quixotic accelerator -- proposal for 2012 Zero1 Festival ARTHere

Revised ARTHere Proposal for MACLA's Peapod Adobe Youth Voices Academy in San Jose, CA. The program is for local youth 13-18 years of age.

Title:  Quixotic Accelerator

Description:

Imagine a crossroads of time and space where merchants and sellers from all multiplicities come together to trade. Their voices hark back to when and where people made their living by living their making. For instance, 1938: Dave Packard and Bill Hewitt bake their hand-painted oscillators on the kitchen oven (while working out of a garage). 2012: San Jose youth tinker, experiment, and unify entrepreneurship and arts through an "accelerator"[1] which blossoms over the course of the installation. 

On opening night of Zero1 Festival, the youth-driven microeconomy emerges at the site of former mercado, improvised together by found and gifted items (for a visual aesthetic, download PDF in the style of Roberto Fernandez' studio whom was inspired by the favelas of Buenos Aires). A simple urban game with transmedia storytelling and role-playing elements invites merchants and buyers[2] into a quixotic pop-up mercado that allows youth to engage their imagination in offering historical, futuristic, make-believe, tangible (basically anything they can conjure up with their heads or their hands) goods and services. Even when the youth aren't actively participating  in person during the full length of the installation, their recorded voices describing their regalos animate the market in their stead. 

Based on the regalos that each teen wishes to express and share, we will work individually and as a team to bring the full mercado to life virtually and physically within a hands-on, experiential "accelerator/incubator"-styled workshop. We will learn how to make the best of the individual, team and community gifts, enthusiasm, resources, mentors and allies we have immediately available and can tap into. In the words of Bob Dylan when asked what was the secret to his success: "I was doing what I could with what I had where I was."

We will take the stipend offered, and use it as seed capital. For instance, perhaps one teen wishes to use their illustrations on a silkscreen-printed T-shirt. They track down and source the materials, and borrow or rent the equipment (there is a screen printing press within a block of MACLA). He may request $100 from the mercado pool of money and show the team that it's plausible to earn $300 in sales. Another teen might sell original MP3 songs and spoken word poetry in our corresponding virtual [2] mercado. She affixes a QR code to the back of a card stock postcard with the lyrics scribed on the back and offered for sale on opening night. Each of the regalos arise from the participant's own innate gifts and self-directed choices; cooperation, and collaborations may form between the youth (one may illustrate a CD cover, another mix the music) and/or allies in the community (by providing advice, raw materials and/or loaning equipment). 

The details of this project open-ended in this description purposefully as the goal is to embrace the objectives and dreams of the youth collectively in a collaborative fashion.

[1] Accelerators and incubators are homegrown Silicon Valley phenomena that aren't always representative of the wealth of indigenous talent that lurks beyond the den of software engineering. Beyond the traditional milieu of venture capital and the support ecosystem it fosters, lie waiting new adventures in culture-making ventures that are self-sustaining for the makers, inventors and artists and a generative, synergistic ecosystem in its own right.

[2] Youth may design their own art currency to use during the mercado, encourage bartering, or other forms of exchange. As both exploration of what exchanges are and/or work around legal requirements of online marketplaces such as Gumroad and Etsy. (The accelerator workshop will address fundraising as well as alternative/complimentary currencies.)

[3] The virtual market will make available the mercado to a global online audience who may not be in San Jose for the 3D festivities. It will use a group Tumblr blog (with each separate post representing an item for sale with links to Gumroad  (digital goods, such as songs, poems, illustrated stories, graphic design of a T-shirt, sketches, etc.) and possibly Etsy (for tangible goods like handmade herbal soap or T-shirt). Each tangible regalo (even performances of dance at the mercado) can be tagged with a QR code that links to virtual mercado.

Artist / Group Bio: Evelyn Rodriguez is a writer that is not going to let her computer engineering degree rot. She once was a startup CTO. She currently envisions narrative Internet games that dissolve the theatrical fourth wall. Her website is evelynrodriguez.typepad.com

Type Of Media: Social Practice

Budget:  The spirit of this installation is resourcefulness and improvisation. We will learn to leverage our current resources, establish partnerships with allies that might be able to help with raw materials or in-kind donations, etc. 

I propose that  we use the $750 as seed capital, and each team member proposes how they might use a portion of that (as described in main proposal). For instance one teen might request $25 for card stock and photocopies. She estimates she can sell 50 postcards for $2 each tangibly for profit of $75 (this doesn't include scanning of the cards for virtual sales). The others will make suggestions and approve the use of the $25  from the pool of $750 for the mercado. I am willing to make the purchases on behalf of the students; but it is up to them to direct the use of the funds so that we don't just spend the allotment but earn it back to demonstrate how self-sustaining ventures operate. We can discuss how MACLA will distribute the profits, but I suggest allowing the kids to keep their profits minus 20% (to thank MACLA for the use of the Academy space and to sustain future workshops/installations).

In general, the $750 will be used efficiently to buy raw materials primarily that are used to make goods for sale.

There may be small amounts that might need to be bought (if cannot be found or gifted) such as paint supplies (to decorate booths), speakers soldered to inexpensive MP3 players (I've priced these at average $6 each) to mimic the voices of the merchants (when the kids aren't there, their recordings play), etc. Items such as these that might need to be purchased (rather than scraped together) should total less than $200. 

In addition, I want to mention that the virtual, online mercado can be an trial mercado  they can use to 'beta test'  their final offerings or offer additional merchandise than a 3D booth might allow for prior to the grand opening of the 3D installation. Sales of a few digital goods they've already made  or can quickly make (for instance, a PDF of a short comic book they created could be priced at $1). These profits can also be used for seed capital of the 3D mercado.

Questions for staff:

I am very open and flexible in terms of collaboration.

I am gathering a list of mentors and allies that might be able to assist us -- from providing advice (for instance, one youth might want to email a real person who sells foods and coffees such as coffee shop owner Nancy Coupal of Coupa Cafe) to others providing raw materials. I'm not sure how your organization works with the youth in terms of outside contact. What I can do is perhaps a Skype or phone call or emails from the Academy where we make our requests to these external mentors/allies (part of this is to teach them that they can learn how to rely and partner within an ecosystem of support from other entrepreneurs and artists). I guess what I am asking is if in their spare time they would be available and interested in making phone calls and email messages to people they might want to reach out to for extra assistance.

I have several acquaintances and friends that are available to volunteer in person. For instance, one friend [redacted for privacy] has a background in interior design, and has worked with many corporations including [redacted] to design and construct office spaces. Her father [redacted] is a well-known restaurant owner and entrepreneur. She has volunteered to help facilitate when we are in the "construction" phase of the 3D mercado for 1-2 days. It is not necessary to have additional volunteers, but in the spirit of also teaching that entrepreneurship is also about an ecosystem of mutual support, it might be a good experience.

I'm still formulating how the accelerator is structured, but I think about 1.5-2 hours per day for about 12 days is necessary; ideally, we have a break of 3-4 days between as I find it is useful to have a break when doing new, creative projects. I envision about 15 youth participating in the workshop and creating the mercado.

I would also suggest a field trip to TechShop one day, and/or another to the Friday Farmer's Market in San Pedro Square to see a few people who make and sell their wares in person. I'm not sure how or if field trips are possible with the youth.

PHOTO CREDIT: Popup storefront hand-decorated by designer Poketo.

ADDITIONAL: Pinterest inspiration board (primarily for visuals of the 3D mercado installation in the 398” x depth 226” x height (to ridge) 123” room. 

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