Coming Fights
euthanasia
death penalty
sex and the politician
media violence
censorship
gun law

June 2003: The First IDSA FIGHT CLUB: The Matrix
The first IDSA Fight Club took place on a warm June evening in a downtown Chicago warehouse space. A mixture of curiosity and free drinks brought the crowds in. The topic was not directly design related: The Matrix. The crowd was made up of word-of mouth invitees of a variety of backgrounds, designers, lawyers, artists, marketing managers, and students. The Fighters in the spotlighted chalk circle; Bart Brejcha director of Designengine.com and Nathan Coco, litigator and former debate champion at Yale. Tag-team fighters were Donna Condon whose recently graduated with a Philosophy Dissertation on the Matrix, and Tim Copeland now IDSA Chicago Chapter Chair.

The fight was fast and bloody, and there were no subjects left unturned. "The film The Matrix has increased our level of expectance of special effects beyond one that would be affordable for smaller budget films to accomplished, and has put the nail in the coffin for our imaginations" argues Nathan, to be retorted by Donna's argument that "the Matrix is more than the surface level of the film, it is a allegory of Shaman stories and Biblical references that have always served to give us a reference point from which to create our understanding of what is right and wrong". "Crap!" comes a voice from the crowd, "no underlying message gets across due to the inundation of special effects and MTV-like posing by the so-called actors". And so the fight continues, ever more passionate and ever louder. The fight had a momentum of its own and a sort of chaotic free-fall. Not one person in the crowd remained silent.

The Fight ended with only one conclusion from the crowd: Nathan was the champion of the main Fighters, but tag-team Donna dominated over all. The experimental event Fight Club had proved to be better than expected, it had an energy all of its own. There just had to be more.