180531 Ed Fries and the WWRP

“This cardboard thing ties into the whole maker movement, and it’s great to have kids building something physical.” – Ed Fries
“Every day, you’ve got to put in your hours, and you slowly level up these characters, but they are Star Wars characters so it’s cool.” – Ed Fries
I found these two sentences in an interview of Ed Fries, and I found Ed Fries when I was scanning the board of directors’ names. Actually, I was looking for the name of Chris Longston, a resident in our condo, who I learned works for the Pacific Science Center as Director of Technology.
My wife and I walk by the Pacific Science Center almost every day, and I look in the window – it’s like big fishbowl – and I see all these little kids working on gadgets. All these contraptions are designed to help kids learn by doing real things. It’s in counterpoint to what kids spend a lot of time doing, which is playing video games.
Ed Fries is one of the big names in the game industry, the “proud parent” of Xbox. He has a twelve-year old kid and talks about the way they “work” together playing games. He’s proud of what he’s achieved. And he’s on the board of directors of the Pacific Science Center.
When I read those two statements Fries made in the interview for Geekwire, two things came to mind (both having to do with my WeeWoodie Rembrandt Press, AKA, WWRP).
One, we can make a cardboard WWRP kids can put together and make prints with – playing cards that they then use to engage with other kids in a social network I call Proximates.
Two, I spend my days “leveling up” in my self/game, Emeralda. My characters are real people, the artists who made history by hacking technology to make art – da Vinci, Rembrandt, Picasso, Rauschenberg, Rolf Nesch, et al.
I’d like Ed Fries to help me bring WWRP to a new or alternative level.
Or maybe Chris Longston.
I need help.