Pop!Tech X Concludes

One opera house, 3 days, 500 participants, hundreds of "dangerous" ideas... this was Pop!Tech X.

As official Pop!Tech artist, I built out a mobile paint studio, perched up in the loge box above the opera house stage.

I managed to crank out 36 paintings totalling 43,200 square inches of art to give form to the ideas propogated by the superstar speakers.

PHOTO: Pop!Tech curator Andrew Zolli with members of the Sinikithemba Choir.
Credit: Asa Mathat

The amazing roster included musician Brian Eno, futurist Kevin Kelly, science fiction writer Bruce Sterling, military strategist Tom Barnett, historian Juan Enriquez, culinary scientist Homaro Cantu and the longtailed Chris Anderson.

The original works (all 30" x 40" acrylic paintings on archival posterboard) are up for auction to raise money for the Pop!Tech Scholarship Fund. This will enable more students, women and minorities from other parts of the country and the world to attend this amazing event held each year in Camden, Maine.

My favorite presentations:

Sinikithemba Choir,
an HIV-positive singing group from Durbin South Africa, spreading the
word about AIDS and medication around the world: "If you're negative,
stay negative! If you're positive, think positive!"

The presentation by the creator of Ask A Ninja.

HP was one of the corporate sponsors and a team of writers and designers were on-site to compile a 300+ full-color book incorporating photos, artwork, scibbles, post-its, wiki posts, blog posts and random submissions. The book is currently printing and will reach each of the 500+ participants at their homes within 3 days of the event's conclusion!

I used our new web-based tool for capturing events, MissingLink, to publish the results in almost real time.

See results: http://alphachimp.missinglink.biz/poptech/poptech-2006-dangerous-ideas