March 2, 2009
1001 Journals
In Aug. 2000, a graphic designer from San Francisco known as SomeGuy decided that he wanted to connect the world with creativity. So he got together 1000 blank journals and launched them into the world. He left some in random places around the city, mailed some to people and had a website where people could sign up to get one.
The idea was that these journals would be filled by people all around the world. You could write, draw, create, whatever you wanted, on the pages of these journals. These journals travelled all over the world – Asia, Europe, Australia, seriously all over. Some made it back to SomeGuy, some got lost, some are still with certain people around the world. The connections, in many cases led to friendships, business partnerships and even marriage.
The point of this experiment was that people were connected and were able to in some way, creatively express themselves. The project got so big that a documentary was made and now many of the journals are on display in San Francisco museums. The project became so popular that journals were filled in no time and the project actually expanded to 1001 Journals.
There are over 3000 journals in the world today that are connecting people all over. In the expanded project, 1001 Journals, people can actually add their own personal journal. There are then two options – they can keep it amongst their social/community group or can send it out into the world as a travelling journal and see how many people they can connect to. Once the journal is filled, it would come back to the orignal journal owner (hopefully) and would be scanned into a computer so the creations can be shared with everyone.
I think the members of HPA could really get into this. This would be a great way for people to connect with other HPA people as well as fans and strangers alike across the country or even the world. It would really help spread the message that the Harry Potter Alliance is trying to convey as well as bring all the Harry Potter fans and even non HP fans closer together.
You can gather more info and check out the scanned pictures of the journals at www.1000journals.com and http://www.1001journals.com/.
Feel free to leave any comments you may have or email me at emeline@thehpalliance.org.
Vanessa
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This sounds like an amazing project, I would definitely be interested in getting involved!
Bobby
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I think it would be great to get a “Traveling Journal”, registered to the 1001 Journals site, and then get people to sign up to get the journal, and sort of set up a rotation sort of thing – each person gets two days or something, and then they mail it to the next person, and so on and so forth. I would be highly interested in getting involved with this.
emeline
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So I registered for a traveling journal in the name of the HPA. Sometime this week, I will go buy a blank journal and it shall become journal number 3,465. I can email anyone with information on the travelling aspect of it all.
Malory
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I think the HPA should definatetly get into this.
Emma
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This sounds awsome! Emeline, can’t you post something in the common room about this as well?
emeline
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I got a journal and registered it as a traveling journal. The goal is to get HP fans and HPA people to be a part of this, so I have not opened up the journal to be signed up for. Right now I am working on the most efficient way of getting interested people involved. I will keep people updated.
andrea
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Hello Emeline and friends, what a wonderful idea! Wishing you much fun with your Harry Potter journal. If you want to know a little more about the original 1000 Journals Project — we made a film about it. Check out videos and more on our site.
http://www.1000journalsfilm.com
Thanks so much,
andrea
FueshyFuerN
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Hello, it really interesting, thanks