{"id":19022,"date":"2025-09-22T14:54:16","date_gmt":"2025-09-22T18:54:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sporobole.org\/gratitude-me-michael-eddy\/"},"modified":"2025-09-23T14:14:50","modified_gmt":"2025-09-23T18:14:50","slug":"gratitude-me-michael-eddy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sporobole.org\/en\/gratitude-me-michael-eddy\/","title":{"rendered":"Gratitude.ME | Michael Eddy"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

This blog post is taken from Michael Eddy’s Gratitude.me project, created during a residency at Sporobole as part of the Chantier ia<\/a>.<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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Q: Sorry\u2014can we rewind a second? I don\u2019t understand why you wanted to make a fake patent registration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A: This is not a fake patent registration. It is a potentially real patent registration. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Q: Well why didn\u2019t you want to make a real patent?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A: They cost thousands of dollars. This is an art project and I don\u2019t expect to get any returns from my invention.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Q: Oh, it\u2019s a fake patent? It\u2019s not a serious invention, in other words?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A: No, it is potentially a real patent. I was thorough about imitating the formal conditions and language of such a document. And the invention is good, I stand by it. But have you seen what else is on the Canadian Patent Database? [giggles]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Q: I don\u2019t know what\u2019s so funny about the Canadian Patent Database.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A: Come on, people patent the dumbest stuff. Specific shapes for popsicles, for example. Patents that are super complicated only in order to fill up the patent description with specificity. Half the stuff in that database is only a title: no abstract, no description, no claims or even representative drawings. Like the idea of an idea. You don\u2019t find that funny?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Q: I don\u2019t think it\u2019s very smart to belittle the Canadian Patent Database. You don\u2019t sound serious about intellectual property. Why did you put so much effort into this document, then? Sigh. You know what, go on, rewind again, tell me about your invention, if it\u2019s so \u201cgood.\u201d But keep it brief.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A: Okay, it\u2019s simple, my invention is a document-hanging system composed of 4 components: avocado seeds, bamboo skewers, screw hooks and string. It\u2019s all right here in this document in front of you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Q: Yes, I see, and you call it the \u201cGratitude System.\u201d You\u2019ll have to explain what that means. But first, you claim that it\u2019s easy and sustainable. But does it really have a use? Remember, you are under oath.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A: Yes, compared to other document-hanging systems like temporary walls, cork boards on chains, sandwiched plexiglass with airplane cable, or even, say, projectors and acrylic screens, the Gratitude System is easy, cheap, flexible, very lightweight, largely disposable, it\u2019s all in the document in front of you\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Q: But to what end? Do you expect people to reproduce your system, to wit, for a trade fair? Or an exposition of children\u2019s drawings in a shopping mall? Or newspapers at a library? i.e., is your system truly practical as you claim?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A: It is. I will use it to exhibit the documents pictured here in an exhibition, if I could ever get someone to take me seriously. But anyone can use it. That was the purpose of this document in front of you. To publicize the invention. And look on the back cover\u2014that\u2019s right, that logo means I have licensed the contents of this zine describing the invention under CC BY-SA, which stands for “Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike.” It allows others to distribute, remix, adapt, and build upon a work, as long as they credit the original creator and license their new creations under the same terms. That last sentence was appropriated from the creative commons website.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Q: How many copies of this document, \u201cthe Gratitude System\u201d are in existence? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A: Oh, about 32 or so.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Q: [rolls eyes] You don\u2019t know the exact number?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A: Well, I printed it on a risograph machine. Risographs are difficult, they mess up a lot. Let\u2019s say there is an edition of 29, and then there are 3 with slightly different covers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Q: That\u2019s not very many. Wouldn\u2019t it have made more sense to post an Instagram story or something? What is your follower count, I\u2019ll bet it\u2019s greater than 32. What was your point in using this awkward medium, and traveling all the way to Sherbrooke to use the EZ 220 U machine at Sporobole?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A: Ugh, I have no followers, I hate Instagram, I think it has fucked up a whole generation, but I digress\u2014to me, a risograph also speaks of authenticity in this performative way. It\u2019s an imperfect copy, it\u2019s like a halfway-artwork, just in the way it looks and feels. And my point was to get this invention concept out in some public and arty way, also by exaggerating the authenticity \u2014you see, it has large fingerprints watermarking the pages. And if you look closely, those fingerprints are watermarked by the Creative Commons License. Anyway, the idea was that if I couldn\u2019t get the invention on the patent database, it could at least be kind of smuggled into the artwork-centric intellectual property regime: copyright. As soon as you put the artwork out there, you hold copyright over it. That\u2019s cool, right?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Q: And yet you don\u2019t seem to care about intellectual property. Or do you? Are you a hypocrite? It seems you\u2019re being confusing on purpose. Rewind a second, rewind back to the title, what does the \u201cGratitude System\u201d mean? Are you virtue-signalling, like pretending to acknowledge others in the conception of your invention? I see you have quoted a bunch of your friends in testimonies. I\u2019d wager you\u2019re a high-maintenance friend. Or do you expect us to be grateful for your invention? Or you\u2019re referring to a non-monetary system of exchange?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A: Hm, sort of. But it\u2019s more confusing than that. It\u2019s very self-referential. If you\u2019ll give me a moment, I\u2019ll explain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Q: I give you one moment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A: So, you see the documents hanging in the System?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Q: Barely, because of how smudgy your printing is.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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A: Yes, those are linocuts, prints on paper. They are images I have been making, pages from a graphic novel I have been working on, called \u201cGratitude.\u201d There you go.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Q: That\u2019s it? That\u2019s not complicated. I would even call it simplistic as far as explanations go.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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A: Well, sure, but the story in the graphic novel is about a near-future, where Artificial Intelligence manages societies across the globe. A man, let\u2019s call him Father, is recounting an event to his lawyer: While running in a marathon, he had seen a billboard and become intrigued by it. It turned out it was advertising a sort of video game called \u201cSubjectivity.\u201d Learning more, Father is convinced that someone has stolen his idea for \u201cSubjectivity,\u201d and he wants to investigate it further. His lawyer asks if he has proof, but Father says the proof of his intellectual property is in the digital wallet that his ex-wife stole when she left him and fled Gratitude. He has to go get it from her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Q: What does this mean, \u201cshe left him and fled Gratitude?\u201d I don\u2019t understand. Rewind. Please explain this, but your time is almost up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A: Oh, Gratitude is the name of the zone where Father lives. The world has been sectioned off by different singularities existing in a multi-polar stalemate. Each singularity has its quirks. Gratitude is the vision of a liberal society with a universal basic income system, ecologically well-managed and high-tech, but its citizens must do creative work to keep the system from getting bored. If the system gets bored, the economy crashes, the automatons stop working. Father happens to be a successful creator within Gratitude. Then there\u2019s a scam world, Versa, there\u2019s a snob world, Eternitysia, there\u2019s a zone where the singularity is only interested in exploring the language of nature and leaves the humans more or less alone, called Recta, or Verita, depends on the customs agents. That\u2019s where the ex-wife fled to. I can\u2019t say any more about the story or you\u2019ll steal my ideas. But I also don\u2019t know how it ends.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Q: This is one of those cases where someone is claiming to be writing a book, but really has no idea what they\u2019re talking about. I\u2019d wager you don\u2019t even have a publisher. No exhibition venue, no publisher. You\u2019re basically a raving madman using the least efficient techniques to get your scrambled message across. I\u2019d ask you why linocuts, but I\u2019ve heard enough. Your time is up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A: No, look, I have proof! Gratitude is real! It\u2019s in my patent registration document! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Q: Next!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A: Hold on, I can explain why I chose to do this in linocuts, it\u2019s because the singularity likes handmade qualities! The singularity has no hands!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Q: Next! And can we get somebody who actually knows something about artificial intelligence in here? Next!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A: But didn\u2019t you hear me? That\u2019s what this is about! And I am not a graphic novel artist, do you understand? I am a concept artist! The project is a concept <\/em>for a graphic novel!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Q: Next!<\/p>\n\n\n