I’m on the board of The Awesome Foundation in Sydney, where we help turn awesome thoughts into awesome deeds.
Experiments in micro-philanthropy
Every month we award a $1,000 no-strings-attached grant to the most awesome submitted application. Previous grant recipients include: a project to develop the world’s smallest patch synthesizer, the Green Bans Art Walk and Exhibition, and Physique, a weekly 80s themed aerobics night.
Our latest experiment in micro-philanthropy is a crowd-funded pitch night called Awesome Soup that is taking place on Saturday 2nd June at the Museum of Contemporary Art.
What is Awesome Soup?
The event is aimed at creative people who are awesome. Ten people will pitch their creative project ideas on the night, and the audience will debate which of the ideas they think is the most awesome and then vote for who gets $5,000.
How can I get involved in Awesome Soup?
If there is a project you are working on or are thinking of working on that is awesome and could benefit from $5,000, then please consider applying to pitch your project idea live to the audience on the night at the event. Just head here and fill in the application form: http://www.bit.ly/awesomesoupapply
If you want to show your support for the Awesome Foundation and decide which project gets the $5,000 then please consider coming along to the event. For just $30 you get a delicious soup dinner, the chance to debate what is awesome and a vote on which project deserves the $5,000. Invite a few friends and make an awesome dinner date of it! To buy your ticket, head to http://bit.ly/awesomesoupattend
Help share the awesome news!
Everything we do at the Awesome Foundation is completely volunteer based, and organising an event like this takes quite a bit of effort. Any help you can give us by spreading the word would be much appreciated.
Please consider reblogging this post, tweeting about it (we’re @awesomefoundsyd, hashtag #awesomesoup), sharing it on Facebook and with any other creative awesome people and communities you know or are part of.
Thanks, and I really hope to see some of you at the event on Saturday 2nd June!
At the start of the year I spoke at the kick-off event for the 2012 Vibewire fastBREAK series on the topic of Beginnings. You can watch all the five-minute talks from the event in this YouTube playlist - fastBREAK: Beginnings.
I wanted my 5-minute talk to serve as a provocation to members of the audience to nurture their creative and imaginative capabilities, and to put those capabilities to work on the problems that matter most.
It’s always interesting to watch yourself present. Lots of gesticulation, some verbal repetition and ticks, the gentle swaying from side to side - but overall I was pretty happy with the pacing and with the way I managed to connect with the audience.
I’m always grateful for opportunities to speak, as among other things they help me to improve the way I communicate.
I’ve been part of the fastBREAK series since I spoke at the inaugural event as part of the 2009 Innovation Festival. In 2012 I have been helping to source inspirational speakers for the series.
Do you know someone inspirational who would be perfect to speak at the fastBREAK series?
The world is full of order that doesn’t necessarily deserve our respect. Sometimes there is meaning, justice, and logic present in the way things are — but sometimes there just isn’t. And I think the moment that we realize this is the moment we become creative people. Because it prompts us to mess things up and do something better with the basic pieces of experience.
Designer Kelli Anderson reflecting on her practice of ‘disruptive wonder’. Worth taking the time to watch her TEDxPhoenix talk below:
There is a great collection of videos over at the Tate Modern website that I’m enjoying exploring. There are over 300 artist interviews alone!
I especially loved Olafur Eliasson’s exhibition at the MCA in Sydney a while back, so worth checking out this clip. Click the image below to be taken to the website to watch the video:
