Loveland "Makes" The New York Times

Jerry Paffendorf, Mary Lorene Carter and Alan Languirand of the Loveland Team at the site of Plymouth. (Image credit: The New York Times)

The New York Times reporter Melena Ryzik went to Detroit this week to cover Maker Faire and ended up doing a profile about how artists are surviving and thriving in the shrinking city of Detroit. Rita J. King wrote her own take on the transformation of Detroit in her essay last week, "Detroit: Shrinking City with Wild Imagination."

Wringing Art Out of the Rubble in Detroit profiles a number of artists including our own Jerry Paffendorf's Loveland Project:

Jerry Paffendorf, a newly arrived resident who quickly built himself a niche. Mr. Paffendorf, 28, moved to Detroit from San Francisco by way of Brooklyn last spring, with an expertise in software design and a side of techno-savvy wit. He is behind a project called Loveland, a “micro real estate” enterprise that sells parcels of Detroit that he owns by the square inch for $1 a piece. Mr. Paffendorf bought 3,150 square feet of land for $500 when he arrived; “inchvestors” get a plot in a part of town that might not be well trod otherwise. Proceeds go to organizations that address Detroit’s many problems.

Congratulations Jerry!

[NYT: Wringing Art Out of the Rubble in Detroit]

Construction at Loveland

Plymouth, LOVELAND Construction, June 2010 from Jerry Paffendorf on Vimeo.

By Rita J. King

I couldn't be more excited to see cement being poured.

The time capsule shown 44 seconds into the video was packaged by me in the middle of the night before Jerry Paffendorf and Mary Lorene Carter drove back to Detroit from New York City last Monday. Jerry texted me when I was already in bed to tell me if I wanted to bury a time capsule in the cement, they'd be by at 9 am to pick it up.

I am the founder of the Imagination Age Network, a neighborhood of 1000 inches in the first colony of Loveland, Plymouth. Plymouth consists of 10,000 inches, outlined by the cement.

I got out of bed and in the silent darkness, gathered my thoughts to figure out what I should include. Time capsules in cornerstones customarily include that day's newspapers so the date can be remembered. I printed out a copy of my friend Cory Doctorow's latest post on Boing Boing. I included a string of Mardi Gras beads from New Orleans. I found them on the floor in a little girl's room. She had meticulously stenciled a sign for her door, "Don't come in without knocking first," but looters had kicked the door in and torn her abandoned possessions to shreds, leaving only a pile of tangled beads on the cheap, burnt carpet. The beads symbolize rebirth, reconstruction, the hope that Detroit will once again be a city of the future and that the individual lives of the human beings affected by disaster are remembered. I included a picture of the Detroit girls, Celeste and Ricki, who live on the same street as Loveland. They are the only ones left on their block, but they're thrilled that the micro real-estate experiment has given them neighbors.

The jar includes a map of Plymouth and two versions of the Imagination Age Network, the first as conceived on a cocktail party, on a napkin, with Jerry, and the second (shown below in the rainbow image) after the actual plot of land was redistricted. Originally, I had intended the Imagination Age to be subdivided, but we ended up with a single block of 25 by 40 inches. I like it better the way it turned out, but both maps went in the jar.

Old map.

New map.

I included an LED light connected to a small battery that I once used to write the word love in the air.


The jar contains other secret items as well, but more on that later.

The most important thing about the jar is that it contains an augmented reality marker and on July 17, in Detroit, the jar will begin to communicate from inside the cement. The contents of the jar will be updated as the community develops.

Also see:
Welcome to Loveland!
Rita J. King speaks at O'Reilly's Gov2.0 Summit about Loveland
Loveland.

Jason Silva in The Imagination Age "Intentions: 128"

When Jason Silva sent me the concept teaser for "Turning Into Gods" (see below for video) I was struck by the scope of the thought and his enthusiasm for a subject that has kept me staring at the ceiling many nights since before I even started grade school:

Is immortality possible? Can science put an end to death?

Jason Silva seems certain that the answer is yes. Looking ahead for a moment...let's say we get there. Envision a place where consciousness is re-engineered without the turmoil of the mortal coil...

But will we ever truly be immune to hazard, even if the singularity is reached?

One line grabbed me particularly:

"Imagination," Silva says, "allows us to think beyond our limitations to conceive of what might be and go further than we ever thought possible."

I invited him to become a member of the Imagination Age Network in Loveland, an experiment in Detroit created by Jerry Paffendorf. Loveland explores new concepts about community and the micro-ownership of shared real estate. Loveland is 1,000,000 square inches in all, made up of individual colonies. The first colony, Plymouth, is 10,000 square inches and has 588 "inchvestors." The Imagination Age Network is a 1000-inch neighborhood in Plymouth. Our goal is to see how big we can make an inch.

The yellow rectangle is the Imagination Age Network in Plymouth, shown amid the parcels of 588 other inchvestors. For more information about Loveland, click here.

Jason Silva's inch is called "Turning Into Gods." He chose the address "Intentions: 128" for his project. The Imagination Age network is divided into eight shared zones of 122 inches each. Intentions, the second zone, includes inches 123-245.

The first step in growing Jason's project is to watch the video below and leave comments on this blog post with your thoughts on possibility, science and technology, a grand unfolding instigated by humans, and, oh yeah, "making ourselves permanent."

TURNING INTO GODS - 'Concept Teaser' from jason silva on Vimeo.

Loveland on NPR's All Things Considered

[cross-posted from The Imagination Age -- written by Rita J. King]

Plymouth is the first full colony of inches in the Loveland project in Detroit. The yellow block of 1000 inches is my neighborhood, The Imagination Age. Loveland is being featured today on NPR's "All Things Considered." (Click here to listen to the archive)

What is Loveland?

It's an experiment in the micro-ownership of real estate, economic revitalization and cultural development.

It's an art project.

It's a statement about creating something new and unexpected.

Yes, it's about a guy selling a million square inches for a dollar each. With so many people out of work and seeking new ways to make money, create connections, excitement, fun and new ideas about the way communities work--that's a visionary way to get something going in an economy that promises to steamroll people who fail to freshen their skills, update perspectives and figure out new ways to pay bills.

Me, Jerry and our friend Tish Shute.

Sarah Hulett, the insightful journalist who interviewed me and Loveland founder Jerry Paffendorf, started off by saying that she wanted to understand the thinking behind the project.

I'm frequently asked why Jerry, who splits his time between the coasts, chose Detroit for this project. Why not? Why shouldn't a young, provocative artist move to Detroit and get something going? Is there some unwritten rule of etiquette that says we must avoid American cities in crisis? Detroit was once a city of the future, and that blueprint from the past is greatly appreciated by Jerry, who slept over at the Imagination Age Salon last night before catching a top-of-the-morning flight back to Detroit. We were up all night discussing plans for the future of Loveland and Detroit, ways we can explore Square, for example, to raise much-needed funds for local initiatives.

Sarah Hulett thoughtfully went back to interview the two little girls who live in the house next to Loveland, Celeste Moore (left, 11) and Ricki Collins, 9. In fact, their house is the only house left on the block. Ricki said she hopes the inchvestors will come and visit her. I am planning a visit soon.

Sarah Hulett asked me how Loveland might benefit the local population in Detroit. I don't know yet, but in order to find out I've opened up a block of 100 inches within the 1000 inch Imagination Age neighborhood in the Plymouth colony, a network that includes many notable residents already, including IBM Senior Research Fellow Grady Booch, WIRED writer Alexis Madrigal, filmmaker Josh Asen and educator Liz Dorland, to name a few. If you have an idea, even a tiny one, and imagination enough to envision how big you might make an inch, ping me on Twitter or leave a comment on this blog post.

I'm working hard to turn my inches into opportunities to connect people in Detroit with a larger community of innovators around the world, and I need your help, your ideas, your support and most of all, your imagination. Inches are tiny, but I hope you'll think big. Technology is a prism held up to the bright beam of the imagination.

[NPR: Inchvesting in Detroit: A Virtual Realty]

Want an Inch?

The Imagination Age in the Plymouth colony in Loveland, shown above in yellow, and the rest of the colony, in all its inchy splendor-in-the-grass, is shown around it.

Want an inch?



Yes, Loveland's first colony, Plymouth, is full--but you can still get in on the experiment. I have 1000 inches in Plymouth, a neighborhood currently called the Imagination Age. Maybe, like the newly minted Google, Kansas, the name will change once we all get set up, but for now, we're going with the Imagination Age.

Neighbors in the Imagination Age include the brilliant writer Alexis Madrigal, IBM Research Fellow and all-around creative genius Grady Booch, filmmaker Josh Asen (who directed the video above), educator Liz Dorland, Tiffany heir and designer Stephen Burlingham, Tony Award winning production designer Richard Hoover & actor John Ventimiglia, to name a few. The purpose of this experiment in micro-ownership of real estate is to see how big you can make your inch, or inches. In the meantime, the neighbors are starting to get together. If you want to be part of the neighborhood, ping me on Twitter or leave a comment on this post and tell us why.

Follow @RitaJKing and LOVELAND founder Jerry Paffendorf, @makeloveland, on Twitter.

Rebuilding Detroit through the Internet One Inch at a Time

The new global culture and economy is taking shape an inch at a time.

As the biggest "inchvestor" in Loveland, I'm thrilled to see GG Paff getting his inch on and out.

The 10,000 inch Plymouth colony, where I own 1000 inches, is almost filled up. Get your space now.

I also just funded the development of Project Lemon Battery, and I love the plans so far.

Keep an eye on Jack Dorsey's new company, Square. It's going to change our capacity to create micro-ownership of shared assets.

Inching Toward a New Year

I've got 1000 Inches in Loveland, in a colony called Plymouth--in Detroit.

Loveland is an experiment in micro-ownership of land. Want some?

Welcome, Lovelanders!

At last count, 75 inch-holders have inchvested in Loveland! Read all about it in this thoughtful post (including the Fermi paradox, coded communication with extraterrestrial life forms, humans in cages and shooting stars) by Loveland impresario Jerry Paffendorf.

1000 Inches in Loveland is a neighborhood in Loveland made up of eight zones named for the Eightfold Path. Read this to learn more about it and check out the map of the inches.

So far we've got Grady Booch, Stephen Burlingham (scroll to the bottom of the Tiffany family archives page to see him), the brilliant and hard-working Alexis Madrigal, nanotechno artist and IBMer Jack Mason and on Inch 502, Zone V: Livelihood, we have the mysterious proprietor of the Mystery Hole.

If you're incherested, get in touch.

Follow @ritajking, @makeloveland and @1000inches on Twitter.

Inch 502 on Zone V: Livelihood: The Mystery Hole

Welcome the newest resident of 1000 INCHES IN LOVELAND: The Imagination Age! The mysterious proprietor of the Mystery Hole (shown above around the time when she created me) is taking command of Inch 502 on Zone V: Livelihood. Right now, her art and curiosities shop is headquartered in a small town. She's ready to be connected to the rest of the world and she's starting from scratch--her high-speed internet access won't be connected until next week.

"This is going to be fun," she says, "Aggravating, but I think it will be worth the effort."

What will become of the Mystery Hole as it goes from a small town--to an inch?

Want to become an Inchvestor?

LOVELAND is kickstarted! Get your inches!

LOVELAND is a million square inches in Detroit, and each of the one-square-inch parcels costs $1. There are tiers of membership, and already someone has inchvested in 1000 Inches in Loveland:

That someone is me.

I am creating a neighborhood out of the 1000 INCHES IN LOVELAND. The neighborhood will be divided into eight zones, and open for mixed-media, mixed-reality development. I am documenting the development of 1000 INCHES IN LOVELAND as it unfolds.

The first developed inch in 1000 INCHES IN LOVELAND (the neighborhood is called The Imagination Age) will be launched next week, along with more information about how you can get your own inch and make it as big as your imagination. The development of the 1000 inches within The Imagination Age will also be a game. Inch-holders can opt in or out of the game, which will not start until all players have been assigned inches.

Click here to follow me or the project on Twitter.