In an online questionnaire study of 120 technology creatives in the Northwest:

“We found that the targeted community of technology creatives is largely comprised of individuals who have careers in technology, but were pursuing creative interests in the domains of visual arts, maker projects, and entrepreneurial projects.  The open-ended responses to the questionnaire provided a rich image of creative technologists who worked in the software industry (software engineers, web designers) but who were actively interested and pursuing projects that incorporate more physical computing: wanting education and access to electronics, metalworking, microcontrollers, prototyping machines, and so forth.  In other words, people who used technology for more ephemeral digital software in their day jobs sought to incorporate technology into more physical projects in their creative pursuits.”

Interest in various opportunities and resources for artists/technologist, on a scale of 1 to 7 where 1 = not at all interested and 7 = extremely interested.

“They were particularly interested in knowledge sharing, networking, and collaborative opportunities, with many expressing an interest in a shared, membership based incubation space for access to other people.  Those who did collaborate indicated their collaboration groups tended to be 3-5 people.  Even those who worked primarily on solitary projects expressed an interest in shared spaces because of exposure to knowledge and conversation around creative projects.  These results are consistent with reports of the creative process described by Gardner in Creating Minds [12], where he illustrates that even solitary writers such as Tolkein were creatively inspired by regular meetings where they describe their works to each other.”

“For this population of technology creatives, lack of time and education were the greatest constraints in their creative pursuits, not finances — which is distinct from other types of artists.  Many reported they already had a space for independent projects, and were particularly interested in collaboration spaces for access to peer education and discussion.”

It will be interesting to see how these technology creatives in San Francisco compare to those in Seattle.  My impression is there is less of a focus on more hands-on technology projects, and more of a focus on digital art.

Try it at http://mytwee.com. You’ll need a Twitter account.

Here’s mine:

What is MyTwee?
My Twee is a living, breathing, interactive painting of your Twitterverse.  This project started as a visualization for a Dorkbot art show last year.   It’s since evolved into an online, flash-based interactive art piece with a few gaming mechanics thrown in and a (not so) secret mission to encourage people to be more green!

It’s a Painting of your Twitterverse:
Your “Twee” is generated based on activity in your Twitterverse, including your own messages and the messages of the people you follow.  Grow your Twee by nurturing activity in your Twitterverse.  The more activity, the more leaves, plants, clouds, flowers, fruit and little forest critters you’ll see. Mouse over individual items or click on the “Guide” button to learn what they represent.  Check out what Barack Obama (@barackobama) or Tim O’Reilly (@timoreilly) look like!

It’s a Lightweight Game:
Based on green things you say and do using Twitter, you can earn “Green Scout Badges”.   All you have to do is talk about it through your tweets. This way, not only do you earn your badges, all your friends get to hear about the cool green things you are doing.

Print, Post, or Share!
Help us spread the Twee forest around the world! You can download a picture of your Twee, embed a live Flash animation in your blog, or print a poster.

Got ideas for badges, or other ways to improve the experience? Email us at mytwee@wagglelabs.com.  You can also go to our MyTwee Facebook page to add comments or upload a picture of your Twee for others to see.

I posted some frayed wire pictures on flickr here.

Introductory slides for Frayed Wire are here, provides some background on who was there and our goals:

We had a *great* set of speakers and workshops, and people had a lot of fun making stuff out of the items from Junque Exchange in the open lab, and there was a very well attended discussion of how to incubate art/technology in the Pacific Northwest.  There were a lot of volunteers to whom I am very, very grateful!  Thanks Dorkbot crew, 911 Media Arts center, Youngstown Cultural Arts Center, and Ignition NW!

I think the Northwest is ready to push to the next phase of community and collaboration around art and technology. Frayed Wire is meant to help that process along.

This Wednesday we had a “kit night” at our Dorkbot meeting. Everyone pitched in 30 bucks and you could chose to make a solar powered theremin, a tv be gone, or a little spinning robot (BEAM). Josh Kopel gave us all a lesson in using a soldering iron, and then we were off! Kit night sold out with 40 kit makers, and we used some of the money to buy and donate soldering tools to 911 Media Arts Center.

I made a theremin! And, I was amazed when it actually worked as I held it under the light. The most important lesson for me: there’s an unsoldering tool!!! Did you know that?

A few years ago I had a tagging problem because my house is on on such a busy street. The city was sending me threatening letters (deal with graffiti or pay heavy fine) so I painted a Barbarella image on my garage door. I thought, surely even graffiti artists won’t paint over someone else’s art…my impression is street artists do have their own ethic…

Aside from a few, small tags I could easily paint over, the garage was safe for a couple of years. Then a few weeks ago someone came in and painted over the whole garage door with a ridiculous unreadable signature. I was mad, to say the least, it wasn’t even artistic, and it destroyed my mural. I called the police, but they were completely unresponsive. They didn’t even bother to come over and take a picture to try and identify the signature. (I mean, it was a signature.)

I wanted to communicate with the tagger somehow immediately that what he did was really wrong. We figured who ever tagged the garage would come back and look at it, so my artist friend kathy and i painted a giant “no” sign over it. We hung pens so people in the neighborhood could write comments as they walked by. It was great to see the supportive messages people wrote saying they’d loved the mural and it was terrible it was tagged over.

I also started putting the word out amongst my extended network to try and figure out who it was, so he could be sure and get the message. I mean, it’s a signature—some friend of a friend would know who did the tagging, surely.

Apparently it generated a bit of a response…a neighborhood blogger, capitolhillseattle, mentioned it, and then KOMO TV came by and interviewed me.

Well, I got another letter from the city saying I needed to get rid of the graffiti. This also makes me mad, why would I get fined for someone else’s crime? They should just say “if you don’t paint over it in 10 days, we will” or some such thing. But to fine me? Isn’t it one of those constitutional rights, to not be punished for other people’s crimes?

We had some ideas of what to paint, but as we were driving home a few days ago, we were thinking we should paper over it with Obama posters. Then I was thinking well I could probably just paint a giant Obama image. I am just madly in love with Obama (as is everyone in my house) and figured it would be a good way to show our support.

I cannot tell you how fun it was to be out in the street, painting Obama, and have all these people walk by telling me essentially “i loved the space woman, but yah go Obama!” I even got Slogged . Kathy said even the PI came by to take pictures.

The whole response has been so positive, I greatly appreciate the neighborhood response.

And, I got two leads on the tagger. One from a friend of a friend, and one through an email. My friend told me apparently he’s some 17 year old punk kid. The person who emailed me also knew who he was, but didn’t want to get the guy in trouble with the police. I told him that’s ok, I understand, honestly I don’t want to send some 17 year old to jail for tagging my garage, but please do me the favor of making sure he knows how even amongst graffiti artists what he did was considered totally, totally wrong. Here are some excerpts from his response, it’s pretty interesting…:

he is what we refer to as a “toy” and that was a definit toy move…That kid has no can control, he writes for a whack crew that gets no love in seattle and doesnt even existed outside the 206 like the better more prolific crews that have cells here. There is a code for writing/bombing and some rules governing where you can and cant hit up. So a hand style can go over a ink/paint pen tag, a bomb or a throwie can go over a hand style, a throwie with multiple (4 or more) colors and a little more technical can go over a bomb, and a burner goes over that. the only thing that goes over a burner is a wild style or a peice (a mural). So even though your mural wasnt spray paint it should have been respected and left alone. its been there for a bit and no one bombed on it till him which goes to show you there have been alot of writers who HAVE respected it. Sucks some toy destroyed your hard work.

Then later…

DUDE IS ALREADY CATCHING SO MUCH SHIT FOR IT THOUGH… HE ALREADY GOT NO LOVE BUT NOW ITS JUST THAT MUCH WORSE FOR HIM.

crazy. This whole experience has really given me a lot of food for thought about the nature of public displays, messaging, and interwoven communities. (Ahem, one of my current research directions.)