Community – Page 4 – Kristen Baumlier

Category: Community

Blueberries, Okra, and Buffalo!

Posted on August 2, 2012August 31, 2012 by Kbaumlier

Food Font had its first farmer market event at the Elmwood-Bidwell Market in Buffalo, NY. People at the market made a food alphabet out of food from local farms. The food that was used included peaches from Bozard’s Farm; squash, onions, tomatoes, beans: from Native Offerings Farm; cucumbers, okra from Winter Farms and blueberries from Erdle farm.

Before the end of the event the entire list of letters, numbers, and characters got done. People still stopped by to make letters – so we ended up with some extra Q’s and A’s. (and maybe some extra P’s) The alphabet shows the mood of the event – upbeat, creative, and curious. There are some really elegant letters and numbers that were made. Some people really took some time in crafting a letter, carefully adjusting blueberries, okra, or picking out the right green bean.

Thanks to everyone who came out to the event! Pictures from the event are up on the Food Font Photo page and also on Flickr. The Elmwood-Bidwell food alphabet will eventually be edited and put into the Food Font interactive design tool when built.

This upcoming weekend Food Font will be at Weaver Street Market in Carrboro, NC where people will be making a Food Font out of peppers from a local farm.

One last update is that the resources on the Food Font website have been updated. Directions for making a food font, uploading your pictures, and promotional materials are all on the site to help you make a food alphabet that you can submit to the site. What food would you like to write with?

This Weekend – Food Font comes to Buffalo, NY

Posted on July 26, 2012July 26, 2012 by Kbaumlier

Food Font, a project where people can create food alphabets and use them in an interactive design tool to the Elmwood-Bidwell Farmers Market in Buffalo, NY on July 28th.

Food Font is an interactive art project where people can make alphabets out of food, take pictures of each letter, and later use these and other food alphabets in a fun, free, interactive online design tool. With the tool, you can write with various food alphabets, choose backgrounds, and do basic layout techniques to make images that can be saved, shared electronically, and also printed. The tool can be used to make images, posters, signs, and other printed materials.

The Buffalo News wrote a short writeup in the Grub-Pub area about the upcoming event.

If you are in the area – come stop by and make a letter out of local produce! (but we are not Buffalo wings I just had to use that image!)

Links:

Buffalo News – Food Font Writeup

www.elmwoodmarket.org

The World’s Fare: The Largest International Roaming Dinner Party

Posted on July 25, 2012July 26, 2012 by Kbaumlier

A few weeks ago I backed a project on Kickstarter called The World’s Fare. The project got funded, and this Fall, the organization The Feast will host an international, roaming dinner party called the World’s Fare that everyone is invited to participate in.

On October 5, 2012 at 7pm local time in cities everywhere, anyone can be a part of the dinner by bringing together 6-8 people for a feast (dinner) of their own. The purpose is to eat together and decide on one thing each group can collectively start to make the world better. It can be small –like fixing a fence or large such as supporting an effort to redefine an industry.

All of the groups who participate will be invited to share what they intend to build and change with the world at large online. These commitments will be shared through The Feast site, social media and showcased in a public art installation that will act as the central piece for a pavilion of innovation in NYC the next day.

This initiative is part of the organization, The Feast, which organizes the Feast Conference which brings entrepreneurs, radicals, doers and thinkers who are revolutionizing the way things work for the betterment of humanity. This year the conference is from October 3-5, 2012.

I plan to participate, and just put the event in my calendar. Now – I have to decide what to cook and who to invite.

Image Source:
feastongood.com/worldsfare/

Links:

feastongood.com/worldsfare/

www.kickstarter.com – World’s Fare

Host a GOOD Workshop

Posted on July 10, 2012July 9, 2012 by Kbaumlier

Each month the website and magazine GOOD has a series of monthly challenges that are posted where anyone can submit solutions and ideas. The community then votes on the idea that they believe meets the challenge best and the winner is given an award to activate their idea into a real-world solution.

One of the challenges for the month of July is to submit an idea for a fun, creative, or unusual workshop. Until July 23^rd you can send in an idea of what skill you could teach to your community. The winner gets $1000 to support doing the workshop.

When I last checked, there were only 4 ideas that have been submitted. These include workshops on making spreadsheets, growing plants, building a DIY solar cooker, and making quick and easy healthy meals. I just submitted a Food Font workshop – so now there are more than 5 entries for the challenge.

What kind of workshop could you do in your community?

Links:

http://workshop.maker.good.is/

Workshop Weekend: Learn to Pick a Lock, Make Ricotta, or Solder

Posted on July 1, 2012July 3, 2012 by Kbaumlier

Want to learn to pick a lock, make your own ricotta or make a camp stove out of two soda cans? If you live in Oakland, California you might have attended Workshop Weekend this past weekend and now can do some of these things. The two-day event was organized by two MIT-schooled brothers, Gil and J.D. Zamfirescu who helped organize the weekend of learning and sharing.

Participants paid $30 as an admission fee to take one class or to attend as many as they wanted during the whole weekend. On the website, the event is described as a “community-centered weekend buffet of low-cost, low-commitment mini classes to discover something that you are passionate about.”. The short, hands-on workshops ranged from crafting to engineering to gardening, and were taught by local, instructors with years of passion and experience in might craft. Some of the classes from the May workshop weekend included a 10-minute bread workshop, How to solder, a Distillation workshop, PCB layout design, and Sewing with Electronics.

The event was designed to be as hands-on as possible, and many of the participants tried soldering, making felt, reading astrology, and other skills for the first time. In total, a few hundred participants attended the Workshop Weekend.

The format of the event seems to be inspired by “unconferences” or “barcamps,” which have short presentations where anyone can present. I increasingly am interested in this short workshop/presentaiton model and I plan to see if we can do something like this where I live. If you are interested in working on creating a open workshop/unconference event in Cleveland,OH that focuses on art, Open source technology, DIY culture, collaboration, and innovation, let me know.

Image Source:
workshopweekend.net

Links:
workshopweekend.net