FORA.tv – Branding Democracy: Barack Obama and American Void.

The design was a collaborative effort with the talented Benton-C Bainbridge (lighting) and Chris Burke (audio).

You can see some of the critical response in reviews from the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, and Time Out New York. Most of them get a couple details wrong; for instance, there were no strobe lights — just ordinary incandescent and fluorescent bulbs that were programmed to flicker (nowhere near as fast as a strobe). We’ll have more details and video posted here in the near future.

Yesterday I found a [landscaping company] flyer on my front door.

I’ve been staring at a project in my backyard for a few weeks. Staring hasn’t gotten it done. So I figured I’d see what it would cost to have these guys do it.

I called them. 10 minutes later the guy came by. He was down the street on another job. We walked out back. I told him what I needed done. He looked around for 20 seconds and said $300. I said “deal.”

That’s it. No proposal. No “I’ll get back to you tomorrow”. No “Let me see how much the materials will cost and I’ll drop an estimate in your mailbox next week.”

Just $300. Deal. When can you start? Wednesday. How long will it take? A few hours for a few guys.

He knows his business. I know what my time is worth. End of transaction. It was so damn refreshing.

I know everything can’t be done like this, but often it seems like we’ve slid down a path of formality with so many things that really don’t need it. Extensive contracts, delays, red tape, precise cost estimates based on precise amounts of materials, “let me think about it and I’ll get back to you,” etc. Essential? Sometimes yes, but most of the time probably not. [...]

The whole post and quite a few of the comments are well worth reading — funny how it came along at just the right time. I’d sweated over certain parts of the proposal, gotten feedback from several more experienced freelancer friends, contract advice from a lawyer in my family and thought through the implications of each piece in the pie very carefully. In the end, I think the proposal was the right length: it had the details the client had asked for and the information I thought they needed to know.

Of course, not all proposals can be short. Very large corporate sites may need a more precise definition of scope. Responses to open RFPs (request for proposals) have to show that you understand the clients’ needs since they don’t know you from Adam. It’s all about context: if you’ve worked with the client before and/or you’ve covered all the bases in a conversation, your proposal can be a one paragraph email. These two comments to the 37signals post summed it up well:

Know your craft, and you can communicate what you need to the client with a minimum of effort, and everyone is happy.

A short chat about the basic terms (time, cost, and scope); mutual trust; and, communication – that’s about all that is needed in most cases.

One service we really love to provide is designing networked performances, where performers in geographically separated locations perform together live via streaming media. This month, I’m consulting with Hunter Reynolds, a multimedia artist who needed help setting up a performance between him at his studio and visitors to his gallery show at Momenta Art. Hunter wanted to tell the stories behind his artwork — he makes gorgeous “photo-weavings”, tapestry-size grids of photo prints sewn together at the edges — and talk with visitors in realtime.

Since Hunter had done it before (using Skype video chat), he knew what was needed (cameras, mics, a good Internet connection at each location) but not if what was available could provide a stable platform for the performance. He asked his friend Wayne Ashley for help — Wayne is a noted new media curator and arts director — which led to my involvement (via another helpful recommend). After determining Hunter’s needs, visiting the sites and testing, I was able to recommend a stable setup, including hardware, software, bandwidth upgrades and purchases, and guide Hunter and Momenta through the setup at the studio and gallery.

The first performance last Sunday was a success, despite limited holiday weekend attendance, and Hunter will be telling stories to gallery visitors for the next three Sundays from 12 to 6pm. If you’ll be in New York between now and June 15th, I highly recommend seeing his artwork and, if you can make it on a Sunday, hearing Hunter’s stories.

Here’s the exhibit description:

Momenta Art is pleased to present an exhibition of new work by Hunter Reynolds, his first solo exhibition in New York in five years. Since 2001 Reynolds has experienced a series of life-altering events: 9/11, substance abuse, surviving AIDS, Hurricane Wilma, a close friend’s suicide, the collapse of his immune system, and four HIV-related strokes that left his right hand partially paralyzed. These events are the raw material out of which this exhibition was born. Viewers who enter the gallery will be surrounded by a series of large-format works called “photo-weavings” formed by physically sewing together hundreds of smaller photographs. Though stunningly beautiful, the photographs that make up these pieces document a cathartic meltdown during which Reynolds, together with Hurricane Wilma, destroyed his Florida studio in the fall of 2005.

The documented wreckage includes Reynolds’ own paint-splattered and water-damaged work from earlier series, artwork by other artists, CD covers, paper fragments, and shards of broken glass that were thrown and bonded by the forces of wind and rain. Bits of this detritus will be on view in the gallery along with the photo weavings. In addition, Reynolds will present several remote story-telling/conversation performances via Skype and a mini-documentary covering the hurricane and Reynolds’ salvage efforts in his studio, efforts that transform the wreckage and personal history into testaments of survival. All of these elements come together in a complete context; but even as they encompass, they break free. For almost thirty years, Reynolds’ work has engaged with gender identity, body politics, and personal histories. But it is the broad generosity of his work, and this installation in particular, that reveals the artist’s particular strength at forging hope and beauty out of the sometimes dark totality of life.

“Art has always been one of the tools I have used to heal myself and others and to find order in the chaos of my life, by not only telling the story through art, but by transforming myself in the process of making it, using it to rebuild my life, finding hope and beauty and a desire to be alive.”

– Hunter Reynolds

The web has always attracted mavericks and entrepreneurs, and a rocky economy makes the freelance life more desirable (or at least more inevitable) than ever. So what happens when your freelance business starts to grow? How big can you get without getting bad? How can freelancers and small teams compete with traditional agencies? Hip freelancers and cool agency heads will answer questions, compare experiences, and tell their stories.

So what stuck with me? Be yourself. Whether your website speaks in a “we’re a company” voice or an “it’s just me” voice, be honest about the scale of your business, who you are, and what you do. You can have it both ways, as Jeffrey Zeldman pointed out: present yourself as a business on the Home page, introduce yourself as a person on your About page.

We have a number of clients at The New School, including the India China Institute, the Graduate Program in International Affairs, The New School for General Studies, the Vera List Center for Art and Politics, and the Wolfson Center for National Affairs. The New School makes most of their filmed events available online through Fora.tv, an interactive video sharing site that presents thought and discourse from some of the world’s foremost think tanks, conferences and institutions. Follow the last link for many hours of fascinating debates, lectures and interviews.

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Bastianello by John Musto and Mark Campbell
Lucrezia by William Bolcom and Mark Campbell

presented by New York Festival of Song

recorded at Caramoor Center for Music and the Arts, March 15, 2008

Cast:

tenor Paul Appleby
bass Matt Boehler
mezzo-soprano Sasha Cooke
baritone Patrick Mason
soprano Lisa Vroman

pianists Michael Barrett and Steven Blier
director Leon Major
stage manager Kate Scott

Commission, first performances, recording and audio broadcast of Bastianello by John Musto and Mark Campbell and Lucrezia by William Bolcom and Mark Campbell by New York Festival of Song, Inc. was supported by the New York State Music Fund, established by the New York State Attorney General at Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors.

Additional funding for first performance of Bastianello/Lucrezia is provided by generous grants from the National Endowment for the Arts.

Fazioli pianos supplied by Klavierhaus

Videography and post-production by the really useful media company

Audio recording and post-production by Adam Abeshouse

New York Festival of Song
Steven Blier, Artistic Director
Michael Barrett, Associate Artistic Director
Elizabeth Hurwitt, Executive Director
Charles McKay, Managing Director

Caramoor Center for Music and the Arts
Chief Executive/General Director
Paul Rosenblum, Managing Director