Getting things together

Getting things together and making the layout.

This is a sketch of the layout I'm making. In the first navigation, I will match that video of my hands drawing the outlines with part of a testimony (a sentence, part of a drawing, etc) that will appear while I'm drawing each line. There will be a link for the user to read the whole testimony if he/she wants.


The second navigation is the "map view", where it's shown the map after the video. Each line, when clicked will show one page (entire page) of the notebook and the user can go from one page to the other and go through all the pages.

The idea is to make reference with google maps in some elements like the buttons of zoom in and out and for the "map view", "satelite view" (although I'm not sure about the names yet. "map view" makes sense, but the other where I show the video and parts of the testimonies I don't know what would be the best word for that yet.).

I'm getting real map because it was the first world map we got to know. Those ones we learned in school. And I'm refering to google maps because of it's huge influence now a days.

Back to work!

Now I'm back again, after this long (it felt long for me) holiday. Yes, I had holiday, but not because I wanted (those who know me can imagine that I wouldn't take holiday in this time pressure) but because my body needed. And it didn't even ask me if I wanted or not, it just took its holiday, getting also my mind with it. Or maybe it asked giving me some signs and I ignored. So, that was it, although I planned to stay alone in Christmas holiday to work on my project, what I had was bed, bed, bed.

I'm renewed now! And fresh like a .... an orange juice (continuing with my vitamin C) and bringing some ideas to close and finish at last the layout.

On Monday, the 22nd, while I was still sane, I separated some pages I really really like to find the reason why I liked especially those pages. So, although I didn't find the answer yet, I nevertheless separated and highlighted parts of those. These edited pages will be shown in the main navigation of the website (reminding: the other kind of navigation will have all the pages) in order to show:

- good examples to make clear the aim
- there are people in and from different parts of the world
- different kinds of technique were used: drawing/ written word / gluing / painting
- different ways to answer the question (by points, abstract/play, routine, journey of life)

So, the edited content will show the "best" examples of the range of all kinds of testimonies.

But what came to my mind while half sleep one of these days was that instead of showing (in this navigation) the entire page, I will show some highlights like these for example:

- "It was hard to begin everything over again, but I've learned that life is just like that. One day we are in Pará (Brazilian state) eating açaí fruit, the other we are in Rio eating açaí fruit with banana."
- "I think I left a piece of me somewhere"
- "A few stupid jokes that people smile just out of politeness, except my friends who totally humiliate me."
- "I'm not sure what I left behind since those things had already changed since the time I came to UK, and they won't be there when I go back anymore. So... did I left them behind?"
- "I left behind what was familiar and secure"
- "time is the thing I have left and the thing I will leave behind"
- "Thank you for asking"

At the background, there will be the video of my hand drawing the "nomads map", taking out the national borders (remember that video?) and when I go to another point to draw another border line, a piece of the page will appear. It will be shown either by the image and also by spoken voice (in some cases).

Difficult to imagine? I confused your mind? I'll show a sketch of the layout here soon.

PS: Back to the topic of holiday. A tip for anyone who is crazily working on a project and a reminder for myself: if it's Christmas holiday, if it's your birthday, if you have a family's dinner, a wedding to go..... whatever it's important, go, take the time, enjoy it, because even if in your mind (workaholic mind) don't think it's a big deal to miss this only event and just for this time you prefer to work, your body will feel it and it'll do whatever it wants. And usually the body gets the mind too. So, wanting the break or not, you will have it. It's better to enjoy it.

Big amount of data. What to do with that now?

Pages of the notebooks printed and spread on the floor. I found it a good way to see all the data at the same time and also to get the highlights (what I really like in each of them).

The challenge now is how to show this big amount of data in an interesting way through a website.

In the website there will be two kinds of navigation. The first and main one is which I focus on the aim, where I will play a bit more with this presentation, and the second is where the user can actually see each and every page if he/she is interested in navigate through all or some of them.

The second kind of navigation is quite easy to layout. I'm focusing now in the first one, where I make clear the aim of all this, which is that we are all nomads, no matter if changing places or not and if we want it or not. The illusion of the "settler".

In this part of the website I might show just part of some pages, make some highlights, showing a bit of all the content and leave it up to the user to go deeper or not. There are around 80 pages just with written words and really filled up, so if I put all together it might be too heavy and tiring for some users (although he will have the choice to look deeply).

So, I'm working crazily in this now. If you have any ideas, thoughts, you're more than welcome to help me. :)

Categorizing the data

At the moment I gave a step backwards in terms of layout of the website and I am taking a close look (I mean: very close look) at the content of the notebooks and trying to categorize them and take highlights.
Thumbnails of the pages of the notebooks glued in my Sketch book. The thumbnails are to guide me and for me to take notes and the whole page of the notebook I see on screen.

Total of testimonies/people: 130
_____________________________________________________
Pages divided per persons/ testimonies:

Written word = 80 (Handwritten: 64 / Computer: 16)
Drawing = 6
Written + Drawing = 29
Written + Collage = 13
Written + Collage + Drawing = 2

I was really surprised to see so many writing printed (typed in computer and glued in the notebook). As in many has the signature of the person, they were there and chose to type it.
_______________________________________________________________
Languages used:

Portuguese= 58
English= 56
None (drawing/abstract image)= 8
French= 2
Spanish= 2
Chinese=1
Dutch= 1
German= 1
Italian=1

Because I sent the notebooks to friends and friends of friends, I sent many to people I knew from Brazil that are in different parts of the world, and also a few books to Brazil. So, I got a high number of Portuguese. In most of the cases, though, people wrote in English, even though their mother language was different.
________________________________________________________________
Testimonies divided by its content (each testimony can fit in one or more aspects):

Points = 71
(when the person mentions points/items/things that he/she left behind. Like a list.)

Journey of life = 41
(when the person tells the way their lives went, what they have passed through to be in this point in life)

Questioning/thoughts = 23
(the ones that speaks about the question itself, mentioning what for them is to leave something behind, why to look back, etc)

Day-by-day = 21
(when you can get a feeling of how is or was the routine/day-by-day of that person. Small ordinary moments of everyday life.)

Abstract/play = 21
(when the person plays with the answer more than merely answering or when he/she makes an abstract image in the page)
____________________________________________________________

Well, I divided in this way from what I got reading the testimonies all together. I am still working on it and, as suggested by my tutor, think in terms of "time" as well, if the matter of time is something strong in the testimonies.

I thought it was surprising the number of people that talked about the question itself, and also the way some did it. I think the question, because it is very personal, might have touched some people in specific points, maybe. Anyhow, the question was quite provocative for some (16% of the participants).

I think the aspects are most interesting in my opinion for this project are the ones who talks about their everyday lives (that we get a sense of how their routine are or were) and the ones that tells about their journeys of life, which makes us see how they got here, in this point of life. These two aspects were the ones I wanted to get in the first place. So to formulate the question I thought the best way was to ask about the past, as we can see more clearly - although sometimes romanticized - the most important things and the things that influenced us and makes us what we are now.

At this time I'm reading "The poetics of Space", by the french philosopher Gaston Bachelard, recommended by my tutor in the last tutorial.

Scanned the notebooks

I scanned the notebooks. It was better than any photo test I made and it maintains the aspect of the tactile notebook. I want the image to pass very clearly that it is a real notebook scanned, so I'll use the less image retouching as I can. Every part of this project aims to be the most authentic as possible.

To scan all the 22 notebooks it took me more time than I expected because I should be carefuly made. It might have taken me 2 or 3 days to do it. I kept watching "Wallace and Gromit" and "Shaun the sheep" while doing it, so it was alright. :)

Numbers...

Now I have received 22 books back = 130 testimonies from different people from different parts of the world. Phew! I have enough content to show in the website thank to these people who helped me and filled something in one of the pages.

The most difficult thing in this project for me is to depend on other people. Personally, I'm not really good at it and this project was a good exercise for this and played a lot with my anxiety, I must say.

The good thing of this process is that as soon I receive a book and read it, my excitement for the project gets high again, and put me in the right track by the richness of each page.

I never get tired to say that the content of the books are very interesting! And it is very nice to see that people did some effort and thought about it to write in the page. I will write a paper just about this process of getting the data and people's testimonies by these real notebooks. I'll post it here, but probably by the end of January.

And I'm planning to open a space in the website that people can send me pages (still by post) if they want to get a part in this.

Breaking national borders (literally)

To create the concept of breaking national borders, I will literally break the borders. Instead of my previews thoughts and tests of breaking the map into pieces, I am breaking the lines into pieces.

In this video I recorded me drawing lines of the world map in order to create a new map.

I pick a line, randomly, in the map and draw a piece of that, turn the page and draw another line, and so on.

The idea is to create a map where it is showed the movements of people. The borders become the lines (in red) which represents the movement of the "nomads".

It will become something like this:
After closing this concept of breaking the maps using the lines of the borders and creating a new map, I am working on how to match this concept (the map) with the notebooks' testemonies in one piece (the website).

A gift (and it's not even Christmas yet)

I just got a gift today that is a desktop image for my computer from a friend who is designer and works also making lovely personalized illustrations.

Me, my little new hair and the notebooks. Nothing reflects better this moment. :)

So cute! Thanks, amiga!!! :D

Here is the link to her blog. It is worth it taking a look!
http://www.carinhaspersonalizadas.blogspot.com/

Some numbers

I got 12 books until now that came from Brazil, China, England, France, Germany, Portugal and Taiwan.

I know others that are on their way and I wonder where the books that were sent here in Bristol are...

I have 74 testimonies from different people who took part in this, which is great! But I stipulate that I will get 150, if the other books arrive.

The Political Map

Cultures are not defined by national borders. The borders were made simply for political purposes. Don't you forget that (even though the maps don't show often the word "political").

A particular notebook

I got really happy receiving a particular book today which was one that went to my mother (in Buzios/Teresópolis - Brazil).

My mother is in constant contact with people from different social/ cultural/ educational classes. In this book, we gave voices for people that normally doesn't have, in a sense of: other cultures (or subcultures, social classes, etc) don't really get to know them as individuals. People from completely different classes took part in this.

My mother told that each one got really happy to be part of this, that someone wants to know about their lives and experiences. Well, I think everyone who took part in this project was glad to be part of it, otherwise just wouldn't (as some didn't) take part.

I got some feedbacks like: "you know that anyone likes to talk about their lives and experiences, you are just giving the 'excuse' for them", "this is a survey that is nice for people to take part, it is different to ask for example about things they are not really interested (usability of something, a product, etc)."

The feedbacks are normally coming by email or by people who I meet. I'm always interested in anything you would like to tell, good or bad, drop me a line. I'm in learning process, everything in this project is to my own professional development, that's why I am opening the whole process here, because nothing is just the final/resolved project and I'm not sure how this project is going to end. This is very experimental and different from what I have done until now.

Email me at marianamota@marianamota.com or comment in any post. ;)

Highlights of the notebooks

Highlights from the notebooks that keeps in my mind after reading it, that somehow gets my attention. Therefore, it influences (direct or indirect) this project.

I'll keep updating this session.

"(...) after this experience, reading a book by Amyr Klink, there is one quote that called my attention because it summarizes everything I've passed through and what I think of my experience: '(...) a man needs to travel. By his own means, not by stories, images, books or TV. By his own, with his eyes and feet, to understand what he is. To some day plant his own trees and give them some value. To know the cold to enjoy the heat. To feel the distance and lack of shelter to be well under his own ceiling. A man needs to travel to places he doesn't know to break this arrogance that makes us see the world as we imagine it, and not simply as it is or may be. That makes us teachers and doctors of what we have never seen, when we should just be learners, and simply go see it.' - Amyr Klink" (Text translated from portuguese). >> Many thanks for sharing this, Marcela! :)

"It was hard to begin everything again, but I've learned that life is like that. One day we are in Pará eating Açaí fruit, the other we are in Rio eating Açaí with banana." (translated from the portuguese: "Foi difícil recomeçar tudo de novo, mas aprendi que a vida é assim mesmo. Um dia estamos no Pará comendo açaí, no outro estamos no Rio comendo açaí com banana.")

"I'm not sure what I left behind since these things had already changed since the time I came to UK, and they won't be there when I come back anymore. So... did I left them behind?"

Still destructing the map

This is part of the world map (part of Russia, Mongolia) that shows the outline of the political map.

I took the lines, disconnected one to the other and put it randomly in the right box. It becomes very interesting image, doesn't it? I got some conceptual ideas from this experiment that I'll show in the next post, when I finish cutting the lines.

Getting the outlines of the map

To work with maps, yes, I need to make it in layers (outlines, separated from typography, from colours, etc).

I, i, I, i, I, i

When I was scanning the notebooks, something got my attention: the "I" of the pages that people made when writing about themselves.

I like the idea of the "I" representing each individual. Each "I" has a personality because people did it themselves. Plus, each of us sees the world in "our" point of view. We are lots of "I"s. (Do you follow me?) I'm not sure if I'm going to use that, but this image and the concept of this gets my attention.

The drawings are repeted because I don't have all the images yet and I wanted to get a sense of quantity.
This is a speculative number of people who contributed to the notebooks.

Destructing maps...

I want to use world map as platform of the interaction. I am still working on that. I was literally destructing the map, but the way I make it (if it is ripped off, cutted in squares, in different shapes, etc) has to have a meaning (this was one of the questions by my tutor: why squares? That I couldn't answer). By the way, this blog is a very good resource to check what people have been doing with maps: http://strangemaps.wordpress.com/

The idea is that I want to break this human constructed national borders that for me, apart from political issue, makes no sense in terms of culture. The culture is not delimited by national borders. I want to show that everything is moving inside the map. "I am from Brazil, therefore I belong to that culture". Why is that? What culture exactly are we talking about? There are all kinds of people in the country I was born, all kinds of habits, cultures...

The story of our lives, what influences us during the journey of life, define ourselves that can be related to different cultures and groups and it is not closed to this or that nation.

Lots of thoughts are in my mind at the moment (I am basically questioning everything to get clearer in my thoughts), as you can see so I might have to focus in few aspects to be able to my point.

Finding solution

Finding solution, or better: looking for solution. This is a very pleasurable and anxious part of the process. It is actually the "design" itself, in my opinion. I got the content, I have an aim, now I have to find the best way to express it by image (and interactive).

I was making experiments with world maps and getting to a solution when I saw that everything was getting too complicate (not clear, punctual and precise), I was missing the track. This is very common to someone that is extremely involved in the project. I could see it just when my tutor asked a few questions that I couldn't answer. Everything has to have a meaning/concept. This is already very strong in my mind as a designer. But sometimes some images are so interesting that at that moment I got excited, leaving aside the most important thing (the essence of all this). I have to be aware of the essence, the strong points and I was missing it by the idea of how interactive it could be. It is very tricky working with Interactive Media sometimes, because the idea of interactive elements can be leveled up and miss the essential point. In interactive media, users have some "freedom", so things have to be very clear without sounding stupid or redundant.

So, I stopped to rethink what is the most important thing of all this. Get it simple, precise and strong.

I took a close look at some notebooks and got back to research.

Taking a look at the notebooks it got clear to me that the content doesn't explain itself. In a sense of, what I asked from people is not direct linked to what I want to show. It is mainly because I didn't want to ask straight forward. I believe that when you are far from the time/place you can see that with different eyes and see clearer what is really important from that. That is why I asked about the past. So, I can't just show what I collected because it can be completely misunderstood by the audience. To deliver the essential elements of the "story" I need to conduct people's mind to what I am thinking.

Well, everything here seems very obvious, but I need to record the process anyway.

Narrative Conference

I went to the Narrative Conference last weekend at the Encounters Film Festival and it was very interesting. It wasn't just about films but also about games, machinima, web-dramas, etc. It is very interesting to start looking the website as a narrative form, no matter if it is a comercial website or a story based website. I got this sense in the first term of this MA working with screenwriters. Before that I used to think about websites and audience just in terms of usability, what users are looking for, what they want to find, etc. And now (not discarting looking to the audience and the usability of the website) I also have in mind what I want to show, instead of just what users want to find. I get the author's point of view. You can see the website you're creating as narrative (a very interesting essay about it at the [A List Apart website] ). In the case of this project, for example, the story is about moving and leaving things behind. The narrative is not linear, but broken narrative (testemonies from people) that the audience will put it together by the main theme. The story will be shown by the way I make the interactive narrative. All the elements of the story should be delivered, which I believe they are: the testemonies and the moving. I can't think about anything more as essential elements for this story.

Some pages...

10 notebooks arrived!

I have received today 10 notebooks. Many thanks for those who sent it!!! I know that there are many that are already in the way. Can't wait to see!

The content of the notebooks are very interesting. I know might be too early to say anything, but I could notice something that I already believed: the dreams, the lacks, the desires are essencialy the same. What took my attention in these testeminies are not the diversity, but rather the similarities between one to the other. There are things that are human kind issues, rather than cultural.

It reminds me one song of Gabriel o Pensador, who inpired me for this project.
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=GOvQByqZyBs

Tás a ver? (Gabriel o Pensador)
Estás a ver o que eu estou a ver? / Estás a ver estás a perceber? / Estás a ouvir o que eu estou a dizer? / Estás a ouvir estás a perceber?

Eu tenho visto tanta coisa nesse meu caminho / Nessa nossa trilha que eu não ando sozinho / Tenho visto tanta coisa tanta cena / Mais enbaquitante do que qualquer filme de cinema / E se milhares de filmes não traduzem nem reproduzem / A amplitude do que eu tenho visto / Não vou mentir pra mim mesmo acreditando / Que uma música é capaz de expressar tudo isso / Não vou mentir pra mim mesmo acreditando / Mas eu preciso acreditar na comunicação / Mas eu preciso acreditar na... / Não há melhor antídoto pra solidão / E é por isso que eu não fico satisfeito / Em sentir o que eu sinto / Se o que eu sinto fica só no meu peito / Por mas que eu seja egoísta / Aprendi a dividir as emoções e os seus efeitos / Sei que o mundo é um novelo uma só corrente / Posso vê-lo por seus belos elos transparentes / Mudam cores e valores mas tá tudo junto / Por mas que eu saiba eu ainda pergunto

Tás a ver a vida como ela é? / Tás a ver a vida como tem que ser? / Tás a ver a vida como agente quer? / Tás a ver a vida pra gente viver?

Nossa vida é feita / De pequenos nadas

Tás a ver a linha do horizonte? / A levitar, a evitar que o céu se desmonte / Foi seguindo essa linha que notei que o mar
Na verdade é uma ponte / Atravessei e fui a outros litorais / E no começo eu reparei nas diferenças / Mas com o tempo eu percebi / E cada vez percebo mais / Como as vidas são iguais / Muito mais do que se pensa

Mudam as caras / Mas todas podem ter as mesmas expressões / Mudam as línguas mas todas têm / Suas palavras carinhosas e os seus calões / As orações e os deuses também variam / Mas o alívio que eles trazem vem do mesmo lugar / Mudam os olhos e tudo que eles olham / Mas quando molham todos olham com o mesmo olhar / Seja onde for uma lágrima de dor / Tem apenas um sabor e uma única aparência / A palavra saudade só existe em português
Mas nunca faltam nomes se o assunto é ausência / A solidão apavora mas a nova amizade encoraja / E é por isso que agente viaja / Procurando um reencontro uma descoberta / Que compense a nossa mas recente despedida / Nosso peito muitas às vezes aperta / Nossa rota é incerta / Mas o que não incerto na vida?

Tás a ver a vida como ela é? / Tás a ver a vida como tem que ser? / Tás a ver a vida como agente quer? / Tás a ver a vida pra gente viver?

Nossa vida é feita / De pequenos nadas

A vida é feita de pequenos nadas / Que agente saboreia, mas não dá valor / Um pensamento, uma palavra, uma risada
Uma noite enluarada ou um sol a se pôr / Um bom dia, um boa tarde, um por favor / Simpatia é quase amor / Uma luz acendendo, uma barriga crescendo / Uma criança nascendo, obrigado senhor / Seja lá quem for o senhor / Seja lá quem for a senhora / A quem quiser me ouvir e a mim mesmo / Preciso dizer tudo que eu estou dizendo agora
Preciso acreditar na comunicação / Não há melhor antídoto pra solidão / E é por isso que eu não fico satisfeito em sentir o que eu sinto / Se o que sinto fica só no meu peito

Por mais que eu seja egoísta / Aprendi a dividi minhas derrotas e minhas conquistas / Nada disso me pertence
É tudo temporário no tapete voador do calendário / Já que temos forças pra somar e dividir / Enquanto estivermos aqui / Se me ouvires cantando, canta comigo / Se me vires chorando, sorri

Tás a ver a vida como ela é? / Tás a ver a vida como tem que ser? / Tás a ver a vida como agente quer? / Tás a ver a vida pra gente viver?

Nossa vida é feita / De pequenos nadas


Translation (I did it. Correct me if you see anything wrong):

"Do you see?"
Do you see, do you notice? / Do you hear what I’m saying? / Do you hear, do you notice?

I’ve seen so many things in my way / In our track because I don’t walk alone / I’ve seen so many things, so many scenes / More impacting than any movie / And if thousands of movies doesn’t express nor reproduce / The range of what I’ve seen / I won’t lie to myself believing / That one song is able to express all this / I won’t lie to myself believing
But I need to believe in communication / I need to believe in… / There is nothing better for loneliness
And that’s why I don’t feel satisfied / In feeling what I feel / If what I feel stays just in my heart / Even if I’m selfish
I’ve learned to share my emotions and its effects / I know that the world is a hank, just one yarn / I can see by their beautiful transparent links / Change the colours and values but it’s all together / Even though I know it, I ask
Do you see the life as it is? / Do you see how life should be? / Do you see how we want it? / Do you see life for us to live?

Our life is made of / little “nothings”

Do you see the horizon line? / Levitating, avoiding that the sky breaks / By following this line, I’ve noticed that the sea
Actually is a bridge / I’ve crossed and went to other sides / And in the beginning I noticed the differences
But in some time I’ve noticed / And I notice more and more / How the lives are similar / Much more than we think

The faces are different / But all can have the same expressions / The languages are different but they all have / Your words of love and your angriness too / The preys and gods varies also / But the relief that they bring are from the same place / The eyes are different and everything they look at / But when they get wet everyone looks with the same kind of look / No matter where the tear of pain comes from / It all have the same taste and the same appearance / The word “saudade” just exists in Portuguese / But there are always words when the subject is lack / Solitude scares buts he new friendship gives us courage / And that’s why we travel / Looking for another meeting, a discovery / That compensates our recent goodbye / Our hearts many times are feels compressed / Our routs are uncertain / But what is not uncertain in life?

Do you see life the way it is? / Do you see life the way it should be? / Do you see life the way we want it to be? / Do you see life for us to live?

Our lives are made / of small “nothings”

Life is made of small “nothings” / That we taste but don’t give the right value / A thought, a word, a laugh / A beautiful night, or the sunset / A good-morning, a good-afternoon, a please / Sympathy is almost love / A light turning on, a belly getting bigger / A child being born, thanks lord / No matter who is you, lord / No matter who is you, lady
To anyone that wants to hear me / I need to tell what I’m telling now / But I need to believe in communication / I need to believe in… / There is nothing better for loneliness / And that's why I'm not satistied to feel what I feel / If what I feel stays just in my heart / Even if I'm selfish / I've learned to share my defeats and my conquests / Nothing of these belongs to me / It's all temporary on the flying carpet of the calendar / If we have strengh to add and divide / In the time we are here / If you hear me singing, sing along / If you see me crying, smile

Do you see life the way it is? / Do you see life the way it should be? / Do you see life the way we want it to be? / Do you see life for us to live?

Our lives are made / of small “nothings”

Answering some questions

I've been receiving some questions by email about the return of the book and I would like to tell here as it might concern someone else.

I am asking for the return of the book by the 20th, but it can be posted by the 20th. I am prepared for the delay. ;)

The books doesn't have to be filled up. Don't worry if it is not complete. There are more pages than time for it.

Any further questions, please, don't hesitate to contact me (by commenting here or by email marianamota@marianamota.com).

Maps, maps and more maps

What am I doing at the moment? I am doing some experiments, literally surrounded by maps.









I don't want just to show what I collect in the notebooks. Although the material of all the notebooks are very interesting, I have a strong point of view that I aim to show in this project. And I want users to question some things that we are so used to think. Therefore I am doing some experiments to get the best manner to express that.

All these in sounds of Chico Buarque, Lenine, Jobim, Vinícius de Moraes, Caetano Veloso, Cazuza, Gabriel o Pensador and so many other Brazilian singers/songwriters/poets that has songs about social concerns, patriotism, etc. [my station at last.fm]

Postgraduate Interdisciplinary Evening

I will be presenting my project in development at the Postgraduate Interdisciplinary Evening on the 21st November at the Pervasive Media Studio.

Click here for more information:
http://www.pmstudio.co.uk/events/fri-21112008-700pm

I saw the first notebook!

Today I came across with one notebook to pass from one person to another. Although I was afraid of looking inside before the "right time" because it could mess up my mind and block my development at the moment, I couldn't help myself and looked the pages. I got really engaged in each page. And fascinated! I looked carefully each one. How precious is that. I was fascinated not just for the graphic of that, but, of course, for what people wrote. The diversity and the common aspects are so interesting.

At this moment I am developing how I am going to show the rich content I will collect through a website I am creating, which has an specific aim (I don't want just to show what I am collecting, but express an idea I have in my mind).

(I am not entirely sure if I should show the content in this blog. Somehow putting in a blog looses the preciousness. So, just a small thumbnail here.)

Seeing this book made me feel that there is nothing like taking the book in your hands and feel that. Each page was written in a certain place, by a certain person. How amazing is to get the sense of that! The book is a nomad itself.

Because the books are so important, I am planning to show all the books in the MA Media show, at UWE, which will happen in February. I will publish here as soon as I have the confirmed dates.

"The dark could be made out of light"

A special edition of the book was made for the private art exhibition "The dark could be made out of light", by Yves Kervoelen, which will take place in Cambridge-UK on the 15th November. There it will have a book for people to fill up during the exhibition.

Many thanks for the invitation, Yves.

Characteristics of the books

Size
The books should be small enough to be easy for people to carry them at the same time big enough to fit the information and a picture 10x15cm if anyone gets interested in attaching a photo.

Number of pages
Few pages. With the time I am giving for filling the book, it will be scary with the sensation of there are too many pages to fill in (although the book doesn't have to return totally filled in). Plus, if the book has too many pages it goes far away from the person I actually sent the book to, which means that the chances to get the book back might become fewer. But nevertheless it should have a relevant number of pages so I can have a good amount of data. It should also look a small book, not a folder.

I went to look for a notebook with 10 sheets (20 pages) but it was impossible to find. I got then the 20 sheets notebook. Actually when I got the book in my hands I realised that this option was much better for the reasons I mentioned above.

Quality
The paper of the pages should have good quality to not mark the other page when people are writing/glueing/painting on them.

Handwriting
Am I crazy to write in all the pages of the books and in all the 600 "thank you" small papers? No. But yes, I got crazy in the 3 nights when I wrote in all of them [click here to read my book-making-marathon]. But what made me go on writing and writing and writing was that I believe that if I want people to feel free and comfortable to experiment in the book I can't give them a beautiful printed, tidy blank page. Not when I am asking such a personal question. I wanted to create the nearest path between them and me. I am asking each one what they have left behind. Each page is my question to each one who takes part in this.

I ask people to write about their lives. I should give them my personal statement as well. In the first page of each book there is my statement of what I have left behind.

Graphic design
All handwriting for the reasons mentioned above. All the material is black ink in Kraft natural colour. I've put the title of the book behind the ribbon so it is discrete (more comfortable for people to write in it).

Why 32?
Well, my tutor and I decided that I should send 10 books. 10 seemed to be a good number to have enough data for me to work with. So, I arrived home and I thought, I will try to send 20 if I have enough people in different countries to send them. After all, we never know how many books will actually return to me, it is always better to have more than less. The next day I called the company that provides the book (the books come in packages with 2 each) and, you know what, "I would like 15 packages, please." "Sixteen?" "Hm, yes, yes, sixteen.". That is it. I know I might be crazy when all the books arrive with so much information. But, to be honest, I don't care how much work I will have, I'm really excited!

Why sending notebooks?

After deciding the aim of this project, firstly I thought of making a user-generated-content website (web 2.0), completely virtual. Why I decided not to? First because allowing users put whatever they want, even when I close fields and when I moderate the content, I have not much control of what they talk about, which means that my aim could be so diluted that would make what I wanted to show not clear at all, and therefore loose the strength. Plus, with so short-term project, when the project is a user-generated-content, at the end of the 3 months I would present an empty project, there would be no time for users actually contribute to that.

So, I inverted the process. Instead of developing and finishing a project and then start having the content, I decided getting the data first, for then develop from the specific data I get.

Adding this plan with my interest for real tactile things (which fascinates me more than any virtual media), I decided to get information in the real world, asking people one by one. There are many ways to get information from people. I decided the written word. I wanted a way that people could feel comfortable to tell their experiences and their lives. I wanted people to feel comfortable as well as important. So, for that, nothing better than a book (not a sheet of paper, but a book). You, writing about your experiences are being part of a book.

Making of

Hi! I decided to put available to you all the process of developing this project. I wasn’t sure about it because I thought it could influence how people contribute to the notebooks. But the process is always so interesting and sometimes even more interesting than the results (I don’t believe it will be this case because the data I get from the books are already very interesting) that I decided to make it open. I’ll be careful to not put too much information that I believe would influence the contribution, but I will try to put very much information that show how fascinating the process of making a project is.

Influences / Resources

A list of resources and projects that directly inspire me for this project:
(this list will be eventually updated)

Graphic Novels
• Persepolis *especially
A graphic novel by Marjane Satrapi, an Iranian graphic designer, which tells her experience in Iran in times of rebellions and war. According to an interview with her, the aim of her book was to make people realise that anyone could be that person. Showing that the girl in Iran has dreams, fears, etc, just as other girls around the globe. It makes it more human, in a world full of wars in every side.
[read about what influenced me in this]

• Maus, by Art Spiegelman
A graphic novel that tells the story of Spiegelman's father and his life during the Second World War as a Jew in Poland. Spielgelman represents the characters as animals: Jews are represented by mice, the Germans by cats, the Poles by pigs, the Americans by dogs, etc.

• The Rabbi's Cat, by Joann Sfar
The story is told by a rabbi’s cat that, by swallowing a parrot, can speak and wants to convert to Jew. It questions be beliefs of the religion. The rabbi, his daughter and the cat go from Algeria (where they come from) to Paris and encounter the differences of the other country.
[read about what influenced me in this]

• The Arrival, by Shaun Tan
A graphic novel just with images (no dialogs at all) about a man who leaves his family (wife and child) to go abroad. Beautiful drawings and each scene is very well done.

Other Books
• Colour Notebook: Violence, by Fabrica
A collection of notebooks that was given for people from different parts of the world for them to write and draw whatever they wanted in them.
“As Colors says, they are ‘Thousands of people like you, yet different from you.’ A kaleidoscope of faces, temperaments, history and culture.” (Robert Ménard in ColorsNotebook)
[read about what influenced me in this]

• 1000 Journals Project
An experiment that a thousand of blank journals were unleashed into different parts of the world for people to put their thoughts and creativity and return the journal.

• PostSecret, by Frank Warren
An ongoing art project in which people mail their secrets anonymously on one side of the home-made postcard and send it to Postsecret.

• You are here: Personal Geographies and other maps of the Imagination. By Katharine Harmon
Good image resource for seeing different experiments on maps.
[see my book shelf]

Essays
• "Toccata and the fugue for the foreigner" from the book "Strangers to ourselves" by Julia Kristeva. *especially
[read about what influenced me in this]


• "Lecture on Nothing" from Silence, lectures and writings p.111 - fourth part, by John Cage
[read about what influenced me in this]


Music
• Gabriel o Pensador
A Brazilian artist and rapper which lyrics are about social concerns.

Websites
• Iced Game
An online game by Break Through, a human right organization, about U.S. immigration. The aim of this project was to make people aware of the problems and difficulties with immigrants in US.

• Strange Maps
Blog showing different kinds of maps made by people.
http://strangemaps.wordpress.com/

[see my favorites websites]

Movies
• Edifício Master, by Eduardo Coutinho
A Brazilian documentary by Eduardo Coutinho. The movie shows story of different people who lives in a big residential building in Copacabana, Rio de Janeiro. Stories of "normal people" of low middle class put in a very human way.

• Paris Je T’aime: Quais de Seine, by Gurinder Chadha
A short movie that shows a Parisian boy falling in love with a Muslim woman.

[see the movies I watch]

[see other cultural input]

Julia Kristeva: "Toccata and Fugue for a Foreigner"

The essay “Toccata and Fugue for a Foreigner” is part of the book “Strangers to ourselves” (1991) by Julia Kristeva, who is a French (immigrant from Bulgaria) philosopher, literary critic, and psychoanalyst.

In this essay, Kristeva points out that the Foreigner is a “hidden face of our identity” and that we should all see ourselves as immigrants – foreigners – in the society and ponders whether one can live with the other on a global scale ‘without levelling’.

She describes what is to be a foreigner, the difficulties, the solitudes and the situations they encounter as being the "other". Plus, she describes the "grey zone", which is when the foreigner no longer belongs to their country nor the new land. "The foreigner belongs nowhere.”

Taking as example what Marjane Satrapi tells about her own experience when she left Iran and went to live in Austria:
“(…) a problem when you go to another culture and you absolutely want to adapt yourself, and you absolutely want to be integrated. (…) You have to take out the first one [culture], and then choose what you want from the two and swallow them again. But it’s the moment you look at everything that it’s this lack of identity. You don’t know anymore who you are. (…) You are a foreigner anywhere.”

In the essay, the foreigner is so well described and so straight forward that I, as a foreigner, found at some points a bit hard to read and see a reflection of me there.

Highlights:

“The foreigner comes in when the consciousness of my difference arise, and he disappears when we all acknowledge ourselves as foreigners, unamenable to bonds and communities.” (p. 1)

“Indifference is the foreigner’s shield.” (p.7)

“The space of the foreigner is a moving train, a plane in flight, the very transition that precludes stopping.” (p.8)

“(…) nothing binds them here. Always elsewhere, the foreigner belongs nowhere.”

"Occasionally, raising the eyebrows or saying 'I beg your pardon?' in quick succession lead you to understand that you will 'never be part of it'" (p.15)

Nowadays, I believe that more and more people are in the same situation as mentioned in the essay. People are having living experiences in other cultures much more then in earlier years and therefore encountering the same feelings as the foreigner described in this essay.

If, as Kristeva says, we should all see ourselves as foreigners, we also should see everyone as individuals. Different individuals but who share the same feelings. We should not label anyone by where they come from. In mixed cultures this label no longer has meaning, but it just create stereotypes that doesn’t apply to anyone.

The Rabbi's Cat, by Joann Sfar

The Rabbi's Cat is another graphic novel (as Maus) that was one that influenced Marjane Satrapi and I got interested o read for this project.

The story is told by a rabbi’s cat that, by swallowing a parrot, can speak and wants to convert to Jew. It questions be beliefs of the religion. The rabbi, his daughter and the cat go from Algeria (where they come from) to Paris and encounter the differences.

It is very interesting and funny (the cat is very nasty sometimes).

My highlights:

“Western thought is a prehensile, predatory and in the final analysis destructive machine (…). It put names to things, labels, as if to say ‘theses things are part of my system, I have understood them.’” (Rabbi’s dialog, p.25)

“But the time you’ve finished naming a thing, it has already changed and the name you gave it no longer defines it exactly, so you end up with empty words in your mouth.” (Rabbi’s dialog, p.25)

[Link to the book]

John Cage: "Lecture of Nothing"

Cage, John, "Lecture of Nothing" in "Lecturers and Writings", 1959, p.110

I highlight the parts:
"Or you may leave it forever and never return to it for we possess nothing"

"But actually, unlike the snail we carry our homes within us, which enables us to fly or to stay, to enjoy each."

John Cage is composer and definitely a nomad.

From this I think it might become more interesting if I put my content a bit more poetic, rather than elicit content.

Marjane Satrapi: "Persepolis"

My first step for developing the new project proposal is to analyse what most interest me in the projects that inspire me and from that I can form my aims for this project.

Lets start with Persepolis, by Marjane Satrapi, because it’s the project that most inspires me when I see the movie, read the book, read some interviews and even when I listen the soundtrack of the movie.

First of all, it inspired me to think: “I can do something too that can change peoples mind”

Aspects that I got interested:

• The fact that she is a person who left her country to lived in another country (I identified with).

• The way she tells about her experience in a very human way.

• Expression of political (or better: humanist) concern through art (graphic novel). It’s the same thing why I like Gabriel o Pensador: Political concern expressed through music.

• Expression of their own experience in their culture. Showing their culture “to others” by their point of view. “The book I wrote for the other ones, not for Iranians.” (Marjane Satrapi).

• The simple everyday life facts that make it near to the reader. I always like everyday life, simple and ordinary things because it is what makes our life anyway. In many small things is what makes the whole. Like Sérgio Godinho, a Portuguese poet and singer, wrote and Gabriel o Pensador sings in one of his songs: “life is made of small nothings” (“a vida é coisa de pequenos nadas”). Ordinary things make life. What is ordinary for ones can be different for others, what is interesting. And what is ordinary for both creates empathy.

I watched and read some interviews with Marjane, and I highlight some points:

“ The real war is not between the West and the East. The real war is between intelligent and stupid people.” “Nowadays they talk about the Christians and the Muslims as if all Christians were one person and all the Muslims were one person. There is nothing in common, for example, between me and a fanatic of my country. There is nothing in common between a liberal person here and the government of George Bush, yet they are both in the same country. But there are a lot of resemblances between the fanatics of my country and the government here. ”

• “We are never very convinced about the things we know, but we are much more convinced about things we know nothing about.” – in my opinion, this is the moment when we create stereotypes.

The goal of Persepolis was to make people identify with the main character and feel that she is just human being like themselves. Her human concerns are evident in all the interviews of Persepolis. “I’m doing a humanistic movie (…) I’m putting human beings in the centre of interest.”

The motive why Marjane made an illustration movie instead of live action is to make people relate to it:

“If we had done this movie in live-action, as soon as you put a live human being in a geographical place with certain type of people, etc, then again that will become people that are far from us, that we can’t relate to them, they are not like us. It is something very abstract in the drawing that anybody can relate to. That’s why in the background we didn’t make anything exotic. In the background it can be Iran, but it can be any big city anywhere.”

Links to some interviews:
http://culturepulp.typepad.com/culturepulp/2008/01/the-culturepulp.html
http://www.bookslut.com/features/2004_10_003261.php
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=aMwfzqEqVLk

ColorsNotebook: Violence, by Fabrica

An analysis of what inspires me in this book: "ColorsNotebook: Violence" by Fabrica (2008).

"The work of Colors is to see how globalization is affecting cultural diversity and changing the world." (p.4)

ColorsNotebook: Violence is a book that brings together images about violence made by people from all around the world.

Colors has sent blank notebooks throughout the world and asked people to write and draw whatever they wanted in them. "Thousands of people like you, yet different from you. A kaleidoscope of faces, temperaments, history and culture". (p.8) Then, they selected 33, which were examples of the diversity.

"They come from France, USA, Hong Kong, Uganda, Brazil, South Africa and elsewhere. They are the work of children, writers, designers, homeless people. They are the image of our world, in the local and global perspective, so particular yet so universal. In short, they remeble us." (p.9)

What most interest me in this project is the fact that "real" people made the work, instead of a view from other towards them.

It is a selected work. They took the best of the material they had. This is what I want in my project. It is very interesting and has a lot of artistic expression even though it is made by people who are not necessarely in the creative industries and maybe that is why it is so interesting and it has a soul. Come direct from people's heart and experience.

Link for the book:
http://www.amazon.com/Colors-Notebook-Violence-Fabrica/dp/376438865X

Feedback

Today people start receiving the notebooks!

I'm very excited to know how it is going to work out. And I would like very much to hear opinions about what they thought about this experience: receiving the notebook, answer that question and about the book itself.

Any comments, thoughts? I'm keen to hear.

Aim of the project

In this project I want to focus on individuals rather than their nationalities and break cultural stereotypes.

Nowadays, in the globalized world, national borders don’t really define culture.
With the increase of people living abroad and having influences by other cultures, with the media, the Internet, etc, they no more belong entirely to the culture they come from, each one has their own individual experiences that don't necessarily fit in what people know (or think they know) about the other culture.

We can't just label people by their nationality, we can’t create stereotypes of people who comes from the same country as it doesn’t make sense. We all are influenced by other cultures, no matter if we travel abroad or if we have always lived in the same place.

As Marjane Satrapi said in an interview:
“There is nothing in common, for example, between me and a fanatic of my country. There is nothing in common between a liberal person here [in the US] and the government of George Bush, yet they are both in the same country. But there are a lot of resemblances between the fanatics of my country and the government here.” (http://culturepulp.typepad.com/culturepulp/2008/01/the-culturepulp.html)

What I intend with this project is to make people to see other people not by where they come from, but as another human being. To make them see people as different individuals and to put them with more importance than their own nationality. Individuals on focus.

After all, we have no roots. We are all nomads, foreigners in this land.

32 Notebooks abroad

This project is a very intense and short time one (I have just three and a half months to complete it). So, to send the notebooks abroad, I had to count on help of friends, friends of friends and colleagues.

I am very glad I could contact more people in different countries to get part in this project than I was expecting when I decided to send the books abroad (which was one week ago).

The places I'm sending the notebooks, until now, are:

UK
: Bristol
: London

Brazil
: Rio de Janeiro
: Teresópolis, RJ
: Niterói, RJ
: Búzios, RJ

Australia
: Jolimont, WA

China
: Shanghai

Cyprus
: Limassol

Denmark
: Frederiksberg

France
: Paris
: Grenoble

Germany
: Berlin
: Hamburg
: Halle

Italy
: Florence

Portugal
: Lisbon

Russia
(I just got to know that one of the books are traveling from Berlin to Russia! Amazing! Don't know where in Russia yet.)

Switzerland
: Vaud

Taiwan
: Taipei City

The Netherlands
: Amsterdam

USA
: New York
: Valencia, CA

Many thanks for the friends that are receiving the notebooks in these countries and for the ones who put me in contact with other friends.

Book-making Marathon

Preparing the books was a marathon of 4 days and 4 nights. I couldn't waste any time. The post would take some time. People would need some time to contribute. The return of the books would take more time.

Wednesday, 15th October: I decided that I would send the books in the afternoon in the meeting with my tutor. I came up with the idea that I could send notebooks instead of interviewing people in the university or sending leaflets. When my tutor agreed that it would be a good idea, but that I should be aware time, I started to become very excited about it. I am always really interested in projects that is applied for different kinds of media (intermediality) and especially with such a tactile aspect.

I came home with the thought of "I am going to buy the books now, I will make everything tonight and I will send all tomorrow". These impossible logistics that comes in my mind when I am very excited about something. Shops were all closed already, I should get the addresses first, and preparing the notebooks takes time. I think I got that when I finished this marathon.
I arrived home and planned how the notebook should look like [see characteristics of the books]. I decided to buy notebooks because I wouldn't have time to make them, I mean, to put the papers and stitch one by one, plus writing, etc. I should send them as soon as possible (on Saturday, at the most, I should send the ones that are to the farest countries (which it would take 1 week to arrive).

Thursday, 16th November: In the next morning I went to some stationary and department stores to find the notebook I had in mind: few plain pages, covered with Kraft natural color, no art on that. In one small stationary I found this a Hahnemuhle journal, just perfect to match the characteristics I was looking for. The shop had just one. No more. Hmmm... dam it. Never the less I bought it "if I have this in my hands I can find a seller for that". I came direct to the Internet and finally found a website that sell this German notebook here in England but it would take 4 working day. Whaaa? No way! I called the company. Arranged for them to deliver by the next morning before 12pm. Phew!
I bought the ribbons I would use, the envelopes, and what I could to optimize the time. In this night I made tests in the notebook I had in my hands and cutted all the 600 small papers that I would use for the "Thank you for taking part in this project" that would be attached to the books. It took me some time but I finished at 7am.

Friday, 17th November: At 10am at the next morning (or: at the same morning) the notebooks arrived. Yes, as soon as I saw that they were the right notebooks and everything was right, I came back to sleep which didn't took long for me to get back in the marathon again at 12pm.



And then it actually started. Notebooks, notebooks, notebooks. Cut the ribbons in the same size. Glue the ribbons in each notebook. Take the first notebook that is already dry and write the title in the cover. Next notebook. Another. Another... Take the first notebook that the ink had dried and write the website address at the back. One, two, three, thirty-two. Take the first notebook again, open that and write "What have you left behind?" in the second page (in the first it will be a text). Do that in all the notebooks and leave them open so the ink dries, otherwise it will mark. Make sure you are changing position of the sentences in each page. Make that in thirty-two notebooks in thirty-nine pages. Oh, that is 1248 times "What have you left behind?".

Stamp the small papers. My flatmate now and then arrived in the messy living room and laughed at me. She thought it was hilarious the scene. She was the one who took the pictures.









Now, writing the instructions in the back of the cover at least in the books I would post the next day. Write the text in the first page with what I have left behind. Take an envelope, put the address of return, fold and put at the back of the book.

Put in the envelopes. And done. Phew.









Saturday, 18th November: Went literally running to the post before it closes and sent some notebooks. The other notebooks were sent on Monday and a few during the week, as soon as I got the addresses.

I am sure I will have a few more marathons until the end of this project. And I can't wait to that.

About me

I'm Mariana Mota. I'm a Master in Interactive Media (University of the West of England, Bristol - 2009) and graphic designer (PUC-Rio, 2005).

I am Brazilian and in my life I left many things behind, as we all did.

My main interests are Design, Art, Culture and Media studies. I am very interested in projects that has cultural issues as the main goal, using art forms to express cultural/social/human issues. [see my influences for this project]

I am fascinated by tactile and "real" projects and using the New Media as a platform for communicate, interact and exchange.

After the MA I am interested in continue studies doing a PhD in theses subjects of interest. Also, I am interested in having some work experience in the UK (I have just got my Post-study visa which allows me to live and work for the next 2 years. So, I'll be around Bristol at least in the next couple of years!;)

For more information about me and my work, please, visit the website www.marianamota.com