With Kickstarter adjusting its terms of service to wash its hands of the legal muck associated with failed fundraisers, this week's crowd-fueled Tuesday spotlight takes a look at some offbeat campaigns that have a long way to go.
Kickstarter's terms of service is now fattened with explicit language requiring more accountability from creators as even moonshot projects gather at least a handful of well-wishers at the launchpad. It's not that the following projects lack legs or originality, they just have a steep hill to climb.
Space Corpse1
Literally a moonshot, Daniel Ray, of Alamagordo, N.M., is seeking help to seed life on a habitable planet or a satellite by having his corpse rocketed there.
"I have a dream of having my corpse sent to a potentially habitable planet," states Ray. "If there is no life on said planet, maybe the chemical components left over from my corpse will create some over millions of years. Oh, and just so you know, you do not receive any items for donating."
It's a noble cause, using one's deconstructing remains to give life to a whole new world. Right now, Space Corpse1 has 3 backers, $3 in support and just under a month to go to reach its goal of $50 for the first round of funding. Ray ultimately hopes to raise $10,000 by January 2015.
"There are many risks and challenges," states Ray. "For one, I need a company willing to send a corpse into space. I also need the money to pay said company."
The Audio Jacket
Anyone who enjoys listening to music from other cars on the roadways or other people chatting on cell phones could someday enjoy that same experience in a park, if Audio Jacket reaches its $35,000 Kickstarter goal.
Audio Jacket is a jacket with speakers and an audio jack stitched into it and, so far, it has 10 believers who've chucked in $5,870 to share their music and phone calls with the world. There are still 20 days left to make this a reality. It's something founders AIOG Group hopes everyone will wear.
"We want to transform [Audio Jacket] into a key element of your closet, something you can't live without," states AIOG Group.
Becoming Bruce
While the new Fox TV series "Gotham" follows Bruce Wayne through his early years, Steve Mason, of Abbotsford, Canada, is attempting to fund and document the construction of a Batmobile. Mason hopes to transform his Ford F250 into a street-legal tumbler in time to play the world's greatest detective by Halloween 2015.
While the Dark Knight's Kickstarter campaign hasn't attracted any backers just yet, there are still 35 days to go to reach the campaign's goal of $54,000 CAD. For Mason, the Becoming Bruce project is about the transformation of two entities.
"I will also be documenting the process, as not only my truck changes and undergoes this transformation, but so will I, as recently I have put on some unwanted weight and become less than physically fit," states Mason.
