Kickstarter

Projects by Jeff Edwards (2)

FUND NOTHING

by Jeff Edwards

The bubble has burst…why ask for more?

  22% funded

$22 pledged

13 backers

no time left

An investigation into the bizarre, scary, subterranean world of Richard Shaver

by Jeff Edwards

Help me research and write a book about the bizarre life and work of science fiction writer and outsider artist Richard Shaver!

  10% funded

$301 pledged

10 backers

canceled

Recent Posts by Jeff Edwards

1. 

   Jeff Edwards
   commented on a project

   And we're off and running. Thanks, Staci and Amy! I'll post a video about my project later today.

   Project: An investigation into the bizarre, scary, subterranean world of Richard Shaver
2. 

   Jeff Edwards
   Posted project update #1

   Many, many thanks to all of my backers

   Hi, everyone. As you've already heard from Kickstarter, Fund Nothing didn't reach the $100 threshold, so plan B for the certificates kicks in. I'll complete them in secret over the next week. True to the plan, I didn't send out any updates while the project was active, but I'm taking a moment to send out a final post mortem now.

   There were some spikes in activity during the first couple weeks of the project, and then it went down the tubes, as I suspected it would. There was one beautiful last-minute pledge overnight, with less than an hour to go. The project also got three comments, two that were negative but frustratingly uninformative, and one that was resoundingly positive (thanks, Eric B!).

   Of course, I still consider the project to be a rousing success, since any outcome would have been equally meaningful. This is the perverse beauty of art that's designed to exist in a bubble. That being said, I wanted to take a moment to thank all of you for your support and pledges. I deeply, sincerely appreciate it, especially since I'd heard through channels that some of you really enjoyed the piece. Ultimately, that was its purpose: to give a small amount of meaningful but transient pleasure to a few people. I can't think of a better reason for creating something and calling it art.

   I'm planning to launch another Kickstarter-based work in a similar vein very soon. If any of you want to hear about it when it goes live, e-mail me or send me a message from the Fund Nothing listing. This piece will feature the building of a semi-random text on a specially-created blog, with the daily total of pledges influencing the selection of preexisting sentences from the Internet. The eventual fate of the final text will depend on whether the funding goal is met.

   Thanks again, and take care.

   Jeff
   Project: FUND NOTHING
3. 

   Jeff Edwards
   Posted project update #4

   Headline: New Projects Rise From the Ashes of the Old

   Hi to all my backers.

   I’ve been in touch with a couple of people close to the center of the Shaver Mystery, and my most recent conversations with them have led me to conclude that I need to reconfigure my project a bit. The scope needs to be wider in one sense (to include material from other areas of fringe culture that resonate with Shaver’s ideas), and narrower in another (to focus more on Shaver as a visual artist).

   The side effects of this decision are: 1) that a project with an already long time frame has mushroomed into something that may sprawl on endlessly; and 2) the need for immediate seed money seems less pressing in light of that. Projects like this have a tremendously deferred payoff for bystanders—books of this sort can take years to research and write, after all—and that also bothered me a bit. Therefore, I am planning to take down my Shaver Mystery Kickstarter page and suspend funding later tonight.

   However, this does not mean that I have abandoned Kickstarter. Although I’ve never been comfortable in the role of palm-out fundraiser, the idea of using Kickstarter as a venue for profitless conceptual art intrigues me. Therefore, I have created and launched a project called “Fund Nothing” that employs Kickstarter’s rules and structure to present an artwork that will yield zero proceeds for me, and a dollar’s worth of meaningless collectible ephemera for everyone else. It’s a stubbornly frivolous piece, with the spectre of the Recession hovering and moaning over it. As far as I know, it’s also the first attempt to repurpose Kickstarter as a virtual exhibition space.

   Here’s the URL: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/167925853/fund-nothing

   My work on Richard Shaver is also not over. In the short term, I plan to continue my blog project of writing a primer on the Shaver Mystery, after which the Shaver Mystery Project will be devoted to occasional posts on his art. Once the primer is complete, I will also be spinning my work off into two other blogs. The first will be called “Remembering Lemuria,” and will deal with the wider history of homespun American fringe religions. The second will be more closely related to the field of art criticism, and will scavenge its ugly name (to be revealed later) from an old creative writing blog that I sent into hiding after 2006. These blogs will go live over the next couple of weeks. If you’re interested in either of them, you can e-mail me for more information at jeffedwardsjc@yahoo.com.

   Finally, I want to take this opportunity to thank all of you who have pledged money toward this project. Your support is deeply and genuinely appreciated, and I hope we cross paths again.

   Take care.

   Jeff
   Project: An investigation into the bizarre, scary, subterranean world of Richard Shaver
4. 

   Jeff Edwards
   Posted project update #3

   New post at the Shaver Mystery Project blog

   Hi, everyone. I've just posted a new entry at my Shaver Mystery Project blog, discussing Richard Shaver's early life from 1907 to early 1932. I will be following up by the end of the weekend with another post discussing the chaotic and sometimes tragic decade from 1932 to 1942, when Shaver's life took a series of radical turns and the foundations of the Shaver Mystery were set.

   Check it out at shavermystery.wordpress.com.

   Jeff
   Project: An investigation into the bizarre, scary, subterranean world of Richard Shaver
5. 

   Jeff Edwards
   Posted project update #2

   A jump to the recommendations queue, and a new blog post

   My project has made the “recommended” page at Kickstarter! Needless to say, I’m incredibly happy about this, not only because it will generate more traffic for the proposal, but also because it will introduce a lot more people to Richard Shaver.

   At the moment, I am working on several posts for my Shaver Mystery blog that will present a basic primer of the convoluted Shaver mythos. New entries will go up every day or so over the next couple of weeks. In the meantime, there is a fresh post describing some of the topics that will be covered. Check it out at shavermystery.wordpress.com.

   Jeff
   Project: An investigation into the bizarre, scary, subterranean world of Richard Shaver
6. 

   Jeff Edwards
   Posted project update #1

   Many thanks to my first backers!

   After a couple of false starts, a new video is up for my project.
   Also, to Staci, Amy, and Aaron: thanks so much for your pledges! I really appreciate your support!
   Project: An investigation into the bizarre, scary, subterranean world of Richard Shaver
7. 

   Jeff Edwards
   commented on a project

   And we're off and running. Thanks, Staci and Amy! I'll post a video about my project later today.

   Project: An investigation into the bizarre, scary, subterranean world of Richard Shaver