Response to Paul Grahams Startup readings

After readings Paul Grahams essays I found all his advice very inspiring and useful. Creating a project that is self-sustaining is an important aspect of anything you intend to create as an enterprise. I especially liked his advice in the article titled “How to avoid the obstacles between you and what you love to do”. Towards the end of the article he states an example of asking random people on the street if they would like to draw like Leonardo Divinchi. You would find most people to say things like “ Oh, I cant draw.” This means that they are not going to try it’s a statement. If that person where to work as hard as they could for twenty years on drawing I’m sure they would get surprisingly far. It just takes a lot of moral effort – staring failure in the eye for many years. This is something I think about often. You can be anything you want to be, and do nearly anything you want to do if you just dedicate and spend your time achieving your goal. Its not that people cant draw – its that they haven’t chosen to spend their time learning the techniques of drawing.

Live video projections and digital interactive environments are still a a rising medium. Mixing and creating video live is something that has been done since the 1960’s but as technology has started to make things easier it has become a growing trend. All major entertainment performances have some sort of projected light or video show occurring somewhere on the stage. Grahman talks about not re inventing the wheel and creating projects that address a problem that has already been solved. So how can I make my project new, innovative and something that will last for years in the future?

Starting my own company geared towards live video performance for synchronization to sound would be a great start. Either as a team of live performers for hire or maybe even a box a musician can by and just plug there band into and then have there instruments control the video From my research I have found that currently there is only one major company that creates the visual shows for most major concert venues/festivals. They charge a lot of money, and usually only work with high end main stream bands. My company could be for anywhere from the small budget DJ, or band to a large venue dj, a large party, a sales show, wedding, dance club, whatever – any place looking for something new and different.

Travel could be a very important part of making this sustainable. Right now there is not much of a market for the kind of projects I am working on in the Bangor area. Traveling to worldwide festivals and cities and performing is the best way to show off your skills and get your name into the market. Festivals especially will host many other computer artist who working in the same medium on different projects. This is a great way to share ideas and find collaborators or even possible investors.
Traveling to different festivals and performing in clubs where vjing is most common is another way to find your niche into the community of digital arts. Djs, Vjs and a lot of other electronically savvy people.