“I am bad-ass enough to actually do this.” Jonathan Foote is co-organizer of Dorkbot-SF, has a PH.D in electrical engineering, and makes objects that change the way we experience things. He received this month’s Awesome Fellowship for his clear and compelling proposal to build robotic desk lamps. From his proposal: “Remember Luxo Jr. from the Pixar short? Like that, but for real…All the components are off-the-shelf available: servos, microcontrollers, full-color high power LED lights, and remote control via RF so multiple lamps can move in choreographed synchrony. The whole thing would be a platform for more cool things, like web control, open choreography software, you name it. And naturally it would be open HW/open source, yadda yadda.” We’re especially curious about what the yadda will entail 🙂 Congrats Jonathan!  We’ll keep the Awesome World posted on your progress!

“Oh my god, it’s full of stars” The Trustees of the Awesome Foundation’s London Chapter are delighted to announce the winner of their inaugural fellowship: Oscar Lhermite’s ‘Big Dipper Project‘. As our cities become increasingly populated, the man-made mix of pollution and light have all but banished the stars from our skies, eroding our magical relationship with these distant balls of white-hot plasma. ‘The Big Dipper Project’ is an attempt to recreate the constellations in the night sky over major cities using a combination of black helium balloons and white LEDs. Oscar, a French product designer and artist currently studying at the Royal College of Art in London, has been perfecting his technique by tethering his stars in a variety of configurations across the city. He aims to use the money to turbo-charge his efforts, bringing in bigger balloons, arduinos and advanced software to ensure precise star locations and minimal drift. This will culminate in a recreation of The Big Dipper somewhere over London later this Summer. (Photo by Cormac McGloin) The London Trustees were impressed with Oscar’s passion and enthusiasm for his ideas, and chose him for the May Fellowship because of this project’s general awesomeness, its connection with… read more →

Aerial maps? (check) Balloons? (check) Beer? (check) The only thing left on our checklist is you. Come meet Jeff Warren and hear about how his work makes it possible for Louisiana citizen mappers to capture powerful images of the Gulf Coast oil spill. WARNING: you may want to make your own satellite and/or join the 108+ backers who’ve given Grassroots Mapping the green light on kickstarter.com. 6:30p – 8:30p – Design Annex – Union Sq, Somerville, MA 8:30p – The discussion & beverages will move next door to Cantina La Mexicana (247 Washington Street, Somerville, MA)

AF-NYC’s Catherine White with AF-London’s Jane Ni Dhulchaointigh and James Carrigan Last week, AF-NYC micro-trustee Catherine White met with AF-London’s Jane Ni Dhulchaointigh and James Carrigan over a beer in Shoreditch to discuss transatlantic Awesomeness.  Tonight Tomorrow (June 9, 2010) AF-London will be awarding their first grant with a party starting at 6.30 pm in The Griffin (93 Leonard Street).  We’re really excited to hear who they pick.  Meanwhile, on the other side of the Pond, Awesome NYC are planning their 4th award party – details soon.

The Ottawa chapter of The Awesome Foundation is proud to announce that today we will be awarding our first grant of $1000 to Alicia Dobson of Project Y. Project Y is a group of young and passionate change-makers who aspire to make positive change and change the face of their community. There are all different types of individuals: students, social entrepreneurs, musicians, artists, scientists, and others. Many are Millennium Laureates, some are TD Scholars, and others are individuals with an unbelievable commitment and determination to make positive change. For their kick-off event, Alicia and her team are organizing an Art Flash Mob to show people the beauty that exists here in our city. In Alicia’s own words, “The music, art, and culture in this city is astonishing – we want people to see it.” This exciting first event will take place in downtown Ottawa on the afternoon of May 12th. Look for them and join in the fun! See their video proposal here: Project Y: Art Flash Mob The Awesome Foundation for the Arts and Sciences was founded in Boston in June 2009 and has now spread to six cities. The Ottawa Chapter (Awesome Ottawa), founded in April 2010, awards… read more →