Thursday, July 23, 2009

baby steps


I told myself that if I do a painting a day till I die I could probably end up with a masterpiece. I haven't kept up with my one-a-day (it kind of feels like exercising) but here is a friendly reminder to keep myself going! My first painting in black pigment.

Thursday, July 16, 2009

hug

hug

some tree-on-tree action taken on the pratt campus with my iphone! Yes. I have an iphone now :)

Monday, July 13, 2009

Meet At the Apartment



My wonderful classmate and Amend lead, Ingrid Fetell told me about Meet @ The Apartment. It has advertising and branding undertones, but people from many creative fields met, mingled, pitched ideas, and possibly made life-long connections. It was not the usual jelly or coworking experience that I'm used to as there were speakers scheduled all day, whose inspiring stories charged the crowd for a very engaging session. As you can see from the video, people are conversing and hardly typing or staring at their screens. In fact, Ingrid had to leave a little early so she could get some work done.

Saturday, July 11, 2009

Organic


After a summer hiatus (including getting married, honeymoon, and moving in) I'm finally back in my coworking mode. And what a better way to return than with my newlywed husband?? It was the first time that Jon (my husband) has ever gone to a jelly. We were at lab247 in Stuyvesant (Brooklyn). He is a committed member of the corporate world and had an awkward time working and mingling in such hippie fashion. In the pic above he is on a conference call and had to balance his laptop in one hand as he stood outside for any form of privacy. Below are some pics taken by Jonathan Landau, the founder of the space.


There was a round-table discussion with Todd, one of the authors of I'm Outta Here, to define the future of coworking. What a perfect opportunity!


There were concerns about connecting with people in a coworking space. For example, if I were a DJ needing branding and marketing strategies, can I get help from someone in the group? The need for a coworking 'Craig's list' was apparent. The desire for after-work hour coworking sessions for those with 9-5 jobs who have side projects was also expressed.

Jon L. sees coworking as a wholistic approach to working where you can do things faster and better because you joined a coworking space. He called it an evolution, that's if you consider evolution a good thing. At Lab 247 you can start coworking with yoga to prime you for a productive day.


To me coworking is a phenomenon. I personally have a distaste for trying to over-define coworking. For me, I'm happy with knowing that it's counter-culture movement. Coworking really has a lot of colors and to try to define it, predict it or organize is like looking over an artist's shoulder and judging a painting before it's finished. It would kill the very spirit of coworking which is entrepreneurial, creative, collaborative, and maybe even messy. Perhaps an organic, brick exposed, open desk basement coworking site is not my husband's particular hue at the moment but he could definitely use something for after hours.