About this project

In 1977, Ramona Lofton moved to New York City with twenty dollars to her name. She planned to become a writer, but instead wound up working in the sex industry around Times Square. She changed her name to Sapphire: "I had read somewhere that the rays emitted by sapphires can change the molecular structure of other gemstones--and that was exactly what I wanted to do with my life."

Later she became a remedial reading teacher in Harlem and the Bronx. With not much more than a pen and sheer talent, her first book "Push" was published by Knopf (and she received a whopping $500,000 two-book contract.) (Source: Wikipedia)

Alicia Keys been singing since she was four. Singing isn't too expensive. When she started expressing an interest in piano, it wasn't easy for her family to pay for lessons, let alone get her a piano. "A friend ended up not needing this piano and gave it to us," she explained. She went on to say that people always ask what her biggest break was and her answer is: "That piano." (Source: Iconoclasts, Sundance Channel)

We believe that talent is latent (catch that anagram?) within everyone. Creativity isn't the purview of a few with the studio budgets and mass media connections.

When the Internet started catching on like wildfire in the late 1990s, I was enthused about how much freedom of expression would now be not only possible, but feasible to amateurs (etymology: "one who has a taste for (something),""lover of").

Fast forward to 2010, and sometimes there's a subtle impression given that one needs to wait to produce. Consuming and surfing are nearly free, but the means of production seem to balloon as our expectations for polished content escalates. We can't possibly start our creative project because _____ (fill in the blank). Until we get the venture capital funding. Until the film is financed. Until we get the recording studio up and running. Until we get the game designer hired. Until we get Final Cut Pro and Adoble Illustrator. Until we secure a job at Electronic Arts or Pixar. Until we get _____ (fill in the blank). Postponing and deferring the creativity that is bursting to come forth right now.

In 1999, I was the CTO at a venture-backed Internet startup. Among our collective mistakes, the one that sticks with me is that we thought we needed the next round of funding to "really" accomplish what we envisioned. I ought to mention that we had $1.4 million in funding, although it didn't seem like "enough".

It was too late to save that particular startup, yet around the same time as dot-coms were imploding, I was fortunate to meet both Alistair Cockburn and Jim Highsmith and they opened my eyes to an iterative, agile approach to completing projects. Not only did it seem that this the process for the future, it also struck me as the the most engrossing, engaging and effective way to see a software project come into fruition bit by bit with a feedback loop that sought to collaborate with the users.

Fast-forward to this project. I've had a story kicking around my mind two years ago to date. Opening ceremonies, Beijing Olympics a Chinese-American 19-year-old film student named Mai was birthed. Since then an intricate cast of characters has joined her from Iris circa 1915 Montparnasse to Sam in present-day New Orleans.

There's an inner voice... call it The Perfectionist that feels we ought to wait until we have all the resources to tell this story "properly." For some people, that's an option. More than likely, for us, there's a grant, or a patron, or even a fundable business plan that we could pitch that MIGHT line up all the resources we'd need in one fell swoop. Perhaps. We have the option to wait.

Jean-Michel Basquiat, while homeless, wrote poetic tags on Manhattan walls, sold $5 handmade postcards and painted on salvaged materials he found in the Lower East Side. He didn't wait. He couldn't wait.

Precious, the young, urban protagonist in Sapphire's novel, is advised by her case worker to quit school, give up her baby and get a job as a home care assistant. Luckily, Precious' teacher spots her potential, and intervenes with something as simple as a journal -- one in which the two pass poems and notes back and forth to each other.

The iterative process is like that. It starts with a blank page. We pass notes back and forth to each other. Building a body of work, together. Beginning with the barest of skeletal frames that's minimally functional. Starting where you are with what you have. Evolving, expanding from there.

"If you are not embarrassed with your first version, you've released too late." - Reid Hoffman, founder LinkedIn

We aim to show that even on federal minimum wage salary cusping the poverty threshold, anyone can create compelling self-expression because inspiration isn't dependent on income.

Unexpressed genius is a loss to humanity.

One month at minimum wage, roughly the federal poverty threshold, funds first release of transmedia issue 1 of 54

What can one achieve in one month with raw gumption, imagination, minimalist (and free) musical and storytelling tools -- all while treading the poverty line in New York City?

How about.....

The Internet, audio, e-book and print portions of the transmedia story and alternate reality game for issue #1; a hand-assembled one-of-a-kind collector's edition; an urban game in a yet to be disclosed city; and a biweekly audio Skype show.

Starting where we are. Take a single donated PC laptop, all the freeware tools that hard disk can hold, an Internet connection (we hope we'll have one) and whatever else can be fetched and/or rustled for free. (Exception is the $14.95/month Typepad blog that's been plugging away since 2004.)
Like many other Americans, we will pay rent, eat, live and, most importantly, make stuff at minimum wage.
All of this is created without expenditures such as Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Photoshop, ProTools, $1500 microphones, video cameras, six-figure Ruby on Rails programmer, iPhones or iPads, etcetera. If we can't get it for free, it's not in the mix. Also no trust funds, no credit card or bank account dipping, no inheritances -- no economic tricks up our sleeves.

We wish to rise to the challenge that two artists collaborating together with your feedback can make compelling stuff -- it's the story, not the fluff -- on the bare basics. And we'll share how we did it.

We computed the $1897 requested based the fact that $903 net for a single individual is the federal poverty line established for food stamps eligibility and other social services; in addition to the fact that it's roughly the net income of $7.25 federal minimum wage for 40 hours of work for four weeks for two persons. And then, we tacked on the 5% Kickstarter fee.

** Funds received over $1897 will be used for issues #2 through #54.