it's T, C, A and G to you...but to me it spells DNA

You'll most likely notice over the course of time, that I have a fascination with DNA...i love the 4 bases that make up DNA (T, C, A, G)...whenever I see something I can do with these 4 letters I get really excited and my friends just let me go nuts...turns out that BamBamaral told me that American Apparel was selling tees with the letters of the alphabet on them....when i heard this I lept (not ran) to my nearest AA and scared the bejesus out of the sales representative as i explained 17 project ideas (the AA sales rep had that look of  "if my friends could only see what i have to put up with")...i made my way home and the tees sat on my kitchen table for days...looking at me:

then one night out I was out with da' boys...we came home and when we got in the door we decided to take off our shirts cause my place was so hot (Canadian fall had me just putting on my heat that day)...that's when a GHETTO iDEA happened upon us....this is just one of the pics we got...

and this is how iDEA GHETTO rolls....so much fun.....stay tuned....

Nuit Blanche Devereaux

For one sleepless night Toronto is transformed by hundreds of artists for the city's annual sunset-to-sunrise celebration of contemporary art... blah blah blah! That's what the sponsors want you to read... What we found is that many of our friends didn't enjoy the night or were "underwhelmed" in past years. Sure, it's hard to make art appeal to the masses... let alone on a REALLY COLD night.
So, what we did was our own installation! A citizens 'D.I.Y.N.B.' (Do It Yourself Nuit Blanche).

Enter iDea Ghetto - because we can't seem to do anything without our own unique brand of "Ghetto" we called it 'Nuit Blanche Devereaux'.

Our idea was simple... We had a poet and a Flash animation genius in the group and the Man with a plan (Dennis). So while "at the island" one night we hashed out what was bound to be a brilliant idea.
Poetry in motion to coin a phrase. :)
So BamBam's poetry built in to a Flash animation by Wadé (like Sade, but with a W) then projected onto Capital D's loft windows! Easy right?

While D is GREAT at nurturing an idea,  follow through isn't really in his genetic makeup. So Wadé and BamBam took on the task of converting the Ghetto Loft (kinda like the Turtle Layer) windows into a canvas for 'Words Glowing From Darkness' (that's what we called the installation).
Make no mistake, we are all an equal and integral part of each of our inspirations.

The following series of pics show the process and testing involved in getting to the final (and fantastic) end piece.

What seemed to be a simple idea turned out to have it's fair share of obstacles.. Capital D has  permanently installed vinyl artwork of his own DNA sequence placed in each of the three center panels of his loft windows. (see bottom right image) When projecting light from behind this translucent artwork, an image becomes proportionally more blurred than the other six clear glass panels.

The challenge was to block out the DNA sequence, yet still see the final projection as one cohesive message. BamBam and Wadé went to work and measured each window, then covered it with white paper while blocking out completely the DNA vinyl artwork. With the window measurements in hand, Wadé created his animated project in Adobe Flash, accommodating for the center panels not affecting the final layout of the animations.

The projector was set and BamBam's poetry was shown for all of Dundas Street East to see! Lots of folks stopped by and viewed the poetry, and it was great to hear the many compliments! Capital D made a point of inviting those that stopped by to create their own D.I.Y.N.B. next year!

Our good friend Pierre joined us for stepping out to view the 'official' installations around the city, and then headed back to the loft for more laughs and decided it was high time to 'become the art!' So, naturally, we started dancing.. In front of the projector, where else! Do I hear a Shadow puppet installation idea for next year!?
Now, Here is the final animation we projected... you'll get the gist.

About Us

iDEA Ghetto - A gathering of friends who are creative and want to learn to think in innovative new ways. We share cross-disciplinary ideas, explore new technologies and media, showcase creativity and incubate the next generation of ideas at the intersection of technology and culture. We are a core group of 3 individuals who bring in people to help develop ideas and retrain our brains to think and innovate.  We are interested in art, music, technology, science and written/spoken word.



Our Mission
“To inspire, break the mold, and maybe change a little piece of the world (and ourselves) for the better along the way. Idea Ghetto is a forum to bring people together, to promote wonder, incite creativity and spark innovation across disciplines."

Idea Ghetto....da-boys..

Idea Ghetto:  started as a kernel of an idea in the summer of 2011 by the 3 wackjobs in the picture above.  Brian, Wade and Dennis.  Although they can't remember the first couple of meetings, they decided they better start blogging so that they could have a record of what Idea Ghetto about to do...so fasten your seatbelts boys and girls...this promises to be a bumpy ride!   we are developing our mission statement as both IDEA GHETTO and the founders mature....enjoy....

Check in soon!