Ideas + Garages =

July 9, 2012 //
2

Generally speaking, and safe bet this is true in your neighborhood, the pretty flippingest cool stuff happens in garages.

Natulis ArtTemporary invites us to recap this historical cultural trend as they put out an open call for free studio space this August in a former car repair shop in Berlin, Germany:

  • Bands from The Clash to Iggy Pop and Mc5
  • Bill’s early Microsoft experiments
  • Chelsea district art galleries

http://natberlin.com/garage-art-about/

True, the liminal space of a garage is irresistable.  You can try things out in the garage that you could never get away with in the house, even in the basement.   It is space that feels set apart, where one can experiment and suspend cultural notions about what is safe, what is allowed and what people do.   Everywhere, there are local, national and international heroes garaging it old school while keeping it innovative.   Samples from my personal ‘chive? – Ta-DA:

S.L.A.M  (Streb’s Lab for Action Mechanics) 5,000 squ. ft at 51 N. 1st St. in Williamsburg, Brooklyn http://www.streb.org/V2/space/index.html

Biopunk scientists hacking genomes around MIT (ever hear of glow-in-the-dark squid?) http://bostonbiotechwatch.com/2011/04/14/hacking-ourselves-%E2%80%9Cbiopunk-diy-scientists-hack-the-software-of-life%E2%80%9D-by-marcus-wohlsen/

And of course there’s West Haven, Connecticut.   In a backyard garage on Savin Avenue, a horse and carriage are kept in circulation, you see them cruising around town.  And in a more industrial setting, 14 Gilbert St. hosts  a long-term affair between sculptor and sculptures in the studio of Guggenheim award-winner Robert Taplin.

http://roberttaplin.com/pdf/art_new_england_nov_dec_2010.pdf

Do you know what interesting ideas are taking shape in some of the garages near you?  Believe me, it’s worth investigating.   Welcome these incubators into your midst, even or especially if it is unclear what’s being spawned.  And on August 30, if you’re anywhere near Berlin, enjoy the party at  Scharnhorststraße 32 celebrating nine artists who have made “ephemeral, time sensitive art at tremendous growth rate” in their provisioned spaces for  Garage Art 2012.

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Categories Insights from Leaders, International, Local CT, National Trends, Performances and Exhibits, Regional New York / New England

TGIF: Code for America

June 22, 2012 //
0

Creative minds coalescing around city halls nationally to solve urban problems with public data:

http://www.motherjones.com/media/2012/05/code-for-america-jen-pahlka-interview

Because, in the words of founder Jen Pahika, “You can care about your city in a way that’s hard to care about the bigger levels of government. And cities everywhere are going through this enormous financial crisis…It’s in your face, and this crisis is creating the political will to push through new approaches.”  I will be checking out city halls while playing Johnny Agile-seed on tour this August.

MANY THANKS to Emily Wolfe for making me aware of Jen’s great work.   It’s not all about code, there’s a real human aspect to it as well.   Lots of face-to-face, lots of nuance…good to see, and let’s see more!

http://codeforamerica.org/

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Categories Insights from Leaders, National Trends, The Agile Story

Destination: Chicago

June 21, 2012 //
0

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Categories E. Slomba Arts Interstices, National Trends

Destination: San Jose

June 20, 2012 //
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The ambition of provocateurs

June 19, 2012 //
3

Some people just have it in their DNA to not be limited.    That was one of the takeaways from the Transcending Borders conference in Salzburg, accessible via National Endowment for the Arts webcast on 6/12/2012.  In the quest for knowledge, one size  – i.e.,  one field or place or discipline – definitely does not fit all.  The provocateur naturally seeks to zigzag across borders, to hang out at their interstices, and find ways to connect things, people, places, cultures and enterprises that, to the unambitious, may seem like exercise in the impossible.

ZERO1 in San Jose, CA- aka where art meets technology to shape the future – is a case in point.  The organization sees itself as a broker to create new platforms that give rise to new forms of creativity.  One of the objectives this baby of Silicon Valley has in mind is putting a face on the postmodern city.  http://www.zero1.org/

The Ars Electronica Futurelab in Linz stretches the potential of the internet’s use as a creative space for artistic collaborations.  I like the way their ZeitRaum project presents dynamic, visual representations of open data as public art in transit areas:  http://www.aec.at/press/en/category/futurelab/

Choreographer Liz Lerman responds to the myth of individual genius by stressing how much of creativity is about managing relationships.  http://danceexchange.org/about/company/liz-lerman/  Artists and collaborators should be given the utmost respect while organizational knowledge is deployed in their support.

Interdisciplinarity is the necessary basis to collide different minds, and the provocateur’s job is to keep the collisions going more than once, to make pathways for deep access.   This requires a LOT of three things:

  • translation
  • contextualization
  • support

How can you tell if you share the ambition of provocateurs?  You live and work – and give – by this motto:   Do what you think is next.

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Categories Insights from Leaders

Cronote’s “Remind Button” free to nonprofits

June 19, 2012 //
0

Cronote is an application that inserts a remind button onto a website so that visitors can schedule their own calls to action.  Perhaps they prefer to purchase a ticket closer to an event, say, or get in touch with someone else who may be interested.  The start-up is offering the service free to nonprofits.

https://www.cronote.com/

The Cronote system, elegantly enough, is based on a single line of code.  One of the benefits to an organization is that it helps predict future demand.  This is aided by an analytics feature.

Cronote only stores data  long enough to send the reminder, after which it is automatically deleted.  Contact info is not kept anywhere indefinitely, or shared.   In fact, it is blind to the organizations that have events.

A nifty way to encourage  layers of enthusiasm and engagement, Cronote was selected for participation in the summer 2012 Yale Entrepreneurial Institute.   I found out about it through the Arts Council of Greater New Haven, now using their Remind Button at http://www.newhavenarts.org/

Check it out.  Experiment.  Enjoy!

Categories Local CT, National Trends

Futurecasting

June 5, 2012 //
0

The group Connecticut Creates is dedicated to putting state residents who are inventing new futures for themselves and their communities into contact and conversation.  As was discussed in the international arts/science/technology symposium “Transcending Borders” yesterday in Salzburg, knowledge is not meaning, and meaning is only generated through conversation and engagement, person to person to person…

http://www.ctcreates.org/

The first public conversation is on June 7th at four sites around the state, including Middletown, New Haven, New London and Norwalk.

(PS:  sounds “revolutionary,” to me, don’t know about “still…”  )

http://www.wtnh.com/dpp/on_air/gmc_weekend/connecticut-still-revolutionary

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Categories Local CT

Creatives and “the Business End”

June 5, 2012 //
1

I wanted to provide a quick way to reference “The Artistic Dividend: The Arts’ Hidden Contributions to Regional Development”  By Ann Markusen and David King out of the University of Minnesota.  In section eight (Artists’ View of Themselves as Economic Actors), the researchers took an “occupational approach, centered on understanding the economic aspirations and experiences of individual artists through interviews, [which] uncovered a significant number of cases where artists are successfully generating a satisfactory income by working entrepreneurially, often aided by an extensive network of advice and contacts with others in the region. Many do so without sacrificing quality and creative integrity. ”

http://www.hhh.umn.edu/img/assets/6158/artistic_dividend.pdf

However, many artists, even successful grant-winning artists, still do not think of what they do as economic activity!  The report finds that they might do well to engage in entrepreneurial skill-building and overcome tendencies to think negatively about marketing their work.

Agile (which can be summed up as a team-based technology for approaching high-value business projects at high velocity in climates of dynamic uncertainty) is such an effective way to prioritize administrative tasks and achieve business objectives – I recommend it to any artist seeking to leverage time spent on “the business end of things.”   Training and coaching discourses around Agile are still very much grounded in the world of software development, now spreading to other, related domains – see http://www.scrumalliance.org.  I am working on translating the essence of Agile into an arts-friendly language…collaborators WELCOME!  I hope that this will unlock new partnerships between the arts and start-up worlds and re-interest / reinvest nonprofit arts supporters in  the core administrative operations of organizations, which can be creative and innovative in their own right.

Planning to visit Minneapolis/St. Paul in August.  Please contact me (artsinterstices@gmail.com) about other arts organizations and/or start-up companies I should visit on my northern trip cross-country.    Special thanks to arts reporter Judith H. Dobrzynski.

http://www.artsjournal.com/realcleararts/2012/05/enlightened-minnesota-stages-a-museums-month.html?goback=%2Egde_2487594_member_121293144

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Categories E. Slomba Arts Interstices, Insights from Leaders, National Trends, The Agile Story

just in from the NEA

June 4, 2012 //
1
Arts, Science, Technology, & Society
The Arts Endowment, the Salzburg Global Seminar, and the Embassy of Austria will webcast a panel discussion today Monday, June 4th, from 5:00 to 7:00 PM EST. “Transcending Borders: The Intersections of Arts, Science, Technology, and Society on a Global Stage” will examine the impact that creativity and collaboration across sectors can have in shaping the world of today and tomorrow.
http://www.nea.gov/podweb/salzburg.html?utm_source=June+4%2C+2012&utm_campaign=June+4%2C+2012+e-newsletter&utm_medium=email
Categories Uncategorized

Fear, risk, safety & vulnerability

May 31, 2012 //
0

Michael Sahota, keynote speaker at the Agile Games in April 2012 presented by Agile New England at the Microsoft Center in Cambridge, brilliantly references the art of surfing by connecting it with the concept of flow in this article about how we approach fear in our worklives.

“The flow model provides a great way to surf our own personal edges. We are in a state of flow when the difficulty is matched to our capability. By placing ourselves in situations with the right level of challenge, we can confront a fear and work through releasing it.”

http://agilitrix.com/2012/05/deep-insights-around-fear-risk-safety-and-vulnerability/

 

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