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Contact Natalie Walker

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Contact

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Contact Lucy Lee

What They Do:

I'm a trained maker, I studied Applied Arts at BA level and moved on to study Sculpture in an Art School in Berlin. But I'm still learning. That's the most important thing to me. I learned that its important not always that you are immediately always fresh-out-the-box fabulous, but that you are willing to put your neck out and improve in the real world.

I mainly love to work project based, I like the initial brainstorming and concept work; the process of doing, experimenting and adapting of ideas; and finally, the execution. The documentation and promotion of projects also interests me and almost always, (always!) through working in this way, new and interesting organisations and individuals can be found.

One day I would perhaps like to be part of a more permanent collective but until then I am working with groups and individuals to find out more about the way I like to work and how I fit well with others. I have worked before making Creative Workshops, mainly sculptural, one day to one week community projects. This I would love to continue but to experiment with the workshop format and extend into ambitious projects with a cross disciplinary directions.

Thats me. In Berlin.

Contributed Recipe

Energy, time, enthusiam, people and cool stuff.

Lessons They've Learned

How to work together with people; sounds predictable but its bloody hard, but super rewarding! Also, that confidence and ability grows from doing stuff, starting off crap, getting better...and the next time starting of a little less crap and getting even more marvellous.

Who They Would Like to Meet:

Adventurous perhaps or just people with ideas and energy and something to show. Also, interested in meeting people in Berlin interested in starting a Research Club-style brunch.

Contact Nicole Cohen

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Contact Malte

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Contact Maria-Leena Räihälä

What They Do:

Morgenvogel Real Estate is an art project about birds and other flying things. For one and a half years it was until recently an art space in Berlin, that presented various artists, musicians and scientists, sound installations, lectures, performances, concerts and DJ nights, a video festival: more than twenty events. Now the Morgenvogel ("morning bird") flies through the internet, looking for a new nest, ready to cope with new challenges.

Contributed Recipe

Take "birds and other flying objects", look at them through an artist's eye, bring them to a room, tell your friends, and find out, that there is a lot about it. Spread your wings.

Lessons They've Learned

Don't do the bar yourself: get a neutral person that doesn't hesitate to ask your thirsty friends for money.

Do what you want to do and find that people can appreciate things you never thought they would.

Art doesn't have a problem with science. And scientists are happy to have some different audience.

The sky is not the limit.

Who They Would Like to Meet:

Morgenvogel Real Estate at this point is a pool of about 20 people. It is ready to do events in the fields of drawings, animations, films, lectures, concerts, performances a.s.o. We are still looking for artists and scientists to join, and of course for institutions that may want to host our shows.

Contact Per Schumann

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Contact Angharad

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Contact Press

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Contact Caroline Brimmer

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Contact

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Contact Art Department

What They Do:

ART DEPARTMENT is a collaborative art + design space in the heart of the Central Eastside Industrial District’s Distillery Row.

Since opening in July 2010, ART DEPARTMENT has taken root as a creative destination for a wide range of activities, including gallery space for art shows, classes, workshops, and events. ART DEPARTMENT’s warehouse includes shared professional workspaces, a metal and wood shop, and vintage travel trailers for resident artists and designers. ART DEPARTMENT also has an amazing rooftop area that can be used for special events and film screenings.

It’s our mission to develop a space that is as dynamic and diverse as Portland’s creative scene itself.

Currently available for budget rental: 1000sf gallery • 2500sf warehouse • 500sf rooftop

Contributed Recipe

Step 1: Allow the initial concept to marinate
Step 2: Assemble team of "believers" who can share concept with their networks
Step 3: Present the concept and space through free events and exhibits
Step 4: Expand the network
Step 5: Listen to feedback
Step 6: Alter the recipe, if necessary (e.g. taste test!)
Step 7: Promote, share, encourage, celebrate!

Lessons They've Learned

For better or for worse, there's crucial keep-us-sustaining money in hosting wild parties.

People want things for free but accommodating them all will only set us back from our goals. Being selective is important.

Some people can never be happy, no matter how hard you try. Community is the key to a truly successful project.

Who They Would Like to Meet:

Our goal is to differentiate ART DEPARTMENT from traditional galleries, shared workspaces, or event halls and instead focus on onetime events and exhibitions with artisans and creatives who are defining the local aesthetic. If you’re an artist, artisan, craftsman, performer, designer, brewer, distiller, chef, author, or creator, we want to work together!

Contact Careen Stoll

What They Do:

My biggest project is to form and fire porcelain pottery in my carbon-neutral kiln and then see those dishes in use at cafes that focus on local/ seasonal foods. To do this, I have designed and built a kiln that uses wood and waste vegetable oil as it's fuel. The second paragraph describes the firing process. Now I need to find chefs and restaurant owners who want to collaborate on designs that are intriguing to make and use while integrating well into their setting. The ultimate goal is to highlight, come lunchtime, how a delicious meal prepared with an ethical awareness of the food source can be seen as sculpture of chi, and the eating, an art experience.

The Tin Man is a round downdraft soda kiln that fires on a combination of wood and waste vegetable oil. The firing begins in two exterior fireboxes with wood alone. At 1000 degrees we move the flame into the center of the firebox channel, turn on the waste oil, and gradually phase in that fuel as primary. We “side-stoke” wood to provide a wick of embers on which the oil easily ignites. The kiln requires about 2/3 cord of dense wood and 75 gallons of oil to bring the temperature up to cone 11(2400*F). We add enough soda for a light coating of glaze, and then cool the kiln while maintaining an atmosphere mildly starved of oxygen.

Contributed Recipe

45 cubic feet of handmade pots with minimal glaze Tin Man with fuel four to five pyromaniacs pizza dough and toppings one week for firing process ignite

Lessons They've Learned

• 1. get the ball rolling with the materials that you have. demonstrating intent with action will uncover possibilities previously hidden.
• 2. just because there isn't a lot of information doesn't mean it can't be done
• 3. plan, of course, and also have patience when you were wrong and need to change something major. It does not mean you did a poor job in the first place.
• 4. have a back-up plan, or at least a sense of non-attachment
• 5. it's ok to not know quite where all this is going, if anywhere. Be honest about that in group communication. honesty is hard currency

Who They Would Like to Meet:

independent chefs, owners of community-minded cafes and restaurants, designers of sustainable products, portland foodies, ..

Contact Max Ogden

What They Do:

Building super specific software for communities is awesome. If someone wants to make an application to map cats in their neighborhood, I will build it. The problem is, how do I make my cat database useful to the rest of the world?

I want to create ontologies for communication. These will manifest themselves as digital document schemas that groups can use to talk to each other in a distributed fashion.

"What?": Glad you asked. http://activitystrea.ms = ontologies for social communication on the internet. http://akomantoso.org = ontologies for legislative communication between governments. If a community defines it's own communication protocols then there will always be an open and accessible way to participate in a distributed network because the network will be built on top of the community built protocol.

The antithesis of this idea is a monolith like Facebook who created a proprietary communication protocol and has no motivating factor for participating in a distributed system other than user backlash.

Contributed Recipe

Take a form of communication, like a group bike ride. Break it down into the smallest pieces: participants, route, start time, end time, theme, things you should bring

Take those pieces and have a nerd convert them into a digital schema. Give your schema a name. Share your schema with the world in a centralized repository. Now anyone in the world who wants to build software the enables users to plan group bike rides can incorporate your schema into their design and as a by product their group bike rides will be automatically readable by all systems in the world capable interpreting group bike rides.

Lessons They've Learned

Information silos suck. They suck even more when you realize they are a product of 'Not invented here' syndrome, which is an extension of nationalistic bias where you choose to re-invent the wheel because you fail to comprehend how someone who is 'different' than you could have possibly made something useful. Another motivating factor for information silos is private interest, which also sucks.

I want information to be freely accessible to everyone, and to do that we have to start by defining what information is interesting to us.

Who They Would Like to Meet:

Do you have knowledge of anything that you ever might want to share with someone else (examples: scavenger hunts, group dinners, book clubs)? Can you describe this 'thing' and all of it's individual components?
I would like to collect as many in depth descriptions of social activities as possible in order to contribute digital representations of those activities into a centralized activity repository such as ActivityStreams.

Contact Amanda Luna

What They Do:

Her works represent inside jokes with the world around her. The result is a kaleidoscope of colors, ideas and tender eloquence. While Amanda Luna dabbles in and around certain pop-art themes— kittens, dream sequences, American Spirit Cigarettes, polite ghosts, 'old Hollywood' iconography, supernatural experiences—her work maintains a refreshing authenticity through the breadth of mediums and matters under exploration. Simply said, this artist will paint, draw or collage anything, on anything, with anything. Luna is eclectic in the loving attention her studies turn towards everyday objects, and creatures of personal or cultural relevance, points of personal interpretation and satirical commentary of modern culture. She lives and works in Portland, Oregon.

At an early age she began taking an interest in photography and analog video production, making over 100 short films during high school that were lost at a tragic house party in 2003. Shortly after turning 17, she decided to focus on non-archival two-dimensional works, including collages, paintings, drawings, sign and printmaking. In 2006 she began collaborating with artist Jason Graf, who became her mentor and best friend. Together they created an underground artist collective called ANYTHING which flourished for years. She conducts her own independent studies of art, language, and semiotics. Currently, she is the Artist in Residence for the Wee House, a member of Golden Rule Gallery in Portland, Oregon and is a printing assistant to commercial/print artist Guy Burwell.

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Kermit the frog.

Contact Wynde Dyer

What They Do:

Golden Rule is a social experiment in creativity and commerce. Each month we curate a unique showcase of furniture, fashion, art and artifacts to complement the art on our gallery walls. We are an inclusive space, welcoming the goods and services of emerging and established artists, designers, consigners and thinkers from near and afar. Stop by. Say hi. Participate. Reciprocate.

We are a lot of things in a very small space. By appearance, we are a carefully curated concept shop/gallery. By experience, we are both a natural history museum and an oral history project. By practice we are a self-help/peer-therapy project, using community-building and empowerment via creative expression and environmental art installation to heal from the past and plan for the future.

Contributed Recipe

Our project began when my mother, a compulsive shopper/hoarder of exquisite things, passed away in March 2010. From her floor-to-ceiling home I extracted a 17-foot Uhaul of vintage clothing and oddities. The depth and breadth of her collection, which spanned the late-1980s to mid-1990s, begged some organizing principle. I decided to select her fashion and artifacts in accordance with the art on our gallery walls (i.e. there is alignment in color, texture, tone, or metaphor between the art and inventory).

Realizing this business model was only sustainable until I exhausted myself and/or exhausted my mother's collection, we began doing consignment of independent design work, as well as vintage pieces. We have an open-door consignment policy, so long as the contributions are in line with our monthly themes. Our consigners have the option to sell with Golden Rule taking a 40-percent commission, or to volunteer 2-4 days a month and take home 80-percent of their sales. Most opt for the latter, which we think shows mutual trust and investment. We're 15 consigners strong in just 4 months!

We also host a bevy of volunteers and interns who participate just to be a part of something nice, or to learn more about something they're interested in (ex. curating, accounting, retail management, e-commerce, etc.) or to share their subject-area expertise (ex. gallery installation, vintage clothing pricing, furniture repair, etc.). All volunteers get 20-percent off everything in the space till death do we part. We're 50+ volunteers strong already!

Lessons They've Learned

1. Making a new store every month IS insane, particularly when the process and product (both physical and psychological) confronts a family history of trauma. It can be done, though, if you remind yourself, "It's only this bad one week a month . . . " and think of it less like moving apartments every month and more like changing the sets of a play between acts. And it's really rewarding to be defined by what you are in the moment and not by what you were in the past or what you will be in the future (though there should be remembrances of and excitement about).

2. You can always rely on the kindness of strangers. At first I thought, "I have lots of friends and great style, all my friends who've been telling me to open a store will support the space." In reality, not so much. Golden Rule is alive and growing 10-1 with stranger love, both in terms of our customers and our volunteers. And, contrary to popular belief, you can trust strangers with the keys and alarm code to your business/livelihood because if they're mutually invested in your enterprise, hopefully they won't bite the hand that feeds them.

3. You can, as a new small business owner, not work 7 days a week, 12 hours a day, if you trade labor for taking a lower commission on consignment sales. Taking only 20% from just one person saves me over $240 a month in labor to have someone one day a week. Multiply that by 6-10 people, there's a lot of labor savings, and a lot fewer days for me to be in the space myself.

4. In order to be efficient in using volunteer labor, you've got to know what you need done and how to delegate, and you've got to delegate things to people who actually enjoy doing them or to those who self-appoint (ex. Amanda doing Home Shopping for fun/performance art, our Director of Installation who misses doing gallery work from her RISD work-study days, our Etsy intern who wants to run her own Etsy but doesn't have the inventory, Delphine who wants practice being social and/or may have a retail/gallery space of her own, etc.). I am still struggling to put this learning into practice . . .

5. If you want to own a business, you can do it! It's easy to get a commercial space (no credit check, no first, last, deposit). Learning the insurance, utilities, alarm, and accounting stuff sucks. You can wing it. Let people know you're winging it and they'll lend you their expertise, don't be afraid to say you have no clue what you're doing. You don't need a loan or a credit card or savings or a wealthy investor, you just need a good idea and the willingness to trust in yourself and your idea and be hungry for a while. And a budget. A budget really helps. Still struggling to put that into practice too . . .

Who They Would Like to Meet:

We'd love to have the OCAC-PNCA Craft & Design MFA Program make an environment for us. We'd love to get AI to curate a showcase of non-local emerging fashion designers. We'd love for PSU's art department to curate our flat-file collection as a University Studies Capstone.

Contact Tori Abernathy

What They Do:

We're an artist-run, not-for-profit art space dedicated to nurturing emergent, experimental, contemporary practices in a universally accessible environment (Well, as much as we can without deluding ourselves into believing in "the myth of a universally accessible environment"). We aim to foster new forms of cultural development and spark a discourse of change within the art community and the community at large.
Currently, we host semi-monthly group exhibitions culling projects from a variety of disciplines, mediums, and levels of engagement. We like to take in the person creating impactful works to share with others that hasn't yet considered themselves an artist. Since we're not economically based, we have the freedom to privilege artists based on the quality of work presented rather than prior experience or critical acclaim. Typically, we favor conceptual, experimental, and socially engaged works that provide something for, or are aware of, an audience.

Contributed Recipe

Note: Tori took this one literally. Recipes can be anything! Ingredients:

• * 1 large pkg instant vanilla pudding, (6 ounces)
• * 2 1/2 cups cold milk
• * 1 can sweetened condensed milk, (14 ounces)
• * 1 container whipped topping, (16 ounces)
• * sliced bananas
• * vanilla wafer cookies

Preparation: Mix pudding and milk; add condensed milk. Blend well; fold in half the whipped topping. Alternate layers of pudding, bananas and vanilla wafers; top with remaining whipped topping and a few banana slices. Refrigerate overnight before serving.

Lessons They've Learned

Archivization. It's really one of the most important and oft neglected points to consider when dealing with work that's performative, interactional, interdisciplinary, or based in new media. Of course, everyone knows to how important it is to be careful with the precious art object - you wouldn't go throwing around a painting(Well, unless you're me and you let people that you don't trust store the work of others, but that's a whole other story), right? Anyway, remember to take video, because at some point the night will be over. Remember to back up that video, because at some point, your harddrive IS going to crash. Remember to back up that video somewhere else entirely, because at some point, you ARE going to lose both the DVD copy and the Mini DV copy... and you get the idea. Tarnishing, losing, or neglecting to document a work that you or someone else holds dear is never a pleasant experience, but often what it takes for us to learn this lesson. Let's try to change that.
Also, be nice. Seriously. Don't be fake, just be genuinely nice. I mean, if you really care about what you're doing and you enjoy it, then it should be easy. Also, people are going to be more apt to work with you, attend your events, collaborate, and maybe even benefact you if you're easy to work with. Oh, and if you really have trouble getting on with this, you should probably think about doing something that won't make you feel whatever way you're feeling.

Who They Would Like to Meet:

Similar organizations who want to collaborate. Divergent organizations who want to collaborate. All those in between. Artists working in a way that meshes well with our mission, who need their work shown. Individuals who have something to suggest. Individuals who have something to critique. All those interested, essentially.