My Dreams, Your Dreams...a reality.

I came across a post on a blog called Mira's List called "Finding Money for your Dreams" and I was immediately drawn in. This article is about asking for money in the form of Grants for creative writing or artistic work. Mira lets the reader in on her own story, then launches into grant myth-breaking. She says that although you don't have to be famous or know someone, you do have to have talent. Mediocracy doesn't cut it. So how do you know if you are any good at what you do? As a "slush pile" worker for a granting agency, Mira tells us that applications that credit Grandma as their biggest fan, or state that the jury will like their art because "everyone does" go directly in the 'no' pile. So who's opinion counts? Your peers, the curator of the local public gallery, people who buy your art, juries for group art shows, art instructors to name a few. The point is to get your work out there. Don't hide it under your couch like my grandmother did. She was an accomplished hand potter who dug her own clay from the banks of the river, taught community classes in pottery and hid her best work under her furniture. She didn't believe that her work was valid. As creative people, our work is always valid. It is a way of communicating opinions, thoughts, ideas, and observations. It can be a record of cultural influences, personal history, struggles, joys and sorrows. Those of us who are compelled to create have an important place in society and those who offer grants believe in what we do. They 'want' to see us succeed. If you are a creative person, do yourself a favour, go to Mira's list and read her post, then 'ask' for what you need in the form of a grant. I know I will!

I've been Behancing myself

I have spent the better part of 2 days building a profile on the Behance.net creative network site. They have an amazing interface that organizes and flatters the work. Other creatives are encouraged to view projects and appreciate them using the feedback button at the bottom of each project page. Membership to the site is by invitation only keeping it focused on quality creative work. I'd love you to visit my profile. Here is the link: http:www.behance.net/kimstewart

if you like what you see, appreciate it! You'll know what I mean when you get there...and thanks!

Web 2.0 - a curiosity

The way in which we use the web is changing dramatically. Once a place to 'go and get' information, the web has become a base for self-generated, self-published content.  On March 20th, the College of New Caledonia where I teach is holding a form to discuss these changes and what we can expect from the web in the future. Web 2.0 and Beyond will have a panel of guests whose experience will bring a very different angle to web-based social networks. Kate McCabe, Eric Karjuloto, and Heather Smith will face off on a variety of topics. I am hoping they will discuss the very interesting notions taxonomies, specifically of folksonomy, defined by www.thewebworks.bc.ca as "an Internet-based information retrieval methodology consisting of collaboratively generated, open-ended labels that categorize content ..." for example, tags, tag clouds.

As more and more information is used and stored by more individuals, methods of finding and managing that information need to be developed. Additionally, users are wanting to access their stored information from more that one device, cell phones, and ipod's being two examples of that. There are a lot of questions that come to mind about storing and retrieving huge amounts of information. The first one is

'why' do humans feel compelled to do this?

How often is the stored information accessed by the collector? Or is the purpose to have others access the collection?

I'm sure you have all experienced or contributed to the passing on of jokes, photographs and urban legends through email. I am not fond of receiving information this way, especially since I did not solicite it in the first place, so my question again is why do people search for and send information to their online friends?

In a post from graphpaper.com , Christopher Fahey states:

"People are actually doing (free!) work for other people, adding metadata to information where the information’s “owner” could have done that work. The brilliant thing about folksonomies is that internet users have shown themselves time and time again to be remarkably willing to do their part to help the greater good, even if it means doing labor that happens to bring financial benefit to someone else."

It is a curious thing, a compulsion, an attempt to advance one's position in life. Interesting.