We have our occasional setbacks. For example, losing the key to the Callithump! Totally Buttons machine up in Orono. It meant we couldn’t refill the machine, or get the change out. It was our intention from the start to put out “issues” where contents would be available for a limited time and would go away, but this time it was forced on us prematurely. We took away the machine and didn’t have another one ready to go, so we went “on hiatus” from Orono for a while. That hurt!
What also hurt is that we couldn’t get into the machine! Unsurprisingly, these things are designed to be very difficult to get into if you don’t have the key! It really took a long time to figure out how to do it without destroying the machine. Then I discovered its weakness and….
Before you go jumping to the obvious conclusion that we spent all this money on drugs and hookers, let me remind you: Callithump is a non-profit organization. All the money we make goes toward the mission. The mission, it’s worth restating, is 1) to provide new venues for artists to reach audiences, 2) to create new ways for audiences to interact with art, 3) to explore the future of physical publishing in an electronic world.
The quarters when directly into paying for this:
Sometimes setbacks are good things. In this case it gave us time to stop and think about what we were doing, and how we could do it better. Totally Buttons was very well recieved, but it was too much about buying and selling buttons and not enough about art. So, we’re changing it.
This time around the idea is to create wearable gallery. One machine will vend a series of works by one artist at a time. You can literally wear an art exhibition (or put it on your backpack, or whatever). We have two machines (or “heads” as they say in the industry) and we’ll introduce a new artist every month, so each artist will exhibit for two months before moving on.
This is all just a very roundabout way of saying Thanks! To anyone who’s bought anything out of any of our vending machines, thanks! You’re helping to sustain something cool. Also, thanks to all the artists who’ve contributed. Yes, we’re asking you to contribute your work, paying you back in contributor’s copies for work we’re selling. None of that money goes into our pockets, though. It all goes back to the cause! Hopefully that means that all your hard work hasn’t been in vain for nothing.
This is also an even more roundabout way of saying, we need contributors! We’ve got more demand than we can keep up with! Drop us a line if your creativity can fit into a 2″ capsule or onto a .875 inch button. It’s a worthwhile cause, and we give you stuff in return!
Okay, pledge break is over, now back to our originally scheduled program.
