User:FLEM/Graduationprojectproposaldraft

Keywords

notebook

prototype

play with pages to have more space and connections

modularity, structure vs playfulness, mess and inspiration

analyzing and researching other peoples notebook / needs / limits

modular notebook kit

test cases, different needs

everyone is different, many things / ideas thoughts on the notebook and note taking

instructions, conceptual art, sol lewitt, unknown outcomes

distributive work

1 What do you want to make?

General introduction, what you’re concretely thing you’re thinking about: an installation, performance, etc.. Whatever

I want to organise a series of Collective Explorative Sessions [CES] (meetings, workshops, experiments, study cases, conversations, surveys) on the topic of notebooks, with the purpose of analysing the use of notebooks in contemporary society as well as trying to increase the awareness and consideration that people have of notebooks as tools, to discover how they are made, how they can be personalised and created by the users themselves.

For the project to continue after the end of the series of explorative sessions, I plan to create a digital interface where people can fill in their needs [or something else I am still not sure about this part] (with the option to customise even more by directly getting in contact with me?) and download and print instructions OR receive by post the materials and the instructions to create the notebook by themselves. Users will produce a magic modular notebook that has been designed through experiments, study cases, workshops, meetings, conversations, surveys, made to analyze and research other peoples notebook / needs / limits and create the best result for the individual's needs. The web page will also be used to give space to the information and documentation that will be gathered through the activities.

2 How do you plan to make it?

Describe how you will go through reading and writing practice.. How it will come together and possible outcomes.. How could the project come together as a hole  

I want to create a conceptual map that reconnects the uses of notebooks in society and organise the collective explorative sessions [CES] based on these subject matters, for example notebooks as diaries, notebooks as annotation tools, notebooks as generators, notebooks as temporary archives, notebooks as craft, notebooks as community memory..I need to research on all of these topics, as well as the History and development of note taking & note making and Note taking, learning and memory: how is it connected?, as well as creating a Glossary of Notebooks to specify what I am working on, giving a context to the work (both for myself but also for others). The research's aim is being able to introduce participants with more consciousness and knowledge on what we are trying to achieve during the explorative sessions.

In sections:

(A) Create a temporal community for temporal archives (notebooks): a space to collectively discuss and analyse notebooks to gather information and underline and go beyond the limits of notebooks.

In particular, organise Collective Explorative Sessions [CES] where participants could e.g.: 1. discuss & analyse their own notebooks & find solutions collectively 2. create together new physical prototypes. Or other types of workshops e.g. Exploring pen&paper or Collective writing through the use of notebooks. The idea is that experimenting with the different sides of the use of notebooks, I will gather a major amount of options, ideas and possibilities to be able to work on the interface.

To achieve this, I have to plan the dates and study the subject matters of the workshops, find and contact the right locations (a possibility is, in some occasions, to make the location part of the thematic), start advertising and invite people to join.

• First [CES]: during this session, participants also had a piece of paper to pick from a selection I made for them to start reasoning with their hands/annotation methods throughout the session.
• 

  first explorative session with xpub2 students on 26.09.22

• 

  questions I gave the participants to choose from before starting the session

• 

  the plan of the session 01

• 

  the plan of the session 02

(B) Create a collection of sample notebook prototypes: together with the participants ideas and prototypes will emerge, but at the same time I will also do the same work by myself (both to be more an help with tools and concepts with the participants but also to research new ways of using a notebook).

At the end of the year I would like to have different categories/concepts that could feed the tool on the digital interface. To try out the prototypes, I will sometimes distribute them to others to see what is their use of it, to gather comments and reviews on the notebook they are testing out.

• 

  a multicolumned notebook: could we fold it more?

• 

  first notebook kit: An adjustable and editable notebook with included tape and papers for continuation

• 

  sketches for new prototypes

(C) Build a hybrid/digital prototype: an online tool to create and print layouts and customised instructions [the magic modular notebooks kits]. I am working to understand what is the level of complexity the interface can achieve. This digital tool will be gathered together with research results and documentation on an online interface.

3 What is your timetable?

Include a timeline of what needs to be done, to understand if plans are realistic. Break it down in smaller steps.1 month-2 months chunks

29 SETT-17 OCT

i want to research and read, work on the glossary, contextualise what I've been creating till now.

study some notebooks' history and development.

I  want to produce another notebook prototype

→ i have to prepare a nicer way to make people talk and think about their notebooks, to organise the right workshop for the public moment at Leeszaal.

17 OCT [PM#1 Leeszaal] - 6 NOV

I have to create a conceptual map that reconnects the uses of notebooks and plan the events for the year based on thematics I described in the above section and organise my case studies in a more structured way --> start to make sketches for the webpage to gather material.

i want to prepare something to be done at the zine camp, to move a little bit more to the practical side [like make people play with paper with exercises and fun]

Create another notebook prototype.

Theoretical research on the subject matters.

5 & 6 NOV [PM#2 Zine Camp] - 28 NOV

[18 NOV: project proposal and thesis outline deadline]

Prepare for the next public moment [maybe the next public moment could create a space to for the archive interaction, find an activity to reconnect with old notes, observe how people behave with the temporal archive - notebooks as temporal archives]

Work on the web page to gather material.

Theoretical research on the subject matters.

Create another notebook prototype.

28 NOV [PM#3 Buitenboel] - 10 JAN

[2nd DEC: 1st chapter thesis draft]

Theoretical research on the subject matters.

Create another notebook prototype.

Create a first prototype of notebook creation instructions.

During Christmas maybe i will organise a workshop with my family to observe how people from the outside behave and work with notebooks

Work on the web page to gather material.

JAN-FEB

[17 FEB: 1st draft thesis]

organise a session .

work on notebook instructions digital prototype & web page to gather material.

Create another notebook prototype.

Theoretical research on the subject matters.

MAR-APR

[31 MAR: 2nd draft thesis]

organise a session .

work on digital prototype & web page to gather material.

Create another notebook prototype.

Theoretical research on the subject matters.

APR-JUN

[14 APR: thesis deadline]

organise a session .

working on a prototype in which presenting the written thesis: a modular notebook that contains all the information to be used in all directions, connected by the user

finish the digital prototype and web page

4 Why do you want to make it?

Your motivation, what drives you to undertake this project

I am interested in the act of annotating as a mean of creativity, a space for thinking and reasoning, a personal world inside this messy world we live in. I like the idea of getting lost in our own space, how writing and doodling and drawing can become part of our living. And this personal world cannot be the same for everyone, cannot be standardised. My idea is that everyone has different needs while using a notebook and that the efficiency (in the sense of: how much we use it, how useful it becomes for us, how we feel free and comfortable with it) can change using a different interface.

Lori Emerson in the book Reading Writing Interfaces describes how in recent years design is getting every day more invisible and users are becoming less and less aware of the processes underneath the devices they use: in the same way as with digital interfaces, humans think less and less about what they use or what they do or why or how. In addition, I think that they are also slowly losing their connection with nature and materiality, and I am wondering if it wouldn't help to reconnect to craftsmanship through the creation of notebooks, the touch of paper and the lines of a pen on the surface, to recreate a little space for ourselves in this fast and angry world. I would like the meetings to be collective experiences of discovery, moments where to play with this object, all together, and explore all the possibilities this interface can offer.

In addition, I have heard some stories about notebooks and I am sure there are a lot more to discover; some of them underlines how easy it is to buy new notebooks but how hard it is to start or finish them: I believe this is also connected to consumerism habits. We live in an era where we can decide to continuously fulfill our desires, without even understanding or asking ourselves what we really need or want. I assume that many people buy notebooks because they are attracted by the idea around the object, but then they never start or finish them because, still my assumptions, they do not really know what is their need of having such an object. I would like to create a space where people can explore, experiment and discover the possibilities of notebooks. I want people to discover what they need from a notebook, and then, if they are up for it, to discover how they are made and how accessible it can be for everyone to create their own, based on what they're actually looking for. Like Notebooks Therapy.

5 Who can help you and how?

Look wider in the world, to involve external people, colleagues in the field, look a bit outside

Gersande and the BookBinding workshop of Rietvald in Amsterdam

People working with book folding, binding, paper players experts

Collective writing and annotating (Simon Browne?)

I don't know what i need yet it's too early.

6 Relation to previous practice

What you did before in the past years, what you’re proposing now is part of what happened in the past, showing continuity, you always built upon, showing that you’re not starting from scratch

In the past year as an xpub student I have enjoyed working with language and text. I tried to analyse patterns and on the other side, to disrupt common structures to create new pieces of text, to create “vernacular translations”. Here, I created a prototype of linguistic patterns (as rejection letters) and the impossible project website, a tool for translations. Plus, I used the annotation system created for Special Issue 1 to gather translations from users.

I also started to think about archiving methodologies and how to use archives in a more accessible way and the use of public libraries, so how people interact with books, how to connect people and books. Underlined example of translating one form of research into an activity/event. I always tried to involve a public, to explain more than what seems like needed, had in mind the idea that our public should understand. One of the results of this has been the crosswords game, both for the launch day and for the publication. I like the idea that an audience can interact with what is shown to them: everyone has different learning methodologies, and it’s our job to put everyone in a situation where they can get the best out of the experience.

During Special Issue 2, we discussed an idea I liked a lot: geocaching books. The idea comes from the bookcrossing.com website: books that can be shared, that can move, that are not left into a shelf. A nomadic publication: moving from one media to the other, using different objects so that the publication can move through. Never developed interest in web-to-print tools. Interest in material objects.

In the last trimester, we worked with notation systems, annotation methods and distributive practices, that grasped my interest quite a lot. Miriam and I, for the week02 release, produced an instructional piece on “how to make sound”. The proposals I have been part of are also significant: week5 release was about collective writing, a practice that I find deeply interesting, and I was also interested in the idea of distributive practice (produce—>share—>exchange—>perform—>edit—>produce—>share—>..go on). As well as transcription methods that fed the need of experimenting with text (see Libretto of week3). While talking about instruments and tools, I worked on the Draggable , another online tool to mess up with texts (and audios in this case).

The second editorial proposal was about folder and content nesting: again, the activation by users is essential for the functionality of the tool we created for this release. Again, it was a collective process: the result will be obtained only if others will actively participate.

At a certain point during the last trimester, I started to shape my focus a bit better seeing a particular interest that I developed since the first day but never kept into account: my notebook.

I have been taking notes on different notebooks throughout the year, made by myself. At some point, before making the one for the last trimester, I started to question myself and the notebooks I was using. I wanted to have more, to be able to play with my notebook, to know it better. I started to reason on how, as we’ve been creating our personal digital tools, we could also create our personal analogue tools. Notebooks are individual and personal objects, but they’re treated like everyone has the same need from a piece of paper.

KEYWORDS & PROJECTS recap

language

text

translation

pattern analysis

disrupting common structures

texts as generators

used annotation methods to gather translations

rejection letters analysis

impossible project website

waving exercise

audience involvement and interaction

crossword glossary and game

geocoaching books

nomadic publication (from one media to the other)

web-to-print

material objects

notation systems, annotation methods and distributive practices

instructional work

“how to make sound" with miriam

transcription methods

Libretto with Jian week3

collective writing

editorial proposal week5 and week7

the Draggable

notebooks

anti-standardisation tools

my notebook prototypes

7 Relation to a larger context

Theoretical material that shares stuff with your project, think about outside projects that share something with yours

Highlighting in which network of media you’re working with, awareness of broader context

diaries

http://archiviodiari.org/index.php/home.html italian archive

https://xpatarchive.com/ expats archive in Den Haag

https://diaryfile.com/ [Diary File discovers, researches, and posts fascinating, historical content from antique diaries and journals. ]

https://diaryindex.com/ blog on diaries

https://www.thegreatdiaryproject.co.uk/ [The project rescues, archives and makes publicly available a growing collection of more than 17,000 unpublished diaries.]

https://tagebucharchiv.de/the-german-archives-for-diaries/ german archive

http://autobiographie.sitapa.org/spip.php? french archive

https://www.dagboekarchief.nl/ dutch archive in Amsterdam

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S-SSOORhgAY Keeping and making diaries conference - Day 1, Session 1: ‘The making of an archive’

commonplace books

https://thecommonplacebookproject.com/

notebooks

the book of notebooks dan perjovschi

https://www.notebookstories.com/ - blog on notebooks

examples of "different" (marketing) notebooks:

https://www.mixiwnotebooks.com/

https://www.modubooq.com/custom-notebook/

https://perfect-notebook.com/

http://ratfactor.com/about

https://tumblr.austinkleon.com/tagged/notebooks

8 References/bibliography

Stuff you’re been reading about, (dictionaries and wikis NO), use Harvard reference method, find the good references—->check previous work

Urgent publishing -

reading writing interfaces - lori emerson

Experimental publishing and broadcasting 1930

Mario Perrotta / Il paese dei diari

How to Read a Diary // Critical Contexts and Interpretive Strategies for 21st-Century Readers - Desirée Henderson

Reading Digitized Diaries: Privacy and the Digital // Life-Writing Archive - Desirée Henderson

https://www.nytimes.com/1970/05/03/archives/speaking-of-commonplace-books-commonplace-books.html

Note Taking as an Art of Transmission - Ann Blair

All the problems will be solved by the masses - By Simon Yuill - https://www.metamute.org/editorial/articles/all-problems-notation-will-be-solved-masses

https://computerhistory.org/blog/community-memory-precedents-in-social-media-and-movements/

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/22/magazine/commonplace-books-recommendation.html?referringSource=articleShare

https://paulgreer.net/2015/06/03/notes-writing-diagrams-and-index-symbols-by-walter-benjamin/

Sennett, Richard. The Craftsman. Yale University Press, 2008.