The Awesome Foundation for the Arts and Sciences has been talking for some time now about expanding and opening up chapters in different locales and specialized in different arenas. Many of you have gotten in touch, and we’ve been thrilled by all the people volunteering — but we’ve to date held off, getting the formula right, and figuring out how to start building outwards. Today, I’m thrilled to announce today that we take the first, critical step in changing that by announcing the official formation of Awesome Foundation Providence! Headed up by Owen Johnson and TJ Sondermann, they’ll be joining our Boston branch in forwarding the interest of Awesome in the universe. AF-Providence will be involved in administering its own $1,000 grant each month to projects, which means two grants coming out every month, and generally more excellent schemes going down. They’re also currently in the process of assembling their group of micro-trustees, so, if you’re interested taking a serious oath of office and funding projects, be sure to drop them a line at owen AT existence.com, and tsondermann AT betaspring.com. Fantastically enough, they’ll also be participating in the November grant cycle! So, if you’re interested, be sure to drop your idea on our… read more →

Hey there! As per usual, we’re having an awards ceremony/party this coming weekend. Won’t you join us? Thx, Mgmt. The Awesome Foundation for the Arts and Sciences and The Information Superhighway Cordially Invite You To… COTTON CANDY CANNON: THE WEAPON OF THE FUTURE An Awards Ceremony & Party September 17th, 2009, 7:00 PM – 12:00 AM For all you completionists, the details are cross-posted on Facebook & Upcoming. Betahouse, 13 Magazine Street, Cambridge MA *Please note: we’re switching the event location this month.* Price =  free. You can expect beverages, food, ideas, cool people, & a big ceremonial check. This month, we are extremely proud to award our October Awesome Fellowship to Josh Gordonson, whose plan is to construct a handheld cotton candy cannon that can “coat a rotating human in a cotton candy cocoon in one-three minutes.” Need we say more? Read more about the proposal here. Come celebrate with us, meet the fellow and our micro-trustees. We’ll be talking about and hear what we’re scheming for the future, and answer your questions about how you can apply for the next round of Awesome grants coming out in October. To submit to be the Awesome Fellow for October, please drop us a line by the 10/15/09…. read more →

This mean-looking badboy is the brainchild of Josh Gordonson, close to a decade in the making. It is, indeed, the first working prototype of a rugged cannon that deploys an entirely new kind of ammunition. One that is likely to change the face of battlefields and fairgrounds forever. Specifically, it shoots cotton candy. This is huge, people. Absolutely huge. The Awesome Foundation for the Arts and Sciences is proud to announce today that Josh is the winner of this month’s Fellowship. Specifically, we’re funding the production of a handheld blaster that will be able to, quote, “coat a rotating human in a cotton candy cocoon in one-three minutes” (that’s verbatim, from the grant) and will feature “Three buttons [that] will dispense food coloring into the sugar just before it’s extruded. Color mixing should be possible, giving the artist machine-gunner a full palate of tooth-decaying paint.” And best of all, the plans will be made available, online, at Instructables. We’re also planning a public debut of this project, once it’s all ready to start shooting. SET PHASERS TO AWESOME! We’ll have more details about the awards ceremony, coming up ASAP. Stay tuned, kids. ————- More about Josh (from the man himself):… read more →