Dec

Before I Die, I Want to Write On a Candy Chang Wall

by Sheron Long on December 5, 2013

Girl writing on "Before I die" wall in Savannah, Georgia, where messages show that people are trying to gain perspective in their lives. Image © Trevor Coe.

Aim high to reach for your dreams and to write on a “Before I Die” wall. (Savannah, Georgia)
© Trevor Coe

Gaining Perspective at the Chalkboard

It was such a simple idea. Some colored chalk, a dusty chalkboard, a single sentence. But when it lit up the hopes and dreams of a community, it ignited similar projects in public spaces around the globe.

Candy Chang painting the "Before I die, I want to. . ." statements on a wall. Image © Kristina Kassem.

Candy Chang setting up a wall to capture a
community’s hopes and dreams.
© Kristina Kassem

Candy Chang’s first “Before I die, I want to . . .” wall went up in New Orleans in 2011. Still growing, the count as of today is more than

400 walls
60 countries
25 languages

For the communities involved, the experience is powerful. Most come to know their community better, gaining perspective on both their personal and shared values.

As Chang says, “The power of the project rests in the hands of the passerby who picks up a piece of chalk, pauses for a moment, and writes something honest, poetic, and occasionally heartbreaking.”

The First Wall—A Creative Idea Comes to Life

With degrees in Architecture, Graphic Design, and Urban Planning, Chang views our public spaces as a way to “nourish our well-being and see that we are not alone as we try to make sense of our lives.”

In New Orleans, she frequently passed by an abandoned house two blocks from her home.

Abandoned house in Candy Chang's New Orleans neighborhood where the first "Before I Die" wall was set up. Image © Candy Chang.

Abandoned house in Chang’s New Orleans neighborhood caught her eye as the site for the first wall.
© Candy Chang

One day, while grieving the loss of a loved one, she saw the old house with new eyes. She decided on a public art project that, by raising the specter of death, would invite the community to fixate on their hopes and dreams.

Like many creative ideas, this one was born through an experience, an “Oh, I see” moment, that pushed Chang to look at life differently.

Once she visualized the idea, she prepared a stencil for the statement and worked with her friends to ready the wall.

Stencil for the "Before I die" statement being created by Candy Chang. Image © Kristina Kassem.

Chang creating the stencil
© Kristina Kassem

And then Chang waited, not knowing if anyone would even understand the invitation to write. She describes the next day: “I was blown away. All eighty lines were filled and responses spilled into the margins.”

"Before I die" wall in New Orleans right after set-up. Image © Candy Chang.

The New Orleans wall set up and ready for writing, but will anyone come?
© Candy Chang

"Before I die" wall in New Orleans within 24 hours after completion. Image © Candy Chang.

Within 24 hours of setting up the wall, every blank was filled.
© Candy Chang

A very full "Before I die" wall in New Orleans. Image © Candy Chang.

The wall kept filling up, getting cleaned, and filling up again.
© Candy Chang

Chang and her friends maintained the wall, documenting it, washing it, replenishing chalk. After seven months, the house sold and the wall came down.

More Walls and a Multitude of Messages

Walls have now popped up worldwide—in Kazakhstan, Portugal, Japan, Mexico, Denmark, Iraq, Argentina, South Africa, the USA, to name a few. And everywhere, people came to write.

Some unleashed their sense of humor, while others went in search of fame, fortune or great love. Dreams ran the gamut from purely practical pursuits to travel adventures far and wide. Most often, however, people sought well-being and a life lived long and well.

Before I die I want to. . .

hug a kangaroo. (Kézdivásárhely, Romania)
stare at the stars with the people I love. (Pohang City, South Korea)
feel comfortable in my skin. (Black Rock City, Nevada)
be tried for piracy. (New Orleans, USA—see photo)

Man writing on the New Orleans "Before I die" wall. Image © Kristina Kassem.

A pirate is a pirate is a pirate who wants “to be tried for piracy”!
© Kristina Kassem

shake the world with my work. (Seoul, Korea)
have my own theme song. (Johannesburg, South Africa)
clean out the attic. (Dublin, Ireland)
eat all the candy and sushi in the world. (New Orleans, USA—see photo)

Mother and daughter writing on the "Before I die" wall in New Orleans. Image © Kristina Kassem.

A mother is just starting to record her dreams, but her daughter is quick to write,
“eat all the candy and sushi in the world.”
© Kristina Kassem

matter to someone. (Minneapolis, USA)
understand women. (Erfurt, Germany)
wave to the Earth from the moon. (Melbourne, Australia)
tell the world I was very happy. (Querétaro, Mexico)

Mother reaching high to write on a "Before I die" wall in Querétaro, Mexico. Image © Candy Chang.

Walls around the world trap dreams no matter the language. (Querétaro, Mexico)
© Candy Chang

Each “Before I die. . .” wall has its unique lifespan from a single day to months or more. But, when participants share the public space with hopes and dreams like these, they gain perspective that just may last a lifetime.

Before I Die Wall in Brooklyn, New York, part of a movement to share hopes and dreams started by Candy Chang. Image © Shake Shack.

Neighbors connect with the community and each other
at the “Before I Die” wall in Brooklyn, New York.
© Shake Shack

Comment on this post below, or inspire insight with your own OIC Moment here.

In Before I Die, written by Candy Chang and published by St. Martin’s Press, you can experience 48 different walls and the wisdoms recorded there.

Visit the Before I Die site to keep up with new walls or to obtain a tool kit for starting a wall in your community. You can also contribute to a “Before I Die” wall online.

Sheron Long 1 Comment

Clever Ideas/Making a Difference/Worldwide Sites

Nov

How Creative Thinking Kicks The Soccket Ball to Success

by Sheron Long on November 7, 2013

Brain-shaped light bulb symbolizing the power of creative thinking to solve problems

When brain power lights up and creative thinking flows, people find the
good ideas that solve perplexing problems.
© iStock

Powered by Play

In 2008, for an engineering project at Harvard, Jessica O. Matthews teamed up with Julia Silverman, to prototype a soccer ball that traps kinetic energy during play and then turns the energy into a light source.

They called it the SOCCKET because a light inserted into the ball uses the stored energy for power. Thirty minutes of play harnesses enough energy to power a LED light for three hours.

During soccer play, a pendulum-like mechanism inside the SOCCKET captures the kinetic energy and stores it in the ball for later use as an off-grid power source.
© Uncharted Play Team

In 2011, Matthews and Silverman co-founded Uncharted Play to produce the SOCCKET and thereby harness the power of play as a power source for people.

Their story is a fascinating one on how creative thinking, fortitude, and perspiration lead to successful products. And their work illustrates (at least) five stages of creative problem-solving.

1. Seeing the Need

Over 1.3 billion people worldwide lack access to electricity that is reliable, affordable, clean, and safe.

As a result, households use dangerous sources of power, such as kerosene lamps and diesel generators, which cause nearly 2 million deaths per year and harm the environment. According to Uncharted Play, “Living with fumes from one kerosene lamp is the equivalent of smoking two packs of cigarettes every day.”

Jessica O. Matthews, who applied creative thinking to invent the SOCCKET ball. Image © Uncharted Play Team.

Jessica Matthews,
CEO of Uncharted Play
© Uncharted Play Team

Matthews explains how she came to understand the need:

Just a few months before the SOCCKET was first developed, I visited Nigeria for my uncle’s wedding. I remember very distinctively choking on the fumes of a diesel generator outside their house.

My cousins said, “Don’t worry, you’ll get used to it.” Their complacency really bothered me.

2. Putting Two and Two Together

Though her relatives didn’t want to change the situation, Matthews noticed that they did want to play soccer:

Around my aunt’s compound, kids were kicking around whatever they could find. I even saw kids playing soccer with a bottle cap. Still, their skills were more impressive than those seen in a FIFA level game.

As often happens in a creative “Oh, I see” moment, Matthews combined the two ideas and the inspiration for the SOCCKET came alive.

Typographic art using two light bulbs to replace the o's in "Solution" and symbolizing how creative thinking is often seeing the connection between two disparate ideas. Image © iStock.

Often, it takes seeing the connection between TWO disparate ideas to come up with a creative solution.
© iStock

The solution she envisioned would use people’s passion for play to create the power for households, allowing kids to study and families to accomplish tasks after dark.

Boy studying after dark with the light of the SOCCKET, a creative solution for families in energy-deprived locations. Image © Uncharted Play Team.

The SOCCKET can provide light to read at night in developing nations.
© Uncharted Play Team

3. Getting the Idea Off the Ground

After prototyping the SOCCKET for their engineering project, Matthews and Silverman (who were studying to be social scientists, not engineers) discovered the inevitable obstacles that come with pursuing an idea.

In an interview with Inc., Matthews discussed how she ran into an engineering community that insisted “there was no way to build a ball that would be light enough to kick and capable of generating substantial energy.”

That’s where the perspiration came in. She “taught herself the basics of soldering, building circuitry boards, and whatever else it would take to bring the idea to fruition.” The final SOCCKET weighs only one ounce more than a soccer ball.

Soccer balls rising from grass, symbolizing how a creative idea gets off the ground.

Textbook Example: As happens with many ideas, it was harder to get
the SOCCKET off the ground than to think it up.
© iStock

Matthews also had to maintain a strong belief in the value of her idea. As she says of the SOCCKET:

I knew it would be a good product at the very least. I never once said that it could be huge; I only said that it was meaningful. I was very persistent in my belief the SOCCKET would matter to people in a way that made it worth continuing its development. So I pursued it.

And she gives due credit to her naiveté in business, citing it as an advantage in not worrying about what could stop her.

4. Going for Quality

On the journey from the creative idea to the quality solution, Matthew’s company recognized the importance of testing, listening, debriefing, redesigning, and retesting.

The SOCCKET after plenty of use in field trials that are essential to creative problem-solving. Image © Uncharted Pay Team.

Companies with a commitment to quality always kick around a new product before its release.
The SOCCKET took plenty of kicks in field trials this fall in Nigeria.
© Uncharted Play Team

So far, over 10,000 SOCCKETS have been tested in Central and South America, Africa, and in a few communities in the USA.

New ideas emerged, so the SOCCKET that goes on sale in the next few months will also come in a Portable Power Kit—one SOCCKET and ten portable lamps that remain lit for an hour after a 25-second charge from the SOCCKET.

Diagram showing how multiple lamps can be charged from one SOCCKET and representing the importance of product testing in reaching creative solutions. © Uncharted Play Team.

Testing a product leads to improvements. Uncharted Play identified the need to charge multiple lights from one SOCCKET and to make the lights portable.
© Uncharted Play Team

According to Uncharted Play, “That way, children living in off-grid communities can play with a single SOCCKET ball as a team at school and still have their own personal light for reading . . . each night.”

5. Keep Asking “What’s Next?”

Consistent with its mission to inspire people around the world to lead playful lives and to foster well-being from that play, Matthew’s company keeps the creative thinking going.

For the developing world, it has prototyped other energy-generating play “tools,” like jump ropes that hold four times as much power as the SOCCKET.

For the developed world, it has created a smart soccer ball called Ludo, due out in 2014. A motion sensor detects time used in play. The number of minutes are converted into Play Points that individuals can “spend” to direct donations from sponsors to social development projects.

It looks like the power of play will keep such creative problem-solving going for years to come!

Jessica O. Matthews and Julia Silverman were honored by the Harvard Foundation in 2012 as “Scientists of the Year.” To keep up with the latest at Unchartered Play, check their Facebook page.

Comment on this post below, or inspire insight with your own OIC Moment here.

Sheron Long 2 Comments

Clever Ideas/Innovations/Making a Difference/The World's Entrepreneurs

Sep

Daily Cultural Encounters at Conflict Kitchen

by Janine Boylan on September 9, 2013

A cultural encounter with Venezuela at Conflict Kitchen. (Image © Conflict Kitchen)

Sharing a Meal with Our “Enemies”

What do you really know about the people in Cuba? Iran? Afghanistan? Venezuela? North Korea?

Jon Rubin and Dawn Weleski expect that you will be a lot more informed after lunch at their restaurant.

Conflict Kitchen, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, is dedicated to encouraging cultural encounters and promoting dialog about countries with which the United States is in conflict.

Every few months, the restaurant completely changes its storefront and its menu, featuring one country at a time. It has served foods from Afghanistan, Iran, Venezuela, and Cuba and is planning to feature North Korean cuisine next. The menu is simple, often only offering a handful of items, but the conversation that accompanies the food is meant to be full of “Oh, I see” moments.

A cultural encounter with Afghanistan: takeout menu. (Image © Conflict Kitchen)

Starting the Conversation

Rubin and Weleski co-founded Conflict Kitchen about three years ago as an art project. They chose food as their medium because, Rubin told the Los Angeles Times, “. . . we use it to get people to open up and talk to strangers.”

They have found that their customers often don’t know much about the country they are featuring. But they are eager to learn more.

Conflict Kitchen hosts a cultural encounter with Tehran through a webcam dinner. (Image © Conflict Kitchen)

Beyond its daily takeout service, the restaurant also hosts performances and events, such as a live, webcam-connected dinner party between people in Tehran and customers in Pittsburgh. For this meal, the same menu was prepared in both countries so the guests enjoyed the same conversation and food. The result was a comfortable, but eye-opening, cultural encounter for everyone with conversation that meandered from dating to politics to, of course, food.

The Wrappers

On a typical day at Conflict Kitchen, customers receive their takeout food wrapped in colorful paper printed with interviews from people of the featured culture.

“We need to create conversations that are much more first person, and more direct, and more humane.” Jon Rubin told the BBC.

Conflict Kitchen's Cuban wrapper, showing a cultural encounter. (Image © Conflict Kitchen)

The wrappers are direct messages from people about their culture. The quotes give insight about their lives, values, and beliefs.

From an Afghan: Hospitality is the ultimate equalizer, and that’s how Afghans define themselves culturally. Even now. They live through this hardship of war and being tormented with poverty. Still, when you go to the market, you say hi to the guy who is just a small store owner. If it’s lunchtime, he has a little plate of potatoes and beans with a piece of naan in front of him. And he will say, “Come on. Have some food with me.” He sincerely wants you to have the food. That’s a characteristic that’s been there for generations and still exists.

A cultural encounter with Afghanistan through Conflict Kitchen. (Image © Conflict Kitchen)

From an Iranian: All Persians are poets. They memorize poetry and quote it often. They consult Hafez every day to see what their fortune is. Sometimes it takes the form of a bird being released and a poetic fragment being given in exchange for some money. Many poems have turned into idioms, so every day an Iranian uses a number of [phrases from poems] even if they are not aware.

A cultural encounter with Iran at Conflict Kitchen. (Image © Conflict Kitchen)

From a Venezuelan: People in Venezuela are very warm with a great sense of humor. They can make lemonade out of a lemon storm. Venezuelans would consider the noise of the falling lemons as a song and would invent a lyric for it while dancing to the rhythm.

From a Cuban: I’m the only one of my friends that stayed in Cuba. I stayed because I fell in love; for my family; because I found a sense of purpose here. This is my country. My kids are 12 and 5 and, when they are adults, they’ll do the best they can whether it’s here in Cuba or wherever.

A cultural encounter with Cuba at Conflict Kitchen. (Image © Conflict Kitchen)

Breaking Stereotypes

Researcher Margo Monteith explains that media, society, and family all play a role in shaping how we think about others. Negative stereotypes run deeper than we might think and changing them can be hard. But recognizing the wrong perceptions we have and gradually changing the habit of the prejudiced response can help reduce and reverse our thinking.

Eating a meal and sharing an enlightening conversation about a culture is a positive step toward changing our views.

As Abraham Lincoln said, “The best way to destroy your enemy is to make him your friend.” Conflict Kitchen is helping its customers do just that.

Bring a little or a lot of Conflict Kitchen to your table with our free download of their Cuban recipes!

Visit Conflict Kitchen’s Facebook page for recent photos and upcoming events.

Comment on this post below, or inspire insight with your own OIC Moment here.

Janine Boylan 2 Comments

Cultural Encounters/Making a Difference

World Views:

Topics

Category Archives: Making a Difference