcends both desire and suffering. More smiles are intended through this project, and they can't come soon enough. With today's journalistic sociopolitical didacticism laced with pornographic entertainment — we find ourselves in a similar situation to Rome's panem et circenses. As it twas then, it's also true today — in the words of Virgil — "Fortune favors the bold."

Fortune favors The Most Popular Artist.

## **Confessions of a Constellation Artist**

_"The anti-artists are those who in their work have attempted to deny or break with every conceivable canon of style, taste, or convention that may have been established by the practice of artists in the past."_ ~Anonymous author, The Listener, 1959

The 20th century is filled with cases of art practices that were at first not considered art at all and were excluded from inclusion in art institutions. A notable example is Impressionism, which during its introduction was totally dismissed as not worthy of the proverbial art world, and now of course is considered high art and is popularly appreciated. In this way it has lived a life as both folk-art and high-art – meaning that it has gained the respect of the everyday consumers, as well as the professional art scholars and collectors. In other cases, the artwork was less easily fit into a traditional form, like painting on canvas, but still made its way into museums and art world acceptance as in the case of Performance Art for example, or Relational Aesthetics.

Far too many artists continue to pursue the futile production of studio-based objects in the hopes of showing and selling in galleries or landing in museums, which is very unlikely given the high volume of art object production and the scarcity of appropriate physical venues open for community engagement. Artists end up on Etsy instead of your neighborhood gallery, and a top-down power structure still dominates the art world today just as it did in the 1960s with Seth Siegelaub had to create a publication as exhibition because he couldn't find affordable gallery space. Just because an artwork is more difficult to monetize in galleries and museums doesn't make it a less valuable work of art, in fact, artwork that doesn't fit into a neat box could very well be easier to monetize in an art world context, and it's this type of dichotomous thinking that The Most Popular Artist is addressing.

The Most Popular Artist's work is not _non-art_ , and although it may be described as _anti-art_ because of its contradictory, dialectical and challenging style — its purpose is to strengthen the creative spirit which progresses and evolves art and which is the focus of art history. The Most Popular Artist was forged in the fires of the morphogenesis of the creative arts, journalism, and technology entrepreneurship — he is a transmodern artist, born a millennial; he holds a terminal degree in the fine arts.

The aim of The Most Popular Artist is to recontextualize outer space by appropriating it, and yet allowing the suchness of outer space objects to not only remain as accessible as they have always been, but to make them become even more accessible, and to make outer space exploration and development more inclusive, especially for the children of the world. The original form of outer space real estate property or asteroid mining rights claims exists as a noetic object across the spectrum of aesthetic, transcultural, economic, scientific, philosophical, and policy experience, and these objects — and their subjects — become transformed through this art project through the power of super-computing and networked life.

The oeuvre of The Most Popular Artist is driven by questions such as.... What happens when the artist becomes the tycoon? What are the playful pathways that use the celebrity of contemporary tycoon _ism_ in intentional and creative ways to address the very notion of _success d'estime_ amidst the contemporary art world in the age of the Internet? The Most Popular Artist is questing to explore anti-imperialistic forms through imperialism, sure; however, the intention of this project is not only to provoke and subvert, but also to promote the ethos of reconstruction — so that the creative impulse becomes a form of shamanic healing, both personally, and for Spaceship Earth.

The intention of this project is to submit the ontology of art and social entrepreneurship to the process of metaphor and also to submit the ontology of conceptual appropriation art practice to a similar process; so as to dissolve life into art, and art into life.

Appropriation Art is considered by art philosophers to be a kind of re-creation of the universe by bringing it piece by piece into the purview of artistic contemplation....and in the case of OUTER SPACE INSIDE, the universe itself implodes both inward and outward in exponential ways. It is the square root project of appropriation art, and also the meta version of appropriation art.

When art historians review and track the evolution of Appropriation Art through the centuries, they will highlight OUTER SPACE INSIDE for its commentary on Appropriation Art as art form, and for its innovative approach to meta-appropriation. It is an elegant artwork in this regard — the ultimate gesture of re-creation, of creative destructive agency imbued upon the work. To claim all outer space and then give it away and sell it is indeed a "meta-claim," "meta-appropriation art."

The Most Popular Artist helps us celebrate American capitalist commodification and yet seeks to imbue it with meaning that connects universally as a pathway to re-identify with the ground of being through a collective reverence for the cosmos — in this way it's not about the _American Dream_ so much as the _Human Dream_.

Looking at the stars is conversing with God — it is one of the most primal of human activities; and to project meaning and mystery and imagination and creativity and curiosity and economic value and wealth into the heavens must be one of the oldest and natural human tendencies.

In ancient Indian texts, the question of God's relationship with the world was approached by asking how one can tell a difference between the dancer and the dance. The Most Popular Artist is evoking similar questions through this artwork, and if nothing else, challenging us to look at the stars at night. The Most Popular Artist is a romantic in many ways, and certainly a spiritually minded believer.

Tis true that the relationship between art and spirituality has been somewhat strained ever since the Romantic period of the 18th Century when poets and bards regularly quested for the divine and art was treated almost as an extension of the divine. As the German Romantic poet Friedrich Schiller put it, the artist was a freed being — they already existed partly in the future and were engaged in dragging the present toward it. The Most Popular Artist is not so different in the here and the now, another horse for the King's stable.

With this artwork, The Most Popular Artist questions the blank check underlying all exchanged value, including the spiritual and the material, as well as the ontology of the global market itself as it exists culturally, legally, and economically.

The Most Popular Artist excels at eliciting wide response and maximizing participation through strategic communications and transmedic orchestration. At the very least, this work inspires you to question things like dominant art trends, the concept of value, commercial systems of exchange, or the separation between art and life. 

## **Creative Justification**

_"Nothing really exists and real art isn't."_ ~The Most Popular Artist

_"The Observable Universe is full of objects more or less interesting. I do not wish to add anymore. Art contains all of life, and now, all of life contains art. Question answering question. All for mutual thriving."_ ~The Most Popular Artist

_"Become future-oriented mass spectacles."_ ~The Most Popular Artist

Infinity is an open space of potentiality, and yet infinity is only infinity.

It's also true that throughout history, and at least since Sargon I of the Akkad in southern Mesopotamia in 2300 B.C., there has been a seemingly constant human-urge — transculturally — to plunder. As discussed earlier in this book, this urge to plunder is very congruous – scientifically and psychologically — to the human urge for compassion. Both human qualities emerged at about the same time historically.

The Most Popular Artist is intrigued that we plunder not to consume, but to possess, and he hopes to feed this need to possess in order to create more positively-imbued spiritual meaning both individually and transculturally. He hopes that by doing this, we can transmute the desire for plunder through the desire for compassion. We claim space property not only to possess, but to serve Spaceship Earth and leave a positive legacy for future generations.

Giving form to the mythological epic of the human imagination through the bricolage, synthesis, and amplification of certain everyday infrastructures is how The Most Popular Artist seeks to melt the boundary between art and life — to blast a hole in the wall that separates us from the Universe and our true destiny as spiritual machines. It is an expression designed to wake up the mighty men and women of our generation through art and technology.

The great mysteries of the cosmic beyond represent pure spirit, and by saturating ourselves and our collective consciousness in the infinite sensitivities of space and reconstituting our relationship with the cosmos and with each other, we can all travel to a timeless ideal that is representative of both Eden and Heaven combined in the here and now. In this space — this outer space inside all of us — the semantic and ethical contradictions dissolve into the wholeness of space, and in this way the context and its noetic objects are exhibited to the world in myopic ways, tailor made for the Internet and contemporary P2P infrastructures. The vehicle of expression becomes memetic, adaptive, and rapidly scalable. The mycelium-like synapsis of the global brain are firing up, and this art project is but one example of how to create art that acts like a software patch on the global brain — the global supercomputer of consciousness. The Most Popular Artist is a _culture hacker_.

## **Conceptualism**

There is much precedence to be discovered within OUTER SPACE INSIDE, and critical approaches from Postmodernism to Pop Art to Cybernetics to Situationism to Social Art Practice are all extremely valid.

However, The Most Popular Artist's work can perhaps be referenced most broadly through Conceptualism, as Conceptualism is widely regarded as a universal solvent capable of fusing into artworks via any medium or art style, which is why it's interlinked with other styles such as Appropriation Art, Pop Art, Performance Art, and Installation Art among many others. It's a melting pot of art, the rich mud where new forms come to life.

The human — the entire human ecosystem as organism — will increasingly become an important and integrated aspect of contemplation (consciousness) in itself, and this is why the act of choosing instead of making is so important in Conceptualism, and it's part of the reason why The Most Popular Artist belongs in this conceptualist culture-hacking tradition where he stands humbly on the shoulders of giants.

It's known that Conceptualism along with Performance Art often use the strategy of appropriation or designation whereby the artist symbolically acts out the creation-story, or in the words of Donald Judd, "If the artist says it's art, then it's art."

Beyond the various forms and styles of Appropriation Art, acts of _Universal_ Appropriation Art have been explored by Marcel Duchamp, Piero Manzoni (putting the earth on his 1961 sculpture base), and Yves Klein (signing the other side of the sky in 1947).

OUTER SPACE INSIDE certainly is an example of universal appropriation art where our attention is drawn into relationship with preexisting entities with destines outside of any major art context, and through this act of intention, The Most Popular Artist is able to appropriate the entire universe itself (and all outer space objects) into the realm of art, thus making them the property of art.

Notably, postmodern pop artists have increasingly adopted the mechanisms of both art and non-art forms, such as advertising, transmedia, activism, publicity, etcetera, and The Most Popular Artist is no different.

OUTER SPACE INSIDE universalizes appropriation art itself, and this serves to dissolve the art from the artist — and the underlying question then becomes that of the relation between matter and properties, substances and attributes, inner cosmos and outer cosmos.

Considering manifestation and the condensation that often forms on the boundaries of experimental and passionate vigor, The Most Popular Artist appropriated all of outer space property and mineral rights claims. Not only was it a comprehensive appropriation of the cosmos, but the method was comprehensive — deploying strategy, tactics, and craft across the spectrum of policy, law, economics, technology, and culture.

As with all conceptual appropriation art, the character, rigor, style, operationalization, and impact of the artwork becomes paramount to reading the work, and in this case, that means reading must consider the work aesthetically, culturally, legally, and economically, not only aesthetically. If this work was a painting with no legal or historical significance, it could be approached only aesthetically; but OUTER SPACE INSIDE is not simply a painting.

## **Appropriation Art**

The list of notable art legends who have pioneered new art forms within the field of Appropriation Art includes many iconoclasts such as Vincent Van Gogh, Banksy, Max Ernst, Marcel Duchamp, Andy Warhol, Jeff Koons, Gerhard Richter, Robert Rauschenberg, Joan Miró, Jasper Johns, Damien Hirst, Michelangelo, and of course Sherrie Levine among others. There is rich history and context that culturally situates OUTER SPACE INSIDE as a significant work of Appropriation Art deserved of canonization by the art world.

The theme of _Universal_ Appropriation Art has reappeared often throughout the history of conceptual art movements. There is no doubt that the work herein is conscious of the bold pioneering art projects that came before, for instance Yves Klein's "Theatre of the Void," and Piero Manzon's "Base of the World."

However, there is a key point of differentiation and distinction that makes OUTER SPACE INSIDE unique and arguably even more transformative than these previous works.

This key distinction is that when compared to all of the artworks that have come before, never has there been a work of conceptual universal appropriation art that has nearly as much legal weight and intrinsic significance as this work does. The tradecraft deployed by The Most Popular Artist is comprehensive, exhaustive and intentionally inclusive in its style and approach, and provides salience across historical, cultural, economic, and political realms.

In some ways, what The Most Popular Artist has succeeded in appropriating is not only the stars and asteroids, but somehow our most important mutual life-support systems for our mass society; systems such as law and economics and technology development. OUTER SPACE INSIDE is art, and yet it transcends art. OUTER SPACE INSIDE is life, and yet it transcends life. It's a metaphysical work, based on a meta-claim, showcasing a meta approach to universal appropriation art.

The "material" of this project, like all art, is ultimately the mind-stuff of the art beholder. The Most Popular Artist is provoking our humanity by invoking the angelic sphere and reconnecting our inner cosmos with the outer cosmos — outer space inside and everywhere in between. We are one with nature — we are one with the Universe, and this artwork honors this common yet mind-blowing realization and transcultural truth so that it's not simply a banal platitude, but a resonant transpersonal value pathway.

## **Institutional Critique of Exchange Systems**

This artwork seeks to disrupt the traditional processes of commodification and fetishism in which artwork is favored by the formalist ideologies that are so deeply implicated throughout our mass society, as well as how artwork becomes canonized into art history. Some might even describe this project as an inquiry into the ontological status of the creative and performing arts — and actually this would be a pretty fair and fruitful critique.

As laid out in the previous chapter, The Most Popular Artist envisages this cybernetic artwork as a permanent, perpetual art machine that he calls a socio-cosmograph.

The Socio-Cosmograph includes multiple actions, activities, intentions, and ingredients which help to make up the whole artwork of OUTER SPACE INSIDE, and these components should be seen as working in concert. Like an orchestra, it's true that some components can stand alone as pure art, similar to a violin solo standing out during an orchestra. For instance, The Most Popular Artist took over 10 years to legally claim all outer space property and mineral rights in order to guarantee the legal ability to serve as the genesis transaction output for the SpaceClaims Blockchain Platform.

This legal document (Chapter 4) could certainly be seen as an individual and significant work of art, yet it is also a part of a greater work. Many artists would have stopped there, but The Most Popular Artist is taking it to the next level. Each of the hardcopy versions of this book are being created as unique works of art, and yet they are also a part of a greater work. The greater work transcends and includes, and in this way is demonstrative of an integral approach to art praxis.

Likewise, part of the work includes The Most Popular Artist creating a new cultural heritage organization — The United Space Claims Institute — which will serve as steward and curator into the future, and evolve into a DANGO (decentralized autonomous non-governmental organization) model of self-governance that serves to preserve the SpaceClaims Blockchain Platform for the centuries to come.

Perpetual art will continually be produced using anonymized data from the SpaceClaims.org system and the universal deeds registry and star atlas (including celestial coordinate system) — and therefore the Socio-Cosmograph makes up more than the sum of its parts, it is therefore a transcendent and transformational artwork, and will be able to adapt and empower transformative works not only in this generation, but in the generations to come.

Similar to Facebook's amazing data set — the social graph — except connected with outer space objects via art, the Socio-Cosmograph will show how individuals everywhere are connected with outer space objects in the sky from generation to generation. The Socio-Cosmograph will document the collective action we take as a species to improve and benefit Spaceship Earth through the 17 SDGs, and after 2030, the platform will adopt new Spaceship Earth initiatives. Points and nodes will connect people with space, and with Spaceship Earth, and this generative, data-driven creative output will form a metaphysical iconography or picture that never ends with data that can be interpreted and visualized in almost infinite ways. The data of this system will continue to push the boundaries of art praxis into the future, it will create a human sculpture that reconstitutes our relationship with the cosmos, our relationship with each other, and our relationship with ourselves. The data will accentuate our reality as the little pale blue dot floating through space with no walls or territorial borders.

The Most Popular Artist wishes that every reader, every participant, every interlocutor — experiences at least one thought, interaction, or media impression that engages them to reconcile between the great beyond that lurks at the intersection of the human imagination and the mysterious cosmic splendor of outer space. The collective fate of our species, the collective future before us — depends on our willingness to produce the great collaboration, and to fuel Spaceship Earth together.

## **Postmodern Conceptualism**

In the words of Marcel Duchamp, "Homage doesn't mean a thing."

Since ancient times, art has been connected to spirituality and religion, and thus brought with it a universal impulse.

The notion of the universality of Conceptual Art forms was duly noted by Joseph Kosuth, saying in his essays _"Art after Philosophy, I and II,_ " that all art is really Conceptualism — seeming to mean that all art has first to be conceived in the mind in order to then be brought into existence and made manifest physically. Conceptualism, therefore, is universal in the sense that it is prior to all empirically measured instances of crafting. To phrase this a different way, all art is metaphysical, but not all art need be physical.

In regards to addressing the precedence of OUTER SPACE INSIDE, approaching the work through postmodern critique reveals that the work is a radical, forward-thinking approach with a dash of grand pro-American evangelism packaged with a sense of technological optimism. Through this lens, OUTER SPACE INSIDE seems at first to not be affiliated with traditional postmodernism at all, but it's more complicated upon further inspection.

In fact, this work is quite similar to the status-quo that Dada and Pop Art protested _against_ in America starting in the 1950s and 1960s as a kind of postmodernist revolt to the modern avant-garde.

In the postmodern situation, there is frequently an attempt to present appropriation of an existing representation or familiar object as something new (or unknown). The seeming impossibility of originality becomes possible by virtue of art's virtuality – the state of definitional indeterminacy of/through Art. New hybrid forms, holographic projections, and digital systems have emerged which even more powerfully offer a space of absence as presence. Noetic objects, conceptual holograms, software programs — these ephemeral forms are actually the most powerful vehicles for arts evolutionary morphogenesis.

Importantly, postmodernism unleashed a collective creative spirit that blurred the line between high and low art with playful and ironic treatments of fragmented subjects, a healthy dose of sarcasm, and strategies that sought to undermine concepts of creative authorship, along with an emphasis on image, interactions, and spectacle.

For these reasons, it's interesting that in some ways, OUTER SPACE INSIDE is connected with both the avant-garde modernists AND the avant-garde postmodernists. This critique reveals that actually, The Most Popular Artist is an experimentalist in the vein of John Cage, Jasper Johns, and Robert Rauschenberg.

For instance, at least traditionally, Postmodernism questions the ability of technology to serve art for positive impact at all. Postmodernists by and large reject meta-claims or unified theories, and instead prefer to analyze the local, the temporary, and the contingent. The Most Popular Artist _is no_ t a postmodernist in this sense because he uses technology aggressively, and he is concerned with engaging the universal, the permanent and the integral.

Postmodernism questions the artwork itself by including the viewer and participants to help determine the meaning of the work. So we see that The Most Popular Artist _is_ a postmodernist in this sense because of the inclusionary and participatory sensibilities of the work.

The Most Popular Artist believes he and his work might best be suited for categorization with "Transmodernism" and Transmodern Art for this reason, and this idea is covered in-depth later in this chapter.

Dada and Duchamp and others have questioned authorship, and The Most Popular Artist is certainly questioning authorship, but on a more universal level and using tactics borrowed from Pop Art, Folk Art, Cybernetic Art, Social Practice and Relational Aesthetics.

Whereas, postmodern appropriation art undermined the notion of originality to the point of legal infringement, The Most Popular Artist's style of appropriation art seeks to maximize the originality of authorship to the point of international legal instruments, intergovernmental diplomacy at the highest levels, and enforced through technological economies and systems to ensure historical significance of the work — and all pulled off with the gravitas of a social activist or social entrepreneur in the name of peace and prosperity for all.

Art is the great liberator of peace because it frees anything that is bound up by the superstructures of culture or economics or politics. Real art liberates, and OUTER SPACE INSIDE represents perhaps the most audacious liberation in art history. 

## **Pop Art**

In his definitive essay _"Avant-Garde and Kitsch,_ " Clement Greenberg warned the modernist avant-garde against association with what he considered philistine outpourings. Greenberg proposed instead that artists' concerns should be reserved for an art form that could transform society. The Most Popular Artist agrees.

The postmodernists, in response, embraced the "popular" wholeheartedly and made it central to their work. Thus it came to be that pop artists started recreating the mundane objects of consumerism, but used humor and irony to transform these and make them meaningful. The "popular" emerged as both the subject and the medium for many artists and commercialism was embraced in an attempt to transcend and include it.

Pop Art, traditionally, is driven by a desire to integrate art with popular culture, and to lift up the masses even if it means lowering the aesthetic tendencies of the elitist fetishism of the top-tiered art world. This focus on "low" culture stretched the definition of art, while also providing social critique. It was the beginning of the democratization of the means of production that have now become more salient because of the Internet, but Andy Warhol's studio ("The Factory") can certainly be seen as a precursor to Jeff Koon's factory-style production in the contemporary era, with the New York Times reporting as recently as September 2016 that the "fabricators" and "craftsmen" who actually create and manufacture Jeff Koons iconic large-scale sculptures had been fired by Koons for insubordination and attempting to unionize. Jeff Koons is the ultimate example of a popular art tycoon, and it's this form of persona that The Most Popular Artist seeks to parody in the tradition of Pop Art, and its why The Most Popular Artist is known as The Most Popular Artist.

Using pastiche and parody, traditional ideas and values were given new life in the Pop Art movements of the past. As the Dadaists had done earlier, pop artists in the 1950s used collage, assemblage, and bricolage that juxtaposed text, image, and found objects to create depth and systematic relationships, accepting that people are actually complex systems, and taking advantage of the contemporary mass media and commercial machinations of their day.

In this way we see that OUTER SPACE OUTSIDE is mirroring the appropriation of the cosmos with the appropriation of pop art itself, or more namely, the persona of the pop artist. Pop artists famously used parody as a critical style and approach to appropriation, and so inventing and using the persona of The Most Popular Artist is a meta-appropriation of this style or tendency. Pop artists use parody; the Most Popular Artist is parodying Pop Art's use of parody.

## **Cybernetic Situationalism**

The same time Pop Art was taking off, figures like Buckminster Fuller and the new field of Cybernetics emerged — pioneered by Norbert Wiener at MIT.

Norbert Wiener defined cybernetics in 1948 as "the scientific study of control and communication in the animal and the machine." The word _cybernetics_ comes from Greek and means "governance", and it's obvious to see the cybernetic tendencies of OUTER SPACE INSIDE. At its core, cybernetics embodies a transdisciplinary approach to unlocking human possibilities, and this art project and the praxis of The Most Popular Artist are both very much related to this liberating function.

In an enlightening discovery, The Most Popular Artist was surprised to learn that most of the cybernetic pioneers (many of whom were engineers, mathematicians, and philosophers) conceived of cybernetics as being more art than science. When defining cybernetics, consider these notable interpretations of what Cybernetics is, as documented in the _Larry Richards Reader_ by Stuart Umpleby:

  * "The art of securing efficient operation." — Louis Couffignal
  * "The art of effective organization." — Stafford Beer
  * "The art and science of manipulating defensible metaphors." — Gordon Pask
  * "The art of creating equilibrium in a world of constraints and possibilities." — Ernst von Glasersfeld
  * "The science and art of understanding." — Humberto Maturana
  * "The science and art of the understanding of understanding." — Rodney E. Donaldson, the first president of the American Society for Cybernetics
  * "'The art of steersmanship' that deals with all forms of behavior in so far as they are regular, or determinate, or reproducible: stands to the real machine — electronic, mechanical, neural, or economic — much as geometry stands to real object in our terrestrial space; offers a method for the scientific treatment of the system in which complexity is outstanding and too important to be ignored." — W. Ross Ashby
  * "The art of interaction in dynamic networks." — Roy Ascott

It's obvious from these interpretations that critically approaching OUTER SPACE INSIDE as a work of cybernetic art will likely yield promising fruit, but it's also important to note that Cybernetics was manifesting at the same time as the Situationists and Guy DeBord's imperative work, "The Society of Spectacle" blasted their way into the modern art canon.

The Most Popular Artist read "The Society of Spectacle" while still a teenager, and it had a major influence on the trajectory of his work ever since. OUTER SPACE INSIDE is a highly codified and multi-layered hyper-text that comes along with the ability to perpetually run software art patches on the system, and including the executable keys encrypted through P2P networking and transpersonal intervention tactics, and it's presented as a spectacle derived perhaps most strongly from Dada. 

## **Has Anyone Else Claimed Space?**

To be sure, this isn't the first time somebody has claimed outer space or offered it for sale. The history of extraterrestrial real estate deserves further mention here, and notable historical claims are listed below.

Keep in mind the key differences between the extraterrestrial real estate claim in Chapter 4 of this book compared to all of these other claims listed below — there are three fundamental differences to note.

Firstly, none of the claims listed below have been validated through international treaty law; in none of these cases is there a validated, authenticated legal document that puts into force the claim itself in accordance with U.N. Treaty Law, in none of these cases below is there a formal legal document on public record that affirms their claim at the international level. OUTER SPACE INSIDE does have such evidence.

Secondly, none of these previous claims set out to democratize and formalize space claims for all of humanity. It's interesting that most of these claims deal with the Moon as the subject, but most seem to ignore asteroids, other distant planets, and notably — stars and constellations and asteroids. None of these previous claim attempts has set forth to democratize an ongoing space claims system for the benefit of the global public.

Thirdly, and perhaps most importantly, none of the claims below have been positioned as artwork. The first time in history that an outer space claim was intended, exhibited, and documented as an artwork was in 2012 when The Most Popular Artist successfully claimed the Southern Cross constellation while on a Fulbright Fellowship in New Zealand.

The Meta-Claim in Chapter 4 is the first extraterrestrial real estate claim that democratizes and systematizes space claims for all as a work of art, and in accordance with international law.

The history of notable extraterrestrial real estate claims includes:

  * Chilean lawyer Jenaro Gajardo Vera became famous for his 1953 claim of ownership of the Moon. Not legally validated at the international level.
  * Martin Juergens from Germany claims that the Moon has belonged to his family since July 15, 1756, when the Prussian king Frederick the Great presented it to his ancestor Aul Juergens as a symbolic gesture of gratitude for services rendered, and decreed that it should pass to the youngest born son. No document exists. Not legally validated at the international level.
  * Dean Lindsay made claims for all extraterrestrial objects on June 15, 1936, and sent a letter to Pittsburgh Notary Public along with a deed and money for establishment of the property. The public sent offers to buy objects from him as well. The claim was never filed through appropriate channels for legal use abroad, and this was prior to the 1967 U.N. Space Treaty.
  * James T. Mangan (1896–1970) was a famous eccentric, public relations man and best-selling author on self-help topics who publicly claimed ownership of outer space in 1948. Mangan founded what he called the _Nation of Celestial Space_ and registered it with the Recorder of Deeds and Titles of Cook County, Illinois, on January 1, 1949). Mangan was ahead of his time, but unfortunately the U.N. Space Treaty was still not signed. As a result, his claim is not legally validated at the international level, and was never authenticated by the federal government, and the private company he created to incorporate his project was eventually dissolved along with the accompanying claim. 
  * Robert R. Coles, former chairman of New York's Hayden Planetarium, started "the interplanetary Development Corporation" and sold lots on the moon for one dollar per acre.
  * Dennis Hope, an American entrepreneur has been selling lunar deeds since 1980 and his business is called Lunar Embassy. As of 2009 Hope claimed to have sold 2.5M 1-acre plots on the Moon, for around U.S. $20 per acre. It is Dennis Hope — in part — who sparked the inspiration for OUTER SPACE INSIDE. Indeed, this art project would not be possible had Dennis Hope not been onto the Conan O'Brian Show talking about selling the moon for millions of dollars. The legal documentation that forms the basis for Lunar Embassy is based on a "declaration," and his original claim has not been authenticated in accordance with Treaty Law. 
  * Wes Faires — Wes has filed a series of claims since 2003 which included Orion's Belt, six stars, and a near-earth asteroid, all using the authentication method. 
  * Actionaut (i.e. Brinkley Warren) claimed The Southern Cross constellation and exhibited it as art using the authentication method.
  * In 2014, The Most Popular Artist (with Wes Faires) claimed everything else in the Observable Universe, including all stars and asteroids and the mineral rights on them with the explicit and exclusive right to subdivide and sell these claims to the public using a commercial exchange structure.

Conceptualizing and operationalizing OUTER SPACE INSIDE so comprehensively as has been accomplished by The Most Popular Artist is unprecedented, and his work has clearly been influenced by the creative legends who have pioneered new territories in their own right, including the leading figures of the post-war avant-garde and up through contemporary modern masters. Some of these connections are explored in the next section.

## **Historical and Iconographic Analysis**

 _"The artist is universe. The artist is universe. The artist is universe."_ ~Marina Abramović

The Most Popular Artist has practiced philosophy at a high level of scholarship including attainment of a terminal degree in the field of the Creative and Performing Arts, and he views the history of philosophy as a branch of the history of art. From the rich roots of integral intellectual formalism and the mist of postmodernism comes The Most Popular Artist — a new artist of the transmodern age, born a millennial.

As we've see, The Most Popular Artist and his work owe much to Conceptual Art, which includes a diverse array of art movements and artistic genres, and yet still has the freedom to transcend them — it is conceptually inclusive and open — obsessively embracing the new possibilities of human progress.

As we've also seen, upon closer refinement, The Most Popular Artist can be actively associated with hyper post-modernism.... which Peter Wollen describes as the rapid ascension of Conceptualism as "not simply a new style or a new movement.... but the single greatest shift in art since the Renaissance."

Conceptual Art, in other words, is recursive and therefore...it is like a fractal; it is as boundless, perhaps, as outer space itself. A characteristic way in which Conceptualism explores the boundaries of the artwork is by a process of questioning where the realm of the artistic ends and that of utility begins. Few artistic movements have attracted so much controversy and debate as Conceptualism, largely for this reason.

People tend to either love it or hate it, and this divisive character is actively intended by The Most Popular Artist to challenge and probe us about what we tend to take as given in the domain of art. Conceptual Art forces the patron to take a side towards inclusion or exclusion, and doing so proves the point of Conceptualism in the first place. Love it or hate it — by reacting to it, we have proof that it's art as the artist intended.

The term "concept art" was first mentioned by Fluxus artist Henry Flynt in 1961 and first published in 1963, and was defined as art that is comprised not just of traditional materials such as paint and wood and stone, but also inclusive of concepts.

Then the term "conceptual art" was published by Sol LeWitt in an Artforum article in 1967 and the meme was adopted widely. Curious that 1967 was the same year the United Nations ratified the Outer Space Treaty into law, which as we have seen is one of the core foundational legal precedents upon which OUTER SPACE INSIDE has been created. There was some serious scaffolding being laid down in 1967 without which this project couldn't have existed, including the legal aspects.

Indeed, the use of legal processes and legal documentation as art object has a rich history in Conceptual Art including John Baldessari's Cremation of his paintings and accompanying Cremation Affidavit, and also William Anastasi's "This is not my signature" in 1978 where he used public notarization as art medium.

Clearly, the Most Popular Artist's "Meta-Claim" document (Chapter 4) is positioned as art in this vein of the Conceptual Art tradition.

Central, also, to the history of Conceptual Art is the procedure of creation-by-designation. If The Most Popular Artist designates something as art, then nothing more is needed to make it art. This tactic and principle has been validated by art history, and it's been shown that there can be no appeal. What sometimes begins as non-art can become the epitome of art within the same decade or even within one evening.

When The Most Popular Artist is actively contextualizing works, objects, or projects or anything really, he's expressing a form of strategic aesthetic style that serves as a piece of the work itself. Again, we know from studying art history that this is a factual tenant of art practice in the 21st Century.

Taste, after all, is a creature of habit. Just as we must acquire a taste in a food or beverage or lifestyle, so to must we acquire a taste in any form of ethical, aesthetic, creative, or cognitive function. This is where the notion of cultural hegemony comes from, the idea that taste — if deployed habitually to the masses — can become a form of mind control.

Hegel believed that a successful artwork is an embodiment of the infinite. Schelling believed that successful art thrives in the space between the real and the ideal. As for Schopenhauer, artwork is the embodiment of the eternal and the sacred. These attitudes evolved and catalyzed the Romantic tradition leading into late Modernism, and even for the avant-garde, the artist historically played the role of the mystic, the bard, the future hero — and we've seen this clearly in the writings of the comparative mythologist Joseph Campbell.

The Most Popular Artist often senses nostalgia for these golden times of bards and artists functioning as the alchemistic action heroes of their day. Duchamp and his piss pots came along, and he threw a monkey wrench in the machine so that he — like so many great artists since — have seemed to project a kind of mysterious anti-mystic quality about them. The Most Popular Artist is of both worlds – he is a _Transmodern Artist_ — and yet deserving of inclusion within the canon of Conceptual Art history even though it seems likely that he wants to throw a monkey wrench into the system of art classification altogether.

Contemporary art historian Jack Flam notes, "Happenings and Conceptualism employ and to a certain extent systematize the symbolic and communicative modes invented by the Dadaists."

As the vanguard artists developed through the 1960s counterculture, the post-modern art hero emerged — more _James Dean_ rather than _Renaissance Man_. More pessimistic than optimistic. More small-town boy than cosmopolitan prince.

With OUTER SPACE INSIDE, The Most Popular Artist is indeed holding up the Observable Universe and selling legally to the masses as art. He is effectively selling outer space property and mineral rights claims as readymades — or at least, as almost-readymades. He is offering us outer space as a readymade. Stars as readymades. Asteroids as readymades. Platinum, and helium-3, and ice extracted from asteroids as readymades. Smart property and mineral rights deeds and mining licenses as readymades. Objects (including noetic objects) transformed through art, and liberated through art.

Contemporary art historian Max Kozloff called the readymade a "radical metaphysical act." The Most Popular Artist is acting out this thesis in the real world. He's proving that outer space is ours for the collective taking, and in doing so he's reminding us all that the universe is here and now, and that outer space, inner space and everywhere in between is a commodity of world-class artwork.

The Most Popular Artist is re/presenting the heavens as a commodity in order to actualize positive impact for Spaceship Earth in the here and now through P2P digital technologies, and in doing so he's helping connect the Universe within to the Universe beyond in significant ways that are highly conscious of art history and cultural theory.

## **Aesthetics of the Transmodern Avant-Garde**

The Most Popular Artist has been looking for a new modernity that would be based on translation. What matters most today is to translate the cultural values of diverse cultural groups and to connect them to the world network. This "reloading process" of modernism according to the twenty-first-century issues could be called alt-modernism or hyper-modernism; a movement connected to the creolization of cultures and the fight for autonomy, but also the possibility of producing singularities in a more and more standardized world. The Most Popular Artist graduated from Singularity University, and enjoys the idea of producing singularities — he self-identifies as a Transmodern Artist.

This work is The Most Popular Artist's bold attempt to stoke the fires of a _Transmodern Renaissance_ and create an invisible human sculpture that leads to more cooperation, more compassion, more community.... more synapses firing on our global conscious mind. He hopes to encourage a radical transformation of the global mind, whereby our collective experience is recognized as an epiphany of the rapture of being.

Tomorrow's hyper-transmodern aesthetic is not just representative of commodification, but also multiculturalism, democratized techno-modernity, hyper reality, exponential growth, and the forthcoming global transcendence.

Broadly speaking, the Conceptual Art tradition is intimately intertwined with the movement towards transmodern approaches to art. Importantly, we must remember that Conceptual Art effectively disrupted and re-imagined the model of the art object for the first time in 300 years.

Prior to the rise of Conceptual Art and an active questioning of the nature of art itself, the previous epoch of art history was static since the 17th Century and asserted that the artwork should emphasize the aesthetic aspect of life/art to the exclusion of the spiritual and cognitive realm.

Hyper-modernism can essentially be read as an artist working in a hypermodern world or with super modern ideas or themes, but how does OUTER SPACE INSIDE situate itself within art history in this way? The art critic and historian Thomas McEvilley said,

> _"When the Kantian trichotomy fell apart, as Conceptualists banished the aesthetic and raised the cognitive to an elevated authority, so Performance Artists, also banishing the aesthetic, introduced the ethical (or social) faculty into the position of authority."_

It's important to The Most Popular Artist that the transmodern approach is inclusive of the so-called Aristotelian-Kantian trichotomy and seeks the wholeness of the human experience through integral intentions that embrace the life of art and the art of life not only through the philosophy of aesthetics, but also other philosophical ontologies. It is cybernetic in that it views communication and information as being fundamental elements to the Universe.

Although The Most Popular Artist sharpened his teeth postmodern cultural theorist, his practice as an artist is inspired mostly by passion for experimentation and daring mighty things that approach challenging questions from oblique angles.

In some ways The Most Popular Artist represents a millennial return to the avant-garde — a sort of hyper modernist spirit in action. Jean Baudrillard, a prominent French philosopher, called the digitized global consumer capitalistic system "hyper reality," likening postmodern existence to a flickering TV screen: immediate, shifting, and fragmented.

Imagining for a moment what a hyper-modern pop artist would be or what work they would produce — we can imagine that the more controversial, dazzling, flamboyant, audacious, shocking, comprehensive, universal, and pervasive the artwork — the more effective it will be as innovative, vanguard artwork.

Saint Simonian Olinde Rodrigues in his essay " _L'artiste, le savant et l'industriel_ " ("The artist, the scientist and the industrialist", 1825), was the first to make use of the notion of "the avant-garde," and in the essay Rodrigues insists that, "The power of the arts is indeed the most immediate and fastest way to social, political and economic reform."

This notion is very much shared by the American iconoclast John Dewey who also commented that, "The actual work of art is what the product does with and in experience...".

Like Dewey and Rodrigues, The Most Popular Artist believes knowledge, when used in the voice of art, can lead to broad social reform. Art is as Art does, regardless of art object, regardless of substance or form.

There is a connectedness of all things, a universal reality which he is hoping to bring our attention to and harvest for positive impact through OUTER SPACE INSIDE.

The Most Popular Artist is seeking to spark a shift in consciousness worldwide—where people recognize that we — more and more— are all part of an interconnected whole, and that we — more and more — have collective agency as an interconnected whole; and hopefully people are inspired to participate in this art project in a conscious effort to serve mutual thriving for humanity and Spaceship Earth.

This work and much of the work of The Most Popular Artist seems aligned quite closely to transmodernism rather than modernism or postmodernism.

Transmodernism is a fairly new and burgeoning movement where its philosophical views contain elements of both modernism and postmodernism; it has been heralded as "new modernism" and admires avant-garde styles while valuing Integral Theory which amalgamates a synthesis of "pre-modern", "modern" and "postmodern" realities.

In transmodernism, there is a place for both tradition and modernity, and it seeks as a movement to revitalize and modernize tradition rather than destroy or replace it — for instance OUTER SPACE INSIDE seeks to modernize the tradition of mythmaking in the stars, projecting and attaching human meaning to celestial bodies in new ways. In addition, the project is not doing away with property rights, but on the contrary is creating new systems by which property rights can be protected and promulgated in more democratic and incorruptible ways.

The honoring and reverence of antiquity and traditional lifestyles is very important in transmodernism, unlike modernism or postmodernism. Transmodernism criticizes pessimism, nihilism, over-regulation, relativism and the counter-Enlightenment, while embracing the ethos of optimism, absolutism, foundationalism and universalism.

As a movement, transmodernism puts a strong emphasis on spirituality and transpersonal psychology, and certainly both of these elements play a key role in OUTER SPACE OUTSIDE; indeed, there is perhaps no better subject matter besides outer space to capture the experience of transpersonal psychology and spirituality held in common for all of humankind. Regardless of who your God is, what your religion is, and how you identify yourself spiritually – gazing at the stars is conversing with _your_ God. Stargazing unites us in transpersonal embrace with the great mystery of the cosmos.

The Most Popular Artist is on a mission to universalize art by activating the creative spirit that unites us as humans, and he's advancing this mission by imagining, operationalizing, and activating a radically inclusive, transcultural collaborative public art project that arouses one of the most primal mystical experiences that we all share — cosmic splendor.

All of us looking up and out into the stars and the heavens and the great beyond, and discovering the infinite depths and bliss of the soul within. The further we travel within, the further out we seem to go. The further out we look, the more blissful it becomes. The collective unconscious derives from the human experience, and the human experience is firmly rooted on a tiny seed floating through the unknowable fathoms of the final frontier. Outer space is home. We are citizens of the cosmos, the same as the ancient Greeks or Mayans or Romans were.

Unlike its postmodern counterpart, transmodernism criticizes the rejection of worldviews as false or of no importance, and instead places a strong emphasis on globalism and its rainbow culture; promoting the importance of the rich diversity of different cultures and promoting peace and understanding through cultural appreciation. Inclusion rather than exclusion.

Transmodernism embraces a certain worldview on cultural affairs, and is anti-Eurocentric and anti-imperialist, as well as vehemently in favor of Spaceship Earth. Environmentalism, sustainability and ecology are important aspects of transmodern theory and transmodern practice, and not only does transmodernism embrace environmental protection, but it also stresses the importance of community organizing, community engagement, and the use of technological advancements to catalyze such protection through collective community action. If postmodernism serves to master the critique of the problems we face, transmodernism serves to master the potential solutions we counter with.

As you can see, OUTER SPACE INSIDE seems quite closely aligned with the burgeoning transmodern movement.

Undeniably, this work seeks to use art as a way to activate and scale massive transformative positive impact for human society. The artwork seeks to spark billions of human interactions and impressions, and also to mobilize resources in support of Spaceship Earth.

The Most Popular Artist is clearly hoping that this project will generate the funding necessary to invest in other projects that produce positive impact through outer space.

For example, sending communications satellites into orbit designed to provide free and open internet to the rising 1 billion people on the planet who don't yet have access to the internet (mostly in Africa and the Middle East) is a laudable but excessively expensive proposition. What if we could fund this type of mission with resources raised through SpaceClaims.org?

The Most Popular Artist is urging us to make anti-ideology, ideology. So let us promote transcultural communication. Let us put art into the service of positive impact. Above all, The Most Popular Artist wants a more creative, peaceful, and prosperous tomorrowland. The intent is art, designed for action. Art that transcends. Art that brings us together. Art that appropriates the most prosperous elements of law and commerce. Art that appropriates art.

All of us are interlocutors with this artwork, even if you don't want to be; with a project as comprehensive as this ones, and with as many tentacles impacting political, legal, cultural, and economic spheres, there are only participants; and rightfully so. Just as we are all interlocutors with Spaceship Earth and the cosmos beyond, we are all interlocutors with OUTER SPACE INSIDE.

No longer will we look up at the stars and relive only the myths of the Romans and Greeks; instead, we will project our own stories onto the stars, we will remember our own memories, legends from our times, and this ability for each generation to actively participate in outer space property and mineral rights claims in order to produce value in the here and the now becomes a way to connect us with the cosmos, a way to connect heaven and earth, a way to connect the future and the past — a way to reconcile between the cosmos within and the cosmos beyond. A way to collectively produce new ancestral forms of mythology.

Thus, through this artwork, the magic of the cosmos becomes dematerialized, democratized, digitized, and disrupted in personable ways, and the holistic impact of this swell of collective emotional intelligence helps to lift the consciousness of our global mind. Spaceship Earth comes more to the fore — we realize how small our little dot of life is and how important sustainability is. The appeal of OUTER SPACE INSIDE is universal, and rightfully so. It is transmodern art, made by a transmodern artist, using translateral approaches, for transmodern times. 

## **Alternative Systems of Exchange**

Art, with its readiness to break rules, can function as an experimental, discursive space where alternative economic structures can be addressed, including the role of production, consumption, and labor within marketplace systems. There have been many art projects in the last decades which have sought to co-opt the language of commerce without offering alternative solutions, but The Most Popular Artist prefers to focus on the artists who have aimed to create their own economies.

One such example is the project _Time/Bank_ organized by e-flux, which is modeled after the Cincinnati Time Store, an experimental general store created by anarchist and jack-of-all-trades Josiah Warren that operated between 1827 and 1830. Warren created his own type of currency, one directly tied to time itself. Both labor and goods would be recorded as a measurement of time and not be tied to any financial system. _Time/Bank_ , launched by Julieta Aranda and Anton Vidokle in 2010, follows the format of the Time Store, but recasts its alternative economic system as an art project. As with the Time Store, services are exchanged for "hour notes." Reinforcing the role of _Time/Bank_ as a social practice work of art, these hour notes are designed by pioneering text artist Lawrence Weiner. _Time/Bank_ , in contrast to focusing on basic goods and services like the Time Store, is geared toward the creative community with a particular focus on those who do not produce commodities.

Writer and activist Fran Ilich's _Spacebank_ (2011) is an investment bank built on alternative currency which is backed by Ilich's own labor, and which serves to parody traditional capitalist trading structures. _Spacebank_ is based on the fictional currency digital material sunflower, managed by the Digital Material Central Bank. The goal of the bank is to support socially conscious projects. It runs like other banks, offering the opportunity to open accounts and receive a Spacebank debit card.

Another project by Ilich, _Diego de la Vega Coffee Co-op_ (2014), similarly disrupts traditional systems of exchange by producing coffee, which can be traded for alternative currency and time deposits with the goal of connecting uniting anti-capitalist social movements together.

 _The_ þit (2014) by Maíra das Neves and Pedro Victor Brandão used three cryptocurrency mines to create a self-funding model to run a communal park and the activities that the park produced for the public. These mines use algorithms to amass the digital asset, Bitcoin, that can be exchanged for physical currency. The installation was financially self-sustaining and, once dismantled, two of the cryptocurrency mines were given to other cultural initiatives to offer ongoing financial support. _The_ þit addresses how art, which looks to divorce itself from established economic models, must also posit an alternative to art market reliance in order to support its own existence and promotion as art.

OUTER SPACE INSIDE offers reflection about modern-day _laissez-faire_ economics and tech-startup optimism through demonstration and parody. The artistic and performative act of _becoming_ a self-made "Art Tycoon" and "Social-Entrepreneur" through the use of contemporary art production is a transformational and courageous act. The Most Popular Artist is an embodiment of Joseph Schumpeter's theory of "Creative Destruction" in action, and this action — projected both inwards as agent and outwards as impact — is a major component of the work itself, and also the processes employed by its creator.

It's no secret that even Adam Smith acknowledged deep moral ambiguities towards the system of capitalism, and in particular he was remorseful about the major character-types produced by modern capitalist society, most critically — the "landlords."

The Most Popular Artist was not born into a family of wealthy landlords, but through OUTER SPACE INSIDE, through creative praxis and persistent creative inquiry, he has become — ironically — the ultimate landlord — and this accession, both culturally and economically, shall not be without parody from The Most Popular Artist.

As Adam Smith noted, the landlords' role in the economic process has traditionally been passive, and certainly not active and with as much gravitas as expended by The Most Popular Artist while becoming the #1 real-estate broker in the entire universe. The truth is that there are old landlords, and new landlords. The new landlords seem to be more creative. For instance, Ted Turner is helping to preserve huge swaths of territory to protect the American bison from extinction. Conservation efforts aside, real estate continues to exist as perhaps the ultimate capitalist coup, and this fact again makes it ripe for parody. The Most Popular Artist may be the #1 real-estate owner in the Universe, but back on planet earth, NRT LLC is currently the largest real estate brokerage in the United States, boasting 47,700 agents in 790 offices, and with $156.7 billion in sales volume in 2015.

Famous tycoon Warren Buffet owns the second largest residential real estate company in the U.S., with 26,550 agents in 480 offices in 27 states. If we question how is it possible that one man or one partnership can legally control this many homes and have claim to so much property and real estate in the United States, perhaps it becomes less surprising that one man can own all of the stars and asteroids in the sky. It's fair to assume that if The Most Popular Artist wasn't the one capitalizing space property and mineral rights — Warren Buffet would eventually try to do it.

Adam Smith argues that the ability of landlords to reap a revenue solely from ownership of land claims tends to make them indolent and inept, and so they tend to be unable to adapt to accelerating economic and cultural forces, they become late adopters. Actually this seems to be playing out – for instance Warren Buffet famously dismissed Bitcoin and blockchain technologies as a "mirage." A few years later, the Bitcoin economy is now estimated to be worth over $10B.

Smith said that logically, the landlords should be in favor of policies which contribute to the growth of wealth in nations, but instead, landlords have all-too-often fought against pro-growth policies, "because of their own indolent-induced ignorance and intellectual flabbiness." This resonates, because The Most Popular Artist grew up surrounded by wealth in a wealthy community, even though he was squarely in the middle-class, and visiting a mountain lake in Georgia as a kid, it used to always bother him that his family was always there enjoying the lake, but all of the landlords who owned the mansions surrounding the lake never seemed to be there. For his family, it was a place for vacation. For landlords, it was simply their empty vacation-mansion — to be used once or twice per year at most. This is part of the reason why The Most Popular Artist wants to openly invite others to enjoy extraterrestrial real estate alongside instead of just keeping it all for himself and his family. Instead of being the landlord, he wants to be the host of landlords.

The Most Popular Artist is questioning this traditional exchange structure associated with landlords, and also offering a more optimistic solution through blockchain technologies, and yet to do this, he first had to become the ultimate landlord — the galactic lord of the lands. This opportunity to parody landlord _ism_ is one The Most Popular Artist relishes in.

In 1936, cultural theorist, Walter Benjamin, wrote a seminal essay entitled " _The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction_ ," which documented elitism within the art world, and it draws parallel to Adam Smith's critique of the landlords as an aligned form of elitist criticism. Benjamin claimed that reproduction, through printing and other methods, would ultimately lead to the democratization of art because of its lower commodity value and increased accessibility to the masses. The democratization of the means of production and distribution has certainly been one of the key tidal waves of cultural change brought forth by the Internet and digital tools.

In the last century, pop artists, minimalists, performance artists, conceptual artists, fluxus artists, and social practice artists and others have certainly adopted Benjamin's ethos, interpreting his words through a diverse range of media and techniques that have served to undermine concepts of authenticity, authorship and value, and which has ultimately distorted commoditization and thrown wrenches into the machines of traditional systems of exchange.

Roy Lichtenstein and Andy Warhol mass-produced gift shop items with iconic imagery and called it art. Oldenburg proved that anything could and should be art when he opened a store and sold objects for $21.79 — and called it art. Donald Judd and Sol LeWitt exhibited their repetitive forms and handed over control of their arrangement completely to the curator as a form of creative destruction; Allan Kaprow, Marina Abramovic, and the Fluxus artists put on performances in which the audience and not the artist determined their form and meaning derived from the experience. Artists of all stripes, including Warhol, Richter, and Koons, have become renowned for their appropriation, and their use of appropriation as art form as has already been reviewed in previous sections.

Les Levine is an interesting example — a conceptual artist considered a founder of media art in the 1950s and 1960s, but what makes him intriguing is that he considers business and commerce to be art in its purest form. Levine pioneered the use of the mass media – including advertising, public relations, and journalism – as existing as an extension of his art, or even as the art itself. Similar to Seth Siegelaub, Levine has proven that anything can be art so long as it's empowered with public awareness and public distribution, and in this way, Levine has strategically sought to vindicate the art system by withholding what so many art collectors seek – namely, quality objects of permanence.

From the 1970s through the 1990s, the idea of collective authorship intervened with the notion of artistic genius that had been in place since the Renaissance, and this trend has been amplified and empowered by the Internet and is unquestionably at play in OUTER SPACE INSIDE.

## **Social Practice Art**

The trend of democratization and network effects has served to push conceptual art beyond appropriation, pluralism, and postmodernist critique and towards social action. The current pioneers exist as a tapestry of diverse voices that are actively hacking traditional forms and carving out unique pathways that are re-territorializing our collective aesthetic plateaus.

As we have learned, Postmodernism claims to have closed the gap between "high" and "low" culture and "good" and "bad" taste, and yet there is evidence that these distinctions remain and are actively being addressed still today by contemporary art movements – perhaps most notably by Relational Aesthetics and Social Practice Art.

The French art critic Nicolas Bourriaud is who first recognized and documented what is now known as _Relational Aesthetics_. Bourriaud defined the approach as "a set of artistic practices which take as their theoretical and practical point of departure the whole of human relations and their social context, rather than an independent and private space."

Artists such as Daniel Buren and Philippe Parreno are recognized as some of the first pioneers who intentionally and boldly engaged the social process of art making rather than the art object directly, and emphasized the creation of meaning at the point of interaction and participation. This new practice became known as Relational Aesthetics (i.e., social practice art), and resisted commoditization of art through its performative nature, providing both an institutional and modernist critique which continues to flourish within the work of Harrell Fletcher and Miranda July and currently flourishing at educational institutions such as the California College of Arts.

Kara Walker and Felix Gonzalez-Torres are representative of social art's penchant for postcolonial pluralism. Known to give a voice to the voiceless by addressing subjects from multiple perspectives to include the viewpoints of previously underrepresented positions is paramount to their work. A focus on agency in terms of community actions and participant engagement becomes formalized through this type of work, and this engagement with the concept of agency is equally evident in the work of The Most Popular Artist.

In the work of Barbara Kruger and Cindy Sherman, pluralistic ethos draws the audience's attention to the means of production and distribution and its polysemic nature, highlighting the fact that a work of art has infinite readings, and thus — helping participants to resist monolithic master narratives — these too are themes evident in OUTER SPACE INSIDE.

Notably, the philosophical work of Michel Foucault has proven quite influential for The Most Popular Artist. The Most Popular Artist calls himself a future-archaeologist because of Foucault. The Most Popular Artist understands that the flux of our global society often serves to deprive global institutions of their coherent meaning, and from this dazed and confused state — multicultural identities rise up, parodies rise up, experimental play rises up, disruption rises up, serendipity rises up, cross-pollination rises up.

The diverse, ephemeral, globally focused, cross disciplinary, and collaborative nature of The Most Popular Artist's contemporary art practice is informed by postmodernist attitudes, modern attitudes, transmodern attitudes, and experimental attitudes related to socially engaged participatory art forms.

As a practitioner of Relational Aesthetics and Social Practice Art, The Most Popular Artist can be more accurately viewed as the "catalyst" rather than being at the center, and yet in OUTER SPACE INSIDE, because of its controversial format and approach, it's likely that he will remain a subject of discussion, similar to most pop artists or experimentalists.

Social practice is an art medium that focuses on social engagement, inviting collaboration with individuals, communities, and institutions in the creation of participatory art. Artists working in social practice typically seek to co-create their work with a specific audience or propose critical interventions within existing social systems that inspire debate or catalyze social exchange. Thus, social practice artwork focuses on the interaction between the audience, social systems, and the artist through topics such as aesthetics, ecology, psychology, ethics, collaboration, persona, media strategies, economics, politics, technology, pop-culture and activism. The social interaction component inspires, drives, or, in some instances, completes the project, and this socially engaged dynamic is already clearly at play within OUTER SPACE INSIDE.

Although social practice art projects may incorporate traditional studio media, they are realized in a variety of forms such as performance, social activism, or mobilizing communities towards a common goal; and many times social practice art projects — at first blush — look and feel nothing like art.

The Most Popular Artist has worked in this range of art production in the past, and OUTER SPACE INSIDE can certainly be contextualized and approached critically within this range of art theory discussion.

OUTER SPACE INSIDE is an exploration of the disruption and reterritorialization of bureaucratic systems that stretch across the local, national, and supranational levels, and which deal with natural resources, self-governance, and self-regulation. The work is therefore political, ecological, psychological, economic, and certainly legal in scope. The work engages the public domain and the commons as part of the work itself, and offers both institutional critique as well as a solution that transcends global institutions and traditional hegemonic exchange systems altogether. Appropriating all outer space property, and then integrating it into art and auctioning it off in accordance with international law is like throwing fuel onto a fast spreading fire of exponentially advancing technologies and mass media coverage. This is no coincidence.

With community organizing as a tactic and collaborative input actively invited to become part of the artwork, we can look to the influential work of Saul Alinsky — the man whose ideas were widely adapted in the 1960s by student organizers and the major countercultural movements of the day. _Time_ magazine wrote in 1970 that, "It is not too much to argue that American democracy is being altered by Alinsky's ideas."

In his book _, Rules for Radicals_ , Alinsky said:

> _"The job of the organizer is to maneuver and bait the establishment so that it will publicly attack him as a 'dangerous enemy.' The hysterical instant reaction of the establishment will not only validate the organizer's credentials of competency but also ensure automatic popular invitation."_

Theorists and historians will find ripe fruit to bare in the realm of countercultural movements and community organizing when interpreting OUTER SPACE INSIDE and The Most Popular Artist's work.

## **Instructional Art**

Participation in this project requires that patrons follow pathways that have been curated and presented by The Most Popular Artist, and these pathways might be read as instructions or guidelines for further participation. It's certainly not the first time that instructions would be included as part of an art work.

Actually, the strategy of artist offering written instructions and harnessing chance in the realization of artwork has been a hallmark of the conceptual avant-garde, and OUTER SPACE INSIDE demonstrates both of these strategies well. Participants must follow coordinated instructions that propel themselves into chance, and thus — pull the entire work into the realm of chance. The Most Popular Artist doesn't know which person will receive which space claim, and neither do participants — it will depend on the chronological order in which patrons dive into the project, and to what extent they invest.

The modern tactic of removing the execution from the hand of the artist appears in 1919 when Duchamp sent instructions from Argentina for his sister Suzanne and Jean Crotti to make his gift for their April marriage. To create the oddly named wedding present, _Unhappy Ready-Made_ , the couple was told to hang a geometry text on their balcony so that wind could " go through the book [and] choose its own problems..."

This was followed by others, including with the use of technology. In fact, one of the founders of Telematic Art is László Moholy-Nagy, a Hungarian painter and photographer as well as a professor in the Bauhaus school. He was highly influenced by Constructivism and a strong advocate of the integration of technology and industry into the arts, and in 1922 in his work _Telephone Pictures_ , he used a telephone to convey instructions for a painting, representing the first time telecommunications technology would be integrated into art, and questioning the role of a lone artist and a unique art object.

The use of chance can also be traced to Duchamp. Duchamp's first intentional use of chance is evident in the work the _Three Standard Stoppages_ of 1913, created by dropping meter-long threads onto a canvas to generate new units of length that mock the idea of the standard meter.

As a curator, in April 1917 Duchamp installed the First Exhibition of the Society of Independent Artists by using, in effect, two chance procedures. For his New York show of 2,125 works, Duchamp directed that pieces be arranged alphabetically by artist's last name, determining by a lot the letter "R" with which the installation began.

The content of OUTER SPACE INSIDE, and the outcomes, are ultimately determined by a procedure whose results cannot be foreseen, so, as far as The Most Popular Artist is concerned, the process is functionally equivalent to chance.

For non-active participants on the other hand, the experience of OUTER SPACE INSIDE involves an awareness both of what is, and what might have been.

The genesis of instructional art and much of the countercultural avant-garde including relational art and social practice is owed to the art-by-instruction methodology deployed by the experimental artist John Cage in a series of classes given at the New School for Social Research between 1956 and 1960. Cage influenced a whole generation of artists who would develop the performance script into an art form, and lay the groundwork for Happenings and Fluxus movements which in turn influenced Social Practice Art.

Cage encouraged students who already were using chance in their work — such as George Brecht and Jackson Mac Low — and prompted others — such as Allan Karpow, Dick Higgins and Al Hanson — to do so. And his classroom assignments led to instructions for events and performances that yielded some of the most important intermedia activity of the late 1950s and early 1960s.

Out of the Cage class came the famous Fluxus event cards, an evocative form whose power is best appreciated in the 1959-66 works of George Brecht published by George Maciunas in a box called _Water Yam_. While most Fluxus event cards are performance scripts, _Water Yam_ also includes instructions for the creation of objects — obscure directions whose realization left almost all creative agency to the realizer.

For example, in such works as _Six Exhibits_ and _Egg_ , Brecht applied to objects and situations the improvisational jazziness that is the hallmark of a Fluxus performance.

Yoko Ono proves to be one of the most pioneering "instructional art" artists. Her practice was born from the creation of objects from instructions. Although she never studied with Cage, her husband at the time, composer Toshi Ichiyanagi, was in the New School class with Cage, and Ono was an active participant vicariously, and remains to this day a pioneering artist.

In her 1961 exhibition at George Maciunas' Gallery, Ono displayed works of art in the process of realization, made from instructions to be carried out by visitors. _Painting to be Stepped On_ , for instance, called for viewers to walk on a canvas laid on the gallery floor, and _Smoke Painting_ was to be realized by visitors burning the canvas with cigarettes and watching the smoke rise. In her May 1962 exhibition in Tokyo, she simply displayed only the instructions on sheets of white paper. In this way, noetic objects — ideas — were exhibited as verbal directions central to the artwork.

Yoko Ono's instruction book _Grapefruit_ , first published in Japan in 1964 highlights the tension between ideation and material realization, because imagination gives rise to physical action by which the artwork, and the artist, stake a further claim in the world.

Beyond the broader conceptual arts movement, Instructional Art is interesting historically because of its evolution into a rigorous sculptural practice with Minimalist fabrication tendencies, as well as into relational art and social practice such as the work of Fletcher and July's _Learning to Love You More_ (2002-2009) where they used an Internet blog to deliver instructions and curate the participatory artwork that was submitted.

Sculpture has a long history of art works being created by an artist using maquettes and maintaining managerial oversight over craftsmen who would actually do the casting or carving according to the artist's blueprints and instructions. Joan Miró is one example of a contemporary sculptor who has worked extensively from oral or written instructions.

When Judd, Robert Morris or Dan Flavin had sculptures fabricated from construction drawings, they were striking a blow against the focus put on the artist's hand and the central position held by the subjectivity of the maker. In the same way, The Most Popular Artist is striking a blow against modern territories and creative producers. In Minimalist art practice, similar to Hollywood films or other collaborative creative industries, instructions and anonymous fabrication imposes a distance between the artist and the realized artwork. The role of the artist transforms from maker to conceiver, and The Most Popular Artist believes this to be a role worth perfecting and taking seriously, while still seeking to achieve the creative control of an auteur.

No doubt, The Most Popular Artist has clearly been influenced by the pioneering work of Cage, Seth Siegelaub, DeBord, Klein, Levine, Duchamp, and July and Fletcher among many others, but there are certainly some recent contemporary examples worthy of mention in relation to OUTER SPACE INSIDE and the role of NGO-based collaboration projects that are pushing the boundaries of art. Two such projects will be covered in the next sections, including Moriko Mori's Faou Foundation, and Lowry Burgress's Moon Arts project.

Both of these projects rely on institutional engagement, collaboration, and a healthy mixture of technology, as well as a kind of curatorial control and oversight by the founding artist whose vision started the project and who serves as chief organizer to maximize compelling collaboration. Interestingly, both projects are very much focused on the theme of earth-consciousness, similar to OUTER SPACE INSIDE.

## **The Faou Foundation — Moriko Mori**

Mariko Mori is an acclaimed artist whose work has been acquired by museums and private collectors worldwide. Mori gained recognition for her interactive installation WAVE UFO, which debuted at Kunsthaus Bregenz in Austria and was included in the 2005 Venice Biennale. Her current work focuses on a world in which human beings are one with nature, wherein the rhythms of humanity coincide with that of the natural environment. Her most recent projects are site-specific works that interact with their natural surroundings. Critically, she created a cultural heritage organization in 2010 called The Faou Foundation.

This is a collaborative organization, and the impressive board of directors is led by Mori but is comprised of an international group of cultural leaders from diverse fields.

The foundation's mission is to create a series of harmonious, site-specific art installations around the world, each of which will provide lasting testimony to the natural beauty of its surroundings. These permanent works will help promote a deeper understanding of humankind's connection with the natural environment, and serve for preserving and revitalizing the communities that will host these installations.

Through the gifting of six site-specific installations, spread across the six habitable continents, Faou introduces the idea of "earth-consciousness", which emphasizes the knowledge that we are sharing our surroundings with the earth. Upon completion, Faou's six installations will be spread across six unique ecological settings, together forming a global grid, and will serve to illustrate how these diverse places are interconnected.

Faou Foundation seeks to call attention to the rich heritage of each recipient community, help foster ideas concerning sustainability initiatives, and to nurture a creative and ongoing dialectic that focuses on issues of art, local culture and the natural environment. The name "Faou" is a term coined by Mariko Mori that means "eternal light." Faou Foundation exists to increase awareness of the Earth's natural treasures and to promote the idea, through permanent public art installations, that humanity and nature are of equal value.

The Faou website announces Faou is not only an art foundation, but rather, that the organization "employs art" as a means to conserve natural resources, celebrate local cultures, and encourage research opportunities in various scientific and cultural disciplines.

> _If human history has taught us anything, it is that our natural environment is both powerful and fragile. Faou exhibits our respect for nature's beauty, and furthermore, recognizes ways in which humanity can dedicate its efforts for the purposes of the earth's protection, extended harmony, and a greater earth-consciousness for all._

## **The Moon Arts Project — Lowry Burgress**

Lowry Burgess is an internationally renowned conceptual and environmental artist and educator who has received awards from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the National Institute of Arts and Letters, the Guggenheim Foundation, the Rockefeller Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Massachusetts Artists Foundation, the Kellogg Foundation and the Berkmann Fund. His artwork can currently be found in museums and archives in many countries; especially those that focus on art and science.

He has been an educator for over forty-five years including affiliations with Carnegie Mellon and MIT, and has pioneered space art and social activism art.

After the destruction of the Buddhas in Bamiyan, Afghanistan in 2001, he authored the " _Toronto Manifesto, The Right to Human Memory_ " that received worldwide endorsement. One of the provisions of the Manifesto has led to the creation of a new global value/incentive for the protection of cultural sites throughout the world. This new value/incentive is in the process being implemented by UNESCO and the World Bank. Having an extended involvement with art developed upon space exploration, his 1989 piece entitled " _Boundless Cubic Lunar Aperture_ " became the first piece of art taken into space by NASA aboard the Space Shuttle Discovery STS 29.

Lowry's life-long work, _The Quiet Axis_ , is a visionary realignment of the earth and heavens so that new relationships may be ordered to establish a new framework for consciousness.

Burgress believes that we need to reawaken the sense of sublime wonder fundamental to our relationship with the cosmos and create meaningful artifacts that extend the reach of the human footprint.Similar to the Faou Foundation, The Moon Arts Project is led by Burgess, but involves a cross-disciplinary team of international artists, scientists, designers and engineers involved with emerging media, new and ancient technologies, as well as hybrid processes — and together they have developed _The MoonArk_ , which contains elements representing all the Arts and Humanities (art, architecture, design, music, drama, ballet, and poetry) – all engaging the most advanced sciences, engineering, technologies, and material science from the nano- and micro- scales towards the infinite scales, including ongoing deep space radio-wave transmissions.

This MoonArk will take the form of four elaborately constructed chambers that each hold two engraved sapphire disks, metal sculptures, microcapsules containing evidence of life on earth, high resolution dye sublimation imagery on metal foil, and a variety of information in the form of data, imagery, and physical traces. Together, these four chambers will occupy no more than 6 ounces of payload – an extreme technical feat. A twin of these chambers will also be constructed to be exhibited on Earth, and the artwork is scheduled to be sent to the moon in Q4 of 2016.

The project is described on the website as follows:

> _MoonArk is the life of light, singing to the moon in all its glorious rays, an artistic inspiringly homage to the moon where it becomes a Cultural Heritage Site that anticipates the journey of humanity into luminous outer space._
> 
> _From the" small stage that is earth," consider the life of light that shines through the entire MoonArk, a pentagonal structure comprised of four independent but interrelated exoskeletal chambers: Earth, Metasphere, Moon, and Ether. The conceptual structure for the chambers describes a narrative of outward progression–a journey or quest in classic narrative style of leaving home, journeying toward a goal, achieving the goal, and then journeying onward rather than returning home._
> 
> _The sculpture will be shuttled to the moon from Cape Kennedy in 2016 on an Astrobotic Robotic Lunar mission aboard a Space X Falcon 9 rocket, and exist there for potentially billions of years. It contains elements representing all the Arts and Humanities (art, architecture, design, music, drama, ballet, and poetry) –all engaging the most advanced sciences, engineering, technologies, and material science–from the nano- and micro- scales, to the infinite scales including ever ongoing deep space radio-wave transmissions._
> 
> _The MoonArk is comprised of four independently themed chambers. Each chamber encloses an elaborate composition of platinum-etched sapphire disks, hyper-colored metal murals, minerals and biological samples, and micro payloads such as nano art and 1mm microchips, and an array of artifacts that provide a contemporary view of humanity at the time of launch. In some ways, each chambers serves as a time capsule; yet in other ways, they collectively provide a non-encyclopedic synthesis of the many dimensions of being human._
> 
> _The four aluminum exoskeletal chambers have a cross-sectional pentagonal design. The pentagonal structure has geometric relation to the icosahedron, whose shape is representative of phytoplankton, basic life forms of our oceans – and contained within the Earth Chamber. Each facet of the exoskeleton is based on the proportions and ratios of the golden triangle, demonstrating universal geometries of organic structures. Each chamber is comprised of a three-part assembly including interlocking left and right halves and a cap that provides a mounting to the Moon lander deck._
> 
> _Chamber 1: Earth: In the Earth Chamber, we see a section of our planet's surface (a slice of a 42mm diameter sphere proportional to the 9.5mm Moon in the third chamber) at the bottom of the sculpture. Its volume is described with lines of latitude and longitude angled so that the central line of the stacked sculpture is also the Lunar Orbital Plane. The planet volume is surrounded with a trumpet-shaped segment of the Earth/Moon gravity well. Several ballistic parabolas describe human flight; beautiful arcs never quite escaping gravity's pull. A single contrasting arc describes a successful orbit of the Earth and transfer orbit into a lunar trajectory. The diamond in this chamber is mounted in the hub of the bottom diamond disk, reflecting our starting point as well as the persistence of our Earth-bound nature._
> 
> _Chamber 2: Metasphere: In the Metasphere Chamber, the lunar flight path passes through the Lagrange point. A Lagrange point is a position in an orbital configuration where a small object affected only by gravity can theoretically be part of a constant-shape pattern with two larger objects. In other words, they are points where forces are balanced and an object finds a stable orbit. The portion of the sculpture in this chamber is simple and symmetrical, with the diamond and setting providing the focal point._
> 
> _Chamber 3: Moon: In the Moon Chamber, the flight-path reaches lunar orbit, and then lands at the pole (where the rover will land to look for water). The Moon is depicted with a 9.5mm sphere modeled in wire. Like the Earth, it is tilted according to the Lunar Orbital Plane. Using the Moon as a base, multiple flight paths depart the Moon heading out of the Earth/Moon neighborhood. The diamond is set in the center of the wire-frame sphere representing the Moon; our first destination, and departure point for greater exploration._
> 
> _Chamber 4: Ether: In the Ether Chamber, the flight paths from the Moon divide and cross the empty space within the chamber, separating and exiting "through" the top diamond disk. The diamond will be mounted just below the top disk, to mark humanity's departure from our own backyard. It marks our progression as a spacefaring species, not limited by the effects of gravity or our own imaginations._

## **Discussion of the Work**

###  **Claiming and Selling the Observable Universe**

 _"The employment of telematic hypermedia is no less than a desire to transcend linear thought by reaching for a free-flowing consciousness of associative structures. It then becomes the artist's imperative to explore every aspect of technology that might empower the viewer through direct physical interaction to collaborate in the production of meaning and the creation of authentic artistic experience."_ ~ Roy Ascott

In the tradition of Conceptual Arts, The Most Popular Artist's claim of ownership over all outer space claims including property and mineral rights on asteroids, planets, and stars— and then making these available to the public as art, is art, simply because of his process of intention, orchestration, compilation, and presentation of the entire project. The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy states that:

> _"Central to the philosophy of conceptual art is the provocative spirit of the project under investigation – conceptual art throws down the gauntlet by challenging us to reconsider every aspect of artistic experience, and it may well be up to philosophy to pick it up and address some of the questions conceptual art makes its business to raise. Conceptual art actively aims to be thought-provoking, stimulating and inspiring, and if only for that reason, philosophers interested in art should not pass it by unaffected."_

This artwork seeks to lift The Most Popular Artist into the intended dimension of _"tycoon'ship_ " — in other words, The Most Popular Artist seeks to become a self-funded captain of creative industry through OUTER SPACE INSIDE, and therefore the work is about re-materialization as much as it is deterritorialization. It is about re-territorializing as much as it is about de-materialization. The Most Popular Artist is presenting both himself and the work as anti-ideology ideology; anti-imperialist imperialism. It remains to be seen the evolution his practice will take, going from the people's artist to the role of the anti-tycoon tycoon.

Through the staging of what is in effect a mass media happening or "action event" via the global digital economy, The Most Popular Artist is paying homage to the Fluxus movement and giving props to the brave conceptualism that has been the hallmark of some of the most progressive vanguard artists in history. As homage, he is a messenger from the future, summoning culture – a water bearer and chairman of the cosmic board of directors.

The work itself serves to expand the space in which art unfolds using the infinite nature of the cosmos. He believes, yet he believes not in producing the ideology of anti-ideology. OUTER SPACE INSIDE demonstrates an extreme openness as a space for the art of the future to flow in, though, and from, while also embodying a sense of entrepreneurial imperialism that is the hallmark of the captains of industry throughout history, and a badge of honor for manifest destiny and the techno-optimistic _laissez-faire_ capitalism of contemporary culture-producers most popularized in Silicon Valley and Hollywood.

The Most Popular Artist has a layered sensibility that encompasses many forms and styles – infinitely complex just like most every human being is, but with the distinction of being well-read and with a knack for both communicating and facilitating creative projects, leading teams of diverse masterminds and steering the ship towards collective goals that showcase a massive transformative purpose. The Most Popular Artist is artist, and curator, and agent, and venture — and this fact means The Most Popular Artist is similar to many of the world's top pop stars and tycoons. Horizontal and vertical integration is a mode both in the realm of business, and in the realm of cultural production, including art.

With this knowledge and understanding, The Most Popular Artist embraces his role as a vanguard artist, and wishes to fully engage with the ephemera produced from today's collaboratively mass-produced culture, embracing expendability and blurring the line between fact and fiction, art and commerce, real and virtual, physical object and digital object, the cosmos within and the cosmos without, but even then – the cosmos within. OUTER SPACE INSIDE has intentionally been situated as a transdisciplinary and multi-layered work of hyper-art. It's an onion project, and a cultural theorists dream.

Is OUTER SPACE INSIDE environmental art? Yes. Is it space art? Yes. Is it instructional art? Yes. Is it commercial art? Yes. Is it appropriation art? Yes. Is this universal appropriation art? Yes. Is it also counter-appropriation art? Yes. Is it conceptual art? Yes. Is it a public intervention? Yes. Is it activism? Yes. Is it institutional critique? Yes. Is it a happening? Yes. Is it social practice art? Yes. Is this Performance Art? Yes. Is this book art? Yes. Is it Earth art? Yes. Is it a permanent installation? Yes. Is it cybernetic art? Yes. Is it telematic art? Yes. Is it participatory art? Yes. Is it transmodern art? Yes. Is it interactive art? Yes. Is it a spectacle in the vein of the Situationists? Yes. Is it transpersonal art? Yes. Is this a parody that justifies the fair use and unequivocal appropriation of the original? Yes. Is this a transformative work of art? Yes. Is this really happening and is it legally binding? Yes. Is this an example of culture hacking? Yes. Is this a form of transmodern recuperation? Yes. Is this anti-imperialism imperialism? Yes. Does this art create new information, new aesthetics, and new insights? Yes. Is this OUTER SPACE INSIDE? Yes.

Clearly his knowledge of art history, art theory, and philosophy has been very influential on The Most Popular Artist's practice, and certainly these inputs inform his work both conceptually and aesthetically. Marcel Duchamp, Cage, Sherry Levine and Richard Prince's work using appropriation have certainly provided the morphological firmament for The Most Popular Artist's practice, but it also incorporates a cornucopia of other styles and creative premises.

OUTER SPACE INSIDE is tautological and is an analytic proposition designed to define art in the hyper-modern age. Joseph Kosuth gives us a well-received contemporary definition of art when he says:

> _"Art is an analytical proposition of context, thought, and what we do that is intentionally designated by the artist by making the implicit nature of culture, of what happens to us, explicit — internalizing its 'explicitness' (making it again, 'implicit') and so on, for the purpose of understanding that is continually interacting and socio-historically located. These words, like actual works of art, are little more than historical curiosities, but the concept becomes a machine that makes the art beneficial, modest, rustic, contiguous, and humble."_

Designed to embrace and hack the socio-cultural market-processes that surround digital art objects, SpaceClaims.org and OUTER SPACE INSIDE exist as a platform intended to perpetually produce transpersonal space. The Most Popular Artist is seeking to positively impact current and future generations by mobilizing around mutually-beneficial Spaceship Earth initiatives — i.e., great collaborate works guided by the U.N.'s 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). In this way The Most Popular Artist integrates the physical art object to the noetic art object; atoms become bits, and bits become atoms.

Real space/art isn't. Playing the role of a systems architect, The Most Popular Artist is attempting to set up a creative system for perpetual transpersonal art production that taps into the intuitive value of the cosmos that we all share, and as discussed earlier — he calls this art machine a socio-cosmograph.

"Ideas alone can be works of art," Sol LeWitt explained in his epic " _Sentences on Conceptual Art_." Ideas "need not be made physical," he says. "A work of art may be understood as a conductor from the artist's mind to the viewer's."

So what gravel doth condensate in the firmament of The Most Popular Artists mind? It seems that The Most Popular Artist is concerned with daring mighty things and challenging the power structures of the art world by openly seeking to become a galactic art tycoon.

To really tap into the intention itself – imagine massive phantasmagorical plasmatic neurons firing in a fury of rapture and awe-inducing splendor on a transcosmic scale – gardens of cellular automation humming with life and love and pure consciousness, nursery galaxies radiating with the eruption of hopeful anticipation pulsing and dancing to the beat of consciousness contained within matter. This is OUTER SPACE INSIDE.

### **Becoming a Galactic Art Tycoon**

It is often through the outrageous and extremely bold gestures that humanity rises to breakthrough into new dimensions of possibilities and freedoms, more peace, more harmony and more prosperity for all. The chances of this happening are exponentially multiplied when artists and tycoons work together to achieve mutual outcomes, and it's multiplied further when the artist becomes the tycoon.

This, as has been mentioned, is a core aspect of this entire art project. The Most Popular Artist wants to build an international art factory — an art empire that serves Spaceship Earth, including people prosperity and planet. Can the Most Popular Artist sell one work of art that elevates his studio into a class of historic major studio operations such as Andy Warhol, Jeff Koons, or even George Lucas? This is the very question that The Most Popular Artist has set out to answer in and through OUTER SPACE INSIDE.

The Most Popular Artist wants to use art to generate honor, wealth, and influence in order to re-empower the individual, and through this popular Robin-hood type of action, he hopes to become a popular artist, and he hopes to become a galactic art tycoon. This intention is based on a desire to be a catalyst for angel investment, philanthropy, and social activism on a grand scale. It stems from a cybernetic impulse to become a "steersman" for humanity's destiny, and the destiny of Spaceship Earth. Positive impact is the aim of these desires. It's fair to assume that the more positive impact that gets created, the more honor, wealth, and influence will naturally follow, and thus accelerate the positive impact vectors in this kind of feedback loop.

To jumpstart this feedback loop, The Most Popular Artist has taken the unimaginable, determined, and persistent steps to situate OUTER SPACE INSIDE as a cohesive, transformative, and historically significant artwork that transcends global law, global economics, and global culture. In doing so, The Most Popular Artist thrusts himself into the history books, seemingly by fiat; and one can refer to the pure tradition of laissez-faire capitalism or the puritanical imperialism of manifest destiny to discover that the pathways to prominence that he has chosen are actually quite classical and nostalgic in form.

At first blush, all of this is being done in the style of a hacker or a "pirate of Silicon Valley." We Americans have always loved our pirates after all. From colonial times to the present — Americans are proud of freedom and liberty, and still want to believe in the American Dream born in the garage and the possibility of a struggling artist using ingenuity, stubborn persistence, creativity, and a whole lot of gravitas to pull himself up by the bootstraps and get ahead in the marketplace of ideas.

Indeed, that's the absolute truth with this project. The Most Popular Artist was not born into the wealthy landlord class. The Most Popular Artist did not attend private schools or ivy league universities, but comes from faithful, hard-working, middle-class people in the southern U.S. The Most Popular Artist clearly still believes in the American Dream, and he believes everyone should have the opportunity to believe in the American Dream, even if they're not American citizens. The ideals that we respect so much that make up the core of the American Dream can be adapted and embraced by people from different cultures around the world, and this is a major aim for OUTER SPACE INSIDE, and the reason that it's designed to mobilize resources around global grand challenges and Spaceship Earth initiatives – it's this desire to accelerate prosperity for all. The best ideals of the American Dream should be applied to all of humanity. In contemporary life where we are not merely citizens of nations, but of the cosmos, The American Dream should become the Cosmic Dream — the Cosmopolitan Dream — the Human Dream.

And so what is the spirit of the contemporary American dream? Look no further than the most valuable private company in the world. Apple, Inc. Founded by an eccentric hippy who didn't even graduate college, and yet succeeded in democratizing personal computing and inspiring us to make a dent in the Universe. The Most Popular Artist was clearly listening and taking the advice of Steve Jobs. We all remember the essence of the Apple brand:

> _"Here's to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. They're not fond of rules. And they have no respect for the status quo. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them. About the only thing you can't do is ignore them. Because they change things. They push the human race forward. And while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do." ~Rob Siltanen, TBWA\Chiat\Day_

In this context, the actions of The Most Popular Artist must be examined not only from the standpoint of traditional art movements, but also examined through the lens of creative destruction, entrepreneurship, social-entrepreneurship, design, and universal laissez-faire capitalism of which hyper-modern art is now borne and inextricably linked.

Since childhood, The Most Popular Artist has always sought to become an artist and entrepreneur of distinction – a true seeker. He grew up wanting to make movies, a mythmaker — a captain of creative industry. He grew up admiring the directors, but early on he came to appreciate the real auteurs – the artists who served as writer, director, actor AND producer of their works always seemed to be creating the best or most interesting work. The musicians who wrote their own material and performed it live in front of audiences were always way more respectful than the over-produced robotic commodities of much popular music. Auteurs often operated outside of the system, or even better, they hijacked the system for their own purposes. George Lucas, for example, is a personal hero for this reason. He made art on his own terms, with one foot inside the establishment, and one foot outside the establishment.

The Most Popular Artist recognized early on that the role of entrepreneurship and business was critical to the most epic creative endeavors worthy of top admiration. The ability to accept and harness personal celebrity for positive outcomes will also become important for this work to succeed. With this knowledge, OUTER SPACE INSIDE furthers The Most Popular Artist's quest for ultimate creative control and impact, which he considers to be a core responsibility and an admirable goal of any ethical artist.

The intent is that The Most Popular Artist exists in people's minds as an amalgam of performative zones — he is an artist, a social-entrepreneur, an activist, an actor, an executive producer, a venture capitalist, an angel investor, a philanthropist, a celebrity, a self-made man, a ladies' man, a scholar, and a jokester and a gentleman. A living example of the American Dream — a galactic diplomat – a self-made art tycoon — played out on the stage of contemporary life.

Above all, The Most Popular Artist self-identifies himself as a creative steward — with the goal being to maximize stewardship for the planet, stewardship for peaceful human fellowship, and stewardship for our collective future. If not for this stewardship, the universe and our great creator would not have developed this opportunity for The Most Popular Artist to bring forth. The Most Popular Artist gives thanks and gratitude daily to the great cosmic gardener of all life in the Universe, and he seeks daily for divine guidance.

The Most Popular Artist embraces the fact that in order to achieve maximum impact, the creative producer requires vast capital resources, and this requires the gravitas to successfully create capital out of thin air and perform with agency in the legal, economic, and policy realms. After all — great art deserves great investment.

Although The Most Popular Artist was not born into top-tier money or wealth — it is indeed true that he has been refining his ability to generate and capitalize value-creation opportunities across domains for decades. The Most Popular Artist has raised millions of dollars of venture capital for other tech startup ventures, including MegaBots, Inc. – a league of giant, human-piloted robot combat.

As with many entrepreneurial endeavors, he has tried and failed dozens of times, and most people would call his behavior downright crazy to keep getting back up after getting knocked down so many times.

Authenticity, for The Most Popular Artist, means staying true to the dreams that were put in his heart. On the outside and in the natural, it seems absolutely crazy and naïve to presume that an individual from modest means could change the world and produce such a massive positive impact on Spaceship Earth by pulling himself up by the bootstraps and transforming himself into a galactic art tycoon. Seriously? When is the last time art was used to create wealth for the masses and positive impact for the world's bottom 1%? How many times do you remember an artist selling art for millions of dollars while still being alive? Indeed, it is precisely this rare and dauntless goal that The Most Popular Artists has set out to accomplish, and with your help, we can make the impossible — possible.

The act and production of becoming a galactic art tycoon presents an interesting institutional critique. What if everyday people could purchase stars in order to donate stars to permanent art collections? What if these assets helped sustain art institutions while simultaneously challenging the relevancy of those same institutions? What if the assets were channeled into the U.N.'s 17 sustainable development goals to help drive Spaceship Earth initiatives in the here and now? All of these activities are included in the grand plan, but it remains to be seen if this project has legs or if it will fizzle.

The cosmos is how we find ourselves, as individuals and as a species. As such, OUTER SPACE INSIDE is designed to engender multiple and countless narrative readings. Macrocosmically, this work is about the power of humanity to tap into the secrets of the great beyond (embracing our collective spiritual source); microcosmically this work is about the power of humanity to expand microcosmically to contain the Universe (exercising our collective spiritual muscles). The truth is that major cultural industries are still quite unidirectional despite the omnidirectional nature of the Internet Age, and this includes any established system such as the art world, Hollywood, or Silicon Valley. Peering into the transactional nature of art and commerce is a major contribution of this artwork.

The Most Popular Artist wants to focus our attention on the cosmos as a heterotopia that is inclusive, aspirational, free, and peaceful, and by shifting the world's attention to this amazing reality, hopefully the world will embrace a new art tycoon on the stage of life so that he can continue to contribute something of worth to current and future generations and make a living doing it as The Most Popular Artist.

### **The Tycoon Plateau**

Records are falling across the art world as the richest investors keep getting richer. The top 400 billionaires have added about $275 billion in wealth this year to May 27, boosting their worth to $4.3 trillion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. The 20 richest Russians have fared even better, gaining about 15 percent to $210 billion.

A Picasso fetched $179.4 million from an unidentified bidder on May 11, the most ever for a painting at auction. A Gauguin reportedly changed hands for a record $300 million in a private sale three months earlier.

With 19th and early 20th century Russian works harder to find, why not invest in outer space art and outer space property and mineral rights claims? Why not invest in the Spaceclaims Blockchain?

Artists and tycoons need each other. Always have. In September of 2016 the Washington Post led with this headline, "New private museum showcases Dutch tycoon's art collection." The past repeats itself. Tycoons are the lifeblood of the art world.

It's easy for us in America to all to grasp the rise of the creative tycoon amidst our contemporary global culture, and we only need to study the evolution of art and the art world in the modern era in relation to its own publicity to bear witness to a parallel progressional form — without tycoons through the ages, much art today wouldn't even exist. The ultimate pursuit of inquiry involves becoming that which one is inquiring about.

To become a tycoon, The Most Popular Artist must sharpen his tradecraft as such, and this means not only developing skills as a creative producer, but also sharpening his skills as a publicist in service to the craft itself, and oftentimes this ability to tell stories across public media becomes the craft itself. In this way, The Most Popular Artist envisions a galactic art tycoon as something like a cosmopolitan social-entrepreneurial pop artist tech celebrity. A true captain of arts and industry, meant to inspire people about the possibilities of the Human Dream.

Looking at how art has been promoted and publicized through the modern era, we see that in the 1940s there was a focus on vanguard artwork, where the object itself was the focus, and then gradually the public interest became more concerned with the vanguard lifestyles of artists through the 1960s. This sense of Bohemian hippy-life seemed to allow for performative freedom of expression and the flowering of forms that emerged from the countercultural movement — and this is something that The Most Popular Artist has nostalgia for, and which he believes can be reignited as a great collaboration, similar to the Renaissance or Enlightenment.

In the 1980s, the focus of art publicity and popular reception shifted away from the eccentric and free lifestyles of artists, and shifted towards a focus on the economies of vanguard consumption and production, perhaps best exemplified by the Internet, Sotheby's Institute of Art, and good ole' Rock and Roll.

Artists such as Jeff Koons and Gerhard Richter, for example, have become contemporary art tycoons by hacking together concepts and mixed aesthetic codes and genres, displacing existing meaning in structures and creating new ones. Richter's art follows the examples of Picasso and Jean Arp in undermining the concept of the artist's obligation to maintain a single cohesive style, and it seems to be working; from 2012-2015 he sold three paintings alone that brought in over $110 million.

To put it plainly, in a contemporary age where media is pervasive, any artist and any form of art IS and WILL BE affected by media and public perceptions, and therefore The Most Popular Artist can't ignore the transpersonal shared experience that pervasive media allows for as a unique aspect of his work — indeed, this power to produce impact with art AND through art is within the purview of critique showcased within OUTER SPACE INSIDE.

As we progress forward into a more and more myopic culture, taste becomes more diverse and consensus becomes more difficult, and without a way to measure inherent quality in what is purely subjective, the only certainty — the currency of the creative work itself — becomes money, and the art's valuation. The Most Popular Artist knows this perfectly, and expects that setting world records as the world's largest participatory art project should also make OUTER SPACE INSIDE the most valuable and expensive work of art in human history. The entire aim of the project is to sell the stars to generate funds for the U.N.'s 17 sustainable development goals and thus benefit all of us collectively, and what art could be more valuable than Spaceship Earth? Just based on the value of a single asteroid mining operation, this artwork is worth in the range of $100 Trillion currently, and likely 1000X this amount.

Therefore, the argument about what is art and what isn't art is solved, and the question about what art is better or worse than other art is also seemingly solved through this purely economic empirical lens. This logic proves that anything that somebody has sold as art, IS unequivocally — real art. Whatever works of art generate lots of money makes it really good art. Like or not, this is the reality of the system that The Most Popular Artist has set out to disrupt — with your help!

Abstraction and conscious awareness are dynamic tendencies. Throughout time, including the Renaissance, the importance of the mingling between tycoons and artists cannot be fully enumerated. Just take Andy Warhol as an example — wasn't Warhol's art itself captured in the hype and public image and happenings around him — expressed in the public psyche as Andy Warhol being some kind of mysterious art tycoon? Isn't this also the case in the modern era with Jeff Koons and his work? Isn't it also the case with George Lucas?

The truth is that wealth and resources and influence is a means to an end, and the mission of The Most Popular Artist is to mobilize resources for positive impact and ensure that we're investing in people and experiences that bring us together and make us better in the service of humanity. He may become an asteroid mining pioneer in the process, but this is purely a manifestation of an active creative praxis.

Generating capital resources that serve other people's ideas, startups, art projects, and philanthropic efforts in order to maximize positive outcomes for Spaceship Earth is not only worthwhile — it's fun.

However, this type of platform is a huge responsibility, and The Most Popular Artist recognizes that duty of public celebrity comes alongside these requirements – and the reason is also clear. People love to watch heroes overcome circumstances and achieve greatness while seeking to make the world a better place, but they also love to see successful and greedy people stumble and fail. We have way too many of the second types of stories, and far too little of the first type of story.

When the art itself concerns itself with celebrity, then the artist is able to better control the experience of the artwork and its transpersonal embrace by global culture and global economies.

The life and actions of The Most Popular Artist are his oeuvre. They are also the result of a _form_ , but a form that didn't come only from the artist, but that came to the artist through the imagination — the source of divine truth.

OUTER SPACE INSIDE taps into some of the biggest metaphysical questions humanity has been struggling with for ages such as: How do we access this divine field of possibility? How do we become the future that we want to see? What destiny doth wait for those who will but acquiesce in genuine and authentic terms to the epistemological realm of pure imagination and bliss? The great ones have shown us the way, and yet each of us walks a unique path.

If we seek to become the change we wish to see, The Most Popular Artist will march onwards towards the stewardship of celebrity'ism and living the life of a galactic art tycoon, and he will seek to spread freedom and peace and love as he can along the way, serving as a diplomat on behalf of the future.

If we were living in more ancient times his approach might be described as performance philosophy, but in transmodernity, it becomes something like a factual viral comic book story on an epic scale; a story that can be retold again and again throughout the ages, except with a bit of magic baked into it for every generation. Sometimes I imagine a kid inheriting an asteroid claim from his grandfather 200 years from now and him selling it to put himself through college or buy a home or marry the robot AI of his dreams.

Celebrity has been addressed by The Most Popular Artist before because of the performativity of his approach to life, and his unique experience as an aspiring artist and entrepreneur. He's practiced a wide array of the media arts – including an early career that spans across media platforms such as newspapers, broadcast cable networks, independent film, radio, podcasting, video games, and through Silicon Valley tech startups that harness exponentially advancing technologies such as AI and robotics. The Most Popular Artist has been featured in countless newspapers and magazines for these exploits, and yet he is by no means currently a celebrity. He understands that publicity should be embraced with open arms as a platform for good.

In the 4th Century BC a philosopher named Diogenes of Sinope designed his life to be a performance of philosophy and because of this, he's considered to be the first true "conceptual artist" on scholastic record, as well as the first true "performance artist." Disrupting habitual motivation systems through the absurd was a hallmark of Diogenes, and something The Most Popular Artist aspires to.

The contemporary conceptual artist and philosopher Jonathon Keats (also based in the Bay Area) has developed quite a reputation for running his "thought experiments" as philosophical art, whether it be copywriting his own mind to get a 75-year life extension or making pornography videos for plants — the work of Keats is certainly salient to OUTER SPACE INSIDE.

Universalizing art is similarly profound to universalizing philosophy because it serves to reset boundaries and dissolve the limitations of ontological frames. This allows people to realize that we literally are the universe in action, and this simple and primal remembrance serves to spark faith within us, reigniting our passions and attuning ourselves to the great divine will.

Ultimately, the ability of The Most Popular Artist to hack culture using the Internet is pivotal to his ability to actuate the positive impact that will support the rewardingly successful career that he seeks. Truth be told, living the life of a contemporary artist or bootstrapping social-entrepreneur often time means that the money is nonexistent.

When he was in art school, The Most Popular Artist transformed himself into a creative super-hero called Actionaut. Actionaut claimed the Southern Cross constellation and the news media covered the story, and this work serves as part of the precursor to OUTER SPACE INSIDE — not only a legal test, but a cultural test.

Actionaut's origin story is linked with the stars like so many of the world's great mythological stories – but the key difference is that in the past, first a hero had to became a god among men before being idolized in the eternal night sky, but in the case of Actionaut, his origin began first in my mind, and yet was already connected with the night skies. Actionaut was born from the cosmos — not only the cosmos up there, but the cosmos within the human imagination. Somehow, somewhere — these two realities are linked, and are likely linked more intimately than we yet realize.

Creating Actionaut in art school was also a test of performativity; he was exploring artist persona as art form.

The key thing is, storytelling is a living and constantly evolving aspect of our waking reality. In a pervasive media environment, the way towards optimal mass media control is through the production of live events and designing for transpersonal experience, and all live events depend on talent to perform and will their performance to life in the minds of the audience or participants – and this is where the fun is because innovation is the most critical job requirement, and innovation is something The Most Popular Artist has a knack for.

Aristotle proposed that humans are composed of the cognitive, the ethical, and the aesthetic, and the old-school creative formalism of Kant suggested that true art can only be aesthetic — but true art is only that which contains all three of these faculties of being.

Indeed, as the faculty of cognition emerged, it became the foundation of Conceptual Art, and as the faculty of ethics emerged, it became the foundation of Performance Art, both fields originating as far back as Diogenes at the very genesis of both art and philosophy.

The Most Popular Artist wants the artistic experience, the spiritual experience, the historical experience, and the techno-modern experience of OUTER SPACE INSIDE to be gathered together within a single frame — a frame that is, framelessness – and this requires that the art is designed in a way that encapsulates and transforms not only aesthetics, but also the cultural superstructure and economic base of our contemporary reality, so that it may be inclusive of both ethics and intellect and aesthetics and spirituality; thus making performance philosophy artwork.

All of us imagining — seeking to impose new conceptual overlays onto the human experience — we can retexture it — and this is what gives rise to The Most Popular Artist as a galactic art tycoon. This pursuit compresses art into life, and life into art. This pursuit is the way of transmodern art, it is the artist's pursuit of bliss.

His first asteroid mining spaceship will be called "Pavlov's Unicorn." It will have giant human-operated and autonomous robots aboard. Earth's Most Popular Artist is known to ride unicorns; of this it is known. Of this it is well known.

###  **Money for art. Artist as Provocateur.**

International powers spend between an average of $50 and $600 Billion dollars per year on military spending. The Most Popular Artist wants humanity to spend more money on positive goals in alignment of peace and mutual thriving. He wants more decentralized people-powered multilateral action and less centralized government regulated action.

To accomplish this, The Most Popular Artist blurs the line between the artwork and the advertisement of that same artwork. It is The Most Popular Artist's fundamental human right to seek a home for his creative works, and to make a living from art by entangling it strategically or serendipitously into the fabric of global economies and cultures.

All too often in the history of art and culture-making, the work of the artist is not socially accepted in the established cultural regimes — and it matters not if those regimes consist of verbose newspaper journalists, scholarly art critiques, patrons, tycoons, or gallery owners. Dealers, and critics and patrons alike are constantly seeking new creative plateaus, and this scanning mechanism expresses itself as the hedonic treadmill of our cultural malaise, including the Disney star syndrome of young celebrity or the mid-career discoveries and hidden gems of born-again talent, and — most notably — as the artist whose work was completely ignored until after they have died and the estate handed over to the lawyers before the work is auctioned into the hundreds-of-millions of dollars. The Most Popular Artist seeks to live an authentic life as The Most Popular Artist in the here and the now. Why should he not seek to live life as a galactic art tycoon now if doing so will further his aims for producing positive impact in the world? If asteroid mining can earn $100 Trillion, why not go for it? Early in his career, it's likely that The Most Popular Artist looked at money as a necessary evil, and even believed it to be dirty and impure in some way, but the truth is that the more money generated, the better off the world will be.

The Most Popular Artist is selling outer space property and mineral rights claims to the public. The patrons who purchase these are not only patrons who are buying their ticket for further participation in the art project, nor are they only customers seeking to leave a legacy for their kids and grandkids by investing early into space resource utilization licenses and mineral rights claims. The transaction is not only a legal business matter, but it is also a recognition of the salability of innovative forms into the realm of the contemporary art canon. Therefore, The Most Popular Artist intends to drive change — to purposefully evolve the popular concept of conceptual art practice in the transmodern age. After All, the art world itself is nothing without patronage, and a business is nothing without customers. Asteroid mining, like all action, begins first as an intent or idea — it exists first as a noetic object, and now we are storing a record of this using the SpaceClaims Blockchain Platform.

It's worth noting again that The Most Popular Artist read Guy Debord's "Society of Spectacle" at an early age — and it should be noted that the recuperation process was a concept originated in the Situationists movement and promulgated by the Dada art movement. Recuperation in the process by which culture industries "recover" rebellious spectacles by doing whatever is necessary to assimilate them and commodify them. In this way, selling space property and mineral rights claims as art on the Internet is a way of producing controversial spectacle that produces intended outcomes for mass society.

In The "Society of Spectacle", Debord argues that "everything arising in the spectacle assumes its characteristics: interventions will always be forced to assume the equivalence and vacuity of the commodity."

Can a commodity lead a campaign against commodification? As Alan Kaprow said in his book 2003 book " _Essays on the Blurring of Art and Life_ " there does indeed exist "art which is not art...art/not-art."

What if part of the critical function of art is to create a negative awareness of the market, and what if one way to accomplish this is to embody recuperation by acting out the hacking of market forces to deliberately place a question mark over the work and leave it as a challenge for the artists to come. What if the critical function is accompanied by a new system that assuages the criticism on its own terms while both transcending and including it? What if this whole project is meant to fuel Spaceship Earth as we blast off into space and our collective future?

Remember, according to orthodox Marxism, social and cultural change are rooted in the economic base and percolate upward. The bourgeois approach is to accepts that changes in the cultural superstructure can percolate downward and impact the economic base. This is in fact what we see playing out today. Kids in Africa wear Michael Jordan jerseys and so on. The hope is that OUTER SPACE INSIDE is operating simultaneously on both levels — again, serving to compress.

Nietzsche said: "Art is the proper task of life, art is life's metaphysical exercise.... Art has more worth than truth."

Joyce said that any art that excites desire is pornographic, and so therefore all advertising is in this sense pornographic since it is intended that the viewer should desire to possess the focus of the advertisement.

Transmodern reality is one where we live amongst an interdependent and interlaced socioeconomic cultural and economic malaise, and yet OUTER SPACE INSIDE harkens back to the ancient times, when the challenge of art was to break windows through the walls of the culture to eternity. The Most Popular Artist is taking us back to the forgotten archetypes — les grandes lignes de la nature! His proposition involves co-creating new ancestral forms, new asterisms together that deploy new folktales in the skies.

Yet, it cannot be denied that within each of us there are primal desires that are perhaps operating on a subconscious level. As Freud predicted:

> "There is a means of return from fantasy to reality, and that is art. To begin with, the artist is an introvert, almost a neurotic. Constrained by abnormally strong impulses, he desires honor, power, wealth, fame, and the love of women: but he lacks to means to attain these satisfactions, and so, like any other unsatisfied person, turns away from reality and transfers all of his interest, together with his libido, to the wishful fantasies of his imagination, through which he may be carried actually to neurosis. Several factors must coincide if he is not to follow this course to its conclusion. In fact, it is well known how frequently artists suffer partial impairment of their powers through neurotic applications. Their constitution probably includes a strong capacity for sublimation along with a certain degree of laxity in the repressions decisive for a conflict. The artist finds the road back to reality, however, in the following way. He is, of course, not the only one living a life of fantasy. The realm of fantasy is in fact a generally patronized resort, to which every sufferer from disappointments turns for refreshment and consolation. Those who are not artists are extremely limited, however in their ability to derive pleasure from the wells of fantasy. The ruthlessness of their repressions compels them to make do with whatever meager daydreams they may dare to allow to become conscious. The genuine artist has more at his disposal. In the first place, he knows how to rework his daydreams in such a way that everything too personal, such as others might find offensive, is eliminated, and they become thus generally enjoyable. He knows, also, how to modify them, so that their origin in the forbidden wells is not immediately betrayed. And he possesses, further, the mysterious ability to shape some particular material into a likeness of the model drawn from his fantasy. And finally, he knows how to render so much pleasure through these figurations from his unconscious that repressions are for the moment overcome and dispelled. The one who can achieve all this, thus making it possible for others to derive again refreshment and consolation from those wellsprings of their own unconscious which had become for them inaccessible, gains their thanks and admiration, and he has thus won through his fantasy what he had originally achieved only in his fantasy: namely, honor, power, and the love of women."

It remains to be seen if The Most Popular Artist will achieve honor, power, fame, and the love of women in pursuit of turning commerce into art for positive impact. Dada gave in, and eventually metamorphosed into Monty Python. In the same way that Duchamp enacted his retirement from art, as did Seth Siegelaub. The Yes Men became a consulting company. Improve Anywhere becomes Impractical Jokers, spirituality becomes yoga exercise.

One thing that cannot be denied, is that although Dada, and Duchamp, and Siegelaub all left the art world behind, the art world certainly did not leave them behind. Their work, and historical accounts of their contributions to creative praxis continue to live on — bold gestures of the infinite possibilities of the human imagination. So we all beat on as one tribal drum beat, universal boats against the cosmic current, borne ceaselessly into the future, divine mysteries of the great beyond.

# **8. About the Artist**

There is a thirst for the absurd, a challenge. For this, The Most Popular Artist is the actor — Hermes, sent from the heavens as a messenger to update the Corpus Hermeticum and install it on the Internet. The thirst is a restlessness of seeking and learning which aesthetics provides us, though it's less attitude than action; manifesting creative destruction.

The Most Popular Artist is situated as a rather new and unique form of the artist — if you think that the Internet and digitization has transformed other aspects of society in a major way, just wait until you see what art will do with it. For artists, the time is nigh, and the time is now to take the cybernetic reigns and synthesize knowledge into manifested forms in magical new ways.

The transmodern artist harkens back to the Romantic period — continuing to spread the good news about the tenants of the countercultural revolution and transmute the hippy energy into empowering and transformative technologies that empower individuals and collective communities and knowledge and the best aspects of humanity, to spread and lift the collective human conscious if ever so slightly, and orient it out into the cosmos of outer space, and inward, within each and every person on the planet. In this cosmic embrace, our collective future gets better and better.

Conceptualism is great because it's mostly future-oriented. Perhaps if conceptual art's zenith was the demarterialization of the art object, The Most Popular Artist's work is the rematerialization of our relationship with art.

He is interested in _Culture Hacking_ as art because it interoperates and includes folk art and addresses the canonization and dialogue between folk arts and fine arts throughout history. Culture hacking requires the artist and critical theory to embrace folk ideas, even though folk ideas have traditionally been in the realm of ethnologists and historians, or sociologists, or anthropologists or psychologists or cultural theorists or media/communication scholars or even philosophers.

Culture hacking art comes from embracing and becoming the spirit of critical enquiry that experts in any given field would deploy – but then liberating that knowledge with the intentional and generative energy of creative social-entrepreneurship, with a focus on impacting and influencing shared human experiences that bring us together and make us better in the service of humanity

In folk tales found common to all global cultures, religions, and societies – there exists a foundational concept which acknowledges the existence of "a universal" and "a local" in transpersonal affairs — and we see this historically through the Ages. There is a known, and an unknown, a great within, and a great beyond. These are alternating currents of the great Transcosmic supra-consciousness.

The study of mythology from the ethno-historical perspective is all about correlating metaphors with the spiritual relationship of the social-beings within the culture, in relation to what we might define as "exponential acceleration." Change is indeed, a transcultural constant, and depending on how people relate with this constant, we get the emergence of art, tools, ritual forms, weapons, musical instruments, social regulations, spiritual customs, and way of "being" within the culture. This is bioenergy – whereby the stories we tell ourselves help us to make meaning, survive, and hopefully – to thrive. Marshal McLuhan's "global village" made incarnate. OUTER SPAC INSIDE is a metaphysical translation. It is a message from the Universe, through the Universe. What is the Universe asking from you in this moment now?

The Situationists' credo describes form following fun, not to mention their dedication to positivistic anarchism, liberating use of art as political activism, and the use of the spectacle as a linguistic form for making meaning. It's fitting, therefore, that after all of these years that The Most Popular Artist's professional art practice and research would swing back towards DeBord and the Situationists. The themes of truth, the trajectory of human culture and man's quest for meaning can be found equally among a wide variety of pursuits and endeavors. What matters is the framing and the praxis. In this way, The Most Popular Artist is a catalyst, a provocateur; a history-maker.

Despite the bombastic creative style, however, he's a humble guy who feels incredibly lucky and grateful that this project found him. He is the first to recognize that none of this has been done through his own strength alone. Soli Deo Gloria! Deep down, he's just some dude who likes to eat tacos and play beach volleyball with friends and maybe play some music. He's trying to make it in this life and live out his destiny to the best of his ability while still being a compassionate human being and active human citizen. He thought this would be a fun and meaningful project so he said YES to the still small voice that has been encouraging him along all these years. Somebody once said that the only people who actually change the world, are the ones who try, so The Most Popular Artist figured he might as well take compassionate action, otherwise he'd just be wasting space.

Onwards!

PS — Remember kids, if you reach for the stars, you're more likely to reach them.

_This photo was taken of The Most Popular Artist in Malibu on January 1st, 2016, wearing the same shirt he had worn the night before during New Year's Eve (lol) and playing some music with friends on the beach. He had no idea yet that our Meta-Claim document was authenticated the night before. You might also be thinking to yourself — "You mean this is the asshole who claimed all of space through art!? This guy?" If that's the case, sorry brother, but yes, just some random dreamer in California. Again, Soli Deo Gloria!_

# **9. Instructions for Participation**

First, the initiation ceremony occurs, now — on the Internet.

  * Repeat the following out loud 10X: "I am the universe. The universe is in me. I am a spiritual machine."
  * Visit SpaceClaims.org and make a free space claim — DEDICATE it to 1 of 17 Spaceship Earth Initiatives (SDGs).
  * When making your claim, you must write a decree and submit a photo to commemorate the dedication of your claim.
  * Share your choice on social media.
  * Purchase a hardcopy version of this book at SpaceClaims.org for as little as $29 to reserve your very own star or asteroid claim token (different tiers available). Your purchase will benefit the SDG of your choice, and will be created as a unique work of art and personally signed by The Most Popular Artist. 
  * Choose to have your anonymous dedication, decree, photo, geolocation, timestamp, social profile and star data will be added to an official database in the appendix of the digital version of OUTER SPACE INSIDE book on Amazon.com, officially putting you into the history books as part of this art project.
  * Repeat the following out loud 10X: "I am creative. I am The Most Popular Artist."
  * You will be provided with further instructions in your hardcopy book.

