THIS ISSUE:

-- Alphachimp News
-- The Center for Graphic Facilitation
-- Cool Tools
-- Monkey Business
-- Podcasts of Note
-- Shout Outs
-- Upcoming Events

So,... the big evolutionary news: After 10 years of running Alphachimp Studio Inc. from the center, I'll be managing from the fringes.

On Jan. 1, I'll be joining the Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tennessee. They have invited me to act as Lead Facilitator for the Vanderbilt Center for Better Health, a large innovation center designed for collaborative events aimed at re-inventing the American medical system.

Alphachimp Studio Inc. will continue to provide quality graphic facilitation services through our growing network of creative associates. In recent weeks, we have added several new members: Keith Bendis (New York), Jim Nuttle (Washington DC), Stephanie Crowley (Dallas), Dan Bigonese (Ottawa, Canada), David Williams (Colorado) and Scott Fray (North Carolina). With more in the works!

As of the drafting of this letter, Alphachimp Associate Sita Magnuson (Boston) is busy supporting an event in India! I can't imagine another person more equipped for this assignment. After all, the woman has scribed for Afghan president Harmid Karzai in Kabul.

After 50 years of drawing and publishing a half-dozen political cartoons a week, 52 weeks a year, through 11 presidential administrations, well, that will get you some enemies. Paul Conrad should know. This staff cartoonist for the LA Times was honored to be put on Nixon's famed hate list. He has received death threats and political heat, but in the end, it was a corporate change in the newspaper business that shut him--and many other staff cartoonists--down, but not out.

http://graphicfacilitation.blogs.com/pages/2006/11/drawing_fire_th.html

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Handwritten Inspiration

At the IFVP Conference, there was quite a bit of exploration of handwriting and manual typography. There was a bit of a divide between those who (rightfully) reverently adhere to the time-honored discipline of typography, and those of us who's ideals of lettering came from R. Crumb, Bugs Bunny, Schoolhouse Rock, Calvin and Hobbes, and The Electric Company. Heller and Ilic's book, Handwritten: Expressive Lettering in the Digital Age, does a great job bridging the gap.

http://graphicfacilitation.blogs.com/pages/2006/11/handwritten_ins.html

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Folk Art Letter Forms

As graphic facilitators and illustrators, the history of lettering is a vast museum there for us to pillage. The front door is unlocked and the rewards are infinite! Here are a couple of examples of letter-looters and the whimsical results of their creative process: Ray Fenwick, Yee-Haw Industries and Paula Scher.

http://graphicfacilitation.blogs.com/pages/2006/10/folk_art_letter.html

Evolution from Scribe to Strategy Partners

ABOVE: Graphic facilitation by David Williams, Trapdoor Media

At IFVP 2006, presented a list of free (and almost free) tools for managing the business of the business of being a graphic facilitator. Click link below for a list of the services and products reviewed...

http://graphicfacilitation.blogs.com/pages/2006/10/ifvp_2006_evolu.html

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ZeusDraw

Need a vector-based drawing tool, but don't want to shell out the big bucks for the Adobe Creative Suite? Too tired of pestering your designer buddy for a bootlegged copy of Illustrator? Try ZeusDraw, a new drawing program from Chromatic Bytes with a fluid, graceful interface. It has a different, more intuitive approach to paths (Bezier curves) and great brushes.

http://graphicfacilitation.blogs.com/pages/2006/11/zeusdraw.html

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Cleaning Digital Photos of Drawings

One of the big hits from the IFVP 2006 Conference was the Tech Session. There was quite a buzz about the Photoshop demonstration on "cleaning" photos of graphic recording artwork. Click below for a step by step guide on how.

http://graphicfacilitation.blogs.com/pages/2006/11/cleaning_digita.html

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Calligraphy Pens

At the IFVP conference, Jan Adkins' workshop on letterforms introduced us to a fantastic set of calligraphy pens: Copic Markers. They are refillable and affordable. Perfectly made for the human hand to hold super steady and produce large-scale letterforms.

http://copicmarker.com/

Chimpanzees: An Unnatural History

This moving documentary on the plight of American chimps aired on the PBS program Nature. In 1959, the United States Air Force captured dozens of baby chimpanzees in Africa, transporting them to Alamogordo, New Mexico, where they and their offspring were to endure a grueling life as the ultimate human stand-ins. From experiments in space travel and high-velocity crash tests, to pharmaceutical testing and hepatitis and AIDS research, to roles on the silver and small screens, these original Air Force chimpanzees and others that followed gave their lives to benefit humankind - and now a few extraordinary people are working to give those lives back.

http://www.alphachimp.com/clients/2006/11/chimpanzees-unnatural-history_05.html

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Rearranging the Human Family Tree

New research published in the August, 2006 journal Current Anthropology by Neanderthal and early modern human expert, Erik Trinkaus, Ph.D., professor of anthropology at Washington University in St. Louis, suggests that rather than the standard straight line from chimps to early humans to us with Neanderthals off on a side graph, it's equally valid, perhaps more valid based on the fossil record, that the line should extend from the common ancestor to the Neanderthals, and Modern Humans should be the branch off that.

http://news-info.wustl.edu/tips/page/normal/7586.html?at

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Monkey Management

Being a primate isn't easy. Especially since, as one myself, I find other primates so unpredictable and silly. Not to mention, sneaky and overly scatological.

Brad Farris of Anchor Advisors in the Chicagoland area, sent us a link to serve as a helpful guide for those primates who have to manage the time and energy of their fellow simians: The One Minute Manager Meets the Monkey.

http://www.alphachimp.com/clients/2006/10/monkey-management.html

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Monkey on the Move

Some experiments should never see the light of day! From YouTube. Where else? From Jarrell McAlister: Robot Vacuum + Animatronic Chimp = Sheer Terror

http://www.alphachimp.com/clients/2006/10/monkey-on-move.html

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The Thirteenth Tipping Point

The core article of this issue of Mother Jones Magazine asks the same question that peaceniks and dyed-in-the-wool Goldwater Republicans alike shout into the stratosphere: "What is is going to take for us to survive?"

Dolphins, cockroaches, and vampire bats understand that cooperation is the key to survival.

Why don't we?

http://www.motherjones.com/news/feature/20http://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gif06/11/13th_tipping_point.html

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Spore

You have to check out the Spore website, if, for no other reason, to see the fantastically fun Flash animation that tells the alternate version of evolution.

At Pop!Tech, I witnessed Intelligent Design in the flesh. As WNYC's On the Media puts it on their November 3rd show:

Will Wright, creator of “The Sims,” has a brand new game on the way. In “Spore,” gamers begin as a single-cell organism, and evolve, over time, by earning and spending DNA points.

http://www.alphachimp.com/clients/2006/11/spore_05.html

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Do I Creep You Out?

The boys from JibJab are back with a new paperdoll animation. Departing from their right-on-target political musical satire genre, this collaboration with Weird Al Yankovic lampoons American Idol, Starbucks and the American tradition of stalker love.

http://www.alphachimp.com/clients/2006/11/weird-al-and-jibjabs-love-child-creeps.html

The Boomer Cartooner Feiffer

In honor of the many professional cartoonists in our community—Drew Dernavitch, Matt Diffe, Keith Bendis—and people like me who fantasize about be published by the like of The New Yorker, we bring you this: An interview with the cartoonist of his generation, Jules Feiffer.

Inspired by his hero of the political comic, Walt Kelly author of Pogo, Feiffer had the drive, but not the penmanship. He developed a loose style, mostly "out of ignorance" according to the artist. But that loose style and open white space has captured a specific atmosphere of malaise mixed with merriment that makes his work so unique.

This interview gives insight to his decision to give up lambasting the political and cultural landscape in America.

Show: http://studio360.org/stream/ram.py?file=studio/studio110306e.mp3
Read: http://graphicfacilitation.blogs.com/pages/2006/11/the_boomer_cart.html

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Shahzia Sikander

In an era when many artists have embraced abstract conceptual work, Sikander, who was born in Pakistan, embraces good old-fashioned painting. Her main point of inspiration is classical miniature painting – all the rage in the courts of Central Asia some seven hundred years ago. Sikander’s taken this ancient craft to a new, deeply personal level. This piece was part of a show on this year's MacAurthur Genius Grant Winners on Studio 360.

Sikander: http://studio360.org/stream/ram.py?file=studio/studio092906c.mp3
Show: http://studio360.org/episodes/2006/09/29
Website: http://studio360.org/
Subscribe: http://feeds.wnyc.org/studio360/podcast

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Body Worlds

It's often been said that the human body is a work of art. But what about preserving real human corpses, arranging them in various poses, and creating a museum exhibit around them? Living on Earth's Dennis Foley visited the controversial exhibit "Body Worlds" at the Boston Museum of Science and brings us an audio portrait. BODY WORLDS 2, the most highly attended touring exhibition in the world, takes this tradition one step further by presenting more than 200 authentic human specimens--including individual organs--that have been preserved by a process called Plastination, invented by the leading anatomist of our time, Dr. Gunther von Hagens.

From the October 27 American Public Radio program, Living on Earth.

Segment: http://stream.loe.org/audio/061027/061027bodyworld.mp3
Show: http://www.loe.org/shows/shows.htm?programID=06-P13-00043
Website: http://www.loe.org/

Er.. these are actually past events, but they were cool!

BIF-2
Providence, Rhode Island
Oct. 4-5, 2006

This conference features the personal stories of innovators from across the country who are redefining the rules of innovation and transforming how value is delivered in every arena.

At the conference, I presented the caveman's story of "innovation".

In a career limiting move (CLM) I did a shoddy impersonation of Richard Saul Wurman, host of the conference and revered graphics guru.

Nevertheless, the new browser-based software MissingLink was announced to the world...

http://alphachimp.missinglink.biz/business-innovation-factory/bif-2

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Pop!Tech
Camden, Maine
Oct. 19-22, 2006

One opera house, 3 days, 500 participants, hundreds of "dangerous" ideas... this was Pop!Tech X.

As official Pop!Tech artist, I built out a mobile paint studio, perched up in the loge box above the opera house stage. I managed to crank out 36 paintings totaling 43,200 square inches of art to give form to the ideas propagated by the superstar speakers.

The amazing roster included musician Brian Eno, futurist Kevin Kelly, science fiction writer Bruce Sterling, military strategist Tom Barnett, historian Juan Enriquez, culinary scientist Homaro Cantu and the long tailed Chris Anderson.

The original works (all 30" x 40" acrylic paintings on archival poster board) are up for auction to raise money for the Pop!Tech Scholarship Fund. This will enable more students, women and minorities from other parts of the country and the world to attend this amazing event held each year in Camden, Maine.

HP was one of the corporate sponsors and a team of writers and designers were on-site to compile a 300+ full-color book incorporating photos, artwork, scribbles, post-its, wiki posts, blog posts and random submissions. The book is currently printing and will reach each of the 500+ participants at their homes within 3 days of the event's conclusion!

I used our new web-based tool for capturing events, MissingLink, to publish the results in almost real time.

http://alphachimp.missinglink.biz/poptech/poptech-2006-dangerous-ideas

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IFVP 2006 Conference
Lake Tahoe, California
Oct. 27-29, 2006

This was my first International Forum of Visual Practitioners' conference. I highly recommend it for anyone in the larger graphic facilitation community. Very laid back and friendly. There are workshops for beginners and peer-to-peer learning for old timers. Next year will be in stellar Santa Fe, New Mexico.

To see all posts from the conference, visit:
http://graphicfacilitation.blogs.com/pages/2006/10/index.html

Also visit http://www.ifvp.org

We'd be honored to brag about any of your accomplishments or promote any of your upcoming workshops or public appearances.

Drop us a line!

Peter Durand, Creative Director
peter@alphachimp.com | toll free: 1-866-99CHIMP