MeFi Projects

I wanted a device for box breathing, the technique where you breath in/hold/out/hold for 4 seconds. A device that wasn't a phone or computer. I built one, out of wood, plexiglas, metal, transistors, and a tiny bit of code. Then gave it the photo studio treatment, shared the code, and wrote about the experience.
posted by tmcw on Jan 5, 2018 - 7 comments

It started over 7 years ago as a 365-photo-a-day-type tumblr for my baby daughter, and it keeps propagating. Right now, the best way to see (most of) the 1,858 different artworks of Adora (with a new one coming every day) is on instagram , a massive cache of original illustrations. [more inside]
posted by growabrain on Sep 3, 2017 - 1 comment

A few years ago, I began photographing bonsai trees as a personal project. Fast forward two years later, I have a beautifully-designed book of my photos I'd love to share. I wasn't sure why, but I felt a deep, visceral connection to these ancient trees. The bonsai, themselves, seemed the very opposite of the subjects I usually photographed - they stood before me fully present, their sense of time measured in decades, even centuries. From my first glimpse of the trees all those years ago, I knew implicitly that there was something to be learned from them, from their endurance and quiet dignity. [more inside]
posted by steve.wdc on Jun 28, 2016 - 0 comments

'Opposites' features 12 musical interpretations of a somehow-biographical song that I wrote together with my daughter.
2 years ago, when my daughter was 4 years old, we started composing little 'songs' together. Since then, we wrote nearly 50 songs, and published one book.

Here are 2 other musical pages: 4 songs as played by Douglas Haines, and 4 songs read in sign language by Koli Cutler.
More than half of our songs had been put to music by musicians from around the world, some of them in multiple styles.

These are parts of the One A Day Project I started when she was born.
There are many similar pages inside.

Today is Adora's 6th birthday. Happy birthday, dear Adora.
posted by growabrain on Oct 18, 2015 - 1 comment

In 2009, after I turned 56, I fathered my first child. Since all her extended family members live in other countries, I started a daily photo blog, to record her growth.
I love my baby with all my heart. When she was about a year old, we took her to a street fair and a cartoonist drew a quick caricature of her face. That gave me the idea to start collecting artworks based on her pretty self. I guess I went a bit overboard, because yesterday she celebrated her third birthday, and the collection grew to 500 original art works from all over the world. [more inside]
posted by growabrain on Oct 19, 2012 - 9 comments

Intervals is an online app that I've been working on for several years. Our web design and development agency built it, and uses it, to track our time, tasks and projects. Thought I'd share it with other web-savvy types who might find Intervals useful. There is also a lot of great content in the blog as well, where we've been writing about web design and development for several years. Lots of great content there.
posted by johnjreeve on May 9, 2012 - 0 comments

- A new collection of work I've made. [more inside]
posted by sgt.serenity on May 22, 2011 - 0 comments

This project grew out of a curiosity to find out what Chinese people think about their country and their future. In 2010, I traveled to major urban centers in eastern China stopping people on the street to ask the same two questions about their country and their future: "What does China mean to you?" and "What is your role in China's future?" The respondents filled out a one-page typewritten questionnaire that included these two questions and some basic information including name, age, and occupation. The questions were interpreted variously, and the responses range from prosaic to poetic, from rote to inspired, and from unemotional to patriotic. While it’s difficult to draw conclusions about the entire population, the people photographed here expressed a sincere love of country and optimism about the country’s future development and peaceful position in the world. The final project incorporates about 100 portraits/interviews and includes people of various ages, gender, wealth, and hometown. For each person in the project, between five and ten declined to be photographed or fill out the questionnaire. You can read more about the project here.
posted by msbrauer on Jan 27, 2011 - 2 comments