Tag Archives: Crowdfunder

Time is ticking on my Crowdfunder pitch: Whose electric brain?

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I have 12 days left to reach my target of 4000 GPB needed so I can present my work at ISEA 2011 in Istanbul. Here’s an excerpt from my pitch,

Whose electric brain? my presentation about memristors (a nanoelectronics concept), cognitive entanglement, and artificial brains (accepted from a field of over 2000 submissions) is scheduled for Sept. 19, 2011 in a session titled, Biosynthetics and Body – Machine Presentation.My co-presenters include an engineering team from Brazil, the director of the SymbioticA Lab (University of Western Australia (they developed the Fish & Chips project), and an artist from Montréal, Québec. You can find the description here: http://isea2011.sabanciuniv.edu/content/biosynthetics-and-body-machine-relationships

My latest work on cognitive entanglement and memristors is the outcome of thousands of hours of research and thinking. The next logical step is to share it at a cutting edge conference where the ideas will be challenged and hopefully become part of the international discussion about life, biological and/or artificial, in the 21st century. As a contributor you can be part of this journey with me to Istanbul and beyond.

Comments from Colin Milburn, author of Nanovision and Associate Professor of English at the University of California, Davis

… I was delighted to discover your message in my inbox, along with your outstanding paper on the memristor.  Let me hasten to say that I think this is a fascinating, provocative piece, and I am sure it will make a big impact at the ISEA conference in Istanbul.  Thank you for sending it to me — I am very glad to know of your work. In fact, I think the paper is quite polished and persuasive.

Here’s a link to the pitch.

Whose electric brain? Crowdfunder pitch

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Last I wrote (July 5, 2011) about my proposed presentation at the International Symposium on Electronic Arts in Istanbul (Sept. 14-21, 2011), I was looking for ideas on how I might fund my way there. Since then, I’ve decided to try crowdfunding. It’s like crowdsourcing, i. e., posting a question and getting ideas from a host of people but posting a pitch for money to follow through on a project.

There are a number of sites where you can upload a pitch and solicit funds: IndieGoGo, which has been around since 2008, Kickstarter, Funding 4 Learning, and Crowdfunder (the one I picked), amongst others.

Here’s a little bit About Crowdfunder,

Whether your project is big or small, hare-brained or thoughtful, serious or just for fun – we want to hear from you. Crowdfunder aims to fund all sorts of crazy, arty, funny, ingenious and jaw-dropping projects. So if you’re an artist, explorer, musician, writer, entrepreneur or thrill seeker get in touch and kick start your project with Crowdfunder today.

I chose this site partly because it has a go/no go policy. In other words, I have to reach my target (4000 GBP) to get the money. IndieGoGo for example, will let you keep whatever percentage of the funds you raise, which is not helpful to me since I either have enough money to get to Istanbul or not.

Here’s an excerpt from the Whose electric brain? pitch I’ve submitted,

You’ve heard of the ‘uncanny valley’, the point at which human beings become uncomfortable with robots because they look too much like humans?  Well, I’m taking it a step further with cognitive entanglement, a new concept I’m proposing and developing for a presentation and paper at the 17th International Symposium on Electronic Arts (ISEA). This conference presents cutting edge academic and artistic work internationally and in 2011, it is being held in Istanbul from Sept. 14 -21 concurrently with the 12th Istanbul Biennial, considered to be one of the world’s most prestigious art festivals.

Whose electric brain? my presentation about memristors (a nanoelectronics concept), cognitive entanglement, and artificial brains (accepted from a field of over 2000 submissions) is scheduled for Sept. 19, 2011 in a session titled, Biosynthetics and Body – Machine Presentation.My co-presenters include an engineering team from Brazil, the director of the SymbioticA Lab (University of Western Australia; they developed the Fish & Chips project), and an artist from Montréal, Québec. You can find the description here: http://isea2011.sabanciuniv.edu/content/biosynthetics-and-body-machine-relationships

My latest work on cognitive entanglement and memristors is the outcome of thousands of hours of research and thinking. The next logical step is to share it at a cutting edge conference where the ideas will be challenged and hopefully become part of the international discussion about what life biological and/or artificial in the 21st century. As a contributor you can be part of this journey with me to Istanbul.

Here’s an excerpt from how I describe my self in relation to this work,

As an independent  scholar, my current work centres on how nanotechnology is communicated and its social implications. Previous successes include, producing and writing a video on intercultural communication (Bridging the Cultural Gap) that was used as a teaching tool internationally. I also produced an event (WritingWise) which brought together songwriters, technical writers, comic book writers, games writers, new media writers, poets and others to discuss the impact that technology is having on the word in its various forms.

As for Whose electric brain?, I’ve gone just about as far as I can alone. Developing my current work further means that I need to present and discuss it with colleagues and there just aren’t that many people in the world who have the same interest. That’s why this conference is so important to me and, more importantly, the work, which pulls together concepts in electrical engineering, philosophy, physics, and literary theory, while introducing something new, cognitive entanglement.

Please pass the link on to anyone who might be interested in the topic and/or funding my presentation in Istanbul. (I hope to post a video about my paper and the symposium at the Crowdfunder website in the next few weeks and to update my pitch in other ways on a regular basis.)

Here’s the unadorned link, http://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/investment/whose-electric-brain-298#entrepreneur_details

One final note: Crowdfunder is based in the UK, so all funds are in GBP.

Baba Brinkman crowdsourcing his DVD–an appeal from the heart

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The Vancouver-based rapper, Baba Brinkman, who sometimes raps about science is currently trying to crowdsource funding for an enhanced DVD of his Rap Guide to Evolution. Here’s a rough video of the rap from Brinkman’s visit to the Centre for Systems Biology, University of Birmingham, England,

I have a much posher video version of one of Brinkman’s evolution raps in my Aug. 4,2010 posting about him.

Pasco Phronesis (David Bruggeman) has been campaigning for Brinkman’s project (from his Jan. 7, 2011 posting),

The DVD is being produced, and the videos for the songs (which you can hear online for free, and download for naming your price) have been filmed. The Crowdfunder drive is to get 10,000 pounds to make the DVD better. As Baba describes it:

“The additional funding from Crowdfunder will allow us to produce original animation and digital effects and license high-quality nature footage from the BBC, to make the vision of each video really come to life.

If you donate 10 pounds (roughly $15.55 with today’s conversion in USD), you get a digital download of the DVD.

If you want a physical copy, that’s 20 pounds.

If you want your face in the DVD (as part of the digital animation the crowd money will cover), that’s 30 pounds.

If you’ve got a thousand pounds and enough to cover Brinkman’s travel, he’ll come perform for you sometime this year, depending on his schedule. Those of us without deep pockets will have to wait and see if his off-Broadway production of Rap Guide to Evolution takes flight.

The songs are peer reviewed, and with no slight to most of the science music I’ve promoted here, it’s Brinkman, They Might Be Giants, and the stuff Tom McFadden from Stanford has been involved with. Everyone else is too far back to eat their dust. (Bill Nye, of course, is in the hall of fame and not currently active)

The music is good, Brinkman is a compelling performer, and the science is sound. If you’re still stuck on a thirty pound donation, think about it as getting a high-quality DVD and donating to help science education. Because that’s what you’ll be doing. And if you’re looking for a little red meat in all of this, Brinkman has it for you (posted December 13):

“On Friday we filmed an epic breakdance battle with Darwin facing down his intellectual rivals, Michel Foucault (representing social constructivism), Sarah Palin (representing the christian right), and God (representing Himself, of course). It was a satirical reconstruction of the evolutionary culture wars on the dancefloor and Darwin reigned supreme!”

If you are so moved, you can go here to help fund the project.