| 1,000 Journals exhibits everyone's inner artist (4/08) | | Print | |
| Written by Anna Vignet | |
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In 2000, a graphic designer from San Francisco called “Someguy” gave out 1,000 blank journals to strangers around the world. He asked these strangers to add drawings, writings, collages or whatever they saw fit and pass them on to another person. The person who finished the journal was then supposed to send it back to Someguy. Three years after the project’s launch, Someguy found Journal #526, the first journal to return, in his mailbox.
After reading about the project and looking at scans of the artwork Andrea Kreuzhage, director of 1,000 Journals, a documentary premiering at the Film Festival on Saturday, April 26, set out to discover the locations of the other 999. Only a handful of the 1,000 journals have returned to Someguy, although many scanned pages of artwork from unfinished journals have been uploaded to the project’s Web site (http://www.1000journals.com), which attempts to follow the journals throughout the world. In the film, Someguy begins explaining the project with the following anecdote: “Ask a class of kindergartners how many of them are artists, and they’ll all raise their hands. Ask the same question of sixth graders, and maybe one third will respond. Ask high school seniors and barely any hands will go up. Where did our creativity go?” In a world greatly changed by the instant gratification of the Internet, the journals represent not only creativity but also a modern-day desire for tangible connection. One group of Internet-only friends, for example, mailed a journal back and forth, using it to create a physical link for themselves. A lot of emotion comes out during the contributors’ interviews as they recount their experiences with the journals, from the fear and excitement of confronting the journals’ first blank pages to the manner in which the journal is passed on. One segment shifts between the reactions of two contributors from different parts of Australia, who look at how one journal they both contributed to changed. A young woman admits to making other people’s entries in the journal more exciting by splashing color over parts of their entries. A man mourns the fact that his wife’s only entry into the journal, a Robert Frost poem, was covered up by a subsequent journaler. It is through moments like these that the documentary pulls apart the mechanics of the project and explores the true nature of free expression. “What you make isn’t yours anymore after you release it into the world,” explains one woman. Another interviewee was amazed that even one journal had returned, since it takes only one moment for the chain to break. A journal that gets thrown in the back of a closet and forgotten, or mistakenly mixed in with recycling is gone forever. Underlying themes of family, money, love and September 11th shine through repeatedly in the journal entries. The project was started in 2000, and the many journal entries focused on that infamous September morning, reflecting people’s need to share their grief and outrage. One participant in the project describes how the package containing her journal was detained at the post office for 15 months for fear of it containing anthrax. In the following years, one journal even made its way to Iraq. The film finishes by following Someguy’s attempts to create a book and San Francisco Museum of Modern Art exhibit from the returned journals. A marketer’s discussion of whether a yellow cover will best sell the exhibit’s book and of what contributions can and can’t be printed is a stark contrast to the free expression, say-anything-you-want feel of the project. The documentary does a nice job of telling participants’ stories from countries all over the world, while sprinkling in footage of daily life from these locations, hinting at the way these journals allow the anonymous to rise up and claim artistic voices. However, it was sometimes difficult to follow the paths of the journals, and shots of people rifling through full journals have less impact than detailed views of the rich artwork. In a way, personalizing the journals’ contributors takes away from the anonymous aspect of the project. But the stories are so intriguing and worth telling that they overshadow any negative aspects of the film. 1000 Journals sparks viewers’ creative side and inspires active participation in art projects. |
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