heartsongs101 Creative Practice & Media Labs
A remote-first creative sanctuary for artistic agency, accessible somatics, civic tools, & cultural
Whittle and Widget
Sharing the alchemy of creation: Help fund the launch of Whittle & Widget, a new serialized audio platform for working artists. Experience the stories the way only working artists can utter them.
United States
About the Project
Welcome to Whittle and Widget:* a serialized audio platform exploring the raw reality of the working artist. Podcast, missives, ASMR, and much more.
Welcome to Whittle and Widget:* a serialized audio platform exploring the raw reality of the working artist. Podcast, missives, ASMR, and much more.
We are diving deep into the art of creativity: the craft, the grind, the hours of isolation, and the alchemy of turning invisible thoughts into tangible art.
Why We Are Here
Whittle and Widget was born from the circadian rhythms of a daily commute. Subconscious thoughts unearthed. The feel of red tape purgatory one gets when seeking resources. If you want to hear what our work sounds like, listen to my tracks 'Spike'—composed on foot walking beneath the Seattle Space Needle skyline while navigating the daily grind—or 'Scraping the Sky,' an excerpt from my audiobook 'My Beautiful Device,' which explores how creative stasis and bureaucracy shape us.
Whittle and Widget was born from the circadian rhythms of a daily commute. Subconscious thoughts unearthed. The feel of red tape purgatory one gets when seeking resources. If you want to hear what our work sounds like, listen to my tracks 'Spike'—composed on foot walking beneath the Seattle Space Needle skyline while navigating the daily grind—or 'Scraping the Sky,' an excerpt from my audiobook 'My Beautiful Device,' which explores how creative stasis and bureaucracy shape us.
Whittle and Widget, this series, is an extension of that exact reality: an audio platform and home for the everyday working artist. Not just catharsis, but alchemy.
I know how to see a creative vision through from conception to finished, public-facing art(ifacts). Now, let's build something more meaningful, together.
Whittle and Widget is a serialized digital audio anthology designed to showcase gripping stories, sound art, and performances from a diverse roster of emerging independent artists. It is a digital home and eventual open-access platform about the reality of being a working artist, built for working artists.
Fundraising Overview
A hunger for immersive, high-quality independent audio is real, and the tools required to produce, edit, and curate audio at a professional level require reliable gear. To launch this platform from the ground up without physical transportation or a massive studio, we need to build our digital infrastructure first.
A hunger for immersive, high-quality independent audio is real, and the tools required to produce, edit, and curate audio at a professional level require reliable gear. To launch this platform from the ground up without physical transportation or a massive studio, we need to build our digital infrastructure first.
Before we can open submissions to feature other creators, we need to build the studio engine. Right now, hardware and software limitations make it difficult to scale production, mix multi-artist tracks, and securely archive files. We are raising a lean $4,500 to fund the initial startup phase.
Every contribution moves us closer to opening the platform. If we exceed our goal, additional funds go directly toward compensating the first round of featured artists.
Your contributions to this initial campaign will directly fund:
- Production Tech & Software: Certified refurbished hardware and multi-track audio editing software licenses to mix and master episodes professionally.
- Digital Operations: Web domain registration, hosting setup, and secure submission infrastructure.
- Editorial Curation & Coordination: Dedicating 2 to 3 months of intensive operational time to build the pipeline, organize the structure, and prep for our future call for artist submissions.
Next Steps
Once this foundational capacity-building goal is met, we will officially open our public call for submissions to feature independent working artists in our upcoming audio seasons.
Once this foundational capacity-building goal is met, we will officially open our public call for submissions to feature independent working artists in our upcoming audio seasons.
Support and collab: explore the alchemy of creation with us, and help us lay the digital foundation for Whittle & Widget.
*We love the project name now, but the name is subject to change (see: alchemy).
Rewards
The Co-Producer Club
Donate $150.00 or more
Amount is fully tax-deductible.
Help shape the voices we amplify. You gain direct input on future project themes for our artist submission calls, and your name will be permanently embedded in the official audio credits of every season one episode as a Contributing Producer.
0 / 15 claimed
The Digital Supporter:
Donate $15.00 or more
Amount is fully tax-deductible.
0 claimed
The Inner Circle Pass
Donate $50.00 or more
Amount is fully tax-deductible.
0 claimed
The Founding Visionary
Donate $300.00 or more
Amount is fully tax-deductible.
Experience the art before it meets the world. You are invited to a private virtual listening party to preview unreleased episodes and discuss the featured artist selections with the creator before public release.
0 / 10 claimed
The Aural Architect
Donate $500.00 or more
Amount is fully tax-deductible.
Your turn! Record an audio dedication or creator manifesto that will be featured as a dedicated intro or outro in a specific episode. This tier is designed for those who want to boldly champion independent art without requiring physical fulfillment.
0 / 3 claimed