Archives for posts with tag: Kickstarter

Love Ever After

February 12, 2012 //

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Gino and Angie Terranova
Angie: “You don’t really think about getting older. First of all, you’re aging together and when you see a person constantly you don’t notice big changes. You don’t notice, oh, you are getting a little wrinkle here and tomorrow you say it’s a little deeper. Those are things that just happen. I mean, I am not thinking everyday, oh my husband is 83 years old and my goodness I am married to an old man! And I hope he feels that way, too.”
I discovered this project by Lauren Fleishman a few days ago and was immediately intrigued.  Love Ever After shares the love stories of couples who have been married for at least 50 years. Inspired by a letter Lauren’s grandfather wrote to her grandmother during World War II, she began photographing and interviewing in the New York area as a way to preserve their stories and to illuminate our universal experience of love.
She tries to convert this project into an inspiring art book by using the Kickstarter platform. Additional funding will help her to photograph 15-20 more couples and produce a limited edition photo book.
What a lovely project and what a nice idea for a Valentine’s Day gift.
The artist already achieved her funding goal but the more the merrier. Check it out.

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The Soundscape project

December 15, 2011 //

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I used to live in real cities: Hamburg, London, Honolulu. Then I moved to Los Angeles. Within a few weeks, I understood that Los Angeles is not a city, it’s a conglomerate of disparate communities. The majority of Angelenos live a pod lifestyle. From home pod to work pod to entertainment pod.

We have communities within our pods but it’s hard to experience Los Angeles as a cohesive community. (Except when the Lakers are winning the NBA title.)

Creating a cohesive Los Angeles experience

I’m following closely the emerging technology of location-awareness and believe it will help create hyper-local experiences. It’s not about creating a separate, virtual reality. It’s about creating a layer on top of our human experience. Combining both thoughts resulted in this idea:

“The Los Angeles Soundscape app tries to communicate the uniqueness and local identity of each small community through music/sound composed by local musicians/artists from that specific community. The app is location-aware and will change based on your location; community soundscapes will overlap and interact in dynamic ways, yielding a unique experience with each listen. The app is best enjoyed while driving (car/bus/bike) but will respond to slower paces as well.

The vision is to create a musical Venn diagram placed over the urban landscape of Los Angeles, at any time you might multiple tracks playing in your ear, colliding in surprising ways. The roads you take determine what you hear and we expect users to discover new neighborhoods, experience the local spirit and inspiration of the specific soundscape.

(…)

The ultimate objective of this is to encourage Angelenos and visitors to explore this amazing city outside of their typical routes and tourist spots. And help transform the sprawling suburbia into a real community.”

Let’s get it done

The project was submitted to Kickstarter, a funding platform for innovative projects. It’s the perfect platform to really explore what forms art can take. The site accepts pledges starting at $1 and you can get special values starting at a pledge of $10. Even if you don’t give money but like the idea, a mention would be appreciated.

Check it out.

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Make Black Friday a Golden Friday

November 26, 2010 //

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Let me get on my soapbox: Black Friday is a ridiculous ritual.

Off the soapbox.

People have a lot of power in their wallet. We often forget that fact when we chase the best deal, the cheapest service, the next thing we really don’t need. You have a choice, you can stand in line like a mindless consumer of the past or change the world with your wallet. One purchase at a time.

Why not:

  • Supporting your local community by purchasing all your Christmas gifts in small shops close to your home?
  • Fund an innovative project that is close to your heart?
  • Change lives of the neediest people in the world?
  • Save lives by providing healthy water?
  • Give away books to your local library, the backbone of many communities? They certainly need it.
  • Invest your hard-earned money in a micro-loan, supporting global entrepreneurs?
  • Invest into your mind by reading a good book? Here are three suggestions.
  • Spend the day with your family? Reading a book, talking, cooking together.

I’m sure you can come up with many more ideas that transform the Black Friday hole of consumption into a golden opportunity of making the world a better place.

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