A proposal · one system for a porous institution
You've already begun — your Spark applications run on Typework today. This is about switching on the rest of the engine.
ARTIFACT Futures isn't one organization — it's five, held together on purpose: the Collection, the Institute, the Journal, Spark, and public programming. Your whole thesis is the crossings between them.
That's a beautiful idea and a hard operational problem. Five functions, one small team, and a promise that they behave as a single porous organism — a promise that breaks the moment those functions live in five disconnected tools.
You've laid a real foundation. Here's what's live — and the next, highest-leverage step.
None of this is a gap in your setup — it's the runway you built, waiting for the engine.
Spark
A live deal-flow dashboard, an AI agent on triage surfacing the strongest applications against your thesis and answering applicants, and interviews unblocked — booked in Calendar, met in Google Meet, transcript filed back automatically. Your Stripe toolkit handles first cheques.
The Journal
An editorial pipeline (pitch → draft → publish), contributors on the same core as your founders, subscriptions via email and Stripe — and your issues indexed as knowledge, so Max can put your own thinking to work.
The Institute
Curated, acceptance-only invitations; closed-door conversations recorded in Meet, transcribed into your knowledge base, and drafted by Max into the report or essay. Research that compounds instead of evaporating.
Public programming
You ran the London Forum on Typework (~298 registered). Take it end to end: apply → review → accept → ticket → check-in, with reminders and follow-ups sent for you, and Ads, LinkedIn, TikTok & Maps to promote and run it.
The Collection
An artwork catalog with provenance and location (including on a map), artist relationships on the same core as everyone else, and public exhibition pages generated from live data.
Here's the point that matters most for you. The crossings you prize are, underneath, a data problem: the same person is often a Spark founder and a Journal contributor and a Forum guest. In five separate tools, that's three unreconciled rows. In Typework, it's one record — every role visible and actionable at once.
That's the difference between porousness as a philosophy and porousness as a workflow — and it's what lets a small team run an institution that refuses to stay in its lanes.
Picture a Tuesday. This is the loop we'd switch on first.
After the call, Max files the transcript into the application, the IC decision is recorded, and on a yes it drafts the welcome and prepares the first-cheque paperwork through Stripe — held for your approval. The founder becomes a contact, already linked to a future Journal feature and your next Forum invite. Every outward step waits for your yes; every step is logged and reversible.
Because the foundation is already built, the first wins need almost no new construction.
| Phase | Timeframe | What ships |
|---|---|---|
| 1 · Activate what's built | Days–weeks | Spark triage agent, interview automation, live dashboard, weekly digest |
| 2 · Make the crossings real | Weeks | Unified cross-pillar contact core; Journal knowledge base + editorial and subscription pipeline |
| 3 · Reach & depth | Weeks–months | Multi-channel engagement (email/WhatsApp, ads, LinkedIn/TikTok), Collection catalog, portfolio & exhibition pages, deeper analytics |
The intelligence, the payments, and the data model are in place — they simply haven't been switched on. Typework can become the system ARTIFACT Futures runs on: one core that turns your crossings into a daily workflow, and an assistant that lets nine people credibly run five functions.
The most valuable first move is small: switch on the Spark loop you've already built.
Let's do that together →