Today at 5:20pm it was over. Well, over in the sense that I now have more time to work on my thesis paper (shhhh...its not written yet) other projects and of course freeFormed for the rest of my waking life! But at least I have no more worries about actually having to talk about this thing that culminates the last two years of my life. In the wake of this presentation being over, I have so many people to thank for their large and small roles in the making this project what it is today, and I just didn't feel that names on a screen was the appropriate way to do it (plus I am procrastinating writing this gigantic thing..shhhh). So here goes:
First and foremost, I have to thank my thesis partner Jadie Oh. This project would not have happened without her. Not only is she a talented and amazing designer who has made freeformed beautiful and actually MAKE SENSE but she's also an incredibly hard worker who has made a collaborative thesis (something that could easily turn into a disaster between people's differing opinions, stress and lack of sleep) an awesome experience. Two scorpios and we made it happen girl, YES WE DID!!
Second, I have to thank my fellow freeformers, Megan MacMurray, Nanna Halinen and Yonatan Kelib. Megan is the voice of reason and logic in my head. To see her sing Justin Timberlake at 11:30 in the front lobby of ITP you may not understand why, but she is. freeFormed would not be a company without her and her constant inspiring and constructive critique of our process has been invaluable. And all this while stressing out about her BioBronc. She is awesome, thats it. Nanna my partner in crime, my confidant, the one I bitch to at all hours of the day and night about everything and anything. Sometimes you just need an outlet and a really good friend. Thanks for that, I needed it this semester. Thanks for also donating your available time to looking at our progress along the way. Yonatan, the man who took on a project with four women. What were you thinking?? HA! You piss me off, but you know that and I love you for it. We know you've been busy this semester, but thanks for your support. The girls are missing their back massages, its time to rejoin the group!
To Shawn Van Every, the man who returns emails at 3am and has endured more discussions and help sessions concerning freeformed then anyone should ever be subjected to. He might not know it yet, but we consider him our silent sixth member. His Producing Participatory Media class started this project and without some of his code this never would have happened. Thanks for the popper, for asterisk, for New Orleans, for enduring stupid Cat questions about everything from PHP to RSS and for being such a great teacher. You may say its your job, but its more then that to us. We thank you and we owe you!
To Marianne Petit for not just making the New Orleans project happen, but for allowing freeFormed and myself to be a part of it. It changed my life, really. As it should have, as I hope it did for at least one other person. It grounded my project and my self in the real world, which is hard to achieve sometimes at ITP, but its something we all need. Thanks for making me feel like my project could be relevant outside of itself. And thanks for being my advisor.
To Clay Shirky for making me think about groups and group behavior in a new way. The Social Facts class grounded my thinking about freeFormed and it was research that I may not have done otherwise. There aren't that many people whose opinions I truly respect if they are not my friends (I guess thats just the way I am). He is one of those people whose opinions I do. Thanks for sharing all of your knowledge and thoughts, it was a great semester.
To Heather Greer, my thesis instructor, for a class that never made me feel too pressured and for understanding my ideas early on even when I couldn't articulate them properly.
To Steven Jackson for showing me your New Orleans. It was an amazing trip and as much as I wanted to KILL you when you took us on a 3 hour coffee run (among other things) you made that trip mean something else, for all of us. Thank you for that. And thanks for supporting freeformed and being interested pretty much since the project began. The aliens can use freeFormed too, tell them to make their own circle.
To everyone who went down to New Orleans with me and produced such amazing projects out of it or did such amazing work. I really felt like part of a team. It was a great time.
To the students of Xavier University, especially Mary Hill and Ashley Thomas. Thank you for showing us your city. Perhaps you thought you could learn a lot from us. I think in reality, we also learned so much from you.
To Linda Jackson, one of the most amazing women I met in a long time. Her work in the face of such complete disaster should be an inspiration to us all.
To my friends outside of ITP and my family, who have seen little of me in the last five months and who have still given me nothing but there support. My parents, Natasha, Anthony, Craig, Robert, Annette and Ed in particular..thanks. And to my daughter, you keep me going and remembering that behind every project there are much more important things. I love you all.