Awesome Foundation - Projects

Berlin (Inativo) – Guerilla Birdhouse Lab

2011-07-14T00:00:00Z

"The Guerilla Birdhouse Lab" will show people how to make bird houses from trash and then place them in public spaces - trees, lamp-posts, street signs and buildings. The project would manifest in workshops - street actions and documented online with a how to replicate in your own keats. This process will educate people about waste, and engage them directly in improving directly their urban environment. The birdhouses themselves will create a provocation, bring birdsong to the streets and make the keat's just that little bit nicer for everyone in it.

Washington, DC – One Night Stand

2011-07-03T00:00:00Z

One Night Stand seeks out vacant lots in the greater Washington DC area and turns them into contemporary art venues for one night. The project team revitalizes the vacant lot, cleans, removes debris and prepares the space for an exhibition that lasts 2-3 hours. Solo, group and site specific installation projects are being planned to take place over the Summer. Most exhibitions will be local emerging artist, but we may throw in a surprise or two. Our aim is to provide spot exhibitions and involve the neighborhoods we enter. Neighbors are invited to be a part of the transformation and attend the "Opening/Closing" event. In the end, we leave a cleaner and safer lot. The first event is scheduled for June 11th.

Melbourne (Inativo) – Do It In a Dress

2011-07-03T00:00:00Z

Hello! I'm Chantelle Baxter and I'm the 26 years old and I'm the co-founder of One Girl - a non profit organisation the works with women and girls in Sierra Leone! In the last 5 months our organisation has provided 100 education scholarships to girls living in extreme poverty - and we want to give 50 more scholarships to girls in 2012! From Oct 2 - Oct 9 - we're going to be running "Do It In A Dress" week. Our goal is to get 100 influential bloggers to sign up and help us put 150 girls through school next year. We want to raise $25,000 in just 7 days. We're asking rockstar bloggers to set a personal challenge for themselves.. like, run 5km, go to a yoga class, go bungy jumping.. BUT, the catch is that they have to it in a girls school uniform, and we want photos / video to prove it. But they aren't going to just wander around in a school dress for no good reason. They'll create their fundraising page with CauseVox, set their fundraising limit at minimum $250 (the cost of 1 girls education for a year) - and their family, friends and readers will pay to see them do their challenge in a school dress. We're choosing school dresses because once they complete their challenge, they would have put a girl in Africa back into school for an entire year. We want them to wear a school dress so she can wear one too. We already have three rockstar bloggers on board from the US and New Zealand.. so only 97 to go! There will be a fantastic campaign website coming soon - and bloggers will be able to register there. We'll have prizes for the most innovative school dresser.. This project is awesome because IT'S NEVER BEEN DONE BEFORE. I recently attend the World Domination Summit in Portland, Oregon, and I met SO many bloggers who want to make a difference in the world - they are going to JUMP on this idea. Everyone I've asked so far has already said yes. Funnily enough, all the bloggers that have said yes are male - it will be HILARIOUS to see men running around in school dresses to raise money for girls in Africa. We think this campaign is going to get a lot of media attention, and best of all we'll be raising a tonne of money to put girls in Sierra Leone, West Africa, back into school.

Ottawa – LovetheLabel: Advocates for safe cosmetics!

2011-07-03T00:00:00Z

July’s Awesome grant goes to Love the Label, a student-led campaign based at Nipissing University in North Bay, ON, promoting a greater awareness of the ingredients found in cosmetics and other personal care products. In September 2010, the team launched the Love the Label campaign on the Nipissing U campus. Funded from their own pockets, they set up a booth at the school with a wicked-awesome display to help educate their classmates and community about the harmful toxins found in every day cosmetics and personal care products. The responses were thrilling and lead the team to start doing presentations in classes at school and at Youth Centres out in the community. In January 2011, they launched lovethelabel.ca with a simple message: read your ingredients’ labels and love them! Only then can you be sure that what you are using is safe. “Unfortunately Canada and the USA have very loose chemical laws, which allow the cosmetics industry to ‘test’ their own products and then sell them. You can imagine how non-awesome that truly is. There is not enough money to test each product individually, so every year our markets are flooded with new products that for the most part are widely unregulated. Love the Label cannot stand for this. We demand safer products, we demand stronger laws, and throughout it all we help to motivate the average consumer to read, research, and review what they are spending their money on!” –Marina DeMarco, Love the Label Their project is fundamentally grassroots, with their own time and money spent on developing a sustainable Love the Label program in Universities and colleges throughout Canada. With the Awesome Ottawa grant they will start rolling out their collected information in packages that can be used at any university to educate and inspire. You can follow their progess on their blog and on Twitter @Lovethelabel. Awesome job so far ladies!

Sydney – PAN magazine

2011-07-03T00:00:00Z

PAN Magazine is a cultural biannual with a literary bent which includes the work of emerging and established writers. The whole production is pulled together on a shoestring budget, a driving passion for the arts and a whole lotta late nights. Emma Dallas tells the story of PAN Magazine to date, “There are twenty of us working very hard to make this little arts magazine a success. We love magazines but rarely see the kind of content we would like to read. We don’t want to compete with established magazines that focus on ‘how to look good and conform’. We want to offer a magazine with some depth as well as interest, some arts as well as fiction, poetry and essays presented beautifully. We’re on a mission to reintroduce thinking about our culture and specifically our arts in a broad and accessible way. As well as giving new writers and artists a platform to be heard in a way that does not commodify or belittle them. There is so much going on here in Australia, in all our cities. We aim to show people just how good it can be when you engage with what’s being created around you.” With a little help from the contents of a brown paper bag, the dedicated PAN crew were able to publish issue #2, which is now available for purchase at select shops across Australia and online.

London (Inativo) – The Lost Sound

2011-07-01T00:00:00Z

I am a freelance filmmaker working mostly as an editor for trailers, and a variety of NGO documentary and campaign films. Aside from this I’m building my career as a documentary filmmaker and am currently at various stages with eight projects. Some of these projects have already been filmed while others, like The Lost Sound, are in development. Over the last year my eyes have been opened to the power of real world storytelling, and how these stories can affect change in a positive way. I was visiting a friend in Bangkok when I stumbled upon a remarkable musician in the weekend market, ex-army officer Captain Prasert. Through our discussion it became apparent that he was one of the last champions of the style of music he played. Many styles of Thai music are largely ignored by Thai people; especially traditional music or music that originates from outside the capital, Bangkok, where the middle class dictates what is and isn't Thai culture. The Lost Sound, which also translates as ‘Out of Tune’, is a feature documentary which will follow the custodians who lend their lives to the conservation and reinvention of such music. The film will follow the music and lives of several musicians from different disciplines, while also revealing the difference in the lives of Thailand’s populace as the country’s political situation worsens. Initial research and contact suggests the following participants (who can be seen in this order on the teaser trailer): http://www.vimeo.com/21482388 Captain Prasert Keawpukdee, 73, taught himself to both construct and play the Thai traditional instrument known as a 'ranart'. Having originally been forced to use leaves as instruments he later also mastered the mouth organ and later the violin. Thongsai Tuptanon, 62, was born and raised in a poor farming family in Ubon Rachathani. Thongsai became a mixture of a farmer and a musician, playing and touring with his father as often as he could when not working the fields, before developing his own unique sound playing the ‘pin’. Somtow Papinian Sucharitkul, 59 worked as a composer in Thailand in the 1970s. He gave up music for two decades when his experimental compositions (such as using Traditional Thai instruments alongside classical Western instruments) were met with hostility. While receiving international acclaim, Somtow’s music remains largely ignored in Thailand where he is considered too high-brow.

Toronto – Attack of the 50-foot Rob Ford

2011-06-29T00:00:00Z

I strive to discover unknown territories of individual and collective being. To this end, I incite liminal experiences – the psychological and metaphysical subjective state of being between disparate existential planes – offering opportunities for one to embrace the strange and singular of our existence; to explore alchemical possibilities of the imagination; to live more intensely and freely in the here-and-now. I do a lot of different projects. From public interventions to roadtrips to multimedia parties to urban expeditions to installations. I am a graduate of the Ontario College of Art and Design's Sculpture/Installation program, and am really competent designing/building stuff. My contributions to public/urban art in Toronto have been featured in Canadian Art Magazine, the Toronto Star and other media outlets. This project is a 50-ft-tall photo-transfer paste-up in response to mayor Rob Ford’s war on graffiti/street art culture in Toronto. It would be a giant (digitally rendered) image of Ford in a white painter’s suit eating graffiti hotdogs smothered in gravy he pours-on using a gravy boat shaped like a train (a “gravy train”). I'd get help from my talented street art friends (http://www.jessealbert.ca/index.html and http://www.at-aw.com/http://www.at-aw.com/ to name two) to produce and install the piece at a symbolic downtown location where it would be widely seen and photographed dynamically, like Graffiti Alley south of Queen Street. I will also work with my long-standing collaborative partner and documentary filmmaker (http://decipherimages.com) to document the process. The project will be the focal point of a short documentary video about the war on graffiti in Toronto. The subject matter of this project is very close to me, both as a street art practitioner and a creative human being. I see Rob Ford’s ignorant, my-way-or-the-highway attitude toward graffiti as an affront to free creative expression and an insult to people who strive for and want to live in a vibrant city of art and joy. While I don’t appreciate/condone senseless, destructive tagging, etc, I believe that street art is an important cultural/social/political form of expression that must be kept alive. It is sorely misunderstood and people like Rob Ford need to be challenged at every turn. Obviously, this project is time-sensitive. Now’s the time. So getting a grand from the Awesome Foundation would be... grand.

Calgary, AB (Inativo) – Street Arials

2011-06-23T00:00:00Z

We are Calgary's ONLY recreational circus school. Our goal is to promote creative fitness and inclusion through the circus arts, while building community. For this we need a portable aerial rig. We teach children and adults agility, co-ordination, and strength of body and spirit. We encourage creativity in a non-competitive environment. With this portable rig we can bring our aerial arts (i.e. trapeze, aerial silks and aerial hoop) directly to the community. We aspire to encourage Calgarians from all backgrounds to display their unique ability by performing the aerial arts in public spaces or charity events. For example, other non-profit organizations may use our portable aerial rig and circus volunteers for their own creative fundraising. In addition, we hope to offer climbing workshops during the summer to the public. Afterwards, we will tape a statement where participants express his or her feelings about climbing. What does one feel when one is in the air? Does one want to climb fast or slow? How high does one want to reach? Is there a certain character that appears from their climbing?

San Francisco, CA – Sidewalk Natural History

2011-06-21T00:00:00Z

The last few years I've been researching local (SF) natural history, especially about water politics, storms, lakes and streams that once existed in SF. I've been sharing my exciting research in various ways. The funding is to make the most awesome idea happen: short presentations on public sidewalks. I see this as a series 10-minute shows lasting about 90 minutes in a public location where locals are the primary sidewalk users. It would be monthly for half a year, and longer if I can swing it. I would show pictures and maps and explain how the spot where they are standing came to be the way it is now, from being a pond, dune, etc. Some of these events would be after dark with slides projected onto a wall, and some just with printed posters in daylight. I've already scheduled a couple tests of the idea, using pictures I've already been using in my tours, and shouting instead of having a proper sound system. (Ouch on my voice! Bad for gathering a crowd.) I love sharing my research. I've been a teacher of kids and adults, and a regular speaker at the Natural History Series at Randall Museum for 20 years. I've published on the subject of water in SF (City Lights Foundation press). Since my interests keep leading me new places, I've never settled down into one career (with a salary, for instance) that allowed me to pay for expanding into this idea, sharing my cool, wet sleuthing with anyone who wanders by. My other projects include organizing major public murals (see http://monacaron.com for many of them, including the Bike Mural on Duboce Ave. behind Safeway). I founded and ran EpiCenter, a desktop publishing community training center in two locations in the early 1990s when such things barely existed yet (Market Street/Castro and Haight Street/Cole). I co-founded the Media Alliance JobFile system in 1988. I co-founded the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition, and various other major bicycling-as-transportation projects.

San Francisco, CA – Inquiring Minds: Science Camp for Adults

2011-06-21T00:00:00Z

Remember when you spent hours tinkering with film canisters, cardboard, baking soda and vinegar to make the perfect rocket? Or surreptitiously played with dry ice to create bubbling cauldrons or mini-bombs? Why should kids have all the fun! Why can’t adults participate in this kind of inquiry? Exploring real-world phenomena in a hands-on way isn’t important just for the grade school set, the skills fostered by this kind of inquiry are critical for success in our innovation-driven society and are fundamental to true scientific literacy. Most importantly, playing with science reminds us that it is awesome! A couple observations: (1) Adults are intrigued by science. The immense popularity of events like Exploratorium After Dark and the Academy of Science’s NightLife series supports this observation; (2) Fostering scientific literacy gets a lot of press, but the vast majority of hands-on programs are aimed at children. The main route for adults to cultivate scientific literacy is passive: reading books and magazines or attending lectures. Studies show this educational route is far less effective than hands-on exploration; (3) Few adults have had any real exposure to authentic inquiry: observing a phenomenon, asking questions, testing ideas and formulating theories. My goal is to bring inquiry-based, science-themed activities to adults, melding fun with learning. Imagine spending an evening with friends, noshing on good food, consuming adult-beverages, and exploring cryogenics with dry ice and liquid nitrogen or designing an experiment to determine if glass shape really affects the taste of wine. Sound fun? As a middle school science teacher, I spend nearly every day trying to foster early adolescents’ natural sense of wonder, while pushing them to think critically and scientifically about every day phenomena. Too often adolescents lose their interest in science because cookie-cutter labs, massive textbooks, and myriad cultural messages tell them that science is “too hard” or not applicable enough. I strive to fight against this trend in my classroom, but there’s a whole generation of young adults out there who, I believe, are eager to re-capture their childhood fascination with the world. Leveraging my experience as an educator and science nerd, I hope to provide adults with a scientific playground that will re-ignite their innate curiosity and, in a small way, contribute to cultivating a more informed, scientifically literate citizenry.

New York City, NY – Babycastles

2011-06-15T00:00:00Z

What We Do: Babycastles, New York's first independent games arcade, is named after bite-size portugese cakes in Japan. As a new function of a legendary all-ages venue for Brooklyn music and other local diy-culture, Babycastles is a wall of six lovingly decorated arcade cabinets that offers a physical place to play games made by amateur and independent game developers. The arcade is open four or five nights a week, during every show at the Silent Barn. The venue throws an opening party every few weeks for a new collection of arcade games, with the game developers present, music, drinks, and plenty of opportunity to get together and love games. How we do it: The idea is to provide space where not only games can be played socially but to create a identity for the NYC indie community. As far as the game selection goes, we have the line-up curated by someone different each month and seek out newer games that haven't been released to the public yet (i.e. Nihogg). Also, the reasons why we want multiple arcades are (as opposed to 5 games-in-one MAME machine): - It's just more fun to hear the sound of the arcade resonating out of 5 machines instead of 1. - Logistically speaking if you have almost 80 people at a party, one cabinet is certainly not enough to serve all of them. - We have themes for each party, it's pretty hard to find 6 awesome titles around a certain theme, yet it gets a lot harder if it's anymore than that. We've also made it a point to have at least one developer from the games we're featuring come out and give a lecture and take questions. As a developer myself, it's really exciting to see people play your game and get their feedback. Even though the last event was free and open to all, we're creating a model where we can actually PAY the developers for hosting their games here, if and when we start charging. Of course it doesn't have to cost money and developers choose if they want to have a door fee or not. Since its inception every Babycastles event has been free and open to all ages. There is also a lot more to the space then just games in re-purposed windows xp machines. We're going to have game design workshops, a zine, and host of other cool things down the road. Press: http://rhizome.org/editorial/3661 http://www.vbs.tv/blog/babycastles-cyborg-videogame-nerdtopia Quote from Brooklynvegan.com - "DIY video game arcade built from the carcasses of Win95 PCs. All grassroots-made games, not corporate junk."

Ottawa – Burundi Film Center

2011-06-15T00:00:00Z

The grant for June goes to Christopher Redmond, the co-founder of a not-for-profit school in East Africa called the Burundi Film Center (BFC). The project was started in 2007 with a small group of volunteer filmmakers who brought our own equipment and trained youth, aged 18-25, the basics of film history, theory and production. They trained 36 students and the first 5 short films played in over 50 international film festivals around the world. In 2009, the BFC produced a 22-minute documentary called Home Free about Burundian refugees who have been living in Tanzania for 36 years and are only now returning home. That film is now used as a training tool at UN agencies around the world, as well as embassies and schools. They have recently held more workshops and produced more films, including their first documentary workshop in 2010 and their first animation workshop is scheduled for September 2011. They’ve been able to accomplish all this without any operational funding at all. The only money they receive is through individual donations from friends and family. Our teachers either pay their own plane tickets, or find individual grants to travel if they are lucky. Despite their financial difficulties, they’ve achieved some great successes – including having a number of their students work on the 2011 Academy-Award nominated short film Na Wewe. Christopher was personally selected as one of Canada’s Top 50 Champions of Change on CBC and even held a TEDx Talk in Ottawa a few months ago. Christopher will use the Awesome Grant to empower some of their near 100 graduated students to produce more awesome films and will match our contribution to create 4 separate grants of $500 for the students to apply for. That is certainly awesome, sir!

London (Inativo) – Vintage Horsebox conversion to mobile circus stage

2011-06-14T00:00:00Z

LETS TALK ABOUT ROSIE! I have invested my inheritance in a beautiful vintage Horse lorry (Rosie), and am converting it into a mobile project vehicle/carnival lorry/sleeping quarters (for the volunteers when on the road)/and tip of the hat to the travelling circus's and gypsy tradition's. The best part of the whole thing, is the stage on the back. Currently we have a ramp that with some work and planning will become a fully functioning stage and performance space. With red curtains, fold out decorations,think Willy Wonker meets Dr Pernassus meets the medicine show. The outside of the van is going to be painted by two friends of the seagulls who are professional film set designers and large scale painters. They will do it for free I just need to cover the materials, the insie has been designed by a highly qualified architectural designer. She had done it for free,i just need to pay for the materials. The carpentry will be carried out by myself and my friend who is a professional woodworker,I just need to pay for the materials. The difference this will make to our projects in Romania is imeasurable. The kids and communities we visit are so outcast,and fogotten that self esteem is almost more dangerous than poverty! When we arrive each year the impact is undeniable. Such brilliant happiness (both ours and theirs). If we can carry out the work successfully on our old truck Rosie, they are going to have something so magical, and special, that the impression (especially on the imaginations of the kids, who are tragically under-stimulated), will last a lifetime.

Berlin (Inativo) – blitzTag + Light Rider Boom Bike

2011-06-01T00:00:00Z

This proposal is for materials & equipment expenses required for building a boom bike that will provide collective members and citizens with a reliable, cheap & effective method of contributing to visual culture in Berlin’s public spaces. GRL is an international federation of cells - from the USA to Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Australia, Japan, Austria, & now Germany. Our mission is “to outfit graffiti & street artists with open source technologies for urban communication.” Our broad aim is to develop new technologies within the scope of collective process, civic participation & media empowerment. Specifically, this means providing ways for the public to access these technologies, & put them to use in public space. A huge step towards this will be the creation of a mobile broadcast unit: the boom bike. During winter 2011, we plan to build a cargo bike that will allow us to transport gear & effectively ‘bomb’ public spaces with giant light-based graffiti. The bike will have space for a beamer, laptop, speaker & battery system, and will allow us to take projects like bombIR into city space, creating large-scale guerilla projections. With it, we will be able to hit several spots in one evening, without having to rely on external power or other location-logistics. The boom bike will be a sustainable, mobile, and participatory addition to not only GRL-Germany’s activities, but also the activities of several groups, as we plan to make the bike available activists, artists and other contributors to the diversity of visual and civic culture.

Los Angeles, CA – Swings

2011-06-01T00:00:00Z

Swings, installed publicly in urban and natural settings. The amazing feedback we got from people via interviews or emails was incredibly positive. Kids loved the but the more important impact was on the adults who used them. They were instantly transported back to a better time and lost themselves in the moment. Pure and utter unadulterated joy. The happiness that sprung up in them was palpable and filtered down to others as they carried on with their day. It's contagious. So we've already done this on a small scale. Seven swings strung across the city at the cost of about 150 bucks. The cost is mostly in the rope and we learned ideal heights that would save us on rope costs the next time around. 1000 dollars would finance 100 swings across the bay area spreading pure and simple joy from a forgotten source. Here is the video from our first experiment, which is guaranteed to bring a smile to your face: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=373kAws3Mug&feature=player_embedded http://www.woostercollective.com/2010/06/ohsanfran_happiness_project_10_swings.html http://mattgartland.com/greatness/oh-san-francisco-swings/

Melbourne (Inativo) – Mini Macaron Melbourne Campaign

2011-05-30T00:00:00Z

ME Ambitious entrepreneur, lover of food design, interaction design & marketing. Ideate, develop & implement unique social projects using OSM as key promotion channel. Director of Melbourne Macaron & CreaM www.melbournemacaron.com www.creamcreativemarketing.com/web/ MINI MACARON PROJECT Action is character. Melbourne Macaron was an event to promote the best pastry chefs in Melbourne & educate Melbournians on this wonderous petit four. Now we have hundreds of followers, thousands of hits on our website & we want to create some marketing buzz in Melbourne. WHAT Cover a MINI car entirely in macarons, glued on with icing ganache. Drive car in peak hour CBD & park it in several key locations. We have a team of 10 MM volunteers ready to make it work. WHEN 1 weeks notice. Dependent on weather. WHY We want to test the reach & exposure of such a stunt & circulate images, twitter feeds & publicity, all for the love of macarons. ADDITIONALS MINI marketing manager keen on lending a car for a week. List of all relevant Melb Media PR contacts

Calgary, AB (Inativo) – Audio Mob YYC (The MP3 Experiment)

2011-05-26T00:00:00Z

A first of its kind experiment in Calgary to bring people together and highlight the importance of Great Public Spaces. The mp3 Experiment involves distributing a secret mp3 via social media and word of mouth. People are given a secret date, time, and location to meet at where upon all participants will simultaneously listen to their copies of the mp3 on their audio devices, containing a mix of directions and instructions directing them to various AWESOME locations around the city while doing AWESOME things on the way like hi-five’ing random strangers, dancing with random people, flash mobbing, etc. The experiment would terminate at an awesome location like the Bow River Flow in and around Eau Claire Market or somewhere public like Prince's Island Park where all the participants would come together in a giant LARP’ing event (Live-Action Role Play) Participants can either meet up at a pre-determined destination and start the mp3 or can start the mp3 at any random location in the city, but meet at a common place towards the end. They also have the option of dressing up according to a theme or certain colors so they can identify with other participants and feel a sense of camaraderie. The driving force behind this idea is to shake things up in Calgary. I often hear recently immigrated young professionals from Montreal or Vancouver complain about how there is nothing exciting happening in Calgary and how there is nothing to do. I want to show these haters how awesome Calgary truly is and that there is an undercurrent of epic awesomeness riding in this city, if they would only bother to look for it. We are truly at the cusp of a major shift of Calgary becoming a world-class city and I want to be part of the great energy that I feel. The mp3 Experiment is my way of making me and other Calgarians feel more connected and more awesome about this city.

Washington, DC – GirlTrek

2011-05-25T00:00:00Z

GirlTrek is a national non-profit that inspires and organizes African - American women and girls, whose communities are most at risk from obesity related illness, to live healthier and more fulfilled lives. Each spring we launch a national walking campaign where women commit to walk five days a week at least 30 minutes a day for 10 weeks. Once they complete their walking they become "Active Role Models" who document their experience through photos and blogging and share with other women and girls in their communities. Each one, teach one! We started with 700 women in 2010. Through social media outreach we have built an online community of over 11,000 women. Check our Facebook page! http://www.facebook.com/HealthyBlackWomenandGirls The testimonies of the women who have been impacted by our program speak for themselves. We tell each women to lace up their shoes and hit the pavement with us because we believe that once they start walking they won't want to stop! GirlTrek is run by two women - Morgan and Vanessa. We do everything out of our own pockets because we believe in this movement! Currently 80% of Black women are overweight! Researchers predict that by 2034 100% of Black women will be overweight. This is a crisis! We spend millions on health care in this country and countless hours debating the merits of health care reform. What about grass roots advocacy to address the root cause? GirlTrek is our answer. It's our way to roll up our sleeves and get in the fight. Please help us! (About us - Morgan is an educator and curriculum developer who live in New Jersey. Vanessa is a freelance writer who lives in DC. We met 12 years ago in college and became fast friends. We are passionate about changing the unhealthy culture that exist in our families and culture. Too much soul food and our cultures love for "junk in the trunk" is literally killing us. We want to change lives by changing the attitudes and habits of our loved ones. It's not an easy task, but we are up for it!) Seriously check out our Facebook page and website. We dare you to not be inspired!

Boston, MA (Inativo) – The ME2!!!X: Deconstructing the Honda U3-X

2011-05-25T00:00:00Z

From the producer of FANSCOOTER! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tRZ5vBX2QNc and the infamous LOLrioKart comes a new vehicle which should never exist: The ME2!!!X. The ME2!!!X is a single-wheel holonomic balancing vehicle (overachiever unicycle?) based on the Honda U3-X: http://world.honda.com/U3-X/BackStory/page04.html Honda has never published details of their single wheel multiaxis balancing hardware except in a U.S. Patent Application 12/884,738 drawing, which showed the mechanism as really freaking hard to make. Through some back-engineering, the mechanism has been turned into a form which is buildable by anyone using 2D (flat) machined parts, such as waterjet- and laser-cut parts, which could be ordered through Internet-based companies. The ME2!!!X project is therefore going to realize this design and create a single wheel balancing platform upon which some sitting implement which should never be motorized will be mounted. The preliminary designs of ME2!!!X are at : http://www.etotheipiplusone.net/?p=1364#more-1364 The rest of the website should be taken as proof (or exacerbating evidence) that I can build weird stuff with disturbing regularity and also obsessively document and write about it.

Ottawa – Cadaver Dog Scent Generator

2011-05-25T00:00:00Z

Our grant for this month goes to Kim Cooper, the team manager of the Ottawa Valley Search and Rescue Dog Association (OVSARDA), a non profit organization staffed by volunteers who train and handle dogs in search and rescue operations. In her words: “One of our most common calls is to help locate a drowning victim, whose body is still under the water. Yes, dogs can smell a body under water. We train the dogs for this role using divers (or ca-divers, as we call them). However, divers are not available as often as we would like. A device called a scent generator would allow us to train more frequently.” The device is a fascinating machine made from a diver’s tank, regulator, pressure gauge and tubing that pumps scents under water to a specific spot. OVSARDA is a member of the Ontario Search and Rescue Volunteer Assn, which is partnered with the OPP. Their dog teams are tested and certified annually by the OPP K9 officers at the K9 Academy in Gravenhurst, Ont. and are certified through the International Police Work Dog Assn.

San Francisco, CA – Panoranima / Spitting Image

2011-05-24T00:00:00Z

Panoranima / Spitting Image is both a fantastic photo booth for public participation, and an evolving, chimerical tableau documenting ways people represent and recreate their bodies. Within an installation of sensational, creature-esque portraits of various folks from the Bay Area queer community, public participants are invited to jump in and pose themselves. In doing so, they are immersed in a landscape of large-scale digital prints and drawings – images emphasizing the imagined, the impossible, and the continually shifting and recreated parts of the body. Participants are then photographed in the installation, positioning their bodies to exemplify particular traits or ways they approach the world, or to accentuate parts of their bodies they are most proud of, find most compelling, or focus on the most. The photographs are digitally altered on-site to make a fantastic creature portrait of the participant, then printed for them to take home. To facilitate creative exchange as art practice, I ask participants to respond to one of these questions: + What is one physical or biological alteration/enhancement you would like to have of your body and why? + How do you use your body to create the kind of world you want to live in? + What animal, plant or imaginary being inspires you, and why? + What does queer mean to you? Responses and images will be compiled online and in a booklet. The first of the series will be included in the QCC's National Queer Arts Festival visual arts show - "Queer it Yourself," at SOMArts, San Francisco, June 2011. This project is an ongoing series of tableaus depicting various communities and groups to compile their living histories. See images online! www.ardentata.net/dynamic/panoranima.php Artist Finley Coyl compels fantastic representations of the queer body through the aesthetic of ritual technology. Her work unmoors assumed normality and unravels patterns of becoming grounded in the sensational. Various projects include being buried alive in a filing cabinet while wearing a wedding gown [performance, Kyra Rice's Entrainment, part of Philip Huang's Home Theater Fest, March 2011]; dressing four men in stained, assless tights and leather spines to perform a shit dance [set and costume design,Tessa Wills' Reception, the Garage SF, March 2011]; and floating down the Mississippi River on a home-made junk raft with over 30 people exploring art, storytelling and sustainability [Miss Rockaway Armada, NYC & Midwest 2006-07].

Toronto – The Toronto Kiss Map

2011-05-01T00:00:00Z

The Toronto Kiss Map is a touching and sassy collaborative storytelling project that makes love visible across Toronto. Imagine a map of our city covered in colourful place markers. Click each one to open a tiny story of a kiss that happened in that spot. Imagine if anyone — you, me, Michael Ondaatje — could easily add to this map, anonymously, anytime. Imagine how it would create a new view of this city, not of cold and concrete, but as a place of connection, softness, and tiny moments of love. On April 21st, I posted this idea on Facebook, and almost instantly, my news feed was full of kiss-stories. Furtive kisses, long and slow ones, romantic ones and total heartbreakers. It was already happening. That night, I started fiddling. I’m no techie, but I managed to create a Google Map that approximated what I was going for. I posted it on my Facebook wall and went to bed. By morning it had 560 hits. Within two days it was cresting 2,000, and over 100 people had shared it on their own walls. The idea works. It’s simple. It's tantalizing. It makes people smile. It lets us have tiny, tender moments cherished and witnessed. It lets us feel like part of something bigger. It lets us see our city with eyes of love. Why you? Here’s the thing. Google Maps are seriously limiting. Right now, anyone can delete, change, or move anything, even other people’s kisses or the instructions. Also, it’s set onto a map of the entire world. Way too big. And... it’s not gorgeous. The Toronto Kiss Map deserves to be gorgeous. I want to invest in a Web Developer who can create the map I dreaming of. I want users to be able to save their kisses. I want to be able to approve them before they’re "map-ready". And, I want to house the map on its own domain — someplace beautiful and easy to find and share. I have found the help. I’ve created the advertising plan. I just need $1000 and it’ll be launched mid-summer.

Calgary, AB (Inativo) – YES!

2011-04-28T00:00:00Z

My awesome idea is simple. I would like to hire a sky writer to fly a small plane over downtown Calgary at 4:30pm on a Tuesday afternoon in June to write the word YES! in the clouds. In proposing this idea I want to ask Calgarians what you asked in your submission: How exciting is today?? Seeing the word YES! written in the sky on a weekday will shake people’s understanding of their day-to-day experience of this city. Promoting this positive message I hope to also give people pause and allow them to realize that Calgary is full of awesome surprises! There are several skywriting companies that can fly to Calgary to make this project happen. With the short lead time I was unable to attain a quote, but should you select my awesome idea for the Pitch ‘n Party on April 28th, I hope to have a more concrete understanding of the costs and timeline. Thank-you for considering my awesome idea, and above all thank-you for proposing this initiative. I have always believed that Calgary is a truly unique city full of incredible people.

Boston, MA (Inativo) – FIGMENT Boston!

2011-04-27T00:00:00Z

FIGMENT Boston is a 2-day interactive free art event that will take place on the Rose Kennedy Greenway on June 4 and 5. Our call for participation is open until April 15. Anyone can submit an art project of any kind! Our only real rule (aside from safety) is that all the art has to be interactive. We're the anti-gallery, where you can play with all the art!

We'll have a giant dome, aerial silks, multiple music areas with live music and DJs, marching bands, chalk art, crazy interactive sculptures, micro-theater, scavenger hunts, homemade art bicycles, maybe some art cars, giant kaleidoscopes, domes, a giant maze, and more. We're in discussions with the Aquarium about bringing a life-sized inflatable whale. We're event hoping to get the Giant Hammock to come back for the weekend!

This is our second event in Boston. Last year we drew about 10,000 people to a space on the Charles River on Memorial Drive near Harvard Square to see about 100 artists. This year, and hopefully for many years in the future, we will be on the Rose Kennedy Greenway. FIGMENT started in NYC in 2007. This year it will also have a 3rd city, Jackson, MS, and in 2012 we will add Detroit.

We have a core team of 16 volunteers who have been working for months to organize the event, and we will have about 100 volunteers at the event over the course of 2 days.

Our goal is to blow people's minds for the day. We want them to get off the train at South Station or walk down the street from the Aquarium and discover a world full of joy and art unlike anything they've ever seen. We want them to forget about whatever the problem of the day is and get swept up by the event. The interactive nature of our art is key. The idea is that people will leave with a huge smile plastered across their face and the inspiration to bring an amazing project of their own next year. We want to unleash the creativity in everyone.

Thanks for all the great work you do, and thanks for considering us! We also want to thank the Awesome Foundation for funding the Giant Hammock project! That project in many ways opened the doors for us to get onto the Greenway this year.

London (Inativo) – Rubies in the Rubble

2011-04-20T00:00:00Z

Having worked in a hedge fund for the last 2 years I decided it was time to leave and do something that combined two things that I am really passionate about- cooking and recycling! I am in the early stages of setting up a social impact venture- making a brand of chutney and jam from otherwise discarded fruit and vegetables. In the UK we waste approximately 40 million tonnes of food a year. This is more than enough to satisfy the hunger of the almost 1 billion malnourished people in the world. So, with an estimated 20 to 40% of UK fruit and vegetables rejected even before they reach the shops- I wanted to make use of these misfits and; having been brought up on a farm in Scotland, the obvious thing seemed to be to make chutney and jam! I have been in touch with the City of London and secured a kitchen to rent on the New Spitalfields market site- the UK largest wholefood market of fruit and veg.

San Francisco, CA – Meanwhile, San Francisco Microcommunities

2011-04-19T00:00:00Z

"Meanwhile," An illustrated documentary of San Francisco Subcultures in their own words. I'm an artist and an illustrator based in SF. Last year i started spending time with a different subcultures in SF and documenting them, what they do and why, using my drawings and the subject's own words. The subjects are people whose stories go largely untold, but are central to making SF the diverse, lively and idiosyncratic place it is. The resulting graphic narrative (also called "graphic journalism", "comic" and "narrative illustration") appears every 5 weeks or so on the literary website The Rumpus (http://therumpus.net). So far I have published pieces on the Market Street Chess Players, The Dolphin Club Bay Swimmers, Dog Walkers, Farmer's Market Farmers and Mission Bartenders. In the future I hope to feature Hunters Point Hairdressers, Dog Patch Hells Angels and Street Performers. Things that help me do this well: my dual background in art and social work. My background in marketing that helps get the project in front of people. My interest in SF (I'm actually from the bay area if you can believe that). My insatiable curiosity about people. My naive fearlessness in precarious situations and ability to both get up at 4am or stay up till 4am to get the story. You can see the Meanwhiles I've done so far here: http://therumpus.net/sections/wendy-macnaughton-featured-comics/ You can see my website here: http://wendymacnaughton.com And my blog here: http://wendymacnaughton.blogspot.com My bio: Wendy MacNaughton is an artist and illustrator based in San Francisco. Her work has been featured in Juxtapoz, GOOD, 7x7, Time Out NY and she is a Staff Illustrator at Longshot Magazine. Please feel free to contact me with questions. Thanks.

Toronto – Cardboard Fort Night!

2011-04-11T00:00:00Z

Cardboard Fort Night is what it sounds like! People come and make cardboard forts while drinking beer. We provide huge swaths of brand-new cardboard - the kind you could only dream about as a kid (like when someone in your building bought a new refrigerator). We also provide duct tape, magic markers and scissors. A DJ plays wonderfully inspiring fort-building music! When people arrive, they are invited to start a new fort or to join a fort currently being built! This is a great opportunity for people to mix and mingle. After a couple hours of intensive fort-building, we will have a celebrity judge walk around! I am not sure who it'll be just yet (as I know no one) but I am certain if I put the call out we can find someone! Anyway, the celebrity judge will award 1st, 2nd and 3rd place prizes to the best forts of the night! Almost like at a science fair. (Criteria and prizes to be decided.) Then, after the awards and the applause and the photo-taking comes the Great Smashening of the Forts! Yes, at the end of the night everyone smashes all the forts into dust and helps clean up. (We will have to pick a venue with a dumpster.) And then we all go home, having made new forts, but more importantly, new friends. I am someone who like to organize weird events. At various times I have organized a Slowdance Night (where we play slow songs all night long, where we provide Designated Dancers for the shy, and where you get a Dancecard-booklet with the playlist so you can "book" certain songs with certain people), a Strip Spelling Bee (which is like Strip Poker, but it's a spelling bee, and it's played in front of an audience of hooters and hollerers. Essentially there are 3 rounds, and if you get your word wrong, you have to take off a third of your clothing); and a Crowd Karaoke Singalong Event (where everyone comes, picks a song to add to the songlist, and all sing, like a choir, together to the lyrics). You can find more details about those events at www.slowdancenight.blogspot.com, www.stripspellingbee.blogspot.com, and www.crowdkaraoke.blogspot.com. Cardboard Fort Night! has been kicking around in my head for a long time, but I could never find a way to make it financially feasible. I never wanted to charge an extortionary materials fee. Your grant would allow me to enact this awesome event. I can promise that it will happen in Toronto, sometime in 2011. Likely at the Dovercourt House. Thank you for your time & consideration & for creating this grant.

Ottawa – Phone books to mushrooms

2011-04-11T00:00:00Z

Congratulations to Alexis Williams, recipient of our April award! Alexis plans to this summer collect several thousand phone books that will be sterilized, inoculated with mycelium, and assembled at the Ottawa Art Gallery into helical columns that will produce a colourful display of edible mushrooms that will star in a community feast. “The phone books,” she explains, “will become completely colonized with mycelium, changing their familiar appearance into soft white bricks. The bricks will grow together to make a solid, sweetly aromatic sculpture before the colourful display of oyster mushrooms erupt and blossom.” Alexis’ project won’t be confined to the art gallery, however! She will be offering a phone book mushroom growing kit, ready to fruit, as well as instructions, to any restaurant, elementary school class, library, music festival, and community garden that donates 20 phone books or 50 mason jars. She also means to produce a free printed publication of information and instructions on growing edible mushrooms. Alexis hopes that the project will begin to educate Ottawa residents about some of the environmental and health uses of oyster mushrooms and encourage local community gardens to grow mushrooms as food, as medicine, to strengthen their vegetables, and to clean the soil they use. You can learn more about Alexis and see some of her work on her website at http://www.alexiswilliams.net. You are invited to take part in the project! Alexis is inviting schools, restaurants, and others to host living mushroom sculptures, looking for high school students to volunteer with her through the Art Gallery, and trying to collect as many unwanted phone books and one litre glass jars as she can. To get involved, visit http://www.alexiswilliams.net/wwff.html.

Los Angeles, CA – Compton Jr. Posse Youth Equestrian Org

2011-04-11T00:00:00Z

I am Mayisha Akbar founder of the Compton Jr. Posse (CJP), In 1988, While working for Merrill Lynch Realty, I discovered the Richland Farms area of Compton when researching properties for one of my clients. As I was just recently a divorcee and single parent, I became really excited about the possibilities of raising my 3 children in a rural environment as I did growing up. I truly believe my experiences with animals and horses in particular built the foundation for the person I am today. So with children in tow, I moved to Compton, bought a few horses and settled in to live on the farm. As my children ventured out into the neighborhood, they found many youth whose basic needs weren't being met. So like pied pipers they brought the children home for our assistance and out of a community need the CJP was born. The CJP, now a year round after school program, has provided leadership skills to hundreds of at risk inner city kids. Youth ages 5-18 are taught the value of hard work, education, and self development in order to give back to their families, their communities, and to society in general. Our motivational tool of choice is equine science - the horse. International studies show that teaming Youth with animals increases self esteem, teaches responsibility and discipline. At the CJP ranch, youthlearn how to care for, communicate with, and to compete on horseback. In 2009, we established the first inner city high school team to compete in the Interscholastic Equestrian League (IEL) in California. This has given our youth the platform to become eligible for equestrian scholarships to some of the top colleges across the country. We have earned the respect and help of many international greats including 2008 Olympic Gold Medalist Will Simpson and medalist Charlotte Bredahl Baker. Education is at the forefront of what we do. Our curriculum is under development so that students will be able to earn academic credits in math, science, and business, which will be in addition to the physical education credits they currently earn. Compton Jr. Posse has helped three generations of youth to go to college, into the military and into business for themselve

Melbourne (Inativo) – Trams + Music = Tram Sessions

2011-03-31T00:00:00Z

With more and more live music venues closing down in Melbourne, we thought we had to do something about it. And so we did. We actually took the whole venue problem out of the equation. Tram Sessions is a not-for-profit project with the sole purpose of putting bands on Melbourne trams for peoples commuting pleasure. If you're lucky enough, a zone-1 ticket could get you front seats to the likes of Quarry Mountain Dead Rats, Lisa Mitchell, Fourth Floor Collapse or Loren. And if you missed it, our website will fill you in. So there you have it, our project in a nutshell. We play music on trams. Simple, fun and great for our environment. And really, don’t we all want hear live music when transporting ourselves? Me who writing this application is Nick Wallberg. Hello. I co-founded Tram Sessions with Carl Malmsten in early 2010 with the aim of creating something awesome as well as doing something I love, listen to music. Since the start, we’ve been growing steadily. We now have the approval by Yarra Trams to film on the Melbourne trams (oh boy was this a challenge!). We’ve also started a partnership with Channel 31 to use our sessions as fillers in between their shows. Exciting! We’re now going in to a new phase where we need some funding to spread our presence among potential Tram Sessions fans. For this we need to print a whole heap of different promotional items. So far we’ve printed flyers and Business cards, but they’re all out as people love them (did I tell you we have an awesome Art Director helping us?) The items we’re looking at printing is updated flyers and new Business cards, but we also need to print t-shirts for the filming crew, coasters for promotion and outdoor posters. As you can see it all adds up, and as we don’t make money... yet, we need support in this early stage. We have a steady plan for what we want to achieve in the future and have already good connections with event companies, beer companies and others to create a organisation that will stay alive for a long time in Melbourne. Please have a look at our website (www.tramsessions.com) to see what we’re all about. I’m confident you’ll have trouble not to smile while watching the film clips. It’s simply pure joy. Thanks for creating the opportunity for people like me to continue our struggle to find pure awesomeness. Happy Commuting! Nick

Ottawa – Murder Mystery Interactive Event

2011-03-31T00:00:00Z

Awesome Ottawa is proud to very belatedly announce the winner of our March 2011 grant — just in time for the ambitious project to be realized! In just a few short weeks, explains awardee Greg Jack, over seventy of Ottawa’s hippest young professionals will celebrate Hallowe’en at Ottawa’s biggest ever free-form murder mystery party. There will be prizes, music and dancing, and, oh yeah, a murder! The theme will be dead historical figures. You’ve seen the murder mystery-in-a-box concepts for sale in the discount aisles, says Greg. You’ve heard of lame parties where actors recreate the murder and the audience is only a passive participant. This is nothing like that. No actors. Everyone plays, and everyone can win. This is Greg’s fifth murder mystery party, and with the support of Awesome Ottawa his most ambitious one yet. The event is completely non-profit, and after covering any additional costs not taken care of by the Awesome Ottawa grant, all proceeds raised will be donated to the Ottawa Food Bank. Want to have your own unique Murder Mystery Party, asks Greg? He invites you to visit his website and get in touch. We will report back later this month on how the event turned out, and how much money was raised!

Boston, MA (Inativo) – Movable Chair

2011-03-30T00:00:00Z

The International Symbol of Access, the standard white-on-blue image, was designed in 1968, and its use in parking spaces and buildings has become widely familiar. So familiar that it's taken on the “invisibility of the obvious.” Only when I took note of some rare, but striking, newer designs did it occur to me how dramatic the differences are. The original image depicts a wooden, mechanical figure whose body is synonymous with the chair, while the new images show an active user: a person first, actively engaged in the world. My sticker allows the old image to be visible, but superimposes the new image on top — in effect, editing public signage to provoke a set of social and political questions. Accessibility is about a lot more than ramps and prosthetic limbs: people with disabilities often spend their lives with decisions being made for them, with their bodies and choices being handled by others.

Toronto – The Mighty Wall of Tics

2011-03-28T00:00:00Z

Hello there Awesome Foundation. I'm Kenneth Butland, and I'm the quirky marketing coordinator for the Tourette Syndrome Foundation of Canada (TSFC), a relatively small charity (we're a foundation in name only - I'm the whole marketing department and the de facto fundraiser, too!) that helps people affected by Tourette Syndrome (TS), a poorly understood, childhood-onset neurochemical disorder shared by up to 1 in 100 Canadians. I've had a dream for two years now of 'erecting' a wall of tics: an online destination where people with TS can share and compare their tics. 'Why the heck would you want to do something that bizarre?' you're asking. The quick answer is because it's awesome, but I'll do my best to explain it in a little more detail. Imagine that while growing up you were mocked for things you couldn't control, kind of like sneezing. Eventually you learned to suppress those things while in public despite the enormous stress of holding it in, and you grew to consider yourself a freak. Goodbye self-esteem. Then one day you discovered that someone else did the exact same thing, and not just one person: many! Suddenly you weren't alone anymore, suddenly you were sharing aspects of your life with others who felt the same way and understood you, suddenly you belonged to a special club and you felt less jealous of the 'normies', or perhaps not at all! The bottom line is that social isolation causes suffering and social interaction brings about liberation from suffering, and that's what the wall of tics is: a vehicle for this vital communication to happen. It hasn't been approved by our volunteer board of directors, not because it isn't awesome (it is), but because most of our tight budget goes to 'boring' stuff like e-learning advocacy projects and in-service program development. Why is this idea so doable for $1,000? Because the perfect model for it already exists (www.iamneurotic.com) and because a dedicated website for it is already in place (www.tourette.ca) which receives 150-300 visitors every day. Golden!

Washington, DC – Petworth Jazz Project

2011-03-23T00:00:00Z

My name is Tom Pipkin, and I try to be awesome, often. My newest awesome project involves my neighborhood, Petworth, in N.W. Washington, D.C. First a bit about my awesomeness: I am a board member of the first and only Farmers Market in Ward 4. I have managed tons of independent special events that focus on art, music, and community, from conception to execution. I know my neighbors and like them. I often have awesome ideas, most of which I choose not to act on, due to time and money. But this is my AI (awesome idea) for 2011, and now you, the Awesome Foundation, can be a part of it. As follows: Outdoor Jazz performances in a small grassy lot at the corner of 8th and Taylor Streets N.W. This is a small field adjacent to a little community center that was recently renovated. The performances would take place about an hour before dusk on Saturdays, once a month. Talent will be sourced from the preeminent jazz club in the city, Bohemian Caverns. Omrao Brown (owner) has agreed to get a rotation of local trio’s and quartet’s lined up. Blue moving blankets would be laid out in a grid on the grass so anyone can walk up and grab a piece of real estate. If you have ever sat and relaxed and listened to a good jazz trio or quartet, outside, as the sun sets, then you know how awesome this is. While our neighborhood is “safe” and comprised of families and older folks who have lived here for generations, it is not without its violence. In 2010 we had 8 homicides, almost exclusively teen gang violence. The park location is one block from the 7th and Taylor St. crew territory, as well as at least 3 other crews in the immediate area. Clearly an opportunity for the neighbors to come out and meet each other in a positive atmosphere is critical. The Farmers Market we operate is a perfect example of this. More important than the fresh, locally farmed produce that is available is the environment created for neighbors to chat and meet and discuss issues and events. The merging of cultures, colors and ages that is occurring in Petworth makes an event like this important, slowly building the foundation of a stronger community. My experience in managing music events, outdoor festivals, and projects in general, along with 20 years of roots and connections in the city, will make implementation a reality. Music performed outdoors in warm weather is really one of the best things in life. With a little bit of awesome support we can make this happen!

San Francisco, CA – 100 Dinosaur Painting Scavenger Hunt

2011-02-22T00:00:00Z

Between September 2009 and February 2010 I painted 100 robots, they can be seen here: http://onehundredrobots.blogspot.com I took orders beginning in August, crossing numbers off of a chart as they came in. I sold the paintings cheaply ($10 each) and sold out before I had even painted the first 20. It was a lot of fun, and I made about $1000 doing it. I've been toying with the idea of doing a similar project with paintings of dinosaurs, but 1) I dont really want to go to the trouble of naming them all, mailing them, etc and 2) I dont really want to annoy the people who already know about my art by asking them to purchase another $10 painting. So, I propose that I do the paintings and hide them in places around the bay area, or with the help of friends around the world, whichever cities I can get them to. The site I set up (which would be mirrored on my own blog) would have a picture of the painting, along with some sort of clue that people could follow to try to be the first one to find a free painting. I'd probably hide the first one in the office at the Jejune Institute (www.jejuneinstitute.com) in San Francisco, since I'm friends with those folks, and they were the ones who planeted the seed in my mind to set up some sort of art scavenger hunt.

Toronto – Connect the T-Dots

2011-02-22T00:00:00Z

My name is Stephanie Avery and I'm a totally rad Toronto artist. I work in several different mediums but, above all else, I love creating interactive art. Thus, I am proposing to create a series of interactive photographs called 'Connect the T-Dots'. For this project I am going to paint giant dots and numbers on specific rooftops in Toronto neighbourhoods that, from overhead, will create enormous games of connect the dots. Afterward I will hire an aerial photographer to photograph these neighbourhoods. I will print a limited edition series of the photographs and, eventually, a 'Connect the T-Dots' book. Probably the most challenging aspect of this series will be getting permission to paint on people's rooftops. That being said, you'd be amazed at what you can get if you simply ask nicely for it. It's worked for me with past artistic endeavors, for example, the hundreds of extracted human teeth I collected from dentists for my 'Pearly Whites' installation. Really, anything is possible so long as you aren't afraid to go for it. Once I have permission all I have to do is wait for the snow to melt and the rest will fall into place. Through the Awesome Foundation I hope to create the first image in my 'Connect the T-Dots' series, a prototype piece, that I can use to apply for further funding from other organizations.

Boston, MA (Inativo) – MOLTENi NET WORKS @ MEME

2011-02-16T00:00:00Z

blog: molteninetworks.tumblr.com -"url not working"? Maria Molteni grew up in Nashville, TN, a perochial-school misfit in the bible belt, where Protestants & Catholics settle their differences on the field or court. Aware of her mother’s childhood dismissal from tryouts on account of being “too skinny”, Maria felt fortunate to spend ten years swallowed by team jerseys bearing Air Jordan’s lucky number 23. When asked of future plans, she swore to become an “Art and Basketball Star”. Her neighbors who knew of her love for the game expressed their support, offering one of their own MOLTEN -the official olympic brand- basketballs with a bold “i” painted on the end. Upon receiving a BFA from Boston University in 2006, these formative experiences became a source of new inspiration. This anecdote recounting an altered MOLTEN ball illustrates the processes and concepts imbedded in what has become an art-informed-by-athletic practice. Maria is interested in Art as an act of gift giving, reassessment of authorship via appropriation, social spectacle, & expression of support/protest by way of DIY or graffiti techniques. MOLTENi NET WORKS function simply. Participants will hand-crochet basketball nets to be installed on hoops where such are missing or damaged. I've created a blog & google map to keep track of spaces where nets have been installed or have yet to be. Interested contributers may follow the progress of the project, reporting sightings and requests for nets in their own neighborhoods. Efforts have begun locally, with hoops near my Allston, MA apartment, but may contribute to additional projects such as artist Kevin Clancy's "Portable Utopia" in Johannesburg. I hope to engage other creative enthusiasts collaborating via skill shares to fabricate nets and exchange new design ideas. Familiar with the many ways nets benefit the game, both functionally and beyond, this project is inspired by my own basketball experience and the love for sinking a "nothin' but net". As an artist I am interested in a mapping process that creates a network between communities and utilizes abandoned space as a venue. I'm also motivated by a DIY form of slow production that will restore dignity to such preloved neighborhood totems. I hope that installing a functional while quality, hand-crafted product on an industrial rim will foster creativity, encourage the questioning of standard measurement or design, & create a bond of trust between artists, athletes, & neighbors.

Ottawa – 100 Strangers

2011-01-31T00:00:00Z

Me: Tall, cool, and fond of words like "turpitude" - as in "women of immoral turpitude are not welcome in this facility" - as reads a sign I once encountered in the dodgiest of hotels in the streets of Dar es Salaam. My project: 100 Strangers photo project. www.lemien.ca. Selfish in its immediate benefits (i.e., me, taking photos some might call "good" - and really, don't we all love to be gushed about?) but paradoxically mind-shifting in the whole 'getting people to see themselves as strangers do' sense. The real reason I'm doing it: Bilateral cleft lip and palate and kids in developing countries who don't get the fully-subsidized life-altering plastic surgery spoiled brats like me get. Call it karma. Or else, call it a continuation of efforts undertaken to pay it forward; Back at Queen's, they gave me a doo-hickey in part for an extracurricular fundraiser I did for Operation Rainbow Canada, who performs surgery on kids around the world, while training local doctors to provide interim care where possible. This time, I want more. Enough to fund a good portion of one of their missions. Enough to feel grateful for the doctors who have helped me. Enough to justify the agonizing catharsis of dealing with peoples' photo-related fears and insecurities while the heavy weight of self-indulgence screams "selfish ingrate" every time I fire that shutter. Just enough.

Melbourne (Inativo) – Melbourne City Rooftop Honey

2011-01-30T00:00:00Z

My partner and I are hobbyist beekeepers who decided to set up this project as we saw a need to get involved in the worldwide effort to help save the honey bees. In many other cities around the world, the practice of rooftop beekeeping has been done for decades. With the collapse of honeybees in 2007 (Colony Collapse Disorder), a serious risk is taking place on our natural food supply since the honey bee is crucial in our environment. Since their existence helps with sustainability in food along with the responsibility of pollinating a large proportion of the food that we eat and if the honeybees are in trouble, we are in trouble as well. Paris, London, Toronto, San Francisco and New York City are only a few of the cities where urban beekeeping is thriving. Why not here in Melbourne we say. As a benefit we also get some true local produce, with less actual food miles as well as help green our city at the same time. A vision of looking forward towards a greener, sustainable future. Since we started in November last year, we have been overwhelmed with all the support we have been receiving from local businesses and the community. The way in which the project works is that, we install, maintain and look after the bees at no cost using natural beekeeping methods. What is on offer is an opportunity for people to learn beekeeping and get involved as well as, depending on the honey flow for the season we are looking at sharing a portion of the honey for the gesture. We extract the honey, which we will do at one of restaurants who have donated their kitchen to help out. The balance of the honey will be blended with care by us to produce our own unique Melbourne City honey which is to be sold back to the city community. Currently we have 12 sites with another 25 on a waiting list.

Los Angeles, CA – Chief Mysterious Officer

2011-01-23T00:00:00Z

I am a lifelong kid, always looking at things with an eye towards wonder and amusement. I started Mystery Trip because I wanted to start exploring the offbeat and fun parts of Los Angeles that maybe had been forgotten (or never even discovered), and figured I might as well drag my friends along with me. It's based on a simple concept from my childhood summer camp: get on a bus, destination unknown. Somehow it always inevitably ended up being cheesy, corny fun. Past Mystery Trips have included, but certainly aren't limited to, the following: Derby Dolls roller derby, a tour of Dodger Stadium, the Bunny Museum, the Industry of Death Museum (Scientology-sponsored...good times!), Hollywood Park, Olvera Street, Museum of Jurassic Technology, Grandma Prisbrey's Bottle Village, Philippe's, a demolition derby, a visit to Target wearing khakis and red t-shirts (wackiness ensued) and many more stops. Each Mystery Trip ends with a worst CD or DVD-from-your-collection exchange, a t shirt to commemorate the experience, new friends and great stories. The feedback has always been positive. People love Mystery Trip as a way to explore the city, meet new people and act like a kid again as they get bussed around playing "2 truths and a lie" reading a haiku about themselves or reciting a limerick about their family. After much encouragement and thought, I decided to offer Mystery Trips to the public, and have started Mystery Trip LA (MTLA). MTLA expands on the idea by working with individuals, corporations, business groups and charities to create custom events that promote togetherness, team-building and a return to a simpler time in our lives by simply letting go, allowing someone else to take the reins for a while to show you a fun time as you experience some of the wackiest and – dare I say – most awesome places and people of Los Angeles. I have also frequently tried to include places that are important to the community, to show that we can all do a little bit more to help out our fellow Angelinos, such as the Homegirl Cafe, where the most difficult to place inner city people are hired in transitional jobs in a safe, supportive environment where they will learn both concrete and soft job skills; Mama's Hot Tamales, a MacArthur Park co-op restaurant where people are taught to make tamales from their native countries; and the Monastery of the Angels, where the nuns help pay their bills by selling pumpkin bread.

London (Inativo) – People's Kitchen

2011-01-23T00:00:00Z

People’s kitchen (PK) is a community kitchen that uses left over/surplus food to create meals for the community; open to everyone, it aims to create a welcoming environment while helping the environment. The kitchen relies on volunteers & donated food. Inspired by the Berlin ‘Volkskuche’, a solidarity idea of people being able to eat for a reasonable price & linked with other food waste projects (Food Cycle, This Is Rubbish, Taste of Freedom, Rhythms of Life & FareShare), the PK is achieving this & is already proving a success! Like many of the best ideas, the concept is very simple and deals with important issues that pervade national consciousness at the moment: waste, community & food. We are becoming a nation of ‘foodies’ with food mentioned everywhere in papers, on tv & in conversation. However, many people still cannot cook, and many still eat badly. The PK allows people to get involved with cooking in an unstressful environment & allows them to eat a jolly good plate of tasty, healthy food for a donation they feel appropriate. Currently based in east London, the PK has been running since September 2010 with the intention preventing food waste while bringing the community together for social good. It has also been known to completely cure hangovers & to provide openings for love & romance.The question that we often hear after a successful event is “why isn't there a PK in every community?"

Washington, DC – DC Diaper Bank - Nonprofit Fees & Website Launch

2011-01-19T00:00:00Z

My academic and professional life has focused on understanding how human minds develop, and how parental expectations and culture form the parameters of a child’s world. I earned a Masters in Cognitive Anthropology in 2005 and studied this issue cross culturally. I am currently pursuing a PhD in Education Policy, studying how the structure of our educational system interacts with families. However, I have found the reality of raising a child is far different from studying it. My first child, Jack was born in Oct 2009 and he was difficult–he cried all the time and rarely slept. Somehow we survived the first year and Jack has turned into a joyful toddler. As Jack outgrew his infancy, I began to think about families who didn’t have the support I did–how did they survive those first few awful months? How do you soothe a crying baby when that baby is hungry? How do you calm an infant in pain from diaper rash if you don’t have money for medicine? I began to think about all I had studied alongside the stats on poverty. As of 2009, 18,000 children under age six live in poverty in DC–and that’s just the official count. How could I help them? Diapers may seem like a strange answer to that question, because, really, what can a diaper do? A lot. A typical baby needs 10 to 12 diapers a day, and a toddler uses about eight. At a cost of $100-$120 per month, diapers are a significant expense. One in twenty moms who has had to cut back on other purchases to pay for diapers has reused a disposable diaper and 36% of mothers living in poverty regularly run out of clean diapers for their infants. Families receiving Food Stamps can’t use this assistance to purchase diapers because they are “hygiene items.” Babies who remain in dirty diapers for prolonged periods can experience diaper rash and infections. Diaper rash often leads to more crying and babies who cry excessively are the most likely to be victims of shaken baby syndrome. A clean diaper is only a little thing to those who don’t have to worry where the next pack will come from. I formed a board and incorporated the DC Diaper Bank in October 2010. We are currently preparing our application for 501(c)(3) status and meeting with potential partners. We begin diaper collection in mid December. The DC Diaper Bank will, through a combination of diaper drives and fund raising, distribute diapers through a network of existing social service agencies already working with families in need in the DC metro area.

Boston, MA (Inativo) – Banditos Misteriosos: Giant Puzzle

2011-01-19T00:00:00Z

Boston is a playground. Banditos Misteriosos is the city's mysterious playmate. We are an organization dedicated to bringing Boston alive with a slew of activities that are free, open to everybody and most importantly, just a little bit out of the ordinary. In the past some of the awesome projects we’ve done have included: a watergun battle, a pillow fight, a Choose Your Own Adventure hunt through the city. We’d like your help in bringing to life our next awesome event: a Giant Puzzle. This giant jigsaw puzzle will be completed by participants in one afternoon. Participants will come to the Banditos location to receive a set of random jigsaw pieces. They will then have to work together to color in the puzzle pieces according to a ‘Paint by Numbers’ scheme. The final step will be to determine the pieces’ location. This will require quiet a bit of interaction with fellow puzzlers as well as passer-bys (who will no doubt want to offer advice while observing from the side). We would like the image of the puzzle to be a detailed map of Boston, which not only goes along with our mission to ‘keep Boston fun’ but also will act as an education tool to teach Bostonians about the geography of their (our) city!

San Francisco, CA – Scarf-a-day

2011-01-18T00:00:00Z

I will make one silly, strange, whimsical, nerdy, electronic, fuzzy, warm, or otherwise totally awesome scarf- each day, starting the 1st of the month if/after getting an Awesome Foundation grant. I will post each of these, with how-to's or at least lots of photos, at either my site or a dedicated Tumblr. I really love sewing on the fly (no pun intended) and have realized that the less I worry about patterns the more silly I can be. I think doing a one-a-day will have me producing some mighty silly scarves. I've done a lot of sewing recently, including a 2-foot-tall Tree hat and matching jacket with interchangable seasonal leaves. I also made the NorthSkirt, a soft-circuit project that, with LEDs, points northward.

Ottawa – The Word According to Youth

2010-12-31T00:00:00Z

My name is Debora Barkun and I've lived in Ottawa for last 4 years. I have a 3 children and my eldest has learning disabilities. She has a hard time with reading, comprehension and expression. In my quest to guide her through this existence, she has shown a love for performing. I kept trying to come up with different ideas of combining performance and literacy. That is when the Word According to Youth a.k.a. The WAY was born. The Word According to Youth (The WAY) is a project that allows young people to use their words and voices to share their visions, passions, concerns and joys about their life, community and world through spoken word. The WAY will hold a series of Saturday workshops throughout January and February on the history, composition and delivery of poetry, spoken word and storytelling. Local spoken word artists will facilitate these workshops. In mid-February, participants will have the opportunity to experience firsthand a live poetry slam or storytelling event. There will also be an evening dedicated to Bad Poetry. Bad Poetry is a fun filled evening in which the worst poets take top prize. It’s a fundraising event for friends and family of youth performers. Participants will experience a day in the life of the poetry slam artist. Performers will laugh and be laughed at, mock and be mocked but most importantly, have a heck of a lot of fun. Finally, on February 19, members of The WAY will take part in their own poetry slam. Ottawa’s Anthony Bansfield will act as event emcee, with music, refreshments and prizes for everyone involved.

Berlin (Inativo) – Wilde Schlittenfahrt (aka Wild Sled Ride)

2010-12-16T00:00:00Z

As snow sets now we need a prepared hill somewhere easy reachable to do the wild rides on a sled, sledge, whatever you call it: Wilde Schlittenfahrt! I want to prepare a hill not far from the next s-bahnstation with a tractor and large drum so it has a hard ground to slide on it. Also if possible I would like to pay a little money to someone from the neighborhood to maintain the hill during days when there is not so much visitors. Promotion for the slide would be trough word of mouth and facebook. We did large public ice-skating events in the last cold winer where we invited people on lakes we tested before and provided drinks and food there. We will do this again but felt the need of a good slide as Berlin and Brandenburg is not very hilly!

Boston, MA (Inativo) – Parts and Crafts -- Community Supported Education

2010-12-15T00:00:00Z

Who are we? The Parts and Crafts Collective is a group of nerds, thinkers, and state-of-the-art weirdoes who like to think about teaching and learning together, it's a summer camp, and it's a Somerville comunity space, makerspace, and open workshop. We run classes and workshops and vacation camps and events and project nights. We build things and teach people and cook meals together and hang out and we do our best to connect creative and curious people of all ages to each other. What is Community Supported Education? A playful reappropriation of local food distribution methods and terminology, and an experiment in nontraditional market/non-market solutions for meeting community needs. An attempt to keep what's good about the DIY "kit" model while losing some of the more isolating, solitary "hacker alone in his/her basement" stuff. Monthly cool projects for kids and others to play with and do! A way for us to fund project R&D and to extend the community of people that we collaborate with outside of the set of people who want to be working directly with kids. Every month you get a box – inside the box are a set of projects! Instructions are included, along with basic components for completion. What might show up in your box? Build your own lightsaber! (PVC, LEDs, and battery pack included) Introduction to lockpicking! How to juggle (and how to make your own juggling balls)! Turn your house into a marble run! Bridge building, soft-circuits, stop-motion animation. A variety of exciting things to make and do and think about. Each month we will send out a major project and a couple of smaller projects and experiments. We will create instructions and package any materials that you aren't certain to already have lying around your house. All of the projects will be developed month-by-month at Parts and Crafts, based on things we’ve tested with kids (or have been developed by kids) in our summer and year-long programs. The other component to the project is a community website where people can share their projects and progresses. If Instructables is like a DIY amazon.com, then the CSE community website is like a local bookclub.

Washington, DC – Fab Lab DC

2010-12-14T00:00:00Z

I'm a problem solver, artist, organizer. Currently, I'm working to establish a Fab Lab in DC. Fab Lab stands for fabulous & fabrication laboratory, where people can learn about digital fabrication & make ‘almost’ anything. Presently, I'm hosting MIT's Mobile Fab Lab at my studio & want to put it to good use by sharing it with the community & supporting projects that encourage creativity, innovation, & collaboration. To make it happen, funding is needed to support programming & materials. During the past couple of months, community members & groups have visited the lab & tried it out; & several collaborative community projects have emerged: • High Tea Girls Project ~ The High Tea Society (HTS) was founded by the Honorable Judge Mary Terrell in 1997, as a vehicle to expose young girls to the rich cultural offerings of the District of Columbia, while also providing a tailored program designed to boost self esteem, inspire academic achievement & create “ambassadors of change.” HTS protégés who attend D.C. Public Schools, are recruited in the 4th grade & remain in the program until high school graduation &/or college acceptance. The Fab Lab Project will provide a “hands-on” experience for the HT Girls using advanced technology & open an alternative “gateway” for the girls to be involved with science, technology, engineering, art, math & entrepreneurial enterprise. • UDC Community College Fashion Merchandising Curriculum Collaboration ~ Students from the Fashion Design Program will return to the lab to experiment with combining technology & design, including new materials. • The "Urban Art & Ecology Project ~ Humanity 4 Habitat": Creative Problem Solving through Art, Design, Digital Fabrication, Community Engagement ~ is a collaborative effort bringing together science, art & technology to foster awareness, & ignite creativity. The idea is to use science, art, design & technology as integral learning tools & to bring people together to enhance the livability of the city & create a unique sense of place. The core team includes local artists, professors, a landscape architect & a migratory bird specialist. The project will enable communities to have access to art, design, digital fabrication technology & a network of resources to create supportive habitats, including shelters & gardens. I’ll pull it off by providing access, instruction, materials, and resources to help facilitate & expand the reach & impact of collaborative projects.

Ottawa – The Great Balloon Launch

2010-11-30T00:00:00Z

We launch balloons to a altitude of over 100,000 Feet, and retrieve them when they've come back to earth. We partner with local schools science programs to help schools make their science curriculum much more interesting. We've a track record of making kids happy! We've done a number of launches so we have all of the equipment required, and lots of volunteers. The main cost for us is the gas, and balloons. Helium is getting very expensive. Each balloon cost hundreds of dollars. Help us make this years launch a success!

London (Inativo) – It's For Monsters!

2010-11-18T00:00:00Z

I’m Lucy (of Ben and Lucy), from the Ministry of Stories, a new non-profit organisation that wants to inspire a nation of storytellers. You’ll soon be able to find the MofS through a secret door behind the store-front of the first shop to supply the daily needs of monsters of all shapes and sizes. All proceeds will go toward funding our writing centre a new home for our writing in East London. We offer young people free workshops and one-to-one mentoring, provided by volunteers: local writers, artists and teachers, all giving their time, skills and talent for free. Back to the monsters. We would use the grant to create the first product line for the shop, working with the extraordinary imaginations of local children and our volunteers. The children would be involved from start to finish, helping us imagine the products, writing for them, helping to price and eventually sell them in the shop. Here are the kinds of things we could produce. I’ll hand you back to the children. Medusa, her eyes as fiery as lava and ears as small as a pin. She would buy hairspray to calm down her snakes on her head (Sajida). The Under-the-Bed Monster would buy a brush for his hairy nose (Julie). The Red Eyed Jackie Chan Mommy, aged 5235, likes to have fun killing people and going on a streak. He could go to the shop for a bottle of blood (Malik). The BuckTooth Chicken Monster has teeth as sharp as knives, fingers like chips and a body small as a mouse (everyone). We don’t know what to sell to him yet but we’ll have an idea.

Boston, MA (Inativo) – Pick-a-Pocket Gardeners

2010-11-17T00:00:00Z

We a small band of guerrilla gardeners in urban Cambridge who tend neglected pockets of parks, treewells and parking lots. We meet weekly mostly in the spring and summer to give these tiny places a chance to be nourished and flourish. About 12 of us with approval of the city's DPW perform the weeding, deadheading, pruning and light planting that DPW staff can't do. We've been doing it for about two years now but want to expand our reach and members.

Ottawa – Vuvuzela Virtuosos

2010-10-31T00:00:00Z

The idea is simple: create an ensemble of Vuvuzela players who will serenade Ottawa with the dulcet tones of the Vuvuzela at a variety of events. We will recruit approximately 50 people to help us launch the Awesome Ottawa Vuvuzela Virtuosos at the Help Santa Parade on November 20th. We will perform a series of Christmas carols arranged for Vuvuzela. We will follow this up with a series of events on the Christmas and Holiday theme through November and December. Here’s what we’re thinking (for starters) Event the first: Vuvuzela in the Santa Claus parade (November 20th) Event the second: Carolling at 24 Sussex. And Rideau Hall. And street corners. And malls. Randomly. Following which: Sparks Street Serenade (in front of the CBC building). Etc.: Vuvuzela out of a parking garage during Christmas shopping season. Etc.: Vuvuzela a random Minor league hockey game. That’s right. We’ll just show up. And make the kids’ day. With Vuvuzelas. The possibilities are endless, really. And we don’t ever really have to stop. We could create new arrangements. Flight of the Bumblebee perhaps. While skating down the canal. Can you see it? I can see it. Anyway. We have enough friends who would get on board. We just need the Vuvus. Please. It would be Awesome.