An Intro to the Public Domain Art Portal

The first public-facing project to emerge from the Studio Slowcore DFOS space is the Public Domain Art Portal (PDAP), a personal curation-by-slowcore-ethos project.

How the PDAP Works#

• Format: a daily post with a human-curated public domain image + links to sources.
• Themes include: Pre-Raphaelite women, dancers, classical living, architecture, interiors, sorceresses, Germanic mythology, and occasional weekly themes.
• Organization: all-access gift-sections and keyholders-only-sections. Desktop folders for all sections are organized by theme for easy browsing of the archives.
• Newcomer-friendly: each post is self-contained. Start anywhere, anytime.
• No join fee: request membership in the studio's Dark Forest by responding to a question at the door. All members can access the posts in the gift-sections free of charge.
• Keyholders receive access to the full archives, including occasional mood boards and bonuses, and can submit theme suggestions.

About the Slowcore-Friendly Format#

We aim to keep the PDAP slowcore-friendly for both the curator and the readers: respectful of the value of human time and attention, and free of hustle-culture pressures.

For the curator, the format stays flexible enough that the daily cadence can be enjoyable and sustainable long-term. The basic post format includes the artist name, title of the work, date, and source links. Some posts also contain more info: background on the work, artist bios, quotes, and personal observations.

Readers can wander and enjoy the art in a self-paced manner without wading through distracting ads, subscription nags, or low-value "filler" content. Lurkers are welcome; hijacking attention and pressuring readers to "convert" or "engage" is not the slowcore way. Interested readers can bookmark posts to return later and dig into the rabbit-holes of their choice, all in their own time... and since public domain art can be used for any purpose, readers are also free to repurpose the art for their own projects.

Both gift-members and keyholders are welcome in our Dark Forest.

Notes on Slowcore Value Flow#

Studio Slowcore caters to interests that thrive on patience and sustained attention. We describe the intention behind the PDAP as "a gentle open-ended daily inquiry into the placement of human attention, and an affirmation of enduring forms of value."

Because we view curation-by-slowcore-ethos as an integration of both gift value and market exchange value, we strive to make both the gift-sections and the keyholders-sections worthy of sustained human time and attention. We think of the paid options available to keyholders as an extension of the gift offerings; both are important components of what we think of as slowcore value flow.

It's worth noting that much of the curation that later became fodder for the PDAP was done during the pre-enshittification, pre-AI days of the internet, out of intrinsic motivation and with no particular goal. Even now, every selection made for the PDAP reflects the individual tastes, personal quirks, and real interests of the curator, and not what an algorithm "thinks" you might like.

With DFOS, we're now able to give the PDAP more structure and set up digital browsing libraries for long term world-building, because we're working within a space committed to antienshittification. Working in Dark Forest contexts enables us to create quiet protected treasure troves that prioritize evergreen posts and themes, instead of swimming against the tide of fast-paced social media algorithms.

Slowcore Press, our incipient publishing entity, is planning a series of releases on Metalabel. We'll direct a portion of funds from key sales toward fulfilling that purpose.