Disrupting Narratives Through XR: A Conversation with Idris Brewster, Founder of Kinfolk
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Unknown
Only a couple months down. I think I recognize it.
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Rob Lee
Welcome to the truth in this art. I am your host, Rob Lee. And today I have the pleasure of speaking with an innovator who disrupts traditional narratives through immersive experiences while empowering others to do the same. In artist, educator and the co-founder of Kinfolk, a company that uses augmented reality to make black and brown narratives accessible to everyone.
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Idris Brewster
Around the world.
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Rob Lee
Please welcome the passionate and visionary Idris Brewster. Welcome to the podcast.
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Idris Brewster
Thank you. Thank you. Thanks for having me. Delighted to be here.
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Rob Lee
Yeah, And again, as I say on multiple podcasts, it's always great to be talking to another bespectacled person.
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Idris Brewster
Yes, yes. I've been I've been feeling the camaraderie recently with my fellow bespectacled folks. I'm always a wee wee on the same wavelength.
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Rob Lee
I see two dudes, eight eyes.
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Idris Brewster
Yeah, most definitely. That's funny. So starting off.
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Rob Lee
I like to get sort of the the origin story. I like to dive into like some of those, like, early points cause I'm curious, dude. So, like, what sparked your curiosity in delving into the world of, like, X are your, your interest in art storytelling, your interplay between mind technology, computers. So so set the stage for us a little bit because, you know, I'm one I've never heard of X, you know, I'm a noob, so I'm sure a lot of people have and, you know, VR or, you know, augmented reality thanks to the sword.
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Rob Lee
So kind of set the stage for us a bit.
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Idris Brewster
Yeah, I mean, like I'm the son of.
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Idris Brewster
Two.
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Idris Brewster
Documentary filmmakers, right? And so that I was immersed from Young in terms of like storytelling, in terms of my family's history. But for me, it was like, what was I into? I was in a video games playing to K, Crash Bandicoot, like Sonic Zelda, a bunch of different video games. And that's why that's how I engage with the world, honestly, like played to I mean, talk about bespectacled folks.
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Idris Brewster
Like there's a reason I'm bespectacled because the amount of video games that I was playing. And so I think spatial, engaging with information spatially was something that I was used to from a very young age, but also like the way I learned the way and I just went through these experiences was always there was an element of self-guided ness that I really enjoyed about being able to control, be able to fail a bunch of times.
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Idris Brewster
And so that was always of interest. I was a digital artist. I am a creative technologist, but my interest in these technologies and these experiences was always from the lens of like, how can I create art? How can I be creative with coding? I can create all these apps, all these databases, all these other coding situations, but how do I express myself through the means that I'm most comfortable in?
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Idris Brewster
And so I never really engage. I didn't engage with coding in high school, but before that I started in college. I did I stuff in college, but this was around like 2013, 2014 before like the Oculus, which is the headset was available to the public. Yeah, but I got a grant through my school, Occidental College, to use the Oculus DK2, which was like the Oculus development kit.
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Idris Brewster
It was the second iteration of the development kit. And so I got like early access to virtual reality. And I think that was a privileged position of myself to be in, is to have get access to something that one wasn't really available to most folks and two was pretty expensive. Like I it was like a $400 machine. But then I needed $1,000 computer to even run it.
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Idris Brewster
So I was grateful to be in a university environments where I could use that. And so I built. So then I was able to engage with it and I was a cognitive science major and computer science major. So my focus was on like the interplay between the mind and the computer, but through the lens of emotion. So as like doing in a VR experience, I was sort of like taken aback by how immersive it was, how it really like felt like you were in a different worlds.
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Idris Brewster
And I for me, I saw a lot of potential in that, like for video games, for storytelling, for art, and that sort of like piqued my curiosity and was like, All right, how can I explore this? But from a not from a different lens, from a lens of like really creating art and creating immersive experiences. And so that's really how I got the start was going in there to my college, learning how to use the VR there and it blossomed.
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Idris Brewster
It blossomed from there. And to me doing this full time.
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Idris Brewster
Oh, wow.
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Rob Lee
Wow. And you know, where this that the sort of ten year mark, right?
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Idris Brewster
Yeah, right. Where At the ten year mark, for sure. I guess after.
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Idris Brewster
College.
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Idris Brewster
Which I graduate in 2016. So I think but I was engaging with 2013, 2014, so that's about ten years, maybe nine, eight years will give it. But after that I went to work at Google and at Google I was working in the education space at a place called Code Next, where we taught black and brown high schoolers around New York City how to do computer science.
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Idris Brewster
But it wasn't through the lens of like rote computer science education. Like I got in school where you had doing data analytics, you're doing calculus, you're doing a lot of numbers. And especially for Black and Brown folks, it's like, Is that going to interest me? Is that really like have a broad appeal to people that come from Brooklyn, South Central or just a black black me as around the country?
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Idris Brewster
And so what we did was do it through the lens of art. We taught kids how to create a 3D model, taught kids how to make beats. I make beats on my own. And so I think that using this technology, but for ways to express ourselves and that really embed themselves in the culture was a shift that I thought we could really have.
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Idris Brewster
I mean, we are creating content, creating music. We really run Twitter and all these social media spaces, but like how can we build these situations and build these technologies to be fit for people like us? And so through Google, I was really teaching that computer science through the lens of art to black and brown high schoolers, which was very inspiring for me to go on and to kinfolk.
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Rob Lee
Yeah, and we're going to dive into that a bit more and I definitely got a comment on it. That's what that's, that's really cool, especially in seeing, you know, sort of like my day job. I'm in I'm a data analyst by day so in around it and kind of seeing so the the lack of people even being aware of AI and then seeing like pretty much for like six months and then we get to the graduation cycle and folks are saying, I think people are writing their papers using up and things of that sort.
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Rob Lee
I was like, Yeah, they are. And I mentioned this in December.
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Idris Brewster
And that's the code. People are definitely being tapped to write My brother's in college and he's like, Well, I got the I got the keys now, man. I was like, Nah, they're going to they're going to ask.
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Idris Brewster
They did. They came up with the Chad CBT detectors. So I was like, Be careful out there. But it's like, yeah, we need to.
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Idris Brewster
I guess I hate.
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Idris Brewster
It's so weird for me because like we are as a community behind, I would say in technology, but I do also hate the rhetoric out there. It's like if.
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Idris Brewster
You.
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Idris Brewster
Don't catch up, you're going to get left behind. You all need to go, Yeah, you all need to catch up. It's like, No, I was like, Let's change the ways in which this technology relates to us. Because at a large scale, I mean, these things like AI technology generally hasn't been built for or by people like us at, at a large scale.
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Idris Brewster
So we need to really create our own sort of.
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Idris Brewster
Our own sort.
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Idris Brewster
Of communities of technology creation. So we have to have platforms, experiences where that we can relate to on a deeper level. It's like, I don't blame people for not wanting to jump into AR VR. I it's like it does that. It doesn't feel like it relates to me, my culture, my history. So why would I be interested in that?
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Idris Brewster
So it's about the work of people like myself and others to make that really approachable, accessible, but also relatable, which is a lot of the insight, like a lot of the motivator for me to do the work.
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Rob Lee
Thank you. And, and I love, you know, using sort of the different tools, let's say, you know, AIB in an example potentially, but using some of the ways to share technology within communities that often are not considered when a stuff is being like built out, but using maybe like art as a means to kind of get it over it, to use the wrestling parlance.
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Rob Lee
I, you know, doing this I've been doing this almost as long as I've been in the data world. So they've both been running concurrently. And I will say once I started utilizing just new technology in what I'm doing, I'm like, I need this to normalize because it's going to kind of get in the way because I wasn't thinking, thinking about my creativity through that lens.
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Rob Lee
I was just kind of like, This is how I'm going to do this. It'll be easier. And so on kind of falling for the different videos you run into on Instagram versus like, this could be a tool for this purpose. Now let's see, let's let's actually test it. Let's play with it.
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Idris Brewster
Yeah, let's play with it.
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Idris Brewster
No hundred percent.
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Rob Lee
So, you know, I got it. I got to ask, you know, you touched on a little bit there. What what led to you founding kinfolk And, you know, give us give us the you know, the background. What is kinfolk would look to you found it and all the good stuff.
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Idris Brewster
Yeah so kinfolk is an augmented reality archive of black and brown history. And what we do is we create digital monuments and crowdsource archival materials as a way to archive, visualize, memorialize our history.
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Idris Brewster
We can.
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Idris Brewster
So we can use it as a means to.
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Idris Brewster
Humanize the.
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Idris Brewster
Histories that have been erased and lost. I think the whole that we found was that.
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Idris Brewster
There.
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Idris Brewster
First off, I mean, there's out of 48,000 plus monuments that exist in, in the US, there's like only 240 monuments to people of color, and that's like less than 1% of the monuments that exist within our public spaces. But then also another stat is that like in terms of like the national list of of sites of historical places in this country, only 8% are related to black and brown folks and history.
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Idris Brewster
And so it's clear that the powers that be that are in charge have not prioritized the capturing and preserving of black and black history. And so we as a people, we've been doing that ourselves for ever. I mean, African oral traditions are are embedded in who we are. And I think that this technology that we're building is not meant to replace that.
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Idris Brewster
It's meant to enhance it and enhance that preservation so that there can be a means to not only capture that history and record it and pass it down, but to share it widely. And so that's why we're choosing a platform of a technological platform so that someone in Brooklyn, New York and tell their history about Flatbush, but then someone in Beijing, China or Bangkok, Thailand, can engage with a history that they have never heard or experienced before and be inspired by that.
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Idris Brewster
And so the form that we do these is in digital monuments, and that's a way for us to not only record and preserve the histories, but then embed those histories in spaces that we take up and build but aren't necessarily appreciated in through with that lack of monuments. Do lack of public art that's related to black history. And so the other aspect of this archive is that it's location based.
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Idris Brewster
You can go into locations and see the monuments that we've created and hopefully soon see the monuments that communities create as well. And it all started in like 2017. I was working at Google, my partner at the time, Glenn, we were thinking about the Columbus Circle statue in Monument that existed in Columbus Circle, New York City. The mayor de Blasio at that time was considering what to do with that monument.
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Idris Brewster
Do you take it down and remove it? Do you do we keep it and make it a landmark? Do we add additional context around that monument and sort of black and indigenous folks were pushing for the removal of the monument while the Italian community in New York was was pushing for the preservation of that monument. And so we would do teach INS demonstrations and we'd bring our air experiences, prototypes at the time for people to engage in the true history of Christopher Columbus.
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Idris Brewster
We would tell that true history through air, but then also tell the story of people you want to celebrate in the state, like to celebrate your and other folks who have had an effect on New York City and the country at large. We ended up losing that battle and they ended up preserving it and making it a landmark.
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Idris Brewster
But through that process, we saw that augmented reality had a had there. And through that process, we saw that augmented reality had the potential to allow us and community to shift our own history on our own terms. We don't have to wait for a Mayor de Blasio or other folks to decide when our history is preserved or when monuments are made at when public art is installed.
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Idris Brewster
We can do it ourselves as a means to generate hype and generate support for physical change is being made, and art is always at the center of that because art is like a universal language that you don't really need in a lot of cases, don't need text or don't need to understand like different languages. It's it's universal. It speaks to everyone in a lot of cases.
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Idris Brewster
And so I think starting with art as the base and everything spreading from there is pretty important for us to communicate to a broad, broad audience. And so now that's what we're building out. I think through that process we were like, Oh, with Pokemon Go, you can place Pokemon wherever and no one's telling you what to do that There's even there's even some different laws are different, like different disputes on, Hey, you don't put Pokemon on my private property.
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Idris Brewster
It's like, Oh, there's no real.
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Idris Brewster
Rule around that. You can bulbasaur it can exist on your lawn and there's not much you can do about it.
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Idris Brewster
But for us it's like, All right, that's interesting. Like the law hasn't caught up and for us, we can now use that technology to place historical markers and historical monuments and contemporary and monuments of future monuments and spaces for everyone to access who's walking by. And it's a lot more, but I'll stop there.
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Rob Lee
No, thank you. And I have several comments, but also I can see it visioning in the future. The Rob Lee monument of the Black podcast that is running Baltimore.
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Idris Brewster
And you should. And it's like, that's the question. It's like people are like, Oh, who am I to create a monument?
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Idris Brewster
It was.
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Idris Brewster
Like, Who are these other people to create.
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Idris Brewster
To be decided to create monuments Like everyone should have access to the ability to memorialize and make art and make art that that is a monument to them in their community. And so that's sort of what we're doing as well, is trying to create access to that ability to make monuments. And that's very important.
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Rob Lee
And I think it's it's very important. It's my I think over the is historically it's been there obviously as far as this doesn't need and this desire to capture and acknowledge our history and the history of folks that are underrepresented black and brown folks, primarily because those are the stories that get rebranded and really go through film and things of that nature.
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Rob Lee
You know, for a long time I did a podcast that was kind of like lampooning a lot of the stuff that you would see. And I remember in 2020, you know, post George Floyd, I just remember I was like, How is this going to get shifted in five years to this was a different story because it's like we see it in movies and we want sort of the I think folks want the sort of representation and we're happy that is getting made.
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Rob Lee
I think we're past that. We're, you know, as far as something being documented, something being articulated, I was like, I get to the nitty gritty of if I was alive during this and I see this and like this is actually the story that was happening, you know, in any of these things, especially here in Baltimore, like you look at Freddie Gray, you know, it's like, yeah, I was there.
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Rob Lee
I was a conscious being, this is not what happened at all. Yeah. So, you know, capturing sort of like our history and on our terms like I really just just dig that and I'll say, you know, even with something that's trivial as pop culture because I can't help you, said Bulbasaur earlier when, you know, I'm I'm of both minds like I'm very pro First Amendment right, but also I'm very like, can we put a caveat on something?
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Rob Lee
Can we acknowledge that this was wild and we thought it was acceptable at that time and we let that roll. And it speaks to all of the different things, whether it'd be people that look like you and I, not being in rooms when something was written and they said, Hey, this was good to go, you know, in some of these things aren't that long ago, like, oh no.
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Rob Lee
A Golden Girls episode is in the nineties and late eighties. Fine, But like a 30 rock episode when you thought blackface may have been cool, that.
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Idris Brewster
Was.
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Rob Lee
Kind of in the mid 2000s, let's say. We knew that was like crap. So that's one side of it. But the sort of rebranding and recontextualizing what black and brown people have experienced and people are still alive to say, No, that's not what happens.
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Idris Brewster
Yeah.
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Rob Lee
So being able to take that by its horns and using technology to kind of shift and really document what that is and do it in a very well way, that's that's great.
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Idris Brewster
Yeah. No, I think that's it's like we need a voice. Like all these tools are there for us to make it, make all the tools are there for us to capture our own stories and make it known how we feel. I mean, even if you look at a lot of their representations in pop culture, black and brown, I'm sort of annoyed at them.
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Idris Brewster
Like it doesn't even make sense in a lot of these spaces. And it's also like the fact that we're getting I feel like it's we're getting commodified and a lot of the representation that I'm seeing in these histories and these movies and these and these advertisements and I think where is our agency think where's our autonomy to be able to say, no, that's not right.
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Idris Brewster
And I think that we can do so on a place like Twitter and Instagram. That's where that's happening. But when that's built, like people like Elon Musk and like Mark Zuckerberg, like that's not the place that's respecting our opinions, actually, because Elon Musk, it's actually the opposite. He's more like a right leaning supporting folks like Ron DeSantis. And so I think it's the work is work that needs to be done for us to figure out how we can create our own structures, to tell our own stories, how to let it be known, how we feel about certain situations and represent ourselves on our own terms.
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Idris Brewster
And I don't see that necessarily being there. A lot of work is being done in that space, but we got what we got a ways to go.
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Rob Lee
And in making it, you know, on our own, having a lot of involvement, it kind of throws out this idea of, you know, I need a seat at the table. So I know, let's let's, let's build around.
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Idris Brewster
Let's get around on our own.
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Rob Lee
Let us make it and it is it is one of those things where I run into this, like, as you can imagine, in doing all of these interviews. Right, some of the bios that I get and some of the artist statements that things that I get, it's so many other descriptors and then it gets to this other identity thing and it almost runs the same way.
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Rob Lee
It's almost like you're writing a grant application. You have to have this, this, this and this. And also a black artists that does this. It's like eating. With which piece of the identity are you leading with? And I start to look at that because we kind of talk in those terms and it's like to simplify it. But those things are simplified and that's why I think certain groups don't get their say and get their due.
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Rob Lee
And we're already kind of like fighting for that, I think. But if we're sort of in that driver's seat, it's just like, Oh no, we'll make sure you have space that, you know, we can do that. We can help out with that.
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Idris Brewster
Yeah, I mean, I've been I'm wrestling this myself, like our world is shaped by so many Eurocentric ideals and values. Is that like, we feel like the external validation is necessary. We feel like we're always missing something and always have to prove ourselves. We feel as though there's not enough and not enough food at the table for us to all eat and start to like be in real competition.
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Idris Brewster
And I just feel like if we're ever going to get back to the point where we're decolonizing our values and our identities and like start building new ones that relate back to our ancestry and relate back to our past, that I'm as you said, we need to build our own table because it's embedded in everything. It's embedded in myself, in you and in everyone.
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Idris Brewster
And so I think we need to start really having an effort and a movement to to break that down, be more self aware and yeah, build our own table, build our own worlds. And I think that's why it also relates back to the immersive like, let's, let's, let's build our own shit and we don't have to and let's, let's, let's not wait for others because others clearly aren't as committed to like why these white structures are not going to be committed to decolonizing the white structures.
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Idris Brewster
It's sort of like that's that's that's not going to happen. So we need to do that. But again, like the money, the power necessary to do that, those are all obstacles in the way. And yeah, the grant your grant comic kind of hit me. It's like.
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Idris Brewster
People are always trying to like you're always trying to feel like they're writing.
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Idris Brewster
A grant and trying to appease to folks with with the money to make the change, which unfortunately is a part of our society. And we're a nonprofit. So we got to write grants a lot. But yeah, how do we build our own table structures, communities that less focus on individuals and individualism before we focus more on togetherness and community centered values?
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Idris Brewster
And I think that's that's what I'm trying to do with kinfolk and yeah, pass the baton.
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Rob Lee
Yeah. I mean, that's, you know, that's what I see in doing this and a sort of motivation behind it and, you know, starting it from, you know, somebody was talking, you know, really loud about a black city, which I'm like, you're talking about black people and I'm not allowing that. That's that's really what the start of it was.
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Rob Lee
And I was like wondering if other people feel this way. And that's where these interviews came from. And. MM sensibilities are very this and was like I can talk to anyone with the sensibilities are still coming from this person.
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Idris Brewster
Yeah.
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Rob Lee
Whether it be from the people I'm talking to, how I'm talking to or what we're talking about, whatever. And you know, sometimes I get these different people who pull up and say, Hey, I can consult for you and help you. And it's like, yeah, you know, you can be the next Joe Rogan. I was like, No, I don't want to be that.
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Idris Brewster
That's not my Oh, not at all.
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Rob Lee
Not my aspiration or you need to tell me what you're doing. I was like, You're saying things to me that fall outside of what this is. So you don't know what this is?
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Idris Brewster
Yeah, that triggers me. That triggered to me because as building a tech building a tech nonprofit, a lot of people are like, What the hell are you doing? Like.
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Idris Brewster
You should you should go for.
00;24;06;02 - 00;24;28;24
Idris Brewster
Profit next this. And I'm like, first off, if I'm driven to build this out from a point of view of having to create, generate revenue and profit, then one, I'm profiting off the community that I'm working with. It's not a true collaboration. And two, I'd be forced to stretch this in ways that aren't prioritizing, like the impact and the expression that's necessary and the preservation.
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Idris Brewster
So it's really I think being a nonprofit is extremely important, even though the nonprofit industrial complex has its own large issues. Yeah, I think prioritizing profit and profit maximization, especially for venture capital and investors, I thought it's a part of the problem, the problem of capitalism, but it's also just a problem that doesn't that doesn't suit us. So yeah, that, that, that, that comment hit me hard because a lot of people have said I should text this and I'm like, you know, now like, this is slow growth.
00;25;03;12 - 00;25;05;02
Idris Brewster
This is slow building.
00;25;05;02 - 00;25;28;03
Idris Brewster
And it's like focusing on community and it's not like scale has scales had its way with us and human like humanity, like it's messes up on a lot of different ways. I'm definitely not. I would say I'm not anti scale, but I'm definitely I'm totally not a fan of the way that scale has like destroyed a lot of like food destroyed technology.
00;25;28;06 - 00;25;37;13
Idris Brewster
And it's got us in a place where this all this stuff is meant to be extractive. So how do we how do we how do we get how do we opt out of that and opt into something that's defined by us?
00;25;37;15 - 00;25;54;06
Rob Lee
And I'll say this last thing, you being up there in New York or what have you, I think the orange skies from a few weeks ago with the smoke and all was indicative of I remember literally saying this. I was like, Man, the air would be better if we had more tree. Oh, right. No trees. Got it.
00;25;54;09 - 00;25;54;28
Idris Brewster
Right. You know, I.
00;25;54;28 - 00;26;00;28
Idris Brewster
Was I was biking through that. I was coughing like I don't think why am I just out here coughing Like.
00;26;01;00 - 00;26;10;21
Idris Brewster
I'm not like smoke and nothing like I'm just like, I'm just like, struggling. Right? And it was like, yeah, like we need to really think about the.
00;26;10;21 - 00;26;22;22
Idris Brewster
Impact that we're having. And it was that that was then New York Sky was frickin scary. But then I'm trying to hear conspiracies and things like the government is controlling the.
00;26;22;22 - 00;26;42;10
Idris Brewster
Sky and I'm just like, y'all know, this is the planet. This is the planet telling us that we need to chill. So this is not a M.K. ultra lot by George W Bush like this. Is this like the powers that be We can't conspiracy think ourself to death on this one like it's clear what's the problem here.
00;26;42;17 - 00;26;50;00
Rob Lee
That was a guy Joe applied when Cobra said we're going to show the weather.
00;26;50;02 - 00;26;53;01
Idris Brewster
Oh so I what a reason.
00;26;53;01 - 00;27;14;05
Rob Lee
And I think I got a lot of you know, what I was was looking for some of these later questions. So that's great. You're making my job easier. So I want to get a sense, like from your observations, like, you know, over the last like 8 to 10 years that you've been involved in sort of this industry, in this scene, you know, from developing into kinfolk, all everything.
00;27;14;07 - 00;27;27;18
Rob Lee
How have you seen like diversity, inclusion, like become evolving, you know, over the last 10 to 10 years in terms of the VR and XR industries?
00;27;27;20 - 00;28;02;11
Idris Brewster
That's that's a tough one because I think from a just a high level perspective, I mean, the tools to create have gotten easier. There are like Snapchat has a lens studio where you can go in and make models, upload models and create your own lens pretty easily. Facebook's done the same thing. The hardware has gotten cheaper. When I start in 2013, you had to buy a $400 machine with plus $1,000 computer that.
00;28;02;13 - 00;28;31;01
Idris Brewster
But now you can just buy the metal quest that is 300 bucks and you don't need anything else and it runs. But I think that still like there have been efforts like Google, Connex and others to get computer science more integrated into into our into our community. There's more workshops being done and more digital art schools that are popping up.
00;28;31;04 - 00;28;39;05
Idris Brewster
But from what I've seen, I don't know the, the pathways that I'm not happy with the progress.
00;28;39;05 - 00;28;40;25
Idris Brewster
I'll say.
00;28;40;28 - 00;28;45;02
Idris Brewster
They're at. I would have thought by like ten years down the.
00;28;45;02 - 00;28;46;02
Idris Brewster
Line.
00;28;46;04 - 00;29;24;23
Idris Brewster
There would be thousands of others doing it like me that are doing it in this space. And yet that's not the case. I can like count in my head pretty easily how many people I know who are black and brown who are building work in this in this area. And so I still think there needs to be a lot of a lot of work needs to be done and it's still, again, like this industry is so focused on profit maximization that it's not really focusing on how do we get this into communities, how do we make accessible, how do we make it relatable, how do we make content that is inspiring?
00;29;24;23 - 00;29;47;09
Idris Brewster
How do we get folks building and creating in these spaces? And so I think for me, we need more. We need to create more pathways for folks outside of the tech process and to to create this work. I mean.
00;29;47;11 - 00;29;50;00
Idris Brewster
We are.
00;29;50;02 - 00;29;54;03
Idris Brewster
A we are example of how you can use storytelling.
00;29;54;05 - 00;29;54;18
Idris Brewster
To.
00;29;54;19 - 00;30;22;12
Idris Brewster
Create work, how you create XR, VR work. I think looking at it from more of an artistic perspective opens up the doors for a lot of people. There's tools and N and VR where you can just draw really easily in space like Tilt, Brush and Quill. And so why is that not on the hands of like black and brown artists across the country who intuitively can capture that and create models?
00;30;22;15 - 00;30;46;22
Idris Brewster
How do we think about this from a storytelling and narrative perspective so that we can bring in filmmakers, we can bring in our writers, we can bring in foresight, futurist thinkers, we can bring in and historians. Like I think it needs to be a much more intersectional approach to building out the excited community. It's very insular, it's very insulated.
00;30;46;24 - 00;31;11;07
Idris Brewster
And when people see a boys club, they steer the other way. And I don't subscribe to this boys club as the club. They all know me. But like what I do know is that, like my purpose for me is like, how do we put these in spaces where it doesn't usually go how to be like we could to build these monuments?
00;31;11;07 - 00;31;36;02
Idris Brewster
We have our digital 3D art team, we have our design development team, but we could make all the monuments ourselves, but like we go into the spaces that are black and brown. We work with artists who do not have the digital experience. Even on that tip, we could go with artists who have digital art experience, who have extra abilities, but that would be few and far between.
00;31;36;02 - 00;32;04;21
Idris Brewster
When we're talking about black and brown folks. So how do we work with painters, sculptors, conceptual artists, and how do we learn from how they approach this medium to push it forward? Because I think that the technology is really cool and really great, but the art that you see is trash a lot of the time. Like, I'm sorry for my my, my, my bluntness, but like, I think my me and my team are always like, damn, like this is really not good and it's not appealing.
00;32;04;24 - 00;32;13;07
Idris Brewster
And we create really we spend a lot of time painting high quality models with pretty world class XR art.
00;32;13;09 - 00;32;14;11
Idris Brewster
And.
00;32;14;16 - 00;32;22;14
Idris Brewster
It's not I think we need more people that have training and experience outside of XR and technology.
00;32;22;16 - 00;32;22;21
Idris Brewster
To.
00;32;22;21 - 00;32;50;20
Idris Brewster
Be in the space so that we can like really share that so we can get more people to have buy it, because without that, it's going to continue to be this Silicon Valley dream of like Bladerunner and 20 like again, like the worlds that are building our visions for the people building as technology is what's coming about, like Elon, Jeff Bezos, these white boy dreams of the future is it's manifesting in that future to happen.
00;32;50;20 - 00;33;26;05
Idris Brewster
Like, we got to go to Mars. We got to really, I think these sort of cyber fanatic dreams. You're from a Eurocentric perspective, it's is what's being built in reality. And so that's why we need more thinkers and more dreamers from black, brown, indigenous communities to be involved and to have ownership over these platforms. And yeah, that's really what I really think, that we just need to move away from these like Elon Musk dreams and move forward to a more Afro futurist like Indigenous dreams, and that's that.
00;33;26;05 - 00;33;35;00
Idris Brewster
Then we'll be able to manifest the future that we want or at least get closer to that future. But it's a lot of work that needs to happen in order to make that a reality.
00;33;35;02 - 00;33;57;05
Rob Lee
One of 2%. And you know, as a person that reads those sort of like old sci fi and this notion of like extended reality, it makes me think of speculative fiction. It's just like it's just sitting there and, you know, I like some of this really old stuff or what have you. It's like you grew up on. It's like, Oh yeah, love Blade Runner, love this or that.
00;33;57;07 - 00;33;58;18
Idris Brewster
No, I love that. Yeah.
00;33;58;18 - 00;34;19;20
Rob Lee
But also, it's like I do, too. It's like, where are the brothers, though? Is that, you know, for me and it's just like, I kind of prefer Wakanda. I feel like there's trees there. I feel like people are breathing like clean air versus we're in a smog planet from Wall-E, you know, that were just like, but, but it's that in even this sort of, you know, like a white boy dreams going to use.
00;34;19;23 - 00;34;21;20
Idris Brewster
That you know these.
00;34;21;20 - 00;34;51;14
Rob Lee
Are things that are 60, 7080 years old that we're trying to do now is because sort of, you know, a small I was going to be very spicy there. But I have to remember, I'm supposedly neutral, but it's a very small like group of people who are allowed to kind of like, you know, who have been allowed to have sort of the access to that stuff or play it in the best that they can come up with something from 70, 80 years ago, you know, to try to bring that to reality.
00;34;51;16 - 00;35;08;05
Rob Lee
I think it's is something about that. It it reminds me of my take on why are certain characters and movies written the same way Because the guys that are making it generally the guys that are making it, they are fans of the same references, so they just come from the same category.
00;35;08;07 - 00;35;08;17
Idris Brewster
We are.
00;35;08;17 - 00;35;12;25
Idris Brewster
We are. We are squeezing every bit of juice out of Stan Lee as we can like.
00;35;12;25 - 00;35;16;28
Idris Brewster
Why were you why were you why is Barb why is like Marvel's great I.
00;35;16;28 - 00;35;21;11
Idris Brewster
Love a marvel movie, but I guess why is that the only sort of like.
00;35;21;13 - 00;35;21;25
Idris Brewster
One.
00;35;21;25 - 00;35;41;25
Idris Brewster
Of the only bits of like imagination and especially with superheroes that we can have. Like, I think this is a large statement, and correct me if I'm wrong, but I really feel like human creativity is for me, it seems to be at an all time low. It at times when I when I think about it. And I think that's also because.
00;35;41;28 - 00;35;42;08
Idris Brewster
The real.
00;35;42;08 - 00;35;45;28
Idris Brewster
Dreamers, thinkers and Imagineers aren't getting those opportunities. I can.
00;35;45;28 - 00;35;51;04
Idris Brewster
Cut those checks to to make to make these new.
00;35;51;04 - 00;36;02;15
Idris Brewster
Stories, these new worlds, these new comics. And so speaking of fiction is a large part of the work for us. And starting with that.
00;36;02;15 - 00;36;04;03
Idris Brewster
Past.
00;36;04;06 - 00;36;18;19
Idris Brewster
To understand how we got here and then help us jump off the biggest springboard into this new future that we, we all want to build and make happen. So I really feel like, yeah, yeah.
00;36;18;21 - 00;36;44;06
Rob Lee
Yeah, we're on the same page. We're on the same page here. I see it all the time. And you know, you know, outside of this, you know, doing media of different sorts or what have you and just trying to roll with it. Going back to that, that earlier point, I'd rather go at it alone than kind of like, you know, relinquish sort of control s not being a control freak as much as I want clarity in with the messages.
00;36;44;09 - 00;36;52;08
Rob Lee
And you know, when I desperately because I'm working on a comic desperately well, I've done a comic.
00;36;52;11 - 00;36;54;07
Idris Brewster
And you know.
00;36;54;09 - 00;37;09;12
Rob Lee
And I want to have it adapted and I want to run into like an artist that kind of fits. But it's sort of these messages because of sort of, as you talked about earlier, like, you know, I use the pie analogy, you know, we're told there eight slices to the pie, but four of them have already been earmarked.
00;37;09;12 - 00;37;34;04
Rob Lee
But we're not told that, you know, is that so when it comes to something, it's almost like a roadblock from the thing actually getting created. Something is small in the big scale as a comic or what have you, or something that's big. It's kind of like spreading this idea of like archiving our history in this manner. I think, you know, it's just like sort of the inaccessibility of it and it's just being faster.
00;37;34;04 - 00;37;51;08
Rob Lee
It's not being pushed out there almost the same way as like, let's say baseball for sake of argument. They have sort of a black issue and baseball is not in the black kids being aware that you could play this for 20 years and not have your knees at the end. You could still have your knees. You can have both of them and just not going for it.
00;37;51;08 - 00;38;00;16
Rob Lee
You can make a lot of money in it using the capitalist thing, but it's just like, No, that's for white people. I'm not going to do it. But it's like, you know, the league is like mostly Dominican dudes. I mean, he's saying.
00;38;00;18 - 00;38;06;26
Idris Brewster
Oh yeah, Dominicans didn't hear that dude. He was like, Yeah, we're we're going to make this our own. And then they take it over.
00;38;06;28 - 00;38;07;19
Idris Brewster
And so, yeah.
00;38;07;20 - 00;38;09;12
Idris Brewster
I just, I agree.
00;38;09;14 - 00;38;35;06
Rob Lee
I'm so I want to I want to ask this and I think I have a sense on it. So could you speak on a specific way? Sort of like when you know that's come to mind, you know, during, during your time just with with kinfolk being out there and doing the great work that you're doing. Can you speak of like the when that really an example that comes to mind or you know, I know that challenges are sitting there, but could you speak of a win, maybe a challenge, if you will, and how you address that challenge?
00;38;35;07 - 00;38;45;14
Rob Lee
Like, how did you, you know, Parry, get your shoulder roll that, you know, hit the jab on that challenge. So give me a win and give me sort of a challenge. I mean, being around as long as you've been around, it could be a win as well.
00;38;45;20 - 00;38;47;26
Idris Brewster
I mean, I get is I'm the guy.
00;38;48;00 - 00;38;51;13
Idris Brewster
Struggles to really think about his wins, you know.
00;38;51;15 - 00;38;52;24
Idris Brewster
And.
00;38;52;26 - 00;38;57;15
Idris Brewster
So that's that's the tougher part of the question. I can list your million challenges.
00;38;57;17 - 00;38;59;16
Idris Brewster
But I think the win.
00;38;59;19 - 00;39;21;16
Idris Brewster
I mean, this year has been a win for us. I think we were able to get like a like a $1.8 million grant from the melon Foundation to spread the work out. And it's not to say that receiving external money is the win in itself, which it is, but it allowed us to go to black and brown communities across the country.
00;39;21;16 - 00;39;44;19
Idris Brewster
We're going to be in six different cities and are from 2022 to the end of this year. And hopefully beyond. Where we get to do that work in the way that we want. And I think it's a way that we can work with these communities, build out these monuments on our own terms, which is pretty awesome. And it's led to us being recognized in many ways.
00;39;44;19 - 00;39;46;07
Idris Brewster
Like we have an exhibit out at the moment right.
00;39;46;07 - 00;39;47;10
Idris Brewster
Now.
00;39;47;13 - 00;40;13;23
Idris Brewster
Where we're like one of 12 organizations that are speaking, that are speaking about the future of public spaces and how we can create more community designed and oriented spaces. We just we're in Tribeca this year where it's ended like two days ago, and we won the special jury prize at Tribeca for our installation called Black Lands, where we focused on black enclaves around New York City that existed from 1600s to now.
00;40;13;26 - 00;40;39;28
Idris Brewster
And so I think what excites me is that people are getting out there. People are using the app, posting that, placing the monuments, posting them on socials, sharing them out and I think we're getting closer and closer to that impact and like being able to be this close, to be able to try to achieve the dream of like making this something that's sustainable and that lives beyond myself, but that other people can contribute.
00;40;39;28 - 00;40;40;17
Idris Brewster
To.
00;40;40;19 - 00;41;03;07
Idris Brewster
Without that middleman is pretty is pretty great for me. And it's been it's been a hard road because I think it's not the easy part that's been hard, but it's really been the business like grant making, fundraising, explaining this idea of something that's not really existed before. So that's definitely been a challenge is the business side of things.
00;41;03;07 - 00;41;27;22
Idris Brewster
I'm an artist, like I'm not a businessman. Like I don't really think it's it's wasn't natural for me to think on these terms of like a growth scale and turning this into a business that can generate revenue. That's not really my strength. That's not what I do this for. I do it for the art, I do it for community.
00;41;27;22 - 00;41;42;11
Idris Brewster
And so thinking that way has grown me as a person. But it's definitely been a challenge and I'm still working through. And that's what's always great about building a team back to one of the wins is being able to build a team of like eight plus.
00;41;42;11 - 00;41;45;19
Idris Brewster
People who are who.
00;41;45;22 - 00;42;11;08
Idris Brewster
Work together well as a unit. If I'm not the one that thinks about that business aspect, well, there's someone on our team that is but still understands that that that decolonized mindset and values that we're trying to move through this business, quote unquote business world with Another challenge has been, I would say, and another challenge has been fighting against.
00;42;11;11 - 00;42;12;17
Idris Brewster
How.
00;42;12;19 - 00;42;38;09
Idris Brewster
We have been conditioned to use technology. I think when we think about technology as a whole, humans engage with information spatially, naturally, like let's forget about screens and spread about technology. We go into worlds, we look at 3D, 3D objects all of the time, and we engage with things from a 360 perspective, and that's how we're naturally used to engaging with information.
00;42;38;12 - 00;43;13;21
Idris Brewster
But then with the device, all of that has been sort of compacted into a 2D interface to where we're used to like using our phones sort of like this, like in right in front of us. And for a while in the beginning that probably worked against how we were used to engaging with the world. But now after like what, 50 plus years of building out this technology, humans have that ingrained in them that the iPhone, 2D, the World 3D, and now with technology, we're building a space where technology can be 3D.
00;43;13;24 - 00;43;43;29
Idris Brewster
And yet when we when we see people engage with their monuments, they just stand like this and don't move. And it's a actual spatial experience where you can go around, you can engage with it from all sides. And in my view, it's actually more natural to human nature in terms of how we engage with the world. But yet these conditionings of how we use technology in the past have really made a blocker so that when we're showcasing this technology in spaces, people don't understand.
00;43;43;29 - 00;44;06;15
Idris Brewster
People don't people get frustrated with how to use the app because they don't realize that it's something that it's all around you. It's not just in front of you to scroll with, but the empowering part, inspiring part about this is that that's why kids pick up the app. They run with it. They're they're the power users of kinfolk.
00;44;06;15 - 00;44;28;11
Idris Brewster
I mean, take give them the iPad. They're like passing all around. They're moving around. And that's because they really haven't been conditioned like we have in terms of how to use the technology. So I think the last inspiring part for me is just how the kids have really taken in to this technology and have been able to push it forward in a way that I would have never imagined.
00;44;28;11 - 00;45;00;19
Idris Brewster
And so the youth and how they've grasped on to kinfolk is really, really exciting for me. And that's definitely gives me hope because from here on out now, I want to like, how do we have more spend more time bringing 3D modeling skills into into classrooms and community centers across the country and do so from a video game and storytelling and film perspective rather than let's code this program, how can we lead with the art rather than lead with the code and the tech which ostracize is so many people?
00;45;00;19 - 00;45;08;27
Idris Brewster
I used to teach computer science to black and brown kids, but even kids in general, like if you lead with the tech, the coding it like.
00;45;08;29 - 00;45;09;22
Idris Brewster
It, it.
00;45;09;27 - 00;45;31;07
Idris Brewster
Reinforces that imposter syndrome. Like you don't know what you're doing and it just it pushes so many people away from the future by saying, Oh, I can't code. This is not for me. But like I created coding when I was I was coding in college and getting those skills, but now I'm not really coding anymore. Like I'm directing it.
00;45;31;07 - 00;45;33;04
Idris Brewster
And so it's like it's these like.
00;45;33;07 - 00;45;34;03
Idris Brewster
Art.
00;45;34;06 - 00;45;44;00
Idris Brewster
And like design skills that are really especially as we think of AI and how that's like in ten years we can ask A.I. to code what we want.
00;45;44;02 - 00;45;44;12
Idris Brewster
Right?
00;45;44;12 - 00;46;11;11
Idris Brewster
So it's these like it's, again, it's these skills in design, the skills in art, skills in storytelling, skills in emotional connection and empathy, I think that are going to push us further into the future. And so, yeah, I'm excited to start getting and giving kids more workshops on how to build these skills out. See, that was a long winded way to answer that question.
00;46;11;13 - 00;46;28;02
Rob Lee
But it ended on a positive note, and that's a great answer. And yeah, it will absolutely have more to talk about off mic, but that's sort of the wrap up of the real questions. And I think I gave you I think I gave you the the preface earlier about the rapid fire portion.
00;46;28;04 - 00;46;28;22
Idris Brewster
I'm here for.
00;46;28;22 - 00;46;30;12
Idris Brewster
It. All right.
00;46;30;14 - 00;46;39;27
Rob Lee
All right. This is a doozy. And I and again, thank you. This has been really, really great to have you break my brain. This just throbbing, whatever. Amazing right now.
00;46;39;29 - 00;46;40;12
Idris Brewster
Thank you.
00;46;40;12 - 00;46;42;14
Idris Brewster
I appreciate you. This is, again, a great conversation.
00;46;42;20 - 00;46;57;11
Rob Lee
One of the percent. So I have I think four I think I got four rapid fire questions for you. So here's the first one. We all had them, even though people don't like to acknowledge it. What was your nickname as a child?
00;46;57;13 - 00;46;58;16
Idris Brewster
Yeah.
00;46;58;19 - 00;47;23;02
Idris Brewster
I read my nickname as a child. I had a few, but the one I'll talk about is the most vulnerable and embarrassing. It squeak my top. My nickname was Squeak in high school, not amongst my friends, but I was like a basketball player and I was a pretty good basketball player. And so I was on the varsity team as a freshman.
00;47;23;04 - 00;47;29;10
Idris Brewster
So I was like five, three, five, four. I'm like six foot one now, but I was like five.
00;47;29;10 - 00;47;30;02
Idris Brewster
Three.
00;47;30;05 - 00;47;37;23
Idris Brewster
And had all these like six foot six, four, six, five guys as like my, my team. And I guess I had.
00;47;37;23 - 00;47;38;13
Idris Brewster
A high pitched.
00;47;38;13 - 00;47;39;27
Idris Brewster
Voice and people call.
00;47;39;27 - 00;47;42;01
Idris Brewster
Me Squeak, people call.
00;47;42;01 - 00;47;50;23
Idris Brewster
Me Squeak. And I was just talking about that the other day. I'm like, Damn that was that was a wild time. I'm pretty sure that was being bullied.
00;47;50;25 - 00;47;52;20
Idris Brewster
But like, I owned it, I.
00;47;52;20 - 00;48;02;22
Idris Brewster
Owned it and I showed them how to do it on the court. So it wasn't a problem. But yeah, that was my nickname in high school. On the basketball team, it was Squeak.
00;48;02;25 - 00;48;22;05
Rob Lee
Because you were super vulnerable there. I'm going to be as vulnerable. I don't think I've shared this on the pod. I had a nickname because as I said earlier, we are rather rather tall. What have you always like big? And then people are like, they look and it's like, look a lot younger than you are. So I used to get Baby Huey.
00;48;22;07 - 00;48;23;12
Rob Lee
Yeah, just like.
00;48;23;14 - 00;48;24;12
Idris Brewster
Though I.
00;48;24;14 - 00;48;40;01
Rob Lee
Remember this. I was one of those kids. Like, I'm like, Look, Saturday morning cartoons, the aunts. I don't care about the Scholastic program. You want me? And so I was there under duress, right? There's like, Oh, baby, who is here late? I was like, Look, I was watching X-Men. I don't care. Oh, the energy I had.
00;48;40;04 - 00;48;45;15
Idris Brewster
Oh, we're going to. Yeah, I had other ones like each.
00;48;45;18 - 00;48;49;16
Idris Brewster
And a few others that I won't name, but yeah.
00;48;49;18 - 00;49;08;19
Rob Lee
I see. So this is podcast Truth in is art, right? It's always hard to reveal something. So you know how people get very alike. They have their sort of they have their ratchet playlists, then they have their I'm not going to claim this, but you start looking at the streams on like Spotify, like you listen to this song 50 times this week.
00;49;08;21 - 00;49;20;17
Rob Lee
So for you, what artist if you want to go with a song, feel free. But what artist do you listen to? And I like how when I claim them, but I enjoy, I enjoy what they play and enjoy their music.
00;49;20;19 - 00;49;33;25
Idris Brewster
And the tradition of being vulnerable. I listen to ye. I don't care what anybody says, like I listen to ye. I don't like all his music, but I don't know his beats go crazy. Beats really.
00;49;33;27 - 00;49;36;09
Idris Brewster
His beats really go crazy. And like.
00;49;36;11 - 00;49;38;09
Idris Brewster
I'm, I'm for like the.
00;49;38;12 - 00;49;42;20
Idris Brewster
The are like the nonsensical.
00;49;42;23 - 00;49;44;03
Idris Brewster
Like.
00;49;44;06 - 00;49;51;10
Idris Brewster
I'm really with the nonsensical pronunciation and like, you can barely understand Playboi Carti young thug type stuff.
00;49;51;12 - 00;49;56;22
Idris Brewster
Because it's about the flow, it's about the vibe. And yeah.
00;49;56;24 - 00;50;05;05
Idris Brewster
I really feel like some of those guys use their voice as instruments, so I listen to ye, I'll say that, I'll say that I'll say that probably for sure.
00;50;05;08 - 00;50;21;00
Rob Lee
This great is a large six foot four, 300 plus film. Black Men. I listen to a lot of like eighties vapor wave and like pretty Japanese girls singing about macros and anime robots and things that sort.
00;50;21;03 - 00;50;21;18
Idris Brewster
Oh, that's.
00;50;21;18 - 00;50;46;16
Idris Brewster
Me. I'm a hip hop producer as well, so I like hip hop producers in a sense are like archivists and historians in their own right. So like, you know, I've sampled so many like Japanese jazz, J-pop, vapor wave stuff, sampling a lot of like seventies Ethiopian jazz, just a bunch of stuff from around the world. So I guess with a lot of.
00;50;46;16 - 00;50;48;10
Idris Brewster
Music.
00;50;48;13 - 00;50;52;09
Idris Brewster
And, and, but yeah, I don't know some something about.
00;50;52;11 - 00;50;56;05
Idris Brewster
Some of the ideas that I like, but I don't want people now thinking.
00;50;56;05 - 00;51;09;00
Idris Brewster
That I'm uncultured out here because I definitely, I definitely listen to the gamut from like neo soul to Ethiopian jazz to free jazz to funkadelic. I don't know. I listen to a bunch.
00;51;09;00 - 00;51;12;19
Rob Lee
But you're just describing Most of my playlist is pretty eclectic.
00;51;12;21 - 00;51;32;18
Idris Brewster
Okay. Yeah, same, same, same. I got a what is it like? Oh, it said, Yeah, I got a oh, shoot, I got a bunch of vinyls. But like, this is like I got Oh shit. Let me, let me turn off the Blur. The Blur. I like George. George Benson on one side, but then I got like Wu-Tang Clan on the other side.
00;51;32;18 - 00;51;34;13
Idris Brewster
And these are these are right out of my desk.
00;51;34;13 - 00;51;35;29
Idris Brewster
I got a Richard Pryor.
00;51;36;01 - 00;51;37;23
Idris Brewster
Live recording up there. I got it.
00;51;37;28 - 00;51;39;18
Idris Brewster
I'm a vinyl collector.
00;51;39;20 - 00;51;42;01
Idris Brewster
And stuff, so music is my thing.
00;51;42;03 - 00;51;55;28
Rob Lee
Oh, yeah, I it. It's got to more for you. I think this next one is a little bit of a you know, you go to the gym, you get that rest period. This is a version of a rest period. What is the hashtag that describes you best? Maybe it's not a rest, period.
00;51;56;00 - 00;51;58;18
Idris Brewster
No, this is a tough one. Yeah.
00;51;58;20 - 00;52;05;01
Rob Lee
You swapped out for emoji. This question used to be what emoji do you overuse or do you describe that describes you best?
00;52;05;03 - 00;52;14;21
Idris Brewster
Hmm. I think that the emoji that describes me best I.
00;52;14;22 - 00;52;20;22
Idris Brewster
Like the devil, the purple Devil emoji is like is really where I'm at.
00;52;20;25 - 00;52;23;27
Idris Brewster
That I like the ice cold ice.
00;52;23;29 - 00;52;53;05
Idris Brewster
Like the blue ice cold, the one that's like smiling like this. I'm sure I use that in the wrong way, but that is, that's my way to, to, to say like, yeah, I'm into it. Oh, yeah, let's do this. I use that one a lot. I also like the tree one, which I use for various purposes, but I do, I do really like I do love the tree emojis and the sun emoji, but I would say that the purple Devil emojis, how I'm feeling right now.
00;52;53;08 - 00;52;59;05
Rob Lee
I dig it. I use that. That's standard. Like Red ogre with the beard emoji. I would I.
00;52;59;07 - 00;53;00;10
Idris Brewster
So.
00;53;00;13 - 00;53;07;24
Rob Lee
Because I feel like it looks like me is like okay that's just that's just me there. Who went who gave them the right, You know, out here though.
00;53;07;27 - 00;53;18;11
Idris Brewster
That's funny. I'm just looking at a few of the other ones. Oh, yeah, this one is my favorite. Now, I just was like, Yeah, that, that.
00;53;18;13 - 00;53;23;21
Idris Brewster
Is. That's my I actually that's probably my most used one at this point is, is that, is that.
00;53;23;23 - 00;53;26;02
Idris Brewster
Captain II Captain. So this, this is the.
00;53;26;02 - 00;53;45;07
Rob Lee
Last one I got for you. You've met you mentioned some of the games you were into growing up. So of your like you know, the early games you're playing in mentioned a few. They were really like, you know stick out ones Which one would you like to insert yourself into? Is the lead character like which one we like, you know, where I could fit and Crash Bandicoot?
00;53;45;07 - 00;53;47;16
Rob Lee
Like which one would it be for you?
00;53;47;18 - 00;53;55;25
Idris Brewster
I got to be Pokémon. It's got to be. It's as that's a that's a cliche answer, but like I've been on Pokémon and since Red, blue.
00;53;55;25 - 00;53;58;15
Idris Brewster
Yellow like nice I would.
00;53;58;15 - 00;54;00;29
Idris Brewster
I would really catch them all. Like, I'm not like I've done it.
00;54;00;29 - 00;54;05;10
Idris Brewster
Over and over and over again to show proof. So I would, I would go.
00;54;05;12 - 00;54;21;08
Idris Brewster
I got to say Pokémon, like that's like, that's, that's the main one I would love to be in otherwise. Like, I guess it's not what I've played as a kid. Actually, no, Zelda is another one that if I could be Zelda, that would be fire. But then also Monster Hunter.
00;54;21;11 - 00;54;22;03
Idris Brewster
It's like.
00;54;22;03 - 00;54;24;04
Idris Brewster
If I could be out in Monster Hunter, like.
00;54;24;07 - 00;54;27;20
Idris Brewster
Just catching the monsters, right, and just.
00;54;27;22 - 00;54;35;10
Idris Brewster
Dominating the world. I mean, that would be great. I would. That would be super fire. But I would say Pokémon. My, that's my childhood right there. So that's that's the one.
00;54;35;10 - 00;54;36;11
Idris Brewster
I'd want to be. It's a.
00;54;36;11 - 00;54;36;26
Rob Lee
Great answer.
00;54;37;03 - 00;54;40;14
Idris Brewster
And what about you? What about you? Oh.
00;54;40;17 - 00;54;49;09
Rob Lee
I'm a little older than you, so my game choices are really interesting. I have had a dream of being sagot from Street Fighter two for a problem.
00;54;49;09 - 00;54;50;17
Idris Brewster
Oh, nice.
00;54;50;19 - 00;55;03;22
Rob Lee
I just want to have an eyepatch and I want to throw a at someone. I don't know why it's in there, and I'm already bald, so I'm getting there and I'm working on it and get a big scar across the chest. I have a cat named Tiger, so it works. It all works.
00;55;03;25 - 00;55;06;10
Idris Brewster
We're here. Oh, that's fine. I don't think.
00;55;06;10 - 00;55;08;05
Idris Brewster
About darling, the new Streetfighter.
00;55;08;07 - 00;55;09;01
Idris Brewster
As we speak.
00;55;09;01 - 00;55;11;04
Idris Brewster
I might do that later today, but yeah, that's.
00;55;11;04 - 00;55;12;06
Idris Brewster
That's cool.
00;55;12;08 - 00;55;17;14
Rob Lee
We're giving out suggestions via proxy. It is work. It is working.
00;55;17;17 - 00;55;20;00
Idris Brewster
So. So that's kind it, it.
00;55;20;02 - 00;55;29;26
Rob Lee
Actually, you know, I'll throw one in other one because I think you'll appreciate this. I don't know if you remember that sort of eight bit attempt they add it maybe a 16 bit.
00;55;29;28 - 00;55;30;07
Idris Brewster
That.
00;55;30;09 - 00;55;36;21
Rob Lee
That it was a free game is about ten years old that he had for Scott Pilgrim. I want to be in that game. That game is fun.
00;55;36;22 - 00;55;38;22
Idris Brewster
Oh, wow. No, I didn't know about that.
00;55;38;28 - 00;55;43;03
Rob Lee
Oh, yeah. It's like a freebie for like a PS4.
00;55;43;05 - 00;55;45;03
Idris Brewster
Oh, wow. Yeah, it's a.
00;55;45;03 - 00;55;47;29
Rob Lee
Lot of fun. It's a beat them up, too. It's great.
00;55;48;02 - 00;55;54;21
Idris Brewster
Oh, I played the Scott Pilgrim beat. Beat him up. Okay. I think I have seen that. I have seen that. That would be.
00;55;54;24 - 00;55;57;14
Idris Brewster
That would be great. I'm looking at it. I'm I'm about to play this.
00;55;57;17 - 00;56;02;17
Rob Lee
Like the only black guy in there suddenly is like, got here. Scott That's my game now.
00;56;02;19 - 00;56;04;15
Idris Brewster
Rob Lee Save the world.
00;56;04;17 - 00;56;06;26
Rob Lee
Democratizing.
00;56;06;28 - 00;56;10;18
Idris Brewster
A bit. That's funny. So.
00;56;10;20 - 00;56;25;18
Rob Lee
You know, again, you know, thank you for coming on to this podcast and spending some time with me and, and share a bit of your stories. It's been just wonderful. And I want to give you the space in these final moments to share anything that you want. Definitely the social media website and all that good stuff, but share anything you want.
00;56;25;18 - 00;56;27;27
Rob Lee
These final moments, the floor is yours.
00;56;28;00 - 00;57;02;15
Idris Brewster
Yeah, well, I'll start off with the information. I mean, it's kinfolk tech, dawg. So go on there. Check out what we're up to. Sign up for the newsletter to stay involved. We got a lot of cool updates coming out. I'm releasing the location based version in the fall. We're partnering with Niantic who built Pokemon Go to create that back end portion that we can have these monuments engage within the public spaces with ease, all of our socials, with kinfolk, tech and then yeah, I mean, anything, any parting words and everything.
00;57;02;16 - 00;57;15;12
Idris Brewster
We got a lot of work to do. And I guess the big my I guess what I want to say is I think finally find a way to be creative, find a way to think outside the.
00;57;15;12 - 00;57;16;12
Idris Brewster
Box.
00;57;16;15 - 00;57;23;14
Idris Brewster
And use the tools outside of the ways that they were meant to be used. I think play.
00;57;23;16 - 00;57;26;25
Idris Brewster
Tinker, Hack, do whatever you.
00;57;26;25 - 00;57;47;06
Idris Brewster
Got to do to really pull all these tools and these experiences out to their fullest potential and out of the ways that have been defined for us. And I think if we engage more outside of the box thinking, then we'll be good. And so, yeah, just let's stay creative and start thinking outside the box.
00;57;47;09 - 00;58;12;28
Rob Lee
And there you have it, folks. I want to again thank Idris Brewster from Kinfolk for coming onto the podcast and chopping it up. A great conversation. And I'm Rob Lee saying to this art culture and you know, some disruptors in and around your neck of the woods, you've just got to look forward.
