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?"