we love hearing from jerome and ricardo (love it, so good to know) and look forward to more news from anyone/everyone, but it need not be an edict. right? where ever one feels comfortable on the radar. (insert yourself into radar diagram, here, as you would draw it, or maybe its represented by numbers, a calculation?)

meanwhile, toward "new thing," we recently had a cocktail meeting developing the new board. It was so phenomenally odd and therefore quite brilliant. but at one point the mission statement was put on the table.

now i will take responsibility for this (although wolf and i put pen to paper and artist christoph draeger-our super new energy and partner, who is actually the sunlight to the seed-okay, he is going to hate the way I poeticized that, also helped to shape this) statement that I have already been using for grants.but.at the "approximation of a board meeting" a certain bon vivant's girlfriend suggested that our interest in social activism was trendy.

now this is fair when I hear it from one of you. but while enjoying heidrun's incredible pasta sauce (heidrun, a brilliant filmmaker/artist, who is also in the core group to open the new space) I had to pause a serious pause...really.

THE THING is a (501c3) non-profit organization committed to the development of new media culture, fine arts and social activism. During its first ten years, it became widely recognized as one of the founding and leading online centers for new media culture, hosting artists' projects in its multimedia lab, discussion forums with notable events and symposia, as well as publishing cultural criticism. THE THING's new project space expands its mission towards the production and presentation of new work in a real physical environment, redefining the relationship of new media culture, fine arts and social activism and continuing to distinguish itself as an essential platform for outsider expression. Through its diverse programs, testing new curatorial methods of presentation including actions and initiatives, THE THING continues to stimulate contemporary discourse specifically between art, media and socio-political culture.