Episode 09

[00:00:00] Super excited to be here with Benzie today remote. He is going to give us a unique showcase showdown of what's taking place in the time to be happy gallery in Soho. He has a special guest with him today, but before he makes any introductions, Benzie. Please introduce yourself and set the scene. I hear beautiful music.

Oh, should I put it down or are you guys enjoying it? No, it's nice. Nice. It puts everybody in a happy mood. Thank you. It's the vibe of the gallery. So yeah so basically it's time to be at the gallery. We're going to extend more about what it is I'm sure in the near future. But today we're having a special lady.

Her name is Dr. Sian. She is the first black woman to pilot a spacecraft. And she's a very famous [00:01:00] astronaut and an incredible artist. And a lot of the meaning and message of the gallery and the time to be happy is that time is actually space. So today we're doing a collaboration clock together.

We actually did, we did one together in 2023 and it was sold and we, we decided that we got to do it again because one, we had a great time. And two, it's because it's such a great element in the story of the gallery. We have few, I'll show you just so we have, we have like few, one second, say it, say it, sorry, no problem.

So we have few line of collaboration cloaks we have right here, this one is with Dave Krugman. And moving forward we have know Dave Krugman, sure. Jen Stark, okay, I see Jen Stark, Jack Freed, we got Brian Brickman we got Jack Butcher. Micah Johnson, [00:02:00] we have Swan and Ron English, and we have little Shoko here.

Oh so today we're doing we're doing the, the, the clock together, and she's coming in from the outside, I'll make the introduction, and Dr. Sayan says, doing my time in space, I orbit the Earth every, every 90 minutes, exploring a sunrise and sunset every 45 minutes which is also Another element of how we see times, measure it and perspective of, of, of our time and how we changes in space and how in general time is, is, is space.

But here she's coming in.

And how did you guys first meet? So we actually met at my, I had a show in scope in Miami during Art Basel and we met there and [00:03:00] then she goes, Oh, I would love to do, I had a collection there of clocks. She goes, Oh, I would love to do a clocks with you guys. I'm like, okay. And then she, she told me who she was.

I was like, Oh my God, absolutely. We have to do it. And we, we talked about it for a while and then we actually met. In Joshua tree. The next time we met to film, which was till today, the most craziest shoot I've ever done because of the weather and nature over there. But it was it came out beautiful. I'll show a little bit of it shortly and to follow the clock that we did before we did it in L.

A. At the so house location and we had it as a workshop. We invited all the so house members and it was really beautiful. This is, let me just open the clock here. So this was shot in Joshua 3.

So this is also part of the the clock. It's featuring Dr. Cyan. Can you share a little bit of the [00:04:00] history of the clock? Because it's meshing old with new. So the clocks are basically all IBM original, made between 1912 to 1930. They used to be active punch in, punch out clocks. You can see people used to come to work.

And basically punch in and out. So basically you would presumably people were happier when they punched out than when they punched in. I believe so. Yeah, most likely certain things don't change. But I think one of the interesting element with the clock that is there's a lot of different clocks, right?

But this one is actually a clock that. Not just measure time, but also measure time of work which I found fascinating. And so basically, it's basically putting the card in this, and basically punch in and out. And today these cards are active where we ask our guests to write [00:05:00] one thing that makes them happy.

And we have all these we have thousands of them actually. Started like a year and a half ago, so we have a lot of people. Writing one thing that makes him happy, that's not funky stuff. Happiness has been very elusive for many Americans. It's become a whole discipline unto itself. I recall listening to Arthur Brooks who has now focused a lot of his research and science studies on the art of happiness and has published a number of works.

His class at Harvard. Is one of the most popular. Maybe that isn't surprising for us, Benzi, that so many folks at Harvard are striving to find happiness and need a class on it. Yeah I don't it's, it's, it's, it's a, it's a longer, bigger conversation. I think all, I think that it's, it's. It comes [00:06:00] with work it's like I always say, it's if you go to the gym two, three times a week and you have your body's great and it's safe and it's you're happy with it.

Once you keep it up, it stays the way you like it. But if you stop going for a month and a half, everything goes away almost. So I think also with happiness, it's something that it's a practice. And it's something that we need to keep on, on working on it. And not just not leave it when we're, we're happy.

And one of the elements that I like about the time and happiness how time is connected with happiness in terms of the time to be happy gallery. And the philosophy is that I find it that when you can let go of the regress of the past and the concern of the future, that moment is a happy moment, right?

At that moment, you're connected to now and you're not letting things that are in other elements affecting you. So that's that's, that's the [00:07:00] sticker over here that says welcome to now. That's the meaning of it. All right. Are we ready to meet? This young lady over here named Dr. Cyan. Of course.

Amazing. You take over. Hi, Dan. How's it going? Going well. Happy Monday. How are you? Happy Monday to you, too. Looks like you guys are having some real fun there. Yeah, it's always fun to hang out with Benzie. In the studio. So tell me, huh? Tell me a little tidbit. Most of our viewers will already have an intro to you.

Okay. So we won't need to spend time. On that together. The one tidbit I will mention is that I know you're from Guam and I haven't been. No one's invited me to visit, but years ago when I was doing a research project on real estate malls, real retailers and large format, sort [00:08:00] of big box merchandisers, we kept coming back to this enormous storefront in Guam, the most profitable Kmart in the world.

Wow. I didn't know that. Of all the Kmarts that we had visited, all the Sears stores that we had visited nothing could ever come close. And that's partly because There's a monopoly on the island, becomes sort of a shopping center. So, that's always remained in my head because it's been on my bucket list of things I need to understand.

Why does this one store so dramatically outperform every other place? Well, I I was born on Guam, but my family left two months after I was born. So I didn't, and I haven't been back since I need, I need to be, I need to go back myself and be invited for us to travel. Yeah, I actually. Brought the Guam coin to space with me.

So in 1970, the year that I was born, it [00:09:00] was when they got their governor and they got the governor's coin that was commissioned then. And so that's kind of like the first gift my parents ever got me. So I brought that to space with me. Super cool. Yeah. And it would certainly be nice if we could hop on a, some sort of SpaceX rocket and make our way there in less than half an hour.

How did you get into being, becoming an astronaut in the first place? And then I want to focus on your art passion. Yeah, well, I actually had been chasing space my entire life because I was born on Guam because my dad was working at the NASA tracking station during the Apollo missions. And I'm a moon celebration baby.

I was born eight and a half months after Neil Armstrong stepped foot on the moon. So literally a moon celebration, a baby. And and I grew up with all of this amazing NASA memorabilia to my dad on his office wall. And I just was growing up in the era of the right stuff and fighter pilots.

And I [00:10:00] always wanted to fly and be an astronaut, but like a lot of us, those childhood dreams slip away. But I, and so I went off and I became a geoscience professor and I always still had this love of aviation and aerospace. So I got my pilot's license and scuba certified and I really became an explorer of the world around me.

And then it just so happened that in my late 30s I tried out to be a NASA astronaut. I got down to the yes, no phone call and it was a no by NASA. And so I pivoted and became an analog astronaut living in moon and Mars simulations, and COVID hit. And during COVID, I kind of reinvented myself as an artist and a poet, not knowing that nine months later, it would win me a seat to space.

So I'm the first artist selected to go to space. And I got selected because I wrote a poem called Space to Inspire, and I created a video of me reading that poem on Twitter. That was the contest. You had to create a two minute video. [00:11:00] Of why they should take you to space for the prosperity seat. And so my entry was a poem and, and it won me a seat to space, a three day trip on a SpaceX Falcon nine rocket dragon capsule.

And as a result, yeah. And then as a result of that, I got tacked, I got tapped by my commander to become the mission pilot. So I'm the first woman commercial spaceship pilot and the only African American woman to ever be a mission pilot. But I also got to paint in space, which is awesome. And so, talk about how life's, roads and journeys lead to the most interesting places.

There at least is some rhyme and reason how that all intersected. And now you're back on Earth. Yes. And in the great city of New York. Looking to, to, to collaborate with Benzie. Tell us a little bit about what's inspiring you these days. Yeah, [00:12:00] well I found my authentic voice as an artist and poet, so I'm doing a lot to, and I'm a new emerging artist and poet.

I'm a futurist. And so I'm doing a lot of things that can help me grow and develop as an artist. Collaborations like this with Ben Z is a way for me to think about my art and how I blend my art with another artist's style and message. And working with him, it just came together really nicely because of me being a futurist.

A lot of my stuff is about astronauts. And dancing through space, time and space, so this whole idea of happiness through time and space fits really well with my narrative of wanting to find peace in the cosmos, find connection, to find contentment, those kinds of things, and, and so it's been great to be able to collaborate with him.

In this way, by creating these physical pieces together that [00:13:00] really blend both of our styles. How do you think about the continuum between physical artworks, which is the focus for your current project, and this growing body of digital art, where there's limitless potential to, to reach people.

They don't just have to Be in a gallery They can experience it anywhere at any time. How have you have you thought about that opportunity? Yeah I am actually a digital artist. I I I started off actually as a collage artist And then I realized with my travel schedule and everything that becoming a digital artist.

Was The best move for me. So I took NFTs to space with me. I created we did a whole fundraiser for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, where we auctioned off a bunch of NFTs while I was in space. That made a lot of [00:14:00] money for St. Jude. Children's Research Hospital, but I create digitally, this is one of my digital assets here, but what's great about it is, designing something digital, how do you take that into the physical space?

Well, I'm a geometric line artist, and I'm looking for that one piece, it's over on this side, here it is, and so you can see, this is my digital art that's been printed out onto my my sweater dress here, but I'm a geometric line artist who can take and, laser etched these pieces. So this is a laser etched cutout of my digital art.

Now I've got a physical piece that I can manipulate and do all kinds of things with. So I think one of the big things is that digital art allows us to do amazing Things. but it's really hard unless you're doing generative stuff for it to be a unique one of one piece, right? Because you can, you can keep putting it out there again and again.

But here I can come in and I [00:15:00] can take my digital art, make a physical copy, and use it as a manipulative for creating a unique one of one piece. Now this piece has got a metallic hue. You can see how the colors are changing as I rotate it in the light. Because I just hit it with this beautiful iridescent spray, so that as people move across it, they get this kind of amazing shimmer to the artwork.

And so those are some of the fun ways that you can take your digital art and then make it physical and manipulate it and make it a unique one of one piece. Cutting edge stuff literally and figuratively. Yeah, lasers. How is Benzie assisting in your creative process? What credits would you ascribe to him?

Yeah, Benzie is awesome because he is looking at past technology that was everyday common. The punch in and out clock. [00:16:00] And he's giving it a modern day twist with a message of happiness. And, and to me, that's perfect because he'll come in and he'll get the clock ready. As you can see, the clock is here.

Got the digital assets in and stuff. And now me as his collaborative artist can come in with my assets. And, and finalize the piece out and so it's really a fun collaboration because I get to think about Oh, well, what would I want to put on this? So you're thinking about the sides and, and where you can really add your message as an artist around what he has already refurbished and created.

And so it's a lot of fun this is my second clock with him And so it's fun because this one's slightly different. The other one was black. We painted it black Yeah, it's also an interesting moment in time because you see more and more Large cl [00:17:00] corporations now talking about a back to work movement.

Yes, and so this clock sort of connotes the fact that The, the COVID era may be slowing and you're seeing a demand by, by more corporate chiefs to bring personnel back into their, to their offices, back into their seats. Hence, the notion of punching in. Yes, very much so. So, it, it is an interesting idea because to me, I think.

There's pros and cons. Proximity matters. So when you're with people, you get to, brainstorm and have really amazing ideas just by randomly running into people in hallways and stuff. However the, there is a big brother element of punching in and punching out. This whole idea of we don't trust you to do your job, even though productivity and stuff, the data isn't showing that [00:18:00] people are not being productive, but I think there's this perception that the small minority of people who may be at the beach or doing something else besides their job doesn't account for the 95 percent of people who are actually working hard but.

From home and and so it's really that it will be interesting to see how they find some kind of middle ground there. But I know as a teacher, they're pushing for us all to be back on campus, even if we teach fully online and and just so that we're on campus and you're kind of like. Do we need to do that now?

But luckily I'm at the age where I can re career and become a digital nomad and a full time artist. You're right, it is an open question as our organization at Metaversal, we have adopted a system called Roam, R O A M, and it's a novel [00:19:00] system that provides a cloud HQ. Developed by folks we know down in Florida, and it provides us with the ability to have team members from all over the world because the reality is we're increasingly distributed as organizations.

So, yes, JP Morgan may have a brand new headquarters going up in New York City, but they have team members. In every state and far beyond so they're naturally a distributed organization and I think that's true for companies now of all sizes so Striking that balance is is hard. I want to ask you one thing if we can go back in history Because our, our mission and our focus and the title for this podcast, as is about re imagining ownership.

And we think that the onset of Web 3, growing decentralization, it all enables a new movement when it comes to how we have thought about [00:20:00] ownership. Both ownership of physical items, but certainly ownership. Of digital items. It doesn't just have to be controlled by the big tech businesses. Are you able to recall your earliest memory of ownership when you were just a child and actually took possession of something that you felt for the first time like an owner?

Well, yeah, but it's funny because I bridged the gap between physical and really digital because being born and growing up in the seventies and eighties and then really I was around when we got the first computer and. And for people at home and things like that.

And, and so I went through all of the different disks, storage disks. But I remember as a kid my first ownership of physical property would have been coming in the form of getting my cassette and, and, and being able to play [00:21:00] music on a cassette or radio. Owning my own radio and things like that.

Right. But then I was interesting to go through the whole like evolution of how I owned music. In the same way of, because we had the station wagon with the 8 track player. I didn't own any 8 tracks. But I definitely, as a kid, around 7, 6 or 7, I got my first album. It was Grease, by the way. The movie Grease came out when I was It was lightning.

Yes, and I would play it on my little record player, but then in the early 80s I got my little boom box and I got my first, my first cassette I ever bought was AC DC back in black And so I had that and then but then I you know I progressed into the Walkman and you know being able to carry my music around with me and really portable And then I remember when I got the digital version, and you could actually store music digitally.

And, [00:22:00] and the amount of music you could, you could have. And that just blew my mind. And now, I don't own. I don't own, I don't buy that because I listen to Spotify. Or I listen to music that is strictly coming online through subscriptions. And, and it's interesting to think about that.

And when you're talking about ownership I don't own any of that. I just listen to it now. Right. And, and so through the subscription model, and then we think about, but somebody else is, is all about having the creator. Owning those assets and being able to distribute them and for me being an emerging artist I think a lot about my art and I have to be very careful about reading contracts these days because a lot of times they're trying to own everything that you create and and I'm not a big fan of that because Artists should get paid and they should own their assets and [00:23:00] they should be able to just like, Taylor Swift leasing out her music

and I think things like NFTs or digital media assets or however we're going to label them in the future. It's really important to have that technology to be able to show ownership, especially as we create stuff and people say, Oh, no I created that first. Well, did you who really owns this?

And, but we have technology now to really stamp our ownership of stuff. And I think that that's really important and NFTs and stuff play an important part, or I should say blockchain plays an important part in being able to do that. Yeah, we, we feel very strongly in the same way and are excited about. How these new technologies will enable us to rethink artist rights management.

Yes, IP distributions and royalties, all of which can be inscribed by [00:24:00] code and set and automatically and algorithmically. Programmed and distributed without needing intermediaries to try and reinterpret what you're what the artists wish was what the original agreement may have been really excited for what you're going to collaborate.

I would give you the last word and, and hope we'll be able to have you back sometime soon. So we could see not just this finished product, but some of your other work that you're yeah. in 2025. Yeah it's a good year for me as an artist just because I finally have my signature signature style because keep in mind I became an artist and a poet just in 2020 And so a lot of it was playing around in the beginning as a way to cope with COVID and what was happening in the world and the uncertainty, and now to be able to kind of like push to flip that as a career and and really start to create a message for [00:25:00] myself.

And, and it's been wonderful. I think that everybody should try to tap into their creativity in whatever form that manifests for them. And share it with the world. Thanks for that. Thanks for spending time with us today. And thanks for, for Benzie helping to put us together and forward to seeing you on another occasion soon.

That sounds great.