The Universal Patronage Project

So Phase 2 is going well – we just reached and passed the 180 member mark on the facebook group page.

Keep spreading the word everyone!!!

So as all projects do, this one has continued to grow and change. The most significant thing that has happened is the decision to launch Phase 2: I’m in the largest portrait ever made.

So join the group and spread the word!!

According to Mashable, today marks the 6th birthday of what we have come to call Facebook.

As you may have noticed, we fell off the wagon with this project awhile back. Lots of excuses, but in reality, I think it comes down to a simple truth: we’re afraid of the project. Not conceptually – I think we’re both fascinated by it. But in actuality.

Neither of us are really big telephone users. And begging for money is scary. Scarier than we anticipated. It’s one thing to talk about it in theory – quite another to actually begin calling people that you know and asking them to give you something. Especially when that something happens to be the most culturally valuable abstraction – hard cash.

But since it’s FB’s bday, it seems the least we can do is to get something going. My personal goal for tonight is just to call ONE person that gave us their phone number.

Hope to talk to you soon.

We received our first official donation today from a man named Robert Sweeney. It happened in a way we didn’t expect: a game of Wii golf.

Robert currently lives in Jackson Hole, WY. He’s a ski instructor. He was in Chicago on family business and we got together for lunch and just to generally catch up. He brought up the UPP, insisting that he wanted to participate.

“But I don’t really want to do it over the phone. And now that I’m here in town, I have an idea: let’s make this interesting.”

Of course, we were intrigued.

“How about a game of skins?”

I had no idea what skins was – but come to find out it’s a betting game in golf; each hole worth a particular amount of money. (I’m sure there is more detail, but I’m not interested and not going to research it) Anyhow, Cash and Robert proceeded to play an afternoon round of 18 holes at Pebble Beach – on our Wii, in Fishbowl.

The donated amount was 120 USD.

The second appeal has not produced as many hits on the blog or phone numbers so far. It has however, gotten a different tone of response from the people that have replied. Much more “charitable” – for instance one person related a story of someone sending them money on Christmas when their spouse was out of work and how that had made their holiday.

“I don’t have much,” she said. “But it made the kids Christmas.”

Wow. This was from a “new” fbf – someone that I haven’t seen in a number of years, but that I went to grade school and high school with. For some reason that made me feel a little weird.

So too did the response from a fbf who we actually know pretty well saying that she hoped if we needed money – or anything else – that we would be comfortable enough to just call and ask her for it.

Not sure how this will affect our next appeal, but here’s some thoughts:

• Should we remove people from the email list that have already written back?
• Should we be more or less forthcoming with our personal financial situation?
• What role should/ does pity play in this particular equation?
• What role does ART play in it?

Last week I learned that you can only send an email to 20 people on fb at one time. This morning while looking at people’s responses, I learned that fb also limits the number of words that you can write in those email messages. So instead of starting with a thank you to the people that had sent us their numbers so far, our 2nd appeal started with a Suze Orman quote!

Can’t decide if that’s funny, karmic, annoying, or just plain sad.

So it’s only been 24 hours since we sent out Appeal #1. While reading the responses, some of the things that occur to me:

• You never know what’s going to offend people.
• How private is a phone number?
• What makes someone write a response vs. a comment vs. only a phone number vs. a response with no phone number?

As of 5:14 pm CST, 23 fbfs have responded out of the 320 emails that were sent to individual people. That is a 7% return in approximately 24 hours. We did not have current phone numbers for most of the people who responded.

It’s a little strange, but I feel like I can’t list their names here. I also find it interesting to note WHO it is that responded and WHAT their response actually contained. Some examples, with some identifying data, are listed below:

• “Okay. I’ll bite. XXX-XXX-XXXX after 5pm.” Good friend we rarely see and with whom we have communicated only on fb for over a year.
• …”This project made me think of all those religious paintings commissioned by “patrons” who would then be included in some corner of the painting as advertisement of their generosity and wealth…XXX-XXX-XXXX.” Old friend we haven’t seen in more than 3 years. All communication has been via email and fb.
• “i love phone calls! XXX-XXX-XXXX.” New friend we see occasionally at professional/art events.
• “I … can’t say in words how much I dislike the phone. But you all go ahead!” Pure fbf. We have never met in person. She friended us through fb as part of a “general outreach/collection of fbfs,” – specifically art-related people living/working in Chicago.

Some interesting and totally unscientific data:

• 2 family members responded. One gave us a phone number. The other did not.
• The majority of the current respondents are not what we would consider “close” friends.
• 9/23 current respondents we have either never met in person, or have not seen in over 1 year.

Sent out the first round of email appeals on fb between 5:40 and 6:00 pm CST.

First response received from Shane Mecklenberger @ 5:55 pm CST.

Observation 1: Ordering our network into arbitrary groups based on a numbering system makes us feel like there is a type of hierarchy. It is a different feeling than the one experienced by them being ordered alphabetically.

Observation 2: The addition of new friends to the network will make the numerical ordering irrelevant at some point.

Observation 3: Facebook groups living people along with dead and/or famous people, like Marcel Duchamp and Leonard Cohen, and things like “Camping” under the single heading “Friends.” But only on your “Friends” page. The homepage link (left hand control panel) only takes you to people.

Observation 4: Facebook friends are arranged by first name. Most people seem to use their “real” name – whatever that means.