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Update #7: Its Magic

Posted on May 29, 2010

Looks like everyone will be getting their Just Desserts! I want to thank the new Backers. Even with BPL's experimental Ultra Reduced Expectation Application (UREA), we were still getting nervous that we might not meet our goal. I see that Team Klemperer once again came through with its unique combination of peer pressure and 'teaching by example'. We will post that Mission Patch design soon- we actually have to do some real science this weekend, unfortunately- But the design department is working late at night on the task, rest assured! (In fact the designing takes place during late night resting, but that's the creative process around here). Another photo or two for your consideration:

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Update #6: UPDATES ON BACKORDER

Posted on May 28, 2010

Well, we are almost out of time! I have no idea what happened to that NYPost article- BPL is not the only giant corporation that has to make sudden editorial changes (they say they'll let me know). The talk at LucidNYC ( http://lucidnyc.com/ )given by the BPL CEO went extremely well, despite his degenerated state after returning from China. That's on top of his degenerated state before going to China, of course. We will be trying to post more updates and catch up. Meanwhile here are some documentary photos and a baffling video of some spacecraft found in a park in Kaifeng. The music you hear is actually emanating from the rockets themselves. We will be pilfering that idea for future missions. Also, I am officially requesting that you guys activate your buddies to help round out this project- even though the students are all fed and have probably utterly forgotten BPL by now as they finish the school year. More soon, including the official Mission Patch design...

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Update #5: A Few More Paintings And News

Posted on May 22, 2010

The New York Post is supposed to print an article about Kickstarter with pictures of me included tomorrow (23 May, 2010). Just in case you are not a subscriber, I'll tell you whether that happened and an easy way to look at it.

Meantime, here are some more paintings from China (these are just a few; there are like 20 more here: http://expulsive.browerpropulsionlab.com/ ):

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Update #4: Stereo Imagery Generated During BPL-004

Posted on May 5, 2010

Once again we thank our new backers for their support, and in some cases, repeated support. Our Calculation Department is working on the "Easy Touch" metrics so that we may continue to exploit your inability to say 'no' to aerospace products. We enclose here some of the stereo photographs from our latest Outsourcing Meals. The images include a "Perch", which is the fish that doesn't look like a perch, but was called that by a student's phone translator. Also there are a pair of fantastically colored dollops covered with sugar sprinkles, which are, of course, mashed potatoes. There is a general fancy dinner view, which we must admit BPL did not pay for; it was a gracious gift of our host. That doesn't mean its not photogenic though. Also there is an image of a giant earthenware vessel. Inside this thing is a coal brick fire with maybe a couple of hundred little pots stacked on top of each other. Inside each of the pots is one of 50 different kinds of soup. The guy tending the vessel knows the contents of all the pots, which are externally pretty much the same. The vessel is in the #5 student cafeteria. We had 1 Pig Knuckle and 1 Chicken Knee and Toe and Beak.
If you have one of our Stereogram Viewers and an iphone, you can download the picture to the phone and view it in 3D directly in the viewer. We would like some assistance in this experiment to see if the images are easily downloadable from sources such as this one. BPL asks owners of the viewer and an iphone to give it a try and report back here in the 'Comment' section as to the performance of the system. We will send you an extra gift for helping us out- and if you have a Stereogram Viewer, you already know what you can expect from the company that Does Less With More. If you want to see the viewers themselves, have a look at https://bpl-solutions.com/product/03-SV003 .
Thanks, again- We will post more images of outsourced products very soon!

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      Gillian on May 5, 2010

      Green mash tastier than red?

Update #3: BPL-004 May Holiday Work Stoppage and Painting Reservations, With Video

Posted on April 29, 2010

Our outsourced employee will work through the international day of the worker, although he may be the only one doing so. Our ability to use 'certain social networking' interweb nodes has been interrupted, but we can still post updates here and at the BPL Blog ( http://expulsive.browerpropulsionlab.com/ ). Thanks to our new Backers! Also, if one of the paintings that we've posted has particular appeal, we will 'earmark' it, just like they do in Congress back home! This is a service we will now provide by popular request, but it will have to be first come, first served (unlike Congress back home!). We are uploading this little video of some local color, mainly just to see if its possible to load video from here. If you can't see it, could you let us know via "comment" at the bottom of this page?...

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      Mary Vines on April 29, 2010

      YES!! It plays perfectly! Catchy little tune...

18
Backers
$805
pledged of $600 goal
0
seconds to go

Funding Successful

This project successfully raised its funding goal on May 31, 2010.

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0 Backers

Moo Shu Vegetable- Anyone who contributes to the project will be named in the official mission report, unless of course they don't want to be.

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2 Backers

Kung Po Shrimp- BPL postage. Genuine U.S. postage. Two different stamps depicting BPL hardware, cynical mottos, or mission logos. Good for letters or household repairs.

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1 Backer

Chow My Fun - Mission Report. Of course a complete report on the mission will be produced at its conclusion. BPL mission reports are a vital record of company activity and the backbone of our output since they are so cheap to print out. Each one is a work of art, composed, designed, bound, stamped and otherwise mutilated by hand in the bureaucratic labyrinth at BPL. The mission report from BPL - 002 can be seen here: http://browerpropulsionlab.com/directory/BPL_002_Outsourcing_Mission_To_China

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5 Backers

Moo Goo Gai Pan - Mission Patch. A yet to be designed emblem signifying important mission elements and commemorating the event. Currently we are playing with the image of a chinese food container from which a chicken mcnugget looking thing in the shape of china is being removed held by one chopstick and one paintbrush from a pool of liquid in the shape of the United States.

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4 Backers

Peking Duck - Commemorative Chinese China. A thrift-store chinese china plate sandblasted with Mission information and graphics. Rendered fairly useless or at least unsanitary by the means of technical intervention, this item is contrasted with BPL's highly functional (and popular) Recycled Coffee Mugs (see https://bpl-solutions.com/product/03-C100 for examples).

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2 Backers • Limited Reward (3 of 5 remaining)

Double Happiness - This mission will generate stereo imagery, just as our BPL-003 Moranic Mission To Montana has. We will be preparing 3D stereo pairs depicting Chinese Food consumed during the mission. You will get our custom viewer (sculpted, molded, cast and calibrated by BPL's co-Optics expert) and a set of 5 stereogram cards. This viewer even works with your iPhone! If you already own a viewer and an iPhone and would like to see the food during the mission, we can send you the images in an email- just let us know! Pictures of the viewers and stereo cards can be seen at: https://bpl-solutions.com/product/03-SV003

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1 Backer • Limited Reward (23 of 24 remaining)

General Tso's Chicken - One Meal, one painting. The BPL CEO and Head Machinist will make a painting of a meal consumed by himself and a group of Chinese students during his stay in China. The gouache rendering will be annotated with data such as topics of conversation, time and date, temperature, hairstyles, actual cost of meal, etc. Executed on paper, the size will be somewhere between 4 x 5 and 8 x 12 inches, and may include spatters of actual food. For external use only. Some examples of paintings from BPL-002 can be seen here: http://browerpropulsionlab.com/directory/BPL_002_Outsourcing_Mission_To_China . *Note- if you are wondering why these paintings are cheaper than the similarly sized paintings in our other kickstarter project, the explanation is that these paintings are made in China, with outsourced labor!

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3 Backers

Happy Family - If the touristic paintings such as those executed in BPL's original Experimental Outsourcing Mission hold more appeal, our Outsourced employee will be generating more when he's not eating! These gouache paintings will be festooned with the typical notation found in any plein air jotting worth it's salt, plus official BPL stampings in English and Mandarin.

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0 Backers • Limited Reward (2 of 2 remaining)

Dragon and Phoenix - Two Meals, two paintings. Same as above, for two, and cheaper. If you need to create a banquet of your own and you think you need more than two of these things, get in touch with me at stevenbrower@verizon.net. BPL generally discourages concentration- of its products or any other kind.

Project By

Minotaur.large

Has not connected their Facebook account.

I am an artist living in Brooklyn, New York. I have a degree in Painting from Pratt Institute. For the past 10 years or so, I've been making increasingly elaborate "space missions", based initially on NASA projects, which had always looked an awful lot like Art Projects to me. I began by attempting to copy something NASA did, knowing I would fail, but would in the process acquire lots of knowledge and new skills. I always make everything myself, doing a lot of research, and using whatever means I can muster, even to the point of making up tools and processes that might be better purchased elsewhere. That methodology started from necessity and has become one of the central themes of my work. I created the fake aerospace corporation, Brower Propulsion Laboratory, to act as a platform for this increasingly diverse range of production. The more various my output becomes, the more departments are added to the company, so my interests are never curtailed by my previous activities. Interestingly, this DIY trajectory has caused me to develop skills that have gotten me my livelihood, such as it is. I have found my wage earning activity is more dependent on my artwork than the other way around.

  1. browerpropulsionlab.com
  2. stevenbrower.com
  3. conradcarpenter.com