Colin Kloecker

Just wish it was on Tumblr. (via FreshMN)

Testing out a new toy on Sheriff: sound recorder/cat taser.

Here’s one with more beard and less sound recorder/cat taser.

weworkhere:

Generously available free of charge by their authors.

※ WPA Gothic and WPA Gothic Deco by Stewf
※ NPS 1935 by E. V. Norat II
※ 8 beautiful handrawn fonts from Zapato Productions Interdimensional

Should you ever find yourself in need of such beautiful things.

And the 908 WPA posters that inspired them.

Local artist Gregory Euclide profiled in art ltd. magazine. (via ROLU)

“Bars, Bikes, & Beers” by Adam Turman (via edkohler)

Damn straight. Hey! Let’s identify where those letters are coming from:

• M: Mayslack’s (via Thusly)
• I: Pillsburary A Mill? The Herkimer (via Thusly)
• N: Town Talk Diner
• N: Nye’s Polonaise (via Things I’ve Noticed)
• E: Elsie’s (via @jessinader)
• A: First Avenue
• P: Grumpy’s (downtown) (via Thusly)
• O: Triple Rock Social Club? (via Thusly)
• L: Lee’s Liquor Lounge (via Thusly)
• I:
• S: Matt’s Bar (via @jeepsterdave)

OK I’m bad at this, but maybe we can do it together?

This is actually my first time designing something with a logical grid overlay. It’s kind of awesome. Once these work order forms are done, we’re going to use them to collect projects for Help Wanted at FEAST on Saturday.

The plan is get them made on carbon paper so that we can let people keep their copy as a reminder for the exhibition in June! (And for their records, it is a work order after all.)

CHART SHOWING THE AGGREGATE NUMBER OF IDIOTS AND THE PROPORTION OF MALES AND FEMALES, WHITE OR COLORED, NATIVE OR FOREIGN, AT THE NINTH CENSUS 1870; also the increase since 1860. PREPARED FOR THE STATISTICAL ATLAS OF THE UNITED STATES.

Google’s Liquid Galaxy is incredible: Google Earth and Street View on 8 screens in high definition for a totally immersive experience. More videos here.

Shanai and I found out yesterday that we were accepted to the MAW Artist in Residency Program with a project we proposed called Movement Museum (more soon). Salon Saloon is returning at the end of next month, and after an epic cross-country research trip in May, we’re mounting our first exhibition with Troy and other Works Progress folks at Intermedia Arts. Throughout most of the summer, we’ll be working with the Walker Art Center on a project related to the Cultural Commons - all in all, it’s going to be a busy time!

We created the Tumblr blog We Work Here to keep track of all of projects, research, and related ideas. Follow us if you are interested in such nerdery, or if you want to see what happens along the way….

We just got word that our FEAST proposal, called Help Wanted, was accepted and will be featured alongside 8 other great projects vying for FEAST funding. A short summary:

Members of Works Progress will transform Intermedia Arts into a temporary employment agency where creative work meets community need. Soliciting collaborators with help wanted ads on craigslist and bulletin boards, this experiment in co-working will pool the skills and resources of underemployed individuals to complete real community projects.

The whole text and other supporting images are online here. This FEAST event is on Saturday, March 13 at the Minneapolis Eagles Club #34 (more details). Come out and support Help Wanted and let’s do some work!

Shanai and I are thinking a lot about movement lately. And the commons. And design thinking. And art, labor, and economics…. but I digress.

On the subject of movement, our friend Bryan recently us a fantastic email about Frank (seen above) & Lillian Gilbreth. The couple were early proponents of scientific management and contributed heavily to time and motion study. Frank is seen above with a chronocyclegraph: a 3D curve through space defining the movements of a worker’s hands as they carried out the tasks. Of course, the point of all of this was efficiency, efficiency, efficiency… but I think there is something quite pleasurable about studying discreet corporeal movements in time and space.

Also, they came up with the therblig:

A therblig is the name for one of a set of fundamental motions required for a worker to perform a manual operation or task. The set consists of 18 elements, each describing a standardized activity.

It’s their last name spelled backwards. Isn’t that just delightful?

Bloom Energy wants to put a fuel cell generator in every house for under $3,000. Google, FedEx, Wal-Mart, Staples, and eBay are all beta-testing Bloom Boxes.

The dude behind this (featured heavily in the 60 Minutes clip above), KR Sridhar, Ph.D, is like a living breathing Alistair Hennessey.

Are you a genius? “Yes, absolutely.”

Are you adorable? “Absolutely. Why not?”

Design Thinking for Social Innovation by Tim Brown & Jocelyn Wyatt at Stanford Social Innovation Review, Winter 2010.

Recommended reading for the day.

Works Progress Administration poster summarizing WPA’s achievements (1940).

We’re beginning to design a 3 week exhibit/installation for June at Intermedia Arts tentatively called We Work Here. There are three elements to it: Help Wanted, Storefront for Ideas, and Art Work: Exhibit & Reading Room (all tentative titles!). By the end of it, I hope to produce a map, similar to the one above, that charts our achievements, failures, and adventures.

Odd coincidence: the last exhibit I curated at Intermedia was called W(e are)here.

SCVNGR is a geo-gaming platform that enables anyone to quickly and easily build location-based mobile games, tours, and interactive experiences that can be enjoyed from any mobile device.

Great possibility here!

GPOYW: how Shanai and I surf the internet edition.

William Gurstelle, who is presenting at March’s event, just ended a two-week stint posting at BoingBoing. He will certainly be our most internet-famous presenter to date!

Colin & Shanai’s new workout plan.

Paul Simon - You Can Call Me Al

Happy Friday!

shanai-matteson:

Weird. Someone in Japan has made T-shirts from the poster design for the first big event that I helped to coordinate way back in the day.

I’d say the world is getting smaller, but the scientist in me says it’s still the same size and I am just old.

Hah! That’s awesome. From Landland (the designer):

The people at Graniph in Japan asked us if they could make one of our posters into a t-shirt. The one they picked was pretty much the weirdest one that they possibly could, so of course we were into it. Apparently they’re all sold out now, but people that want them can do some kind of “restocking request” thing here.

I just requested a restock.

benya:

In defense of public displays of sentimentality

Getting teary-eyed in front of 50 people over my wife retrieving a lost earring

Deconstructing a moment

One presentation at our first Give & Take of the year last night was by my wife Kristin and Colin’s partner Shanai on growing up in small towns in Minnesota. They met at the first event last year, realized they were both from small towns in Central MN, and came up with the presentation idea within minutes. Since one of the basic goals of the event is to get people away from the idea that you have to be an anointed or self-proclaimed expert to make an interesting presentation, we thought it was a perfect fit to start off the season. Have a curator and a designer talk about aspects of their lives they’d never put on a resume. 

Leading up the event, Kristin and I had some epic conversations about her presentation. She was concerned that it would either be dull, or too personal, or somehow braggy. That led right into discussing how close Give & Take comes to its goal of using an entertaining event to create space for strangers to become neighbors. Hard to measure, hard to say.

But I will tell you this! Kristin and Shanai were amazing, and they proved their year-old point that explaining what it means to be where they’re from would make for a fascinating 10 minutes. Show and tell *is* still fun as adults, and riveting when the presenters are so honest and articulate. And, I dare say, lovely. Still, that doesn’t answer the question about whether the event has any kind of broader impact.

With that said, we are seeing little glimpses of what its impact can be, and one came during intermission. A girl named Christine who came to several events last year told me she had something for me. We’ve only talked 3-4 times ever, and the only time outside of Give & Take was when we ran into each other outside a concert in December. She explained last night that she had noticed Kristin’s earrings at the time, and had seen that one had fallen off into the snow after we walked away. She picked it up, figured she could just bring it to the next event, and returned it to Kristin last night.

Here’s the first thing: it would be trite if it wasn’t true, but Kristin’s grandma - who passed away just a couple of years ago - gave her those earrings. She loves them. She loves/d her grandma. She made a cookbook of her favorite recipes after she passed away. Kristin’s so practical that she normally throws things like solo earrings away, but she couldn’t bear to do that with this one. She teared up despite herself when Christine handed its mate to her last night.

Here’s the second thing: I’ll be damned if that isn’t a (former) stranger being a good neighbor after meeting through Give & Take.

And so, right in the midst of a night where every presentation easily cleared the bar on being entertaining enough, I couldn’t help but get a little choked up when I told the audience the story after intermission, because I realized that when Give & Take does work on both levels, it’s going to be beautiful.

This is what’s important.

Busy, Busy, Busy

chriseats:

This is how we do it in Brew Town.

Nobody does Friday fish fry like Milwaukee.

Spring project?

Wednesday’s article on aquaponics in the NYT pointed me to Rob Torcellini’s YouTube channel and blog.

This is like the Rosetta Stone of DIY aquaponics.

He’s growing peas, peppers, strawberrys (just look at his strawberry towers!), carrots, green beans, zucchini, potatoes, lettuce, broccoli, spinach, tomatoes, cantaloupe, cucumbers and radish.

All this in a 10x12 greenhouse.

Follow @works_progress for details on stuff like Give & Take, the return of Salon Saloon, & Solutions Twin Cities.

Big plans for Spring y’all, big plans!

The Sahara desert viewed through the Cupola with its shutters open. (via jstn)

PieLab, a Project M initiative.

PieLab is a welcoming community space on Greensboro’s Main Street that provides delicious pie and coffee, as well as retail and hospitality job training for local youth through the YouthBuild Program. More than simply a pie shop, PieLab operates as a community design center focusing on community development projects and small business incubation in Greensboro and the surrounding five counties.

I am in love with this project. More: article in Fast Company, profile at Pixelgawker.

Support Complete Streets in Minnesota.

Give & Take is an independent event series I co-produce that connects people through knowledge and curiosity. It’s all built around your answers to two simple questions:

What do you know? What do you want to know?

The event that follows is a mix of short presentations, interactive games, and socializing — with drinks. (Of course there are drinks!) Here are some of the things you can do on Give & Take’s new website, GIVE-TAKE.ORG:

• Watch our 1-minute introduction to the event. And laugh at how much of a doofus I am on camera.
• Contribute to our ongoing research on what people know and what people want to know. Everybody world-wide is encouraged to participate in this part!
• See some photos from G&T’s five show beta run last year.
• Sign up to present at a future Give & Take event. To all you local folks, this part is crucial to the vitality of the event — so don’t hesitate to get in touch if you have something to share!

It’s a simple website, but it’s been great fun to work on. I have to give props to Nate for his work building the site (not to mention his Buddha-like patience with our never-ending stream of redesigns and tweaks).

I hope y’all will check it out and consider telling us what you know, think about coming to the 2010 kick-off event (if you’re in the Twin Cities next week Wednesday), or maybe - if we’re lucky - even consider signing up to present!

To everybody who has helped make Give & Take a reality:

• My co-producers Troy and Ben
• My creative (and romantic) partner Shanai
• Our photographers Kaeti, Rochelle, and Ryan
• Andy for his fantastic work on the introduction video
• Diana, Theresa and all the folks at Intermedia Arts
• Finnegan’s Irish Amber for their continued support
• Laura, Betsy and everyone at Springboard for the Arts
• Our amazing advisory panel: Peter, Ali, Shanai, & Betsy
• All of the people who have volunteered at events
• All of our past presenters, and all presenters to come…
• And of course, the Metropolitan Regional Arts Council, where a big chunk of our funding comes from

Thank you. The support for this project has been nothing short of amazing. I can’t wait to see what 2010 has in store for Give & Take.

How I’m signing off my emails from now on.

Subject: re: Survivor Casting- looking for some help…

Hi Colin,

my name is noelle and i cast the CBS show Survivor- not a joke. Anyways, I am looking for a female architect in INCREDIBLE shape to possibly play the game.

thank you for any help in pointing me in the right direction.

OUTWIT! OUTPLAY! OUTLAST!

Best,

Noelle

I have no idea who this person is or how they found me… but ladies, let me know if you’re interested.

Just look at this fire-escape. Who knows how many times I’ve walked/biked/driven down Hennepin without seeing this thing. Never again.

This otter at The Bell Museum is amazing.

I want to spring him and invite him to come live with us. I think we’d all get along famously.

The Bell’s History of Cooking event last Tuesday was great fun.

That’s Shanai droppin’ knowledge in front of the elk. Chris Olson did a fantastic job with the menu. Biological anthropologist Greg Laden was a most knowledgeable and entertaining host. I even tried my hand at serving. (I think it went OK!)

And what great atmosphere for a meal! More photos (by Kate Sommers) here. The Heavy Table (who co-sponsored) covers the event here.

Joker - Snake Eater [MP3]

Found this hotness through Chrissy Murderbot’s herculean Year of Mixtapes project. He’s on week 37. Some of my favorites so far:

Week 5: New Jack Swing / Week 7: Sleaze Tape / Week 17: Philly Soul / Philly Disco / Week 20: HARD GAY. / Week 23: Hi-NRG / Week 30: The Year in Rave—1993 / Week 34: Booty Bass

Each downloadable mixtape is accompanied by a great explanation of that week’s theme. This is a fantastic resource! Thank you Murderbot.

Bumper music at WBSC just got a whole lot more interesting.

SPOT.US

“We are an open source project, to pioneer “community funded reporting.” Through Spot.Us the public can commission journalists to do reporting on important and perhaps overlooked topics. Contributions are tax deductible and if a news organization buys exclusive rights to the content, your donation will be reimbursed. Otherwise, all content is made available through a Creative Commons license. It’s a marketplace where independent reporters, community members and news organizations can come together and collaborate.”

DIE ANTWOORD - JOU MA SE POES ‘N FISHPASTE JAR

Well this happened. And I think I like it?

Date: Wednesday, 02/10/2010
Time: 7:00 PM - 8:00 PM
Location: 1-115-3M Auditorium Carlson School of Management
Cost: Free and open to the public

More information // The Yes Men website

Your World of Text is a global, realtime text editor. The changes made by other people appear on your screen as they happen.

Here is my world of text. Come say hi.

Dessa - Go Home

Minneapolis based writer/singer/rapper Dessa has a new album out called A Badly Broken Code. Her talent comes through bright and clear on this album. Congrats Dessa!

More: A quick review on NPR. Beautiful a capella with The Boy Sopranos. Video for the song “Dixon’s Girl.”

Support our local talent!

Fresh denim makes me happy. Time to soak ‘em!

Location-specific inside joke. (via edkohler)

My friend Scott Nedrelow showed me his BOOK project last night. It looks absolutely beautiful.

BOOK is a hand made hard cover book jacket on the outside, with a sleeve tailored to the iPad on the inside. Protect your digital device safely and then shelve it, carry it, put it in a book-bag, or leave it on the coffee table.

For the iPad, MacBook, or Kindle. Hand-made, $89.

Dubai by Christopher Wilson. (via kavalierandclay)

(via freshmn)

Really?

Besides learning how to “make do, or do without,” people began to establish mutual support structures, like workers’ cooperatives, many of which would recycle and repair donated or broken items. People learned to share what they had, and to by-pass the market and financial systems. Most of these measures were considered stop-gaps to be utilized until things “got back to normal,” but in some of them there seemed to be the promise of more permanent improvements. One of these “stop-gaps,” which was intended to address the problem of the dearth of currency in circulation, was the issuance of “scrip.”

Everything you’d ever want to know about depression scrip. See also: BerkShares, Ithaca Hours.