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WiWa is a collective action platform for the mobile device.
Many of the problems facing our world today are the result of scale. Our individual decision to drive to work, or purchase a box of quinoa seems insignificant but when these decisions are duplicated across the world they can fuel climate change and destroy national economies.
WiWa is an attempt to turn this on its head. What if our little actions added up to good? What if they could be more directed? Our users propose small actions, things an individual can do that take ten minutes or less, that will positively effect the world. The community then votes for the actions they think will have the most important impact and each week we all do the top three.
It’s a simple, low impact, way to work with our fellow humans all across the world and begin to establish a responsible global culture to lead us into the future.
For more information or to join the test group go to WiWa.app
Lab’s Reasons
Wouldn’t it be amazing if the world could act as one? We thought it would be interesting to see if we could create a tool that would inspire little actions on a big scale.
A fellowship to incubate world-changing ideas.
The Mira Fellowship is building a blueprint for our cultural future by reframing our most intractable issues and discovering solutions that empower individuals to action.
Throughout history, monumental change has come from simple shifts in perspective. Our global society currently faces many seemingly intractable problems. The Mira Fellowship is designed to provide an opportunity for motivated people to address our most pressing issues by stepping back, finding a new perspective, and creating an action plan.
Fellows will be given one year to research, design, and produce a simple actionable plan for change. How do we reframe garbage? How do we rethink privacy? How do we rethink education? What is your question that could change the world?
The fellowship is cohort-based and remotely collaborates monthly as well as meeting in person several times a year. Each fellow receives a small research grant along with on-going coaching, support, and access to expertise.
For more information visit MiraFellowship.org
Lab’s Reasons
Culture moves towards the set of clear ideas available at any moment. If you have a great idea that doesn’t communicate it will never be adopted. As our globe becomes more and more connected we wanted to develop a library of human centric ideas that could lead us to a more harmonious future for all.
Feature Film - 91 min (The Operative, Rogue Agent)
When a rookie operative's mistake costs the lives of his entire team, he's forced on the run and must piece together the truth by re-creating the events of the ill-fated mission with only the audio recording to guide him.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3526470/
Lab’s Reasons
Currently nearly 70% of the US intelligence budget is spent on contractors. The film explores what it might be like to join a world with such grey lines and asks us to examine what it means to trust in this day and age.
Tension: We produced Newcomer to learn more about creating tension. The film has relies heavily on sound design and gave us the opportunity to explore and experiment with the various storytelling elements of cinema. We wanted to tell a classic spy story but to tell it in the unfamiliar world of Belgrade. This gave us the opportunity to study a very Western story told through a new lens.
And hey, sometimes you just want to try to tell a good story.
A vision to unleash the collective human mind.
As individuals we are not powerless to whims of the powerful. We have agency. Everything humanity has created first came from an idea. We all have ideas every day. The Handbook for a Global Future sets out a simple vision for a future that includes everyone in only 2500 words. We are not doomed. We just need better ideas.
Lab’s Reasons
Most current visions of the future range from bleak to apocalyptic. Climate change. The robot uprising. The widening wealth gap. Nuclear brinksmanship. When we looked we couldn’t find many visions we’d want our children to live in. So we wrote one.
Feature Film - In Development
Pinhole is a film about the overpowering moment of loss. It’s the story a man whose sister loses her child unexpectedly in childbirth. The story follows the hours before and the few days after the loss. The cinematic style is an attempt to put the viewer into the moment and transmit the bodily feelings coursing through our main character.
Lab’s Reasons:
Pinhole is an extension of the elements we explored in Newcomer. Rather than use cinema as a visual document of an event we are attempting to use it to submerge the viewer in the experience of the main character. After the experience of Newcomer we realized it is possible to go much much further down this road without losing the viewer. Pinhole will explore a heightened moment of life through a very very subjective lens.
Bringing river awareness across communities in Boise, Idaho through collective action.
During the summer of 2019 we supported the Source to Snake river celebration with a mobile app based on the technology behind WiWa. The month-long event followed Christopher Swain’s swim 120 miles from the headwaters of the Boise River to its confluence with the Snake River. Our app brought the city together around simple sponsored actions that any individual can take to help the river. Every action was logged and displayed to the entire community revealing their common appreciation for the river.
Lab’s Reasons
Many of our projects have focused on small individual actions at scale. This gives us a chance to test more thoroughly in the wild.
We started with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights as it was adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1948 and we whittled it down. The Universal Declaration was an agreement between nations. Today technology allows us to speak to anyone in the world at a moment’s notice. We don’t need to rely on nations and representatives to speak for us. What would a similar agreement look like between individuals?
We edited and simplified and rewrote and narrowed it down to 4 articles.
Imagine if every individual recorded this pledge and broadcast it to the planet. If we all declare our intentions our leaders can not frame others as evil. We will no longer be unknown to each other.
The Global People’s Treaty
I swear in full faith to the following.
Equality
I believe all humans are born free and equal in dignity and worth.
Security
I believe every human has the right to life, liberty, and security of person.
Expression
I believe every human has the right to freedom of thought, religion, and expression and may peacefully assemble and associate without interference.
Environment
I believe every human has the right to clean air, water, food, and land.
Commitment
I, will do everything in my power to uphold these rights and I pledge never to act toward the destruction of any of these rights and freedoms.
Lab’s Reasons
As more power is transferred to the individual we believe everyone will have a greater responsibility to their fellow global citizens. We wanted to see if we could come up with a simple statement that would promote trust everywhere.
Feature Film - In Development
The Boy, The Bomb, and The Mountain is the story of a father and son who must drive a live explosive over a treacherous mountain road in order to save the revolution.
A brash military officer forces a timid father and his teenage son to drive him and his explosive over the mountain. Through one harrowing situation after another the father learns he can’t protect his son from the world and together they find a way to believe in life again and save the revolution.
Lab’s Reasons:
Effort: We wanted to create a story that put effort and purpose front and center. We feel both need to be more present in today’s global debate. How do we engage people with their own agency and power. This story examines the human will to continue against all odds.
Tension: Well, we just like tension. It keeps everyone engaged and we want to explore more how to create it and milk it until the audience is breathless. :)
Brink is a simple game of table top toss. Each player tosses all eleven cards (including the special cards) and then adds up their score. For more information or to get yourself a copy visit BrinkGame.com
Lab’s Reasons:
With Brink we were searching for moments of anticipation and joy. How quickly could we create a moment? How simply could we make the game?
The goal of the game is to get your cards cantilevered off the table without falling onto the floor. This simple moment of anticipation could bring joy to parents and children alike only moments after learning the game.
Photos courtesy of PakFactory
Feature Film - In Development
The Better Half is a feature film set in a fictitious refugee camp in which the men and women are separated by a wall. Only the strongest men and the most beautiful women are allowed to mate. When the crown prince’s jealous brother tricks him into a female body he must learn to become a beautiful women in order to make it back to the men’s side. In the process he learns to love the woman he’s sharing a body with.
Lab’s Reasons
There are so many identity issues that divide today’s cultures. Gender, sexual orientation, wealth, power, body image. We decided to put them all into a single world and force a young man to try to navigate it.
Nearly 30% of a patient’s Medicare costs are spent in the last six months of their life. In the US in 2011 that was $170 Billion dollars. Much of this comes from miscommunications of a patient’s wishes. A hospital is duty bound to do everything it can to preserve life unless you tell them otherwise.
Willoop is a simple way to share you end of life wishes with those closest to you so that they are always within reach. Simply fill out your Living Will and share it with your Loop. Your medical wishes will be known even if you are incapacitated or unconscious. Want to change your wishes? With a few touches of your phone your Loop will know your new wishes and make sure they are carried out when you are unable to express them yourself.
Lab’s Reasons
Our interest in Willoop was in the study of intimacy. We’ve all used the internet to broadcast our life. We put our most impressive foot forward and show off to the world. But how do we create an intimate interaction? How do we create trust? How do we give the user confidence that their wishes will be carried out when they are unable to see them through?
Feature Film - 85 min.
Juko’s Time Machine is the story of two friends who will stop at nothing for love and build a time machine to win the heart of Juko’s childhood dream girl. In the process they learn that sometimes the most difficult obstacle is yourself. Literally.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2244941/
Lab’s Reasons
This was an early project. We wanted to see if we could generate sympathy and excitement through a fractured narrative. Plus, who doesn’t like time travel!
Feature Film - 70 min
Big Idea was the very first project Young Barney undertook. It began as a documentary film about the innovative spirit. We drove around the United States interviewing inventors of simple products; The Body Geometry Bike Seat (the bike seat that stopped impotence), My Breast Friend (a breastfeeding pillow), Aqua Golf (a floating astroturf green in your pool) and told their stories in a documentary film. The final film was nearly turned into a Hollywood television show. Think Shark Tank before Shark Tank (and friendlier).
While lacking some of the polish of later projects the spirit it captured has been our guiding light for over ten years.
Lab’s Reasons
We didn’t have a reason when we started this project but talking with all these inventors inspired us and drove us to figure out how we could inspire this energy in others.