Introduction
The 1000 Journals Project seems a great place to start this compilation of interactive experiences. I have written this entry before we were given directions of how to perform EUO so it mainly details my prior view. Looking back at it with the tools we learned I found that I gained a new tool to look at design work. Thanks for this exercise, I hope you will enjoy this collection of stories and experiences.
Background
It’s been a while since I have written a journal. I started my first one when I was about 5 years old (I still have it!). It was a collection of short poems that I wrote in Hebrew. When my notebook was done, I started my second journal when I was 9 years old, it had poems about the holocaust (I remember that the topic had a strong influence on me), poems about my dolls and a short story about an orphan girl inspired by little women and Ann of Green Gables.
When I think back about it, I have written a journal anytime I started a new era in life: when I moved to a new school schools, when I entered military service, when I embarked on a one year adventurous trip oversees. But for some reason, when I moved to Canada 8 years ago, I just stopped. I think it was because I had to deal with a new language, I suddenly started to loose some of Hebrew vocabulary and at the same time English was still a struggle when I wanted to express deep thoughts and feelings. Stuck between these two worlds, , I decided to let it go of it for a while. I also started to experiment with digital platforms and experimented with other ways of storytelling like video, design, and motion graphics, which filled up my creative needs.
Object
I become really excited about journaling again when I came across The 1000 Journals Project. It’s truly inspiring to find projects that weaves together the physical and the digital world, especially when done so elegantly. This is why it one of my favorite projects of all times. It originated in 2000, when an artist who call himself Someguy distributed 1000 empty journals around San Fransisco. They were left in cafes, on buses, in bar bathrooms and some given to friends and strangers. There were no rules other then an open message to contribute and an ask to move them to others after a while. As the word about the 1000 journals began to spread, people began to express interest and the 1000 journals started to travel all over the world.
Each journal had a story: some journals came to rest in hostels, cafes, low offices, some were lost and found, abandoned and stolen. Some journals were never found and some traveled across countries, moving through war zones and even traveled back to Someguy.
During the process, people began to scan their entries and posted them online. A community was formed, and a network of journal’s writers had an opportunity to come together and share their intimate stories. As a result an ‘official’ website was formed http://www.1000journals.com, where writers could sign up in a list to receive the journals and they were also able to track their location in real time.
The continuous interest led to the development of 1001 project- http://www.1001journals.com/ a participatory network dedicated to writing and sharing journal- weather it’s a an individual, a company or a group journal. Journals are created based on specific location (if it’s left in a café, shop, bookstore etc). There are personal journals and traveling journals- a theme based journal which is mailed to a list of people who sign up to receive it.
In addition a book called The 1000 Journals Project was published in 2007, which includes a compilation of work from the original 1000 journals. There is also a documentary recently produced by Andrea Kreuzhage, which follows the lives and stories of the random people who shared their experience through the traveling journals.
Users
Users of the 1000 journals are people who came across it or it reached them. They are also users who write their own journals and would like to share it with others. Users who also like to sketch, draw and film participated in this experience.
For the 1001 Journals Project it became a bit more focused; users could write travel journals, journals that are related to one location and personal journals.
Environment
The environment is both physical and virtual. The journals were found in various locations in different cities around the world. Users write/sketch their entry in a physical booklet and then scan it and upload to the site. The great thing about writing a journal is that it can be written anywhere and anytime. It’s about creating a space where users can write freely and openly about their life experiences.
Synthesis
One of the core ideas of the 1000 Journals Project and the reason that it captured the mind and hearts of many, is the unique opportunity to share anonymous stories globally. It’s a safe place for conversation, where similarly to graffiti, private messages are shared and becomes a space for discussion and interaction. A journal offers an even more intimate experience by interconnecting the physical, digital, body , mind, global, personal. It’s also interesting that there was no particular intention to the way this project would develop and this physical crowdsourcing translated so naturally to the digital world as the users share their stories with each other.
The opportunity to interact with the journals and to find them unexpectedly in random places add a surprising and interesting layer to this project. It automatically engages users . They can choose to be involved right there on the spot. If they happened to come across the journal or someone who came across it they will also become aware of the website- which is another space to interact with the journals and to find the in real time.
After adding their entry, users have an opportunity to share it if they chose to. It’s interesting to see that most people wanted to share and began to scan their entry to the website.
Someguy managed to transform the intimate act of writing a private journal to global, shared experience by providing a platform for so they can share it. The sharing revealed this remarkable thing- We all share similar experiences, deal with similar challenges and overcome similar conflicts. The 1000 Journals Project is a visceral reflection of the seamless human thread that ties us all together.
