only 9 days - Living Sea Sculpture update

Dear Friends,

10 days!
now 9...

My 90 days with kickstarter are coming to an end soon!  We have $3,000 to go to meet our goal of $15,000 for Living Sea Sculpture--Contemporary Art as Coral Refuge or will not receive any of the money raised.   To find out about the project in detail and donate:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/958753974/living-sea-sculpture-contemporary-art-as-coral-ref

my favorite cultural blogger, Maria Popova of Brain Pickings, featured the project this week:

http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2011/03/30/colleen-flanigan-underwater-biorock/

The Atlantic grabbed it:

http://www.theatlantic.com/life/archive/2011/03/underwater-sculptures-help-save-the-worlds-oceans/73269/

Much has been happening to get ready for this project in Mexico:

Artist and MUSA curator, Jason deCaires Taylor, has located a site for the sculpture near 4 of his pieces in a highly visited snorkel zone.  Just got the green light from Club Med in Cancun for our electrical source today.   The tidal turbine is still in the works for future projects.  This small budget won't cover it this time, yet thanks to many backers, I've been getting suggestions about additional funding resources. Some of the grants are large enough that it could allow us to prototype a turbine and install another refuge.. to keep the momentum for more living sea sculptures.   

Wonderfully talented people are joining in: Mike Gerzevitz has offered to come to Mexico and document some of the project.  Margaret Andres has offered her editing skills.  Thomas Goreau, Thomas Sarkisian, Brent Hartwig, Carey Robson, have been consulting and working on energy designs to ensure most efficient and affordable methods.  I recently met with Diego Gioseffi, president of the non-profit, www.submerge.org, to discuss possible collaborations here in Portland and in Mexico this summer. They have a workshop scheduled for July 2nd-July19th in Playa del Carmen; timing may be perfect for kids in Mexico to join us in Cancun to replant coral on the sculpture, take underwater photos, and learn about reefs.

On March 25th, the Biorock simulation and Gossamer Crocheted Community Reef came down from the display at Knit Purl. It had been there since January 5th.  LOTS of people walked by, saw the art and watched pieces of the movie, "Reef Reborn."  Thanks to Clay Connally, the movie was looping for the entire 2 months and 3 weeks. Right in front of a busy intersection and bus stop, the installation was very public. Every time I was near, I saw someone peering at the screen; even overheard someone who "lives" by that window say, "It's about corals."  nice:)

Some people plan to come down to help with the coral planting.  lovely! I met Wendy Thompson at the "Wild and Scenic Film Festival" in Nevada City this Jan. when they were screening "On the Trail with Miss Snail Pail."  She immediately offered to get involved. She has worked with Sylvia Earle and facilitated coral reef research in Belize, specializing in fish and invertebrate species abundance trends and coral identification.

The small Biorock® experiment at Sea Horse Aquarium Supply, here in Portland, OR,  is beginning to accrete:

sooo, lots of good progress!  Just a few thousand $$ to go. Please contribute whatever you can.  
Any outreach you can do in these final days: post, tweet, publish, email, ask... THANK YOU!
This is my first attempt to raise so much money.  I'm on a limb and keeping the faith. For those of you not familar with kickstarter, please check out the site; it has helped so many creative projects take off and backers receive unique "rewards."

As the hourglass trickles out, please give one final shout for the coral refuge!!

Here are a few photos I took of the Gossamer Community Crocheted Reef and Biorock Simulation installation at KnitPurl.  Special thanks to Sandy Barnes, Elle Moody, and Tess Stevens for that opportunity! 

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            thank you and best wishes!
            Colleen

                      colleenflanigan.com
           TED Senior Fellow

Posted via email from Biorock Around the Globe

coral refuge update #3

Below is the update from my kickstarter that automatically goes to all the supporters of the project.

Excited to share the latest developments with you too.

22days to go!!!

Update #3 posted about 4 hours ago

Yes, 22 is my favorite number and that is how many days left to raise the final $5,700. 

Thank you for backing and getting the word out, for sharing your knowledge and suggestions.   Some exciting news: Mike Gerzevitz has offered to come to Mexico and document some of the project.  Margaret Andres has offered her editing skills.  Thomas Goreau, Brent Hartwig, Carey Robson, and Thomas Sarkisian are working on energy designs to ensure most efficient and affordable methods.  I recently met with Diego Gioseffi, president of the non-profit, www.submerge.org, to discuss possible collaborations here in Portland and in Mexico this summer. They have a workshop scheduled for July 2nd-July19th in Playa del Carmen; timing may be perfect for kids in Mexico to join us in Cancun to replant coral on the sculpture, take underwater photos, and learn about reefs.  That would be fantastic!

Through this kickstarter, I've met Julyo Espinoza in Mexico City.  He works with coral importation into Mexico, among other biological research, and has a deep, poetic affinity for protecting and restoring their habitat:

"Some people think corals are like strange pretty rocks, some other that they are like oceanic grass where you can walk without concerns while diving, but when you watch this "rocks" moving, contracting, eating... god, it's shocking! Lonely glutton polyps or huge colonies, fighting against predators or against other colonies... I really admired them. Colonies as old as entire civilizations, as important as rainforests, but as fragile as leaves..." 

Spending time at Sea Horse Aquarium, I see the slimy strands of fighting corals, the growing polyps and their sensitive nature.  I also see how resilient they are when given the right environment that Woody and Tracie, plus the other volunteers, provide for them. 

The Biorock in tank experiment is finally accreting!! we kept shifting small variables and wondering what was the hang up? the power source and anodes needed some tweaking...now we have 2.2 volts running with 2 amps and, not sure, but possibly the luck of the Irish helped save the day;) On March 17th, St. Patrick's Day, some fine white coating and big bubbles (in photo below) appeared.  {note: It was also 2 Irish friends' birthdays and I did attend a potluck potato party...}

In all seriousness, I need to reach more backers! Please continue to support any way you can.  tell people, post to your facebooks, tweet, publish, email... 

Special opportunity: if you know of houses for sale ($50,000-$150,000) in Clark County (Vancouver, WA), please let me know.  Someone is ready to buy the "Biorocker" and contribute $5000 if he can find a suitable house in that area to buy and renovate. Finding that house to restore for human habitation could be the final pledge towards creating this new coral colony!

thank you!!!

for more about Living Sea Sculpture: contemporary art as coral refuge, http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/958753974/living-sea-sculpture-contemporary-art-as-coral-ref

See the full gallery on Posterous

Posted via email from TED Fellows

AskNature of Biomimicry Inst. seeks Digital Design Strategist

While at TED, this came in.  What a great job for someone with these skills! 

Subject - Casting Seeds: News from AskNature
Take AskNature to the Next Level
Do you think you are a Digital Design Strategist? If so, we'd like you to apply for that position to take AskNature to the next level of development. The ideal candidate will be incredibly Web savvy, with a keen sense of how people use technology in all facets of their lives. He or she will have demonstrated web project management skills, experience working with online educational content, great interpersonal skills, and an aptitude for building digital partnerships. The position will either be at the Group’s headquarters in Missoula, MT, or San Francisco (negotiable).

Reporting to the Executive Director at The Biomimicry Institute, the Digital Design Strategist will lead and grow an agile team of content providers, graphic designers, and IT specialists; collaborate with additional staff to ensure AskNature continues to meet audience needs; develop strategies and partnerships to ensure the continued growth of AskNature's content; and assist with seeking funding for the project.

For a complete job description and instructions for applying, please send an email to jobs+asknature@biomimicrygroup.com. To learn more about the Biomimicry Group, see http://www.biomimicry.net. The deadline for submissions is March 31, 2011.

Nature Tweeted Long Before We Did
In collaboration with BeeDance, HOLOS Collaborative, and E4S, AskNature will live tweet the South by Southwest (SxSW) panel discussion “It’s Nature's Way: Innovative Tech Design Through Biomimicry” on Saturday, March 12 at 11 am CST.

Join the discussion now!

Posted via email from TED Fellows

MondoWindow--when you want to know what's below

Below is an email from a brilliant friend, Gregory Dicum.  I hope he goes to TED some day. He'd give an amazing talk! truly a grand polymath slicing and dicing economics, travel, art, writing, coffee,... He was one of my references for becoming a Fellow in 2009, so I'm thrilled to share his latest venture:

Hi There;

I suppose you're wondering why you haven't heard much from me lately--and why when you do, it's in a form letter. Let me explain...

Five years ago, when my Window Seat books were published, I got together with my friend Tyler Sterkel to try and figure out how we could make an interactive version of the books for airline passengers to enjoy in their seatbacks. 

We found out that to get anything flying like that would cost buckets of money and would be seriously limited by existing technologies, so we shelved the idea and moved on.

Until last year, when we revisited the concept in light of the ongoing rollout of wifi on board airliners. All of a sudden, we had a way directly to the passenger, without relying on the airline gatekeepers and legacy systems.

We started to research things in earnest in the summer, and by the fall we had formed a company. Now, we are on the verge of unveiling the beta of MondoWindow.

MondoWindow works

 like this: You get on a plane, you take out your laptop, tablet, or smartphone, you log in to the onboard wifi, and you go to mondowindow.com. There you find a map that tells you where you are as you fly, and what’s going on below. It’s layered with points of interest, audio, video, games, and social media. 

It is the first of its kind, ever, and it is going to be amazing: we have an incredible team of designers, developers, and writers working all out to launch our beta for South by Southwest in March (sxsw). 

This is full-on startupland madness, and if you want many, many more details, just ask! (Like, as an example, if you'd like to receive information on how you can get in on pre-money investment.) 

And in the meantime, here are four things you can do right now:

1) sign up for the beta

2) follow us on twitter

3) like us on facebook

4) tweet/update that you are excited about @MondoWindow and have just signed up for the #sxsw beta

Can't wait for you to try MondoWindow on a flight this spring!!

Posted via email from TED Fellows

LOVE show

For some, Valentine's day means something.  And for others, it means something else. Still others, it means nothing.  Having reason to celebrate is what life is all about, and however you do or don't feel about Valentine's Day and its ever morphing continuum of hearts and romance, rebellion and disdain, Valentine's Day is coming up!

If you are in Portland,  come by and see what random concepts, carefully conceived crafting, and enigmatic mysteries have been displayed for a couple short weeks of LOVE at Gallery Homeland.
Over 300 artists joined in.  Opening night this Friday, the 12th, from 7PM-midnight.  Come in your eggshell (not the tired old pumpkin shell; Cinderella has that one anyway)..
http://portlandloveshow.com/events/opening-party/

  

there will be a potluck (just found out) with food made by the participating artists, music, a food drive....please tell your friends in Portland.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valentine%27s_Day
http://www.answers.com/topic/cinderella

Posted via email from TED Fellows

Contemporary Art as Coral Refuge

Living Sea Sculpture: Contemporary Art as Coral Refuge

In October, I began talking with Jason deCaires Taylor of the Museo Subaquático de Arte (MUSA) in Mexico about including Biorock® sculptures in the underwater museum.  Early January, I received happy news! Aah, I sighed a grand thank you.  He and the others on the museum and marine park committee have approved some of my designs to join his in the ocean this year.  Currently, Jason's cast cement pieces are the only works evolving there.  His "Silent Evolution" was installed in conjunction with the UN Climate Change conference in Cancun this December.   Yesterday I began preparing small steel pieces for our first Biorock® experiments at Seahorse Aquarium here in Portland...
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/958753974/living-sea-sculpture-contemporary-art-as-coral-ref
please pass it along!
http://kck.st/f3JVaO

So far, a few filmmakers have offered to help with documentation.  Just got off the phone with KnitPurl, a  downtown yarn store in Portland.  They will soon be taking photos of our Biorock® coral restoration simulation brightening their shop windows through mid-March. The installation is complete with the movie "Reef Reborn" looping, the Gossamer Community Crocheted Reef, steel sculptures, a sample of Biorock...I'll post KnitPurl's newletter when it comes out later this week! 

Which brings me to more international Biorock® news:
Karang Lestari (coral nursery) in Pemuteran, Bali, is going to get their green energy this spring!  Rani and Celia found the funding. Congratulations and celebrations!
I hope Rani will post about it here.  
for more about that coral nursery: www.biorockbali.webs.com   

Back to Portland:  Tomorrow I hope we switch the power and begin the coral cultivation. Fun to be in room filled with tropical coral, interesting people, and bright lights to warm my chilblains (I love that word!)

Posted via email from TED Fellows

Wild and Scenic Film Festival

Some good news for a small film: "On the Trail with Miss Snail Pail"
Greg Young of Golden Bear Casting contacted me a few years ago in response to a news article. He asked if I was open to him following me around with a camera. Sure, it'll be fun and who knows what will come from it.
It has been selected for the 9th Annual Wild and Scenic Film Festival in Nevada City, California.
http://www.wildandscenicfilmfestival.org/films/

Looks like I'll be able to attend:) Have missed the other film festivals where it screened. Found lots of snails in SF this past week; perhaps three different varieties. I was at TEDxAlcatraz=congratulations and thanks to David Gurman, Greg Miller, Eric Berlow, and all the others who orchestrated a great experience! The talks, music, food, and of course connections with people, were inspiring.
Happy glistening trails~

Posted via email from TED Fellows