Wednesday, December 15, 2010

Pretty Little Boxes: Part 3 of WHY Portland Rocks!

So I get a few days notice that my fellow BRC citizen will be in PDX. Right after I leave . I am really bummed....because she IS NOT ONLY unique but a GEEK GIRL! (well most BRC people are unique...but for that matter...She is PURE Radiant Gift Culture ENERGY!)! The Alchemy of life always prevails if you have an open mind and open heart....listen to what it tells you....make sure to be aware...

So needless to say if I were any other person on the planet: I would think to myself WTF: Why is this "random chick" (me) trying to give me a hand and see if we can get a hacker space! However, that is the special thing about the Random BRC universe. The things you can do if you only ALLOW yourself to imagine (without fear :)!

I commented about several things today but dear to my heart and soul is the following:

This video truly shows the amazing fusion of what bringing a collective "family" can do to together: art fueled by passion of the collective synergies (think creativity, design, engineering, technology and the ability to DREAM outside the box) of different talents through the conduit of open minds, hearts and brought together by some dust in the wind in the desert of NV.....It's a beautiful thing called Burning Man :





To Lynne~

Thanks for dreaming and being you! You are appreciated. Let me know the next place you drop in and the community will again come together and find the "right place to be, at the right time....Just where we are all supposed to be when we are supposed to be there"...Until then, be well my fellow BRC Citizen...Remember sometimes when we are alone we are stuck in the weeds, but gather all the weed wacker's around and look what beautiful paths we can create! "Be the change you wish to see in the world: ~Gandhi     Hugs to the world, NOW let's go WACK some WEEDS! ~S

"Thanks PDX 2 being AWESOME! "Portland rocks ETextile innovations at their local hackerspace The Brain Silo with physical therapy knee braces, RFID necklaces and some glow! I love you PDX!" ~Lynne Bruning!


And the post from the amazing: www.sparkfun.com/news/502

Home | News - 2010.12.10
E-Textile Meet-Up
by Emcee Grady | December 10, 2010 | 10 comments

Today we have a guest post from our friend Lynne Bruning, E-Textile master:

Last week I embarked on a hasty trip to Portland to see Rose City Vaudeville, visit a very pregnant girlfriend and size-up the Stump Town geek factor.

Within a couple of hours I found cheap airfare, called my friend and blindly emailed the Portland Dorkbot , home of the Teensy++. They agreed to host a free E-Textile meet-up at the BrainSilo hacker space on Friday night. With only a few days notice, very little planning and a rainy evening, I anticipated a few friends, a six pack of beer and a couple of curious inventors. If I had known it would be standing room only with about 30 artists, hackers and researchers I would have thought twice about speaking. Seriously, ‘this’ was my holiday? Fortunately - they brought PBR, a space heater, great projects and a sense of humor.

I brought samples of conductive fabric and threads, Lilypads and Aniomagic Schemers, shared sewing tricks and talked about e-textiles, adaptive technology and the best blogs to follow the wearable computing trends. Monty asked about the dangers of lithium batteries and we contemplated destroying one. Loki discussed the semantics of ‘eTextiles’, ‘wearable computers’, ‘smart clothing’ and ‘glamtronics’ yet none of us came to a conclusion for accurate terminology.


Shannon Henry brought her Skirt Full of Stars - a Lilypad, accelerometer and fiber optic confection.



Janna from Third Brain Studio shared her physical therapy LED project that motivates a patient to complete their physical therapy through LEDs.



Amy Johnston arrived fashionably late, however she offered up a fresh pomegranate and a project I was super excited to learn more about. Hidden Agendas is a necklace composed of 45 RFID tags that are programmed to display an image, quote, or question that address the topic of tracking, surveillance and identity. The necklace is currently on display at the Science of Contemporary Craft in Pittsburgh.

And a special shout out to members of Makers Local 256 from Huntsville, Alabama who took time out of their busy travel schedule to attend the meeting and invite me to their hackerspace for some southern hospitality. I think that means moonshine and a pig roast!

Portland, you impress me with your desire to foster a community of creative thinkers. Your food carts, fashion and brew pubs. And most of all your ability to embrace innovation, especially on short notice. I’ll be back for more, until then please keep the beer cold and the BrainSilo warm.


Blogs Lynne follows (Me too but I'm just a "newbie without an awesome sewing machine and glue gun)....but I'm working on saving the world efficiently too, but until then...~COVETING these Blogs! :

Talk2MyShirt
http://www.talk2myshirt.com/blog/

Fashioning Technology
http://www.fashioningtech.com/

Computational Textiles
http://computationaltextiles.blogspot.com/

How To Get What You Want
http://www.kobakant.at/DIY/

Institute for Unstable Media
http://www.v2.nl/

Soft Circuit Saturdays - how to projects
http://softcircuitsaturdays.com/

LillyPond - craft project bb http://lilypond.media.mit.edu/projects

"Do you have one to add to the list?" Let the world know so we can HELP!



Thanks to all to cool people out there who listened to what the universe told them! ~S

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