Go Here Now: Tiny Vices

In our attempt to find a visual respite from all the chatter, we stumbled across portfolio hub, Tiny Vices.

Our respite was achieved. Now here's yours:

Alexander BinderBalarama HellerBrad Phillips

Brea SoudersCraig MammanoDash SnowDerek HendersonEmily ShurJames CooperLeigh WellsMarten LangeThobias FaldtMatthew PorterTony Cox

Your Daily Insight as told by Christopher McCandless

If you want to get more out of life, you must lose your inclination for monotonous security and adopt a helter-skelter style of life that will at first appear to you to be crazy. But once you become accustomed to such a life you will see its full meaning and its incredible beauty.

EcoATM: Recycle Your Technological Waste and Get PAID

If you're one of those people who waits in line at the Apple store the morning a new iPhone is released (guilty), then you probably have an outdated gadget or two lying around. You probably also have no idea what to do with all your e-waste, and you're not alone. 100 million cell phones are trashed each year, not to mention all the improperly recycled computers and mp3 players leaching mercury, lead and arsenic into the ground. But the EcoATM seeks to change all that and throw some cash your way in the process.

Think of the EcoATM like a reverse vending machine. Instead of inserting money, punching in your selection and getting a candy bar (or, in many places now, a new iPod), you insert your old phone or mp3 player and get money in return. The machine has super smart robots inside (our personal term for artificial intelligence) that determine what you've inserted and calculate its worth. To make sure people aren't ripping off cell phones and heading to the nearest EcoATM to make a buck, you're asked to enter some personal information as well. Then you can decide what to do with the cash; donate it to charity to send your phone off to a responsible smelting facility and pocket the cash.

So far, EcoATMs are mainly a West Coast operation, with a few locations popping up in the Midwest. Though according to rep from EcoATM, we should see them start showing up from D.C. up to Boston sometime around August--with 100 of 'em throughout the area by the end of the year (!)

Now excuse us, we've got a line we might need to start standing in...

Go Here Now: Cooper-Hewitt joins the Google Art Project

Of all the incredible museums in New York, The Cooper-Hewitt has long been one of our favorites. Since their Upper East Side location is currently closed for renovations--a process that's estimated to last two years--they've had to get creative with housing and showing their collection. Most of their library, for example, has been moved into a townhouse next door and their next exhibition, "Graphic Design: Now in Production," will open on Governor's Island in late May.

The museum's latest effort to make their collection available to the public during construction is their partnership with Google's Art Project. Cooper-Hewitt is only the latest in an impressive lineup that includes many the world's best museums who've joined in with the project's mission to make art accessible to people, no matter where they live. If you haven't taken a tour of the site yet it's an absolute must, but make sure you have a few hours to spare: You can easily lose track of time exploring Berlin's Gemaldegalerie or the LACMA in Los Angeles. One of our essential go-to's right now is the Korean Art Museum Association, which makes over 4,000 works public.

The Cooper-Hewitt hosts an impressive 1,569 works by 493 artists, a more diverse offering than most. The collection includes turn-of-the-century architectural drawings, fabric samples dating back to the 1600s, artwork by Winslow Homer and drawings by Frederic Edwin Church. There are more modern items as well, like Marcel Breuer's B5 chair and furniture from the last decade. Since the Cooper-Hewitt's current and recent exhibitions focus on new work, we were completely unaware their design archives reached back so far. Their showing on Art Project doesn't just feel like a casual scroll back through time, but possibly an invaluable resource for designers today.

Your Daily Insight as told by Pearl S. Buck

I don’t wait for moods. You accomplish nothing if you do that. Your mind must know it has got to get down to work.

Unlimited Member: Harrison Winter's "Interesting People"

Earlier this year, former ad man and current 3W Unlimited Member, Harrison Winter quit his day job "to pursue more entrepreneurial projects"-- one of which is his video series on "Interesting People." Now that Winter works without the corporate structure of a "real" boss and a nine-to-five, he wanted to know how artists and people with jobs that lack an imposed structure stay inspired. 

"My goal with "Interesting People" is simply to put a spotlight on people in my life that I either know, or meet for the first time, who I think are doing amazing things. In today's social media powered world, a short video goes a long way in getting picked up by a larger audience. So, in addition to creating "Interesting People" as a personal passion project, I also hope it helps the subjects of the videos to get more widely recognized. They deserve it." 

So far, Winter has profiled photographer CJ Isaac (video above) and has plans to film the founders of a NYC-based start up next."Rather than setting out with a list of industries," he says, "I'm instead going to see where things naturally lead and who I meet along the way. That will be part of the story."

Even though this project is relatively new, Winter had plenty to say about creativity and how to stay inspired. 

"You have to continually shake it up a bit.  Step out of your routine, let the world show you something new and use that as inspiration.  I'm a big fan of my friend Jason Silva's work, where he borrows a quote from Kahlil Gibran that says "Sometimes it feels as though ideas, or feelings, or thoughts, or revelation comes through you but not from you.  And though it is with you, it belongs not to you."  I think that creativity and inspiration come the easiest when you don't try to force it.  When you don't try to look at it as though it's something you're solely responsible for creating out of thin air.  Instead, it's about actively putting yourself in situations and surroundings that facilitate creative thinking, and continually interacting/meeting/collaborating with new people and trying new things.  If you actively try to do that, I believe that the creativity and inspiration will naturally follow."

We couldn't agree more.

Vijay Govindarajan's Urban Renewal: Building a House for $300

The average price of a New York City hotel room is $320/night--and that bloated number is considered a reasonable rate. But now, thanks to Vijay Govindarajan, international business professor at Dartmouth, people will be able to buy an entire house for less than a single night in the Big Apple. Together, with a team of students and lecturers at Dartmouth's Tuck School of Business, Govindarajan is developing the $300 House, a survival shelter intended for use in developing countries and places struck by natural disasters. 

Govindarajan explains the problem.

"Over 70 million people – the size of the United Kingdom – live in pavements with only sky as their roof. Is this right? Even insects and spiders have houses. Housing is a human right. Any nation which cannot house and look after its own people is a failed nation. It doesn't have to be that way. Businesses, governments, and NGOs must work together to solve this wicked problem." 

Govindarajan's house "would turn strangers into neighbors, slums into neighborhoods. Despite the ultra-low price point, it could include basic modern services such as running water and electricity. More important, it would create a community that shared access to computers, cell phones, televisions, water filters, solar panels, and clean-burning stoves. In doing so, it would enable the poor to leapfrog the limits of slums. It would make healthy and safe living possible and a good education achievable."

Healthy and safe are the operative words here, as the "house" is essentially a one-room structure with hammocks, folding chairs and drop-down partitions for privacy. Each unit would include the aforementioned water filter and rooftop solar panel to power solar batteries. 

Govindarajan and his team recently held a competition in which 300 design teams submitted their proposals. Now that the winners have been announced, the process of prototyping will begin, with plans for three projects in Ethiopia, Haiti and India. There are plenty of ways for non-profits, universities and individuals to get involved now.

-- Perrin Drumm

Your Daily Insight as told by Helen Keller

Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience it. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing.

Introducing: The Hacker School For Women

If you're a hacker, computer programmer or coder, chances are pretty high that you're a dude. Don't worry, we're not about to gripe about gender inequality in the workplace. This isn't a case of the computer programming world being hostile to women, it's just that women don't as often aim to start careers in this particular sector of the tech industry. Less than 1 in 5 software developers are women--and we think that's a shame. .

Etsy wants to help change that statistic by offering twenty women a $5,000 grant to go to Hacker School, a three-month-long program held this Summer at Etsy's office in New York.

Hacker School was founded by two men and a woman--but of their twenty current students, only one is female. The statistics at Etsy are equally male-dominated. According to GOOD, Etsy's vice president of engineering, Marc Hedlund, says that during his seventeen years in web-based business he's hired hundreds of men and only about twenty women. "Just 11 of Etsy's 96 current employees in Engineering and Operations are female."

Hacker School describes itself like "a writer's retreat for hackers." The three-month immersion program focuses on coding and open-source software as opposed to the more typical how-to-build-a-startup approach. They also strive to create a classroom environment that’s "free from the negative conversational habits that all nerds sometimes fall into. They establish rules such as (no feigning surprise) ‘You don’t know who RICHARD STALLMAN is!?’” The curriculum itself is mild on structure. There are no grades or professors. Instead, it teaches through project-based assignments. Read more about the school and if you're a lady, apply for a grant and spend your Summer showing those boys who's boss.

-- Perrin Drumm

Happening Now: BAM's Annual Silent Auction

Anyone who lives in Brooklyn and doesn't regularly go to BAM for a play, performance or movie simply isn't getting the most out of the borough. What other arts institution hosts both experimental opera and screenings of Die Hard (followed by a Q&A with Alan Rickman)!? Well, now they're holding another event worthy of a quick trip to Fort Greene: their annual Silent Auction.

If you haven't guessed already, one of the reasons BAM is able to produce so many innovative programs at reasonable prices is because they rely on donations. So if you're feeling charitable, check out some of the art up for auction, including pieces by Cindy Sherman, Richard Serra, Nan Goldin, Glen Ligon, Mickalene Thomas, Nate Lowman and several other emerging Brooklyn artists.

"Plate Distortion II," by Brooklyn-native Tauba Auerbach (pictured way up above) has already sold, but you still have until April 22 to get your bid in on most of the other offerings. You don't even have to be wealthy to take home something great. We're contemplating placing our bids on Michael De Lucia's "Cylinder (Violet)" or maybe Matthew Jensen's "On the way to, #14." 

Regardless, Check out the entire auction online and stop by BAM to see what's on display in the lobby. Get your culture on, people!