Awesome Foundation NYC’s latest grant goes to the Hip-Hop Word Count by Tahir Hemphill. The Hip-Hop Word Count is a searchable ethnographic database built from the lyrics of over 40,000 Hip-Hop songs from 1979 to present day. The Hip-Hop Word Count describes the technical details of most of your favorite hip-hop songs. This data can then be used to not only figure out interesting stats about the songs themselves, but also describe the culture behind the music. How can analyzing lyrics teach us about our culture? The Hip-Hop Word Count locks in a time and geographic location for every metaphor, simile, cultural reference, phrase, rhyme style, meme and socio-political idea used in the corpus of Hip-Hop. The Hip-Hop Word Count then converts this data into explorable visualisations which help us to comprehend this vast set of cultural data. This data can be used to chart the migration of ideas and builds a geography of language. Stay tuned for details about our summer party.
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.
Cross-posted from NYC trustee Catherine White’s blog, Just White Noise. This month, Awesome NYC went somewhere no other Awesome Foundation Chapter has ever been: Reptiles. AF-NY has so far brought you LAZORS and a movable pipe organ. This month we’re pushing forward the boundaries of Awesome even further. We bring you…. Iguanas. Real ones. Elizabeth, one of this month’s Awesome grant recipients up close with Mayor Bloomberg Picture: Brooklyn Children’s Museum Iggy and Elizabeth live at The Brooklyn Children’s Museum, and their home needs a makeover. Specifically, a whole new home. The $1000 from NY-AF covers all of the supplies and the labor and production could happen in-house. The enclosure will be created in 2-3 months meaning Iggy and Elizabeth will holding their iguana housewarming party during the summer. We’re getting a PLAQUE too. Awesome. As ever, the proposals speak for themselves. Here’s the original application from Iggy and Elizabeth’s rep at the Museum: Jarad Astin, Live Animal Programmer at Brooklyn Children’s Museum: “The Brooklyn Children’s Museum serves hundreds of thousands of visitors every single year, providing an opportunity for learning and play with a strong emphasis on the Natural Sciences, Culture, and Early Childhood experience. A goal for our… read more →
Every month the Awesome Foundation NYC gives away $1000 a month to something that is awesome. It can be anything, anywhere….then we throw a party give out the award (always cash in a brown paper bag), and celebrate all things AWESOME that month. You are invited to the: Awesome Foundation NYC April Party Monday, April 19, at 7pm D.B.A. in the East Village 41 1st Ave. btw 2nd & 3rd RSVP at http://awesomenyc.eventbrite.com In previous months we have funded a laser tractor beam that prods amoebas in a bus and an Arduino-powered Anywhere Organ. This month we are funding something more reptilian in nature. Just what exactly? Come see for yourself in the flesh on Monday, April 19 at 7pm. These things have a curfew. Who is the Awesome Foundation NYC? Jesse Chan-Norris, Lee-Sean Huang, Sam Lessin, Steve Rosenbaum, Douglas Repetto, Dawn Barber, Clay Shirky, Colin Nederkoorn, Brandon Kessler, Catherine White, and Elizabeth Stark. And how do you apply for an Awesome Foundation grant? http://awesomefoundation.org by the end of the month, awesome. Hope to see you next week, The Awesome Foundation NYC
Congratulations to Matthew Borgatti and his Anywhere Organ! AF-NYC loved his idea as much as bagels, coffee and bialys (and more). We kept our second award choice a surprise until last night’s second AF-NYC party at Zeitzeff in the LES, which was packed full of NYC’s most super, Awesome people. M@ and his AF Award (picture @magnify) Here’s M@’s original application: Pipe organs are incredible, awesome instruments. One incredible aspect that contributes to their awesomeness is their ability to play a space. Each space an organ resides in reacts differently, creating different tones, and essentially allowing room for an infinite variety of instruments. Unfortunately nearly every pipe organ in existence is bolted irrevocably into a wall staring longingly at fornications all day. This is why I’m creating the Anywhere Organ. I’ve designed a system where each note, each pipe of a pipe organ is attached to a central air supply through a hose. The air to each organ pipe is controlled by a solenoid valve articulated through Arduino. I’m writing modules to take MIDI keyboard information and translate it to the valves. Each hose is independent making for an octopus like instrument where each separate pipe can be installed with… read more →