Financial Management
Rhizomebook: Financial structure as artistic practice
Rhizomebook structures its financial framework according to the same principles that govern Jan van der Til's artistic practice: decentralized, non-linear, and horizontal. The objective is not the accumulation of capital as an end in itself, but the continuous re-mobilization of resources back into the practice.
This diverges from the conventional concept of cultural entrepreneurship, where artists are typically expected to operate increasingly like traditional businesses: generating revenue, finding markets, building audiences, scaling, and ultimately achieving financial self-sufficiency. While Rhizomebook does employ entrepreneurial strategies, it does not follow this market logic. The primary focus is less about growth and more about organizing the conditions under which the work can sustain itself and evolve in multiple directions.
The practice operates from an active zero-balance. This does not mean that money is literally never held or that income and expenses always perfectly match on a ledger. Instead, the zero-balance describes a fundamental attitude toward money: capital is not collected to become capital; it is continually reintroduced into the practice.
Temporary cash flows
A grant, a sale, or any other incidental source of income enters the system and promptly assumes a different form. The money transitions into production, materials, studio rent, digital infrastructure, research, maintenance, or a new project. Consequently, the time money spends as a liquid asset is kept as brief as possible.
It does not vanish; it mutates. An incoming sum might thus transform into studio rent, become part of a production, mutate into an object within a collection, and later serve as source material for another project. Financial value resides not merely in the amount itself, but in what it can set in motion within the practice.
Income from outside the practice
Furthermore, a portion of the income originates from outside the artistic practice. Jobs, commissions, or other revenue streams do not necessarily share a conceptual connection with the artistry. However, they provide the means to sustain the conditions under which that artistry can take place.
The studio, internet, phone, software, web hosting, and other fixed overheads must be paid for somehow. In this sense, external labor represents a form of energy drawn from outside the system to feed the artistic practice. This division between art and external work can offer a sense of freedom. Revenue does not continuously need to be generated by the artistic practice itself to play a vital, direct role in its survival.
Financing within the network
Within this framework, blockchain technology interests Rhizomebook as an infrastructure for financial autonomy. In Book XLIV, a long-term project on the Cardano blockchain, ADA is deployed via staking to serve as a reservoir for future projects. The yields generated can then be channeled back into the practice. This approach is not solely about return on investment.
More importantly, it allows a portion of the resources to circulate within the project's own structure, reducing reliance on any single funder, institution, or market. Here, blockchain is not primarily a financial asset designed for yield; the technology functions as an infrastructure that aligns with a broader effort to restructure ownership, financing, and distribution.
Permanent investment and collections
Within Rhizomebook, collections, physical objects, archives, data structures, and digital actors do not constitute inventory waiting to be sold. They are active components of the network. An object can be a finished work, but it can also serve as a document, an archival piece, or material for a future project. An archive can later become a source. A digital structure can simultaneously function as storage, presentation, and part of the work itself.
Therefore, the value of these components does not always need to be expressed as a financial residual value. An investment can hold value precisely because it continues to function within the practice. This explains why depreciating an asset on paper does not mean its significance disappears. Economically, an object may be written off, yet it remains fully active within the network. Every euro or ADA that enters this structure does not need to return as more euros or more ADA. It can transform into time, space, material, infrastructure, knowledge, or a new potential.
No growth for the sake of growth
Thus, the difference from conventional cultural entrepreneurship is not a lack of enterprise. The practice engages in continuous enterprise: sourcing means, developing infrastructure, forging connections, and discovering new ways to make projects viable. The difference lies in the objective. The practice does not need to become progressively larger, more profitable, or more capital-intensive. Increased income is relevant only when it creates more room for the practice. When economic growth itself becomes the benchmark, the very nature of the system alters.
The question is therefore not how much wealth can ultimately be accumulated. The question is how much autonomy and room to maneuver can be created with the available resources. The zero is not a void. It is a state in which nothing is permanently fixed. Money can become work. Work can become archive. Archive can become data. Data can generate new work. There is no predetermined final destination. The system continuously empties itself to preserve space for whatever comes next.
Support Rhizomebook with ADA
(Via Cardano ADA Mainnet)
Wallet address:
DdzFFzCqrhsyo5oR2eksKp9tiYQD6irxG7bHsg6HQkhuAgqVVNQCmJkpmoMJb3CSisk6sGxLDaVYrEHpaM6hVPiHjngzi5xS42CgypoY