You are currently browsing the monthly archive for May, 2007.
There’s this cool magazine/ pop culture initiative called FOUND. It’s been around for a while but we thought to highlight it because a lot of what’s been collected includes handwritten pieces ranging from love letters, birthday cards, and poetry just to list a few things. The note and story below, that sparked it all for FOUND magazine, was found on their website: www.foundmagazine.com.
“And how’d this all start?
One snowy winter night in Chicago a few years back, Davy went out to his car and found a note on his windshield — a note meant for someone else, a guy named Mario:
We loved this note — its amazing mixture of anger and hopefulness — and so we shared it with as many folks as we could. Each friend we showed the Mario and Amber note to seemed to have a few finds to show us in return; clearly we weren’t alone in our fascination with FOUND stuff! As a way for everyone to join forces and share their finds with everyone else, we decided to start a magazine called FOUND, a showcase for all the strange, hilarious and heartbreaking things people’ve picked up.
We spent a year spreading word about the project and collecting great finds, then with scissors and tape we slapped together the first issue of FOUND in June of 2001. Each year since, with help from our friends and finders all around the world, we’ve put out a new issue of the magazine. We hope you’ll enjoy checking out the website and the magazine, and that you’ll join in and send in your own finds! We collect it all — love letters, birthday cards, kids’ homework, to-do lists, poetry on napkins, doodles — anything that gives a glimpse into someone else’s life.”
The 1000 Journals Project is something we think is neat. We felt that if you didn’t already know about it, well, maybe it’s time you knew.
Initially inspired by bathroom wall graffitti, Brian Singer a.k.a Someguy, a graphic designer from San Francisco, started his 1000 Journals project in August 2000. The project is an experiment in creativity and sharing between friends and strangers throughout the world. www.1000journals.com
Individuals lucky enough to get their hands on one of the journals, which seem to have found themselves in nooks and crannies, from here to there and everywhere in between, add something from their experience – a story, drawing, or photograph to the journal, with the contribution limited only by the creativity of its creator. Upon completion, the journal moves on, like a roaming traveller, staying in place only long enough to collect his thoughts and sample the local brew.
The root of such a project may be traced back to the 1920s when “surrealist writers and artists devised a game in which each participant wrote or drew on a sheet of paper, folded the paper to hide his contribution, then passed it along to the next person, who did the same. The result was a collective work that art critic Nicolas Calas characterized as the ‘unconscious reality in the personality of the group.’ The process became known as the Exquisite Corpse (Cadavre Exquis), a name taken from the first sentence that was written using the process: ‘The exquisite corpse will drink the young wine.’”*
The project has gained some more attention of late because of The 1000 Journals Project Book which highlights 250 of the best entries so far. Six years in the making, it was published in February 2007 by Chronicle Books.
There is also a documentary in the works, where filmmaker Andrea Kreuzhage tells the story of the journals. www.1000journalsfilm.com
To date, only one of the 1000 journals have found their way back to Singer (Someguy). Journal number 526 was returned, filled, in September 2003. Will the other 999 journals find their way home?
*This post includes an excerpt from the article, “Around the World in 1000 Journals”, published in Poets & Writers magazine ( www.pw.org), written by Dalia Sofer, a freelance writer who lives in New York City.
We announced last week that we had snuck ourselves into the local media. Well, apparently, the ad runs for two weeks!
This is what we did: There is a local entertainment weekly that has a “City Singles” section. Within this part of the classifieds, there is an “i saw you” subsection. ”i saw you” presents an avenue for people to contact someone they came across in passing - to awaken destiny and make a connection that chance had missed.
It’s free to place an ad in ”i saw you”, though for various reasons, it may not be printed. As evidenced by the image below, we got published. Twice.
So here are the results:
Effective? No, we received zero responses. Traffic to idioscript.com did not noticeably increase.
Desperate? Maybe.
Fun? Definitely!
We’re hiding most of our ad due to embarassment and shame. If you’d like to see the rest of it, email the address in the image with: “Show me the ad!” in the subject line and we’ll talk.
May 21, yesterday, marked a momentous occasion for idioscript. We received our very first comment! It was a positive one to boot! Thanks “me”. You really brightened up our day!
We encourage all visitors to leave comments just as we’d like you to send in your idioscript – your contributions would really help to spearhead our initiative! Send your idioscript to: writing_project@idioscript.com.
We’ll be your best friend – promise!
Inspired by a verse from, “Budapest”, a poem by Billy Collins, we have created our second idioscript.com animation.
Set to Sigur Ros’s – Se Lest, the piece is our interpretation of the seven words that form “it wants only to be here tomorrow”.
We think it’s “uplifting”!
What do you think? Email us at: writing_project@idioscript.com
We are excited to announce, and a little ashamed to admit, that we’ve snuck ourselves into the local media, sort of…
Through a round about way, idioscript.com has received a touch of publicity in a well read, well known, local publication here in Vancouver, BC, Canada.
Where you ask?
You tell us!
Send an email to the address we posted in the publication with “I found you!” in the subject line and you will receive… absolutely nothing! You would have successfully completed this challenge though and should feel wonderful about yourself and your accomplishment!
Since we briefly mentioned Wilco in our post yesterday, we wanted to follow-up with lyrics from another one of their songs entitled, “Box Full Of Letters”. It got us to thinking:
How many people, today, keep a box filled with handwritten notes or letters? How many people still receive personal, handwritten correspondences?
Box Full Of Letters
I’ve got a box full of letters
Think you might like to read
Some things that you might like to see
But they’re all addressed to me
I wish I had a lotta answers
‘Cause that’s the way it should be
For all these questions
Being directed at me
I just can’t find the time
To write my mind
The way I want it to read
You’ll come back again
And I’ll still be your friend
I’ve got a lot of your records
In a separate stack
Some things that I might like to hear, but I
Guess I’ll give ‘em back
I wish I had a lotta answers
‘Cause that’s the way it should be
For all these questions
Being directed at me
Just can’t find the time
To write my mind
The way I want it to read
You’ll come back again
And I’ll still be your friend
I can’t find the time
To write my mind
The way I want it to read
Just can’t find the time
To write my mind
The way I want it to read
Our first celebrity idioscript is from Aqualung lead singer Matt Hales, known for crafting songs including strange and beautiful, Brighter Than Sunshine and Pressure Suit which is off their new album called Memory Man.
Matt offered his favorite lyric at the moment - ”half of it’s you, half is me” from a Wilco song entitled Muzzle of bees.
We must be pretty darn cool if celebrities are contributing!
You know what would be even better? We want you to send us your idioscript – what’s your favorite word, poem verse, song lyric – send us anything; we’re not at all particular.
This simple animation, child-like in fact, was inspired by the phrase, “fate will find you” and recently viewed animated poems by Billy Collins and collaborators.
We think it’s “charming”.
There is no comparison but the process was fun nonetheless. The music is an excerpt from Broken Bones, a song by Aqualung.
We stumbled on this video called “Budapest”, presented by JWT-NY and inspired by the poem “Budapest” from 44th Poet Laureate of the United States, Billy Collins.
The imagery, done by Julian Grey/ Head gear, is amazing.
The poet’s prose
leads the image
like a couple careening
across an empty ballroom
long time lovers
dancing to a tune
they’ve danced to, many times before
