The Geek Artist
Friday, July 16, 2010
Everyone has their idea of a geek, usually awkward and typically someone who drones on about some subject it seems no one else cares about. But that couldn't be further from the truth at Wednesday night's last Providence Geek Dinner of the summer. It was a night of balance, opposites and potential, as nearly a hundred self-proclaimed "geeks" piled in to the artsy AS220 space.
These geeks social with the best of them, sharing professional nuggets of information, opinions on the latest iterations of social media, and the golden tickets of relationship building - business cards. Looking around, it becomes blatantly obvious that in this celebration of the "geek", there is an equal celebration of the overall human condition.
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Hours of conversing later, it's time for the main event: Manpacks. Founders Ken Johnson and Andrew Drape took turns sharing their inspiration, Web site model, and business structure, interspersing the presentation with clever plays on the obviously funny idea of Manpacks. They preached simplicity and utilitarianism to a crowd of creatives, and sold it. (Look for GoLocalProv's profile of Manpacks next week).
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Excitement after excitement, next, everyone headed over to the redone Mercantile Block. Although still in construction, the building was infused with the scent of potential. In an exclusive guided tour of a finished model room, the geeks were privy to what can only be described as a haven of urban curation and practical living. Despite the soft grumbling of the lack of parking, it was clear that the place would be a steal for any struggling artist.
But even though the night was filled with highlights, the most important thing was realtor Lucie Searle’s definition of artist. An artist, she told the crowd, is no longer just a painter or just a musician. An artist is someone who does creative work. And a “geek” is as much an artist as any ‘artiste’.
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