For some reason, working on the rewards has been the biggest challenge of this project. I’ve found much inspiration from This Kickstarter Video.  I’m VERY inspired by the following projects below. I sent an email to Kickstarter for one level of the rewards – where I want to ask people from the Kickstarter community to send me their photos. I hope this is within the rules. I’m SO excited to share this project with everyone. Butterflies and terror.

American Ecstasy Photo Book		Stop Telling Women to Smile: Around The Country	High Voltage Images	Friend of a Friend: A Photobook & Gallery Show	The Return –	Homeschooled	Foster Huntington – Home is Where You Park It	I Used To Be You	Wondering Around Wandering
Barbara Nitke		Tatyana Fazlalizadeh	Phillip David Stearns	Jeff Meltz	Adrian Chesser	Rachel Papo		Kyoko Hamada

 

Here is my workspace. Plus text from advertisements and color stories.

There’s an interesting article in the New Yorker – that I have not completed – by Emily Nussbaum – about what advertising does to TV. I find advertising to be a source of inspiration, and it’s always locating the current zeigeist, a reveal of the collective thought. Just take a look at Dominos Pizza using emojis in their commercials.

I’ve talked a bit about what art has influenced me in my about page. Digital storytelling is a thing, and I’m interested in the intersection between art, life and advertising. Clearly, advertising is synonymous with capitalism, but I tend to believe that even the most money-hungry ad campaign has the potential to re-contextualize thinking. Dove Real Beauty campaigns are a perfect example. Although some may feel the pang of Absolute Manipulation, I think this is where the space for reaching those who have not though of this yet. That to me is what is so hilarious about user generated content initiatives by brands: they know how splayed they are, and know everyone’s an author, and yes, and so they co-opt it. But brands these days are harried, and chasing the consumer, all of us for the story, which is beautiful and perfect, and people know this.

In any case, what appeals to me here is the on the road 1st person narrative. The language and image here: gets to the root of yearning. These two ads somehow have inspired the storyboard for the Kickstarter video, although much of it (the concept for SOS) was already born somewhere between A street and B street in the railroad district in Ashland.

I’m loving working on this website, and the Coatal Theme rocks. It’s exciting and unnerving to begin this process. Here is a photo of my new juicer. The old one was given to me by a neighbor when I lived in Silverlake. He was going off to Costa Rica to be a teacher. This juicer healed me through many things. Then, I ran into him at an artist residency, Ragdale Artist Colony a few years later. Small world. I know that juicing will help me through this process. A pitcher of juice inside a picture.