crowdsourcing life

Since I’m publishing part one today, I’ll outline some ‘rules’ of crowdsourcing ones life. Not that I’m an expert or anything, nor am I telling anyone else how they should do it. I’m just going to be trying it out like this for a bit to see what happens.

I’m interested in creative stuff that has some connection to technology, the creative people who make it happen and other creative people who then go and play with it. Therefore this project is all about travelling to different places, observing creative people’s processes and the creative technological things that they make, and capturing what happens when they all get together and play. And then moving on to the next place to start all over again.

Around this will be some loose structure:
* Before I get to a place I’ll be doing some research about events that might be happening while I’m around and asking other people to let me know if they hear of any cool stuff I should see.
* While I’m there I’ll be blogging about the place, documenting the things and interviewing the people.
* In general I’ll also be writing about what I think, what my processes are and how things are going.
* It’s entirely likely that I will offer workshops or talks about different technologies or practices. Over time I would love to gather a variety of digital work (platform allowing) that I can tour with me.

As I’m travelling there will be things that I need; like food, fuel, internet access, a decent bath once in a while – you know, life stuff. I’m open to donations and offers of sofas, dinners, etc, but I also have some reasonable skills I’m more than happy to sell or exchange for such things.

Essentially I’m going to try to do all this by crowdsourcing my life. I won’t quite be a puppet, doing anything I’m told, but I’m going to ask my friends, my networks, to help me spread the word that I need this kind of help. So to help them to help me, I’ll be announcing where I am going to be, why, what I’ve heard about that might be happening here, plus what I need and what I’m offering.

To follow each location, check out the blog posts titled ‘dear ‘ or search under the PLACE category.

… and wish me luck!

*NB: In some circles the first bit is called ‘art’, the second bit ‘artists’ and the third ‘audiences’. But let’s not get too concerned with boxes, eh?

Oh, the Places You’ll Go

I was introduced to this book in my early adulthood by someone who changed my life. Since then I have given a copy to people when they’re off on some kind of major journey in their lives. This morning my facebook feed brought me this video production of the story, shot at the Burning Man festival. It’s an extremely cute video, featuring all the wild and wonderful humans who make up the infamous desert festival and who suit the quirkiness of the story down to the ground.

Watching it for the second time today, it occurred that I actually really needed to hear it right now. A time when I need to stop waiting. Thank you yet again Dr Seuss, and thank you Teddy Saunders (and all my social media friends) for bringing it back to me at a time I needed it myself.

harden the fuck up & scare yourself

It’s January 7th, the end of the first week of 2012 (and coincidentally my mother’s birthday). It’s the first year I find myself looking toward a complete and utter blank canvas … without any doubt.

Do you believe me? No, I don’t either. Well, sometimes I do. Sometimes I believe I have balls of steel; I believe that I can do anything I set my mind to. That I can even – single handedly – change the world. But of course those are the rare moments. The rest of the time I cower in the crevices of my own self-doubt, scared of saying, or even thinking, anything… lest it be the ‘wrong’ thing. That’s what I keep thinking… What if I get it WRONG??

Wrong? WTF is “wrong” anyway? Life is nuts. We have no idea what we’re doing here in the first place, what the point of all this is. So why the hell have we locked ourselves up in these bubbles of bullshit? Why do we kill ourselves working every day for no money and less gratitude, just to get to the holidays and find ourselves too tired to enjoy it?

Everywhere I look on social media this week I see streams of people either declaring how delicious it is to still be enjoying holidays, or how dreadful it is that Monday is looming. The dark, threatening capital M overshadowing their enjoyment of the last weekend. Or if we don’t work, we live in fear of keeping a roof over our heads and food on the table, scared of what people must think of us, not sure where to turn to get out of the poverty loop, stuck in the too-hard-basket of life, struggling against depression and bitterness.

Not me; I’m still funemployed. It’s been four months now and I still have no idea from whence my next income will rear its head. I should be terrified of this, or at least nervous. But you know what? I’m happier than I’ve ever been in my life. I’m free, in free-fall, free-flow. I’ve been saying for the last few months, as I couchsurf my way from continent to continent, city to city, that “my life is made of flow right now”. I’m sure that somewhere in their hearts my friends slightly hate me for that (sorry), and I know that is such a hippy thing to say, but I mean it. I have never before been so happy to just let life happen.

Not that I’m a control freak. Well, not much of a control freak, at least (*coff*). But I’ve certainly always cared more about my career than my personal life (in fact my career has often been an excuse to run away from the ‘real’ world). And I’ve definitely always had at least a rough idea of what I’ll be doing in three months time. But today, sitting in the back courtyard of a second hand bookshop in Glebe, Sydney, I can honestly hand-on-heart say I am not sure where I’ll be, or what I’ll be doing next week, never mind in the next month or three.

Sure that’s kinda scary sometimes. But this is 2012, the end of days; I’ve got nothing to lose, right? It’s also the Chinese year of the Ox*, which is my year (see Update, below). So I have decided that this IS MY YEAR. I’m truly free. I have no mortgage, no boss, no kids, no boyfriend, no restrictions. I also have no money, no job, no home of my own, no one to snuggle up to and share my world with… but life is about balances, right? What I do have is my experience, my passion, my friends (and their sofas), my first year of permanent residency in a country I adore, and a whole world of opportunity… that I haven’t quite created yet. I have a belief that life will bring me apples, and so I take each day with an open heart, looking for apples to give and receive in turn.

So far this “flow” has seen me travel to four continents in as many months. It got me live-tweeting the Amanda Palmer & Neil Gaiman New Year’s Eve bash in Melbourne. It helped me find an old school friend I hadn’t seen in 20years and discover he’s now a rock star who happened to be gigging in Sydney on New Year’s Day. And today it’s got me invited to the opening night party of the Sydney Festival. All that, and it’s still just the first week of 2012. Who the hell wouldn’t wanna trust that kind of flow?

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At the NYE party, Neil Gaiman (of whose writing I am extremely fond) sat in the Green Room and wrote his New Year Wish so that he could read it to the crowd. It starts like this:

I hope that in this year to come, you make mistakes.
Because if you are making mistakes, then you are making new things, trying new things, learning, living, pushing yourself, changing yourself, changing your world. You’re doing things you’ve never done before, and more importantly, you’re Doing Something.

You can read the whole thing on his blog, but my take-away line, right at the end, was: “Whatever it is you’re scared of doing, Do it.”

It sounds corny (I often do) but as I stood there I honestly felt he was talking to me. It felt like he was shouting down my doubts and fears about my plans for this project and the years to come. This unruly, unfunded, uncertain project and my doubts about my own creativity. As I listened, berating myself for not being all the things I probably should have been (a better tweeter/photographer, more in AFP/NG and all the superstars’ faces, a thinner, sexier version of myself…), I just thought… yes. Yes I’m scared, but that’s because what I am doing has value. It matters – if only to me. If it doesn’t scare me then it’s too easy, so fear is important. Fear is as much a part of this journey as the fuel, the conversations and the scenery.

So I want to take this opportunity, this first ‘new year’ post I have made, to take that wish one step further. I wish, in this last year of the world, to scare myself. I wish to harden the fuck up and throw myself into the situations that make me wonder – and then discover – what I am actually made of. I will try to not hide, from others or myself. I will try everything and anything, so long as it doesn’t intentionally harm anyone/thing. I will be bad at things, I will fail, repeatedly and publicly, but I will learn and I will get better. I will make decisions that I later come to regret, and I will accept the consequences. I will be a responsible human for myself and anyone I come into contact with. And I will have the best bloody year of my life.

Because, at the end of it all, the only thing we really have is ourselves. And this year, I’m starting from the novel perspective of actually liking who that is. That has to be a good way to bring in the end of the world, surely?

UPDATE: Apparently I got that entirely wrong. This is the year of the Dragon, not the Ox. wtf, I’m still claiming this as my year anyway.

back in 5…

Hey I'll be Back in 5 Minutes, but if I'm not, just read this Message Again!

By: dotcomfreak, creative commons licence by-nc-sa (thanks!)

With the benefit of hindsight, I should really have posted something like this well over a month ago. I’m sorry I’ve been so quiet; I’m not gone, I’m just gathering thoughts and material from the last few months before I start sharing again.

To be honest I have been learning a few things about myself, my intentions with the project, and how others respond to both the idea and generally being interviewed. Turns out people are less keen to speak up on camera than I had imagined. Partly I think this has been the limited time I had in each place, that expecting moments of ‘confident outpouring off-the-cuff’ was perhaps over-ambitious. Also I think I expected more of my own confidence, both using the equipment and *wanting* to go shove a camera/mic in peoples faces. Especially people I had either never met before or not seen in years. Some stuff to work on here all round, I know. And really, this just makes me more sure of the idea of rigging the campervan with recording equipment so that we’re ‘always on’ instead of demanding the right flow of conversation on cue.

From a personal level this trip meant I was able to reconnect with old (some VERY old!) friends in several countries, which quite frankly has done my soul the world of good. On the one hand I have been berating myself for not constantly pushing myself/this mission, and on the other the last few years (moving to the other side of the world, becoming a pseudo-bureaucrat…) have taken their toll and I really needed a decent break/return to source.

From a professional level, I have reconnected with old networks and started some fantastic conversations with potential guests, collaborators and partners. Sadly I didn’t get the Myer Foundation Fellowship I was nominated for, or the pilot funding I had applied for, but that’s OK (here’s who got the Myer Fellowships and the Creative Australia grants – congrats to you all!). I’m now home and regrouping to focus on what really matters before launching into other strategies. I have also been doing a few freelance jobs and am currently looking for some casual work over Christmas to keep things ticking over (feel free to message me if you have any suggestions!).

One thing worth mentioning briefly here is how much I have been inspired (understatement!) by the Occupy movement, which was wonderfully visible almost everywhere I travelled. I have started to gather some of the most powerful links about this issue on my new delicious public feed, and have posted a handful of images from my New York visit on Flickr. Suffice to say when I started writing about it back in September I ended with three posts instead of the one. I therefore stopped, wanting to give it the attention it deserves and publish something really considered rather than rush it; so watch this space.

So. It’s Christmas at the end of this week and I’m now based in Adelaide and enjoying sunshine and freedom. If you will forgive me some *more* time, I will be back in the New Year with even bigger and better plans!

Have a wonderful holiday all, whether that’s wearing a santa bikini & eating prawns on the barbie, or huddling up with big woollen jumpers and drinking mulled wine by an open fire. Merry Christmas and every best wish for what I think will be a phenomenal 2012 x

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p.s. for your Christmas homework, why not sign a petition to veto the SOPA bill (which threatens the freedom of the internet regardless of what country you live in), or have a look at the Broadband Arts Initiative, the latest grant offering from the Australia Council.