Name: Bruce Chan
Date: June 14, 2011
Location: My room, Silver Lake
Time: 3:03AM, I know, right?
Q: Who or What inspires you? Why?
A: Creativity inspires me (see below).
Q: What does creativity mean to you?
A: Creativity to me is being resourceful with limited resources. It is seeing the potential of something you might encounter everyday, but utilizing it for a different purpose to solve a problem.
A couple of things that encapsulate creativity to me:
Doug Tiano's cardboard Gladiators
Shigeru Ban's Disaster Relief Paper Tube Houses
Anything at REI (like this one-cup coffee maker!)
Whether it's an idea, song, object, house, recipe, I love experiencing – and creating – new modes of thinking for people and our community. We can't always rely on civic leaders and the government to accurately – and speedily – fix our problems. Sometimes, we just have to get creative, and get things done! It is those instances of informal creative crusades and initiatives that really inspire me everyday.
Q: What is your favorite place in the world?
A: I love places that encourage communities to interact with each other, such as in the dense heart of a city. Preferably on a bicycle. The first CicLAvia was one of the most memorably joyous days of my life riding through the city with my fellow Angelenos.
Q: What do you love most in the world?
A: I love Maps. And Rice. And Elephants. And connecting people together.
Q: What are the causes you care about? How do you actively support these causes with your time, money or other method/resource?
A: I care about causes that connect our community, in all its forms, together. Relationships, interdependency, and mutual respect for your fellow brother (or sistah!) are the most important driving forces in my life. Whether it's buying locally at farmers' markets, helping to serve meals at the Downtown Women's Shelter, or taking part in an impromptu birthday game of cardboard gladiators, I believe that as long as you are engaging your community, and – ultimately – pursuing actions which will make that community pleasantly more sustainable for future generations, then you've got yourself a friend in me.
Q: What question do you want to ask me?
A: How did you end up in Los Angeles?
@NMK: I took a plane:) When I was a kid I watched skateboarding on Saturday mornings. I thought that everyone in LA had a concrete bowl in their backyard where you could skateboard year round. For me this meant LA was this place filled with sunshine where everything was good. Plus my mother always said we would move here, but I got here on my own.
Q: What question do you wish I asked you and what is your answer to it?
A: How many subway-themed mugs do you own?
3. Paris, New York, & Taipei.
@NMK: ZERO. I'm from New York. This is a weird question:)
Bruce Jia-Chi Chan is a proponent and lover of Los Angeles, a designer, and a social architect. He has worked as the Programs Director at Materials & Applications, Microgreens Farmer at Silver Lake Farms, and volunteers with various non-profit groups like the Echo Park Time Bank, 826LA, and Sustainable Silver Lake. He bikes around town, tends to his compost pile, and loves getting lost. He lives in Silver Lake, and occasionally posts his inspirations and musings at jiachi.tumblr.com.
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