Josh Urban’s Planetary Jam Sets The Stage For The 2nd Kindness Exchange & You’re Invited

I wanted to have as many high points this last week at Hypebot as possible. Closing with a piece on Josh Urban is about as high a point as I could reach even though most of you probably haven't heard of him. He's taking some basic ideas, using them to fuel interactions with the public and finding unique ways of building community through music. Urban's projects include online community participation and he wants you to know that you're invited to participate in this year's Kindness Exchange.

I knew I'd written about Josh Urban a few times now but this actually makes my fifth post about what he's up to. I guess that's because each time I enter his world I find myself confronted by truth and realness in very positive ways. I don't get that enough these days.

I first wrote about the Josh Urban Rail Tour in which he went on the road, played on the streets and shared the experience in live video hangouts. He also created ways for people to participate online and to travel along vicariously using hashtags and creating collaborative media.

We spoke in detail about the first tour, which was a somewhat standard sidewalk tour with the addition of social media, and the second tour, which focused on a theme of searching for "everyday heroes" and celebrating them.

This shift from Josh the guy on stage to Josh the crowd facilitator continued with The Kindness Exchange which tied together such themes as holiday season campaigns without the buying/selling/fundraising aspect and celebration through acknowledgement of the good people do in their everyday lives.

I spoke with him this week about the third Rail Tour and his plans for the second Kindness Exchange of which you can be a part.

"Josh Urban – The Planetary Jam"

I'd like to say something that sounds really smart about how complexity arises from simple things. I see that in this video based on the third Rail Tour but I'm not quite sure how to say it.

The song itself is very simple which provides a solid base for participants who don't usually play music. But what's that broom thingie they're holding?

For the third tour Josh Urban invented his own form of electric broom. He said he was trying to come up with something easy and fun for people to play but he had no idea that people would respond as they did.

Even in situations where people would normally keep walking past some guy playing guitar in the street, like New York where there's plenty of interesting things to look at and lots of people who pride themselves on not looking at them, they stopped and many played.

Josh described multiple scenes, like being on a subway car in New York and getting a crowd just off the broom, that sound great but I think the video gives you a much better sense of the kind of interactions that are possible.

Josh also spoke about his interest in taking the financial part out of the exchange and this time he didn't he put out a hat. His thinking was, "let's make a music video" together and he shot those who were willing as part of the process.

Yet people still wanted to give him money. That seemed to be an aspect he was still mulling over as we discussed the magic of the broom in allowing a breakdown of the imaginary wall that still separates even many street performers from their audience.

Join The Kindness Exchange

I wrote about The Kindness Exchange last year when Josh did the first one.

It's even more of a community project and it will be interesting to see how it grows this year.

You can find out more here and help Josh Urban bring more light to an often dark world.

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Hypebot Senior Contributor Clyde Smith (@fluxresearch) recently launched DanceLand and is relaunching Crowdfunding For Musicians. Contact: clyde(at)fluxresearch(dot)com.

admin on 10/17/2014 in D.I.Y. | Permalink | Comments (0)

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