The impetus for this project came in the form of a vast, and largely untapped, collection of personal memorabilia my family inherited from the estate of my late grandmother, Dottie. While Dottie passed away in August of 2008, she spent the bulk of her 81 years collecting and preserving not only her own letters, photographs, and ephemera, but those of her own mother and grandmother as well. When she passed away, we were suddenly presented with the monumental task of sorting through dozens and dozens of haphazardly organized cartons of personal effects.

To me they represent not only a deeply personal connection to the women in my family, but also a large collection of historic objects that can be researched, sorted, and ultimately curated. Living on the opposite side of the country, however, has left me feeling geographically and emotionally disconnected from the task of exploring this collection.

This sense of disconnection -- a growing trend among most of my generation -- has been the motivation behind some of my thesis research. Believing that graphic design has a role in creating and defining space and place, I was inspired to create a project that could allow me to transcend physical space, and, through the generation of a collective history, not just evoke a sense of place, but also create it.

The project is framed by four basic structures:

Two boxes.
To create the structure of this project, I requested that my family select two boxes from my grandmother's apartment that they had not personally looked through or sorted, but that they could reasonably assume held personal memorabilia (and not, for example, old towels). One went to my mother, and one was shipped to me.

This part of the project is intended to not only insert a form of chance operation into what is otherwise a pretty rigid system, but in an abstract way allow the hand of my grandmother herself -- the last person to touch the contents of the box -- to have impact on the final outcome.

Two people.
The narrative for this project will come from two primary voices: myself and my mother, with supporting additions and comments from three generations of family members, as well as any friends of my grandmother.

Two spaces.
The space being transcended in this project is, of course, the geographic location of its main participants: Dallas, TX, and Providence, RI. More abstractly, though, this project is about transcending generations, using a uniquely modern tool to collect a uniquely historic set of objects.

Two weeks.
Understanding the sheer bulk of stuff taken out of my grandmother's apartment after she passed away, I was distinctly aware that this once-a-day, "collective unpacking" could potentially continue on ad finitum without a very rigid set of contraints. Since my ultimate goal is to generate a selected collection based on chance -- not a comprehensive archive -- I have put in a time limit to give a concrete beginning and end to the experiment.

One history.
Over the course of the two week project, each participant will take one item out of their box each day. Each new post will contain the beginnings of a description of the object -- where its from, who it belonged to, why it was saved, etc. This initial post is not static, but is open to collective editing and commenting by a wide net of relatives and friends connected to this part of my family.

The ultimate result -- a collection of 28 distinct objects or groups, along with their stories -- will not only be a portrait of the woman who collected them, but a more nuanced understanding of place in the online world.

I've been working on a seminar project that addresses the idea of motivation, especially web sites or applications that seek to motivate you to do something. There are a few sites that I refer back to a lot, because I think they do a good job of it.

RunLog
At its simplest, RunLog is a place to track how much you run. But it is interesting in that it aims to use the unique aspects of social networking to motivate its members, as they describe in their about section:

"… RunLog was built to motivate people who spend most of their day working in front of a computer. Many people start running, to get in shape as their new year's resolution, and hopefully RunLog will help you maintain your goals through the support of an online social network."

43 Things
I'm not sure where the number 43 came from (perhaps GTD?), but 43 Things is a place to write down your goals, and then mark down your progress as you complete them. It connects people who have the same goals, and allows you to cheer people on or ask questions. Its a neat idea, but I find that the ability to write your own goals means that there are a zillion different versions of "eat healthy" on the site, but because of different wordings or spellings they don't show up as a match to anyone else's version (a problem with tagging systems in general). They have also diluted the simplicity of the site by expanding into listing places, as well as things you have purchased, and I think it makes the site less effective, and I am less motivated to use it.

People have known for years that making a list of goals is the best way to achieve them. But most of us never get around to making a list. 43 Things is great for that! Make a list on 43 Things and see what changes happen in your life. Best of all it’s a way of connecting with other enthusiasts interested in everything from watching a space shuttle launch to grow my own vegetables. So the next time someone asks you, “what do you do?” you can answer with confidence, “I am doing 43 things!”.