Hinge of Africa
One of my closest friends from growing up is heading to Burkina Faso this week through the Peace Corps. While setting up her blog, a fellow designer recommended Hinge Of Africa via Twitter. A web designer who writes a fantastic blog, and a blogger who has been featured on the Sundance channel for her site about planning green weddings, I feel like I can really relate with this couple traveling all the way to Cameroon to teach computer literacy. This is a feed I am really looking forward to following.

National Archives Digtial Archives
When I worked for the army, every once in a while they would send me out to the National Archives to find some photos. It is a fantastic facility with millions of photos, unfortunately over time, some get misplaced and others are very hard to find. This interactive experience is a tip of the ice burg… there should be some place online that attempts to catalog all of the amazing photography in our nations public domain. An entertaining and beautifully designed flash piece by Second Story, I find the overall user experience and method of navigation to be a little frustratingly.

Cooler & Lipster
I found Lipster via Cooler, both are female focused media outlets that have branded themselves without being overtly feminine. While I dig stuff targeted towards my gender, I am terribly turned off by anything branded to be that way (words like babes chicks and girls… yack!). Both are fresh, with great design and tons of personality that are relevant to what I am into. Lipster is a pop magazine for those who want to get the dirt with attitude, and Cooler is an awesome surf magazine.

Ampersand
I love the ampersand. Its a great typographical element that can jazz up just about any boring piece of text. A whole blog just about a symbol that stands for “and”. RAD.

Favrd
An extreme time suck, I will go to this site and find myself horribly at odds on whether to continue laughing so hard that my FIJI water spurts out my nose, or finally get back to doing something productive ( like… blogging. snap). Favrd takes some of the wittiest comments from Twitter and serves them up here for your enjoyment.. brevity surely is the soul of wit.

I know I know, I am so delinquent this time. I vow to do better next time, and please forgive me for being 11 days late on this post… the great outdoors has been calling my name.

Upon my most recent visit to Art-O-Matic I found myself enchanted by a single exhibit… the Washington Post Peep Show. The 2nd annual contest happened back in March, but the exhibit is currently on display at Art-O-Matic . It is a spectacular celebration of wit, creativity, and craft. Not only was each little box a jubilant little experience, but the entire concept a fantastic exhibit. The fact that creativity sprang from all of these ordinary Post readers to create miniature snapshots in time using marshmallows… that was what really got me. No these weren’t kindergarten-grade dioramas, these were magnificent little masterpieces.

Here’s the background info:

The Washington Post’s Sunday Source Section held a competition, the rules were simple and included

1) Think of a scene, historic, current of in the future

2) Buy enough peeps to play the characters in the diorama

3) Make your diorama using a shoebox or a comparable box.

This was the second year that The Post held such a competition and they received over 800 entries. My favorites included “Peep Art” with a miniature marshmallow Andy Warhol- complete with ratty white wig, “Amy Winepeep” reciting “they tried to make me go to rehab and I said peep peep peep”, and “Peeps Atop a Skyscraper (c. 1932)” which mimicked a famous black and white photograph. Walking around the exhibit, every turn was a delightful surprise… I began by shrieking “Look, Elvis Peeplsey!“, then turned to discover one after another fantastic diorama.

After doing some online investigating I found that the Peeps Diorama Contest is not unique to Washington DC, and it’s actually sponsored by Peeps, the candy company. The online execution of this marketing campaign has a lot of room for improvement…I had a hard time Googling any clear details on Peeps involvement in the contest and did a lot of poking around before I could find it on their official brand site (usability nightmare). However the sheer number of entries is proof that great concepts can carry a campaign and engage based on the fact they are inviting and original.

To View all of my Pictures from Art-O-Matic check out my Flickr Set.
To See this years Winners Click Here.
To see last years winner, click here.

Other Peeping Cities:
Peeps up in Chicago
Where My Michigan Peeps at?
Peeps Denver Style

Art-O-Matic is by far my favorite local DC event. Now, an annual event, this gathering of creatives takes place in an uninhabited building that has been donated so that artists of all kinds can take it over for about a month. The experience is unique in the wide range of art forms and mediums represented, all juxtaposed right next to each other.

This years event has over 600 visual artists and 300 performers participating with two music stages, a theater space, dance space, a poetry room, a film room, and a classroom. If you decide to visit during the peek hours you can see anything from open mic to burlesque or even fire dancers (my favorite part so far).

When I first moved to the DC area from Richmond, a town that has a tight-knit alternative art scene, I was astonished at the lack of art community in the area. After going to Art-O-Matic for the first time last year I learned that it is not that there is a lack of an art community, but that there are many little ones spread all over the DC area. Art-O-Matic which is completely run by volunteers and donations, does a fantastic job pulling together the scene and throwing an engaging and eclectic party.

I went Friday for Opening night and tried to take it all in.With 10 floors of stuff to do and see you just can’t. I highly recommend checking Art-O-Matic out, and if you can… a few times because it is such an overwhelming experience.

Friday, May 9 – Sunday, June 15, 2008
http://www.artomatic.org/