Footnotes to Crossroads Dispatches

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. 

Excerpt from "Little Bets" by Peter Sims on Pixar's field trips for inspiration

Excerpt from Little Bets: How Breakthrough Ideas Emerge from Small Discoveries by Peter Sims on inquisitiveness and field trips:

There is a heavy emphasis at Pixar on doing field research to find creative insights and inspiration. For example, the team that developed the movie Cars went on two trips with Michael Wallis, author of Route 66: The Mother Road. They went to racetracks, a Detroit auto show, and on long road trips across Route 66. "The saw the teepee-shaped motels and gas stations," Wallis told the New York Times. "They felt the wind through the winter wheat. They gulped it all in." At an old car-wrecker lot in Galena, Kansas, Joe Ranft, then head of Pixar's story group, stopped for a moment and studied it. And it was there that the idea for "Tow-Mater," the rusty tow truck and beloved Cars character, was born.

Meanwhile, the crew working on Finding Nemo took several scuba diving trips to Monterey and Hawaii. They studied underwater reefs, sea life, fish movements, and how light passed through water at different depths. Pixar also hired Adam Summers, a professor and fish specialist, to give twelve lectures on the subject. "They were infinitely curious about fish, and they were flat-out the best students I had ever had," Summers shared. "By the end of each lecture, they would be asking me questions that I didn't have answers for." 

My main blog is at Crossroads Dispatches. This blog contains longer excerpts from books and resources I've cited or quoted over at Crossroads Dispatches.

Introduction to "The Alchemist" by Paulo Coelho

Re-read Paulo Coelho’s introduction to “The Alchemist” and I am reminded again how much I love it.

I'm preparing to facilitate a workshop for Latino urban youth ages 13-18 years old on transmedia storytelling where I am going to encourage them to share their gifts and dreams with the world. I thought about how even when adults ask "What do you want to be when you grow up?" it's asked politely already hemmed by familial and culturally-condoned expectations. This book popped into my head as a possibility for an all-ages inspirational tome to pursue what calls you, and express that voice.

p.s. I'm taking a version of that workshop and making an online "summer camp" for all-ages too. Stay tuned.

Anyhow, here's the full Introduction to the book.

I remember receiving a letter from the American publisher Harper Collins that said that: "reading The Alchemist was like getting up at dawn and seeing the sun rise while the rest of the world still slept." I went outside, looked up at the sky, and thought to myself: "So, the book is going to be published in English!" At the time, I was struggling to establish myself as a writer and to follow my path despite all the voices telling me it was impossible.

And little by little, my dream was becoming a reality. Ten, a hundred, a thousand, a million copies sold in America. One day, a Brazilian journalist phoned to say that President Clinton had been photographed reading the book. Some time later, when I was in Turkey, I opened the magazine Vanity Fair and there was Julia Roberts declaring that she adored the book. Walking alone down a street in Miami, I heard a girl telling her mother: "You must read The Alchemist!" 

The book has been translated into fifty-six languages, has sold more than twenty million copies, and people are beginning to ask: What's the secret behind such a huge success?

The only honest response is: I don't know. All I know is that, like Santiago the shepherd boy, we all need to be aware of our personal calling. What is a personal calling? It is God's blessing, it is the path that God chose for you here on Earth. Whenever we do something that fills us with enthusiasm, we are following our legend. However, we don’t all have the courage to confront our own dream.

Why?

There are four obstacles.

First: we are told from childhood that everything we want to do is impossible. We grow up with this idea, and as the years accumulate, so too do the layers of prejudice, fear, and guilt. There comes a time when our personal calling is so deeply buried in our soul as to be invisible. But it’s still there.

If we have the courage to disinter dream, we are then faced by the second obstacle: love. We know what we want to do, but are afraid of hurting those around us by abandoning everything in order to pursue our dream. We do not realize that love is just a further impetus, not something that will prevent us going forward. We do not realize that those who genuinely wish us well want us to be happy and are prepared to accompany us on that journey.

Once we have accepted that love is a stimulus, we come up against the third obstacle: fear of the defeats we will meet on the path. We who fight for our dream suffer far more when it doesn’t work out, because we cannot fall back on the old excuse: “Oh, well, I didn’t really want it anyway.” We do want it and know that we have staked everything on it and that the path of the personal calling is no easier than any other path, except that our whole heart is in this journey. Then, we warriors of light must be prepared to have patience in difficult times and to know that the Universe is conspiring in our favor, even though we may not understand how.

I ask myself: are defeats necessary?

Well, necessary or not, they happen. When we first begin fighting for our dream, we have no experience and make many mistakes. The secret of life, though, is to fall seven times and get up eight times.

So, why is it so important to live our personal calling if we are only going to suffer more than other people?

Because, once we have overcome the defeats—and we always do—we are filled by a greater sense of euphoria and confidence. In the silence of our hearts, we know that we are proving ourselves worthy of the miracle of life. Each day, each hour, is part of the good fight. We start to live with enthusiasm and pleasure. Intense, unexpected suffering passes more quickly than suffering that is apparently bearable; the latter goes on for years and, without our noticing, eats away at our soul, until, one day, we are no longer able to free ourselves from the bitterness and it stays with us for the rest of our lives.

Having disinterred our dream, having used the power of love to nurture it and spent many years living with the scars, we suddenly notice that what we always wanted is there, waiting for us, perhaps the very next day. Then comes the fourth obstacle: the fear of realizing the dream for which we fought all our lives.

Oscar Wilde said: “Each man kills the thing he loves.”

And it’s true. The mere possibility of getting what we want fills the soul of the ordinary person with guilt. We look around at all those who have failed to get what they want and feel that we do not deserve to get what we want either. We forget about all the obstacles we overcame, all the suffering we endured, all the things we had to give up in order to get this far. I have known a lot of people who, when their personal calling was within their grasp, went on to commit a series of stupid mistakes and never reached their goal—when it was only a step away.

This is the most dangerous of the obstacles because it has a kind of saintly aura about it: renouncing joy and conquest. But if you believe yourself worthy of the thing you fought so hard to get, then you become an instrument of God, you help the Soul of the World, and you understand why you are here.” 

Paulo Coelho

Rio de Janeiro

November 2002

Translated by Margaret Jull Costa

 

Bruce Lipton and Steve Bhaerman on economy and community from "Spontaneous Evolution: Our Positive Future (and a way to get there from here)"

Excerpts on economy and community from the book, "Spontaneous Evolution," by Bruce Lipton and Steve Bhaerman:

page 294 "Principle One: Wealth is Well-Being"

"In his treatise on human economics, Aristotle wrote that a city originates for the sake of basic survival, but it exists for the sake of living well."

page 291

"Aristotle first defined economics as the science of household management, the study of the dynamics necessary to sustain individual or family survival. As households joined together in community to enhance their collective survival and prosperity, family economic principles were extended and applied to the well-being of the entire village. Villages with successful economies subsequently grew into cities and, later, evolved into more encompassing nation-states that employed essentially the same economic principles. As nation-states further evolve into the new organism called global humanity, in which all must share the finite resources of one planet, it is again necessary for us to revise and expand our understanding of economics. 

Historically the field of economics has been associated with the dynamics of property exchange among members of human communities. But in a fractal Universe, the same economic principles apply to all living systems, be they households, nations, businesses, or the communities of cells that comprise a human body."

page 292

"Considering our culture's preoccupation with the material realm, it is not surprising that we measure wealth in terms of physical possessions, particularly money. Aristotle recognized an inevitable problem of equating money with wealth over 2,500 years ago when he wrote, "He who is rich in coin may often be in want of necessary food.""

page 308

"Valueless, debt-based representative money is a major contributor to the current global economic crisis. 

. . . In his book Access to Human Wealth: Money beyond Greed and Scarcity, Bernard Lietaer, a Belgian economist who helped design the euro, offers a short-term solution for our economic problems in the form of yin currency. Yin currency is designed as a complement to the dominant money, yang currency, represented by the dollar, the yen, the franc, the euro and so on.

Lietaer emphasizes the nature of what constitutes workable, beneficial money is defined by agreement within a community. Therefore, people are free to create their own currencies to complement the yang monetary system. Without even realizing it, we make use of complementary currencies all the time. Lietaer cites frequent-flyer miles as an example of an agreed upon complementary currency--and you don't even need to fly to earn them.

Yin currency represents a form of money that allows time-rich but money-poor communities to contract needed services from those willing to provide them. Currently, nearly 4,000 communities around the world use yin currencies, most often as a means of funding nurturant care in communities where there isn't enough yang money to pay for social services.

A specific example of yin currency is Japanese fureai kippu, which means "caring relationship ticket." Instead of relying on expensive nursing homes, Japan has created the fureai kippu currency to pay for elderly care not covered by national health insurance.

Here's how it works. Let's say an elderly man who lives on your street cannot go shopping by himself. You do his shopping, help him prepare food, and assist him with his ritual bath, which is an important part of Japanese culture. In exchange, you earn credits that can be put in what might be termed a fureai kippu savings account. You can draw on your credits when you are old, or you can transfer them to your elderly mother who lives in another city so she can pay someone else to look after her.

Surveys indicate that Japanese seniors overwhelmingly prefer services provided through fureai kippu to those paid for in yen because they more closely express the heartfelt essence of community.

Interestingly, the word community is derived from the Latin cum munere. Munere is "to give," and cum means "among each other." Community and fureai kippu share the same meaning--"to give among each other.""