By Patrick McDonagh

Devin Bramhall remembers a morning tucked in her Charlestown apartment bed, contemplating plans discussed with girlfriends over Sunday’s Tremont 647 brunch and twelve-ounce vodka mimosas. At 25 she was seeking a new career. The commute from Charlestown to work at Boston-based tech startup Springpad left her unfulfilled. 1600 miles apart, Bramhall called mom for guidance.

“She [mom] hadn’t had any water or eaten anything in days.” says Bramhall “I called and was like: [whining voice] ‘I don’t like my life, I want to go to California and become a cocktail waitress.’” Mom, Katherine, answered her daughter’s phone call while working disaster relief in Haiti. After Haiti’s 2010’s catastrophic earthquake, she organized a clean birthing clinic for women in early labor. A patient mother suggested nonprofit work. Devin Bramhall quit Springpad, stored her apartment furnishings, acquired a visa, booked her flight and moved to Ubud Bali within four weeks.

Bramhall navigated her new Balinese motor-bike-commute on a borrowed Indonesian Yamaha Jupiter MX. 10,000 Indonesian Rupiah, less than one U.S. Dollar, filled the gallon gas tank. An open kitchen abutting dense jungle vegetation replaced Charlestown’s apartment amenities. Her planned three-month stay soon became two years of volunteer work, blogging, and self-exploration. Co-Curating TEDxUbud 2011 exposed Bramhall to community organizing, a skill developed to combat loneliness in Bali.

TEDx events are independently planned and coordinated community forums. License-based subsidiaries of the global non-profit TED conference [Technology, Entertainment, Design]. Individual presenters prepare compact speeches for their event audience. Each recorded speech has the potential to reach TEDx’s online audience of millions. Bramhall’s current career endeavors in Somerville are socially motivated; efforts to connect with local innovators.

As Executive Director of TEDxSomerville 2015, she organized the September 27 show hosted in Tufts University Aidekman Arts Center. Bramhall shares motivations for organizing, “What I get to do through this is meet a ton of people in my community, and find out what they are doing. I have lived in Somerville three years now. It wasn’t until I did this last year that I was like ‘oh right I live here.’ I wasn’t connected as much here. Last year gave me the itch, and then being the organizer this year, I can’t imagine doing anything else.”

TEDxSomerville focused on twelve community speakers in varying professional disciplines. The show theme, “Reinvent,” connects presenters through what Bramhall describes as a “global conversation of our shared future.” Chosen topics varied: culturally relevant concerns, thought provoking ideas, and presenter’s passions were condensed to 15-minute monologues. With each rehearsed presentation came a new idea: Youth-centric coders proving financial alternatives to hustling drugs, teddy bears that teach type-1 diabetes and mental discipline taught through Parkour. Presenters shared stories on stage and mingled with attendees during intermission. Guest artist, Victor Genel, discusses his “MeconoMorph” business card creation featured on stage.

With minimal alteration Genel creates multimedia art with conventional objects. “Business cards can make a special ratio: 3.5″ by 2″. If folded it produces exactly thirty and sixty degrees” says Genel as he confidently shakes his geometric paper structure. Folded business cards form sturdy geodesic orbs. Each orb resembles the metal dome structure found in school playgrounds or parks. The geometry allows for seventy-two thin, folded paper business cards to become efficient, weight bearing structures. The design holds together with money clips and paper binders. “You can put like ten pounds on it and it will hold,” says Genel. “This whole thing stands on three orbs, just three; it could be more. To me, the structure is more important than any other use for the business card.” Genel’s work is a process he describes as Deutilization: “Taking perfectly functional ‘useful’ objects, and making them completely dysfunctional in terms of their original intent.”

In his Natick home basement he turns hundreds of scissors into potentially painful soccer ball-like orbs. Genel deems money the most universal example of an object’s intended purpose made dysfunctional through art. His folded money cubes are unable to fit in ATM machines. Storage of this basement artistry is not his primary concern. “Finding enough room is a struggle, but more important is finding a place to expose it,” says Genel. “TEDx is such a tremendous forum of people from different backgrounds, different everything actually.” Genel feels as though he is an artistic steward delivering ideas using existing pieces. Literally, these pieces are his business cards, scissors, traffic cones, and paper money. What he creates is unique perspective on established convention.

TEDxSomerville 2015 was recorded Sunday, September 27. Recorded presentations will be made available online at: tedxtalks.ted.com.

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