Via Pitchfork

If the recent Amanda Palmer controversy has accomplished anything — besides getting some people paid to play their instruments — it’s made music fans take a harder look at the ethics of crowd-sourced funding in artistic endeavors. One subject of the intensified scrutiny has been Animal Collective’s Josh Dibb, aka Deakin, who raised nearly $26,000 on Kickstarter in 2009. The funds were to go towards Deakin’s trip to perform at the Festival in the Desert in Mali, Africa, the creation of a book and CD, and a charitable donation to TEMEDT, a Mali organization working to help enslaved black Tuareg people.

And here’s Deacon’s response: (more…)

tntla's flickr

Last week we told you about a group using Kickstarter to help fund a major city art project. But if you want to give your hard earned dollar to simpler causes – like buying someone 50 lunches – then check out Indiegogo. The site seems to have blown up over night thanks to blogs jumping on a story about Karen Huff, a middle school bus monitor who was mercilessly bullied by students in a video that went viral. Someone got the bright idea to put together a fundraising campaign to give this woman a vacation. ”She doesn’t earn nearly enough ($15,506) to deal with some of the trash she is surrounded by,” the campaign’s creator wrote. “Lets give her something she will never forget, a vacation of a lifetime!”

But Karen’s going to get a lot more than just a vacation. The goal was $5,000, but in two days people have donated $387,399. Thatsuh lotta cake. The guy behind the campaign promises that all the money will go to Karen. And now someone has started their own Indiegogo page to raise money for the guy who started Karen’s campaign.

There’s nothing in the Indiegogo mission statement that encourages dumb projects. But it does emphasize the ease at which pages can be created, “no matter what you are raising money for.” The site has been around since 2008, as has Kickstarter. Of course Indiegogo has important projects also, and Kickstarter has dumb ones, but Indiegogo makes it easier for anyone to post anything, and people will pay up.

Does everyone just have all this extra money to throw around?

Courtesy Word Above the Street

You probably get Kickstarter requests on a daily basis from friends asking for support. But it’s not every day that you come across one trying to change the city’s skyline. That’s what The Water Tank Project is trying to do. For a million dollars, the Project “will transform the skyline by converting water tanks across all five boroughs into works of art on the subject of water.” There are some big names involved, including Jeff Koons, Jay Z, Devendra Banhart, and Bruce Weber. The exhibit plans to be up for twelve weeks next summer.

“We want New York City to look up again, to dream big, to feel proud, to create, to share, to believe, to take action,” the press release states. Unlike much of the city’s art, this exhibit will be free and accessible to all. Brooklyn-based artist Mary Jordan is behind the project.

Not only is the project about public art, but it also aims to promote a deeper message about the high quality of New York City’s water and how the city should play a “role as a world leader setting new standards for sustainability.”

Sounds pretty good, right? The project needs your help getting off the ground, so head on over to Kickstarter to check out the details for yourself.

Visitation- Rites

It’s a blog eat blog world. That said, one of the dominating music blogs on the internet is no doubt, Pitchfork. But if you’re anything into indie music, you probably reaped over the discontinuation of Altered Zones. Altered Zones branched off of Pitchfork, featuring the most underground music. Basically, the ones that weren’t big enough to make it onto the main site. Fans were loyal to Altered Zones and their logo empowered the lives of many. Some hipsters even tattooed the design onto their skins.

Now, the grievance of Altered Zones can now be rejoiced because founding members, Emilie Friedlander and Ric Leichtung have started a new project called Ad Hoc. With the same elements of their previous blog, here is their purpose ” a collective of ten tastemaking music blogs from all over the world, Ad Hoc is a daily destination for MP3s, videos, mixes, interviews, artist’s writings, and cultural commentary– curated for quality, and with an emphasis on emerging artists and musical movements that best exemplify the new grassroots, Internet-fueled DIY.”.

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There are apparently still unexplored frontiers in the mobile food movement.

Benjamin Harrison is trying to fund a bitter-infused seltzer drinks cart, which would be serving up drinks in the ‘burg. Since you guys liked his last kickstarter so much, maybe a local source out on the streets would take it to the next level. They plan to have the cart out by mid-August, if its funded.

Triple Canopy, a locally-based online magazine that published such gems as She Goes Covered, is kickstarting a space in Greenpoint along with some partners.

This September, three New York-based nonprofits—Triple Canopy, an online magazine, Light Industry, a cinema, and The Public School New York, an open-source classroom with no curriculum—will launch a new arts-and-culture center at 155 Freeman Street, in the Greenpoint neighborhood of Brooklyn. Together, our groups will organize performances, classes, artist talks, readings, panels, workshops, concerts, and weekly film screenings—all of which will be open to the public. Most events are free or cost less than $7—and we like it this way!

The pledges aren’t half bad, either.

Give just $20 and you’ll receive access to a special issue of Triple Canopy put together and introduced by writer Rivka Galchen. For $50 you’ll receive a personalized email and Web project by artist Cory Arcangel. For $150 you’ll receive free access to all events at the space for one year. Those of you with the means to make a larger contribution will receive artworks donated by R. H. Quaytman and Paul Chan to support our first year of programming.

photo via +Pool

Could this be real? First and foremost you should probably listen to THIS while reading this post…you know, for “atmosphere.”

Both Curbed and the Village Voice have reported  that  the ever mysterious “+Pool” project is an actual possibility.  +Pool is probably the coolest (literally) and most summer useful projects to date: the pool (in the shape of a plus sign) will float on the east river and filter the river’s water– so it will be LIKE swimming in the East River but without fear of infection.  The project has teamed up with an engineering company and their kickstarter page is up and running, check it out and become a “backer” of this amazing project (they need $25,000 by July 15th to make this a possibility).

A kickstarter for citrus cocktail bitters made right here in the ‘burg.

Maybe he’ll personally deliver in the neighborhood in time for summer cocktails?

Giving is good for you, it promises good karma. And good karma promises bad things won’t happen to you, like fracturing your tailbone. Besides, who could resist helping fund a project by the adorably awkward Max Annis, who happens to be your neighbor? Nobody, that’s who.

There’s less than two weeks left to raise the money, and if you know how Kickstarter works you know they get nothing if the $4k mark isn’t hit. So check out the trailer for Black Ant Lake here and donate some moolah– from the tiny bit we see, it’ll be beautifully shot.

Man, I wish I had a Kickstarter page for my life– but I’d probably spend all the money on whiskey and dresses, hence the fractured tailbone.