The Internet builds a Goddamn Tesla Museum
There is an interesting new campaign growing like wildfire on Indiegogo right now. After successfully completing his Bear Love Good. Cancer Bad. campaign last month, Matthew Inman aka The Oatmeal is back on the crowdfunding site. And this time he wants you to help him build a goddamn Tesla Museum.
One of his latest web comics revealed a deep admiration for Nicola Tesla. If you haven’t, you should give it a read over at The Oatmeal. But keep in mind, his art is not safe for work.
Now Inman learned that the land and the former laboratory known as Wardenclyffe of Nicola Tesla are up for sale. You can learn more about the lab on The Oatmeal but apparently large parts including the building and the basement are still intact. A local non-profit organization is trying to buy the estate. It costs $1.6 million and the non-profit already received a matching $850.000 grant from New York State.
The problem is that the non-profit a) has not the other half and b) there is a second bidder involved who plans to tear everything down to turn it into a retail establishment.
If The Oatmeal and his followers succeed in raise the money and thus outbid the other person, the land will be permanently protected and hence there is the chance for the US to get its first Tesla museum.
Inman also lists a couple of big corporations on his site that would be perfect sponsors. J.P. Morgan as they were backers of Tesla back in the days. General Electric as they and Edison “screwed Tesla” over a ton of money. Google, as Larry Page seems to be a fan of Tesla. Tesla Motors, well that’s obvious, and so on.
Refreshing my browser it seems as the campaign is currently adding about $1000 per minute and currently at about $70.000 already.
This is a great example of how the geek culture is working. The idea that people are not interested in museums and history anymore is only half true. What you need is to tell a story, capture the imagination and well, add a “goddamn” to the title. It might really end up as the “Goddamn Nicola Tesla Museum”.
Picture by The Oatmeal
