Downtown Independence: Enlightened Debauchery Ensues At The Monthly Mindshare Event
We’ve only just begun uniting the city’s counterculture movement, but on a recent Thursday evening at the Downtown Independent Theater, we were invited to take part in the monthly networking event that Mindshare puts on and we soon found ourselves surrounded by a multitude of like-minded “sinful” individuals from every industry in the city. From tech, to art and academia, they all come out every third Thursday of the month to mingle (and celebrate) with their fellow Mindshare friends.
It’s “a conference held at a night club,” said the company's co-founder Adam Mefford, “with interactive art and inspired people.”
Our goal is to form connections and link professionals across disciplines, in order to give individuals a sense of belonging in this highly anonymous and often-times competitive city.
He then added, “I would also stress that the experience involves the whole body, mind and emotions, all in a vibrant social outing.”
Mefford, along with his partner-in-crime Adam Sadowsky, have been playing an influential role in helping the brightest minds of the city connect in ways that cliched conventions and the boring bar scene could never do.
“This is a city filled with people who came here because it was their vision to do so,” Sadowsky explained. “They had a dream to move to LA, whether it was to be around like-minded people, to pursue a dream, or to get the benefit of living in a city with so much to offer. When people come to Mindshare, and become a part of this, they’re reminded of why they’re in LA in the first place.”
At each monthly event, which always take place in the heart of Downtown (usually at the incredibly charming Downtown Independent Movie Theater), the gatherings offer up a chance to mingle with fellow minds at the beginning of the evening before going into the theater itself to hear short presentations from the monthly speakers that have been selected from a variety of different professions. Mindshare dubs these different acts “Introductions, Inspirations and Interactions.”
For our first inspiration, we discovered everything from the erotic photography of the sexy (and cerebral) Cerraeh Laykin (which featured fruit and vegetables), to neuroscience, an amusing PowerPoint presentation on the relationship pitfalls of Jason Porath, and the enchanting and cutting-edge fashion concepts of Jesse Genet and her Lumi Company.
Genet is the perfect example of the Mindshare concept as she has been a trailblazer in her respective field and chose to present her Lumi concept on this evening in hopes of raising the additional capital needed to get the full funding for her passion project.
“We can take a photograph and use that original photographer’s image on natural fabric and nothing is manipulated or degraded in quality,” Genet shared. “It’s something that’s raw and never been done before.”
Her efforts paid off and the result of her Mindshare experience helped her company to receive the extra money that was necessary.
“I go to design school, so I’m really tied into this community which is very vibrant,” she said. “There’s something about making something work no matter what and you realize that when someone puts their mind to something they can make anything possible. It’s just that old American spirit of making shit happen.”
After taking in the alluring (and at times, disturbing) photographs found in Cerraeh Laykin’s new book, “Aphrodisia!” we came away completely enthralled and taken aback by how she has uniquely found food and presented it in such a way that can tantalize and terrify the imagination.
“People are burnt out on just seeing tits and ass. I’m exploring the sexy side of food,” she said. “It’s all food and sex. It’s a sensuality and a love of food through a perspective that’s organic, sexy, provocative and sometimes disturbing. It makes people think because we see food every day but it’s very mundane, I’m all about elevating food to high art.”
After giving her presentation and seeing the rabid reaction that her book caused among the crowd, Cerraeh was more sold on the Mindshare vibe than ever before.
“It brings together the geeks and freaks, movers, shakers, and artists. It brings people together in a social way to really explore thought, creativity and technology instead of going to a bar or club,” she added.
This is a way to generate more creativity and more energy through our society of forward-thinkers and and forward-creators. I love it. I think Mindshare is brilliant.
Another big hit of the evening came in the form of the innovative new computer technology from Eric Gradman and his “Cloud Mirror” machine. Combining elements that could once only have been dreamt up in a movie like Steven Spielberg’s Minority Report, the kiosk-turned-device was centered in the room and attendees could input their Facebook or Twitter pages into the computer and then by wearing a badge, the machine could then connect to a network and reveal all of your latest postings and photos (no matter how twisted they might be) through a cartoon-like thought-bubble that appeared over your head on the screen.
“It goes out over the Internet and finds all the embarrassing photos you took, and when walk in front of LCD screen right next to your face it’s gonna have a caption to showcase them all,” Gradman explained. “It goes out to tons of databases and compiles a profile on you.”
Along with production partner, Brent Bushnell, the dynamic duo gave me all the lowdown on their Virsix Company. It promises interactive gaming for everyone, including people like myself who still have their Sega Genesis.
“You’re the perfect person for these kind of video games,” Bushnell laughed. “We both love Mindshare and we’ve been part of it for a very long time, to the extent that we can use our technology and turn it in to entertainment for our friends here,” added Gradman.
It doesn’t matter if it’s your first time at Mindshare or you’re a regular fixture, there’s little doubt that you will make fast friends quite easily because of how similar everyone’s mentality is, despite all the differences in businesses.
“People in Los Angeles pride themselves in embracing new things,” said Mefford. “We hope to leverage this trait in our attendees to pioneer new applications of technology to encourage better connections and experiences at Mindshare and throughout the month.”
The City of Angels proves a most suitable home for an experience like Mindshare because of how passionate we are about our loves and how we long to share that same passion with our fellow people of the city.
“Los Angeles scripts the dreams and ambitions of the rest of the world,” Mefford added. “Through our media industry we have the potential to guide how our global culture evolves, and I believe this can be leveraged to great positive effect.”
“Our tag line is ‘Enlightened Debauchery,’” said Tim Roscoe, who loved the concept of the company so much he volunteered to do their PR pro-bono. “People are excited to be passionate about something and to be around other people who are as well."
The idea is that at the end of the night, you have felt good about what happened and feel that you had a positive experience that enhanced your life and you made some good connections.
We assure you Tim, plenty of ‘enlightened debauchery,’ was had by all on this night. With a ton more Mindshare on tap for 2010, we’re already marking our calendars for next month and we hope to see you all down there as well for the celebration.
Photos By: Jacopo Campaiola
Next: March 18, 2010
Surf: Mindshare
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