Project: Joy
Ok! So!
My collaborative fiber art project proposal was... very successful. Way more successful than I anticipated.
In the end, 171 contributions were submitted by you all. Cool!!! ....Now.... how does one... begin turning 171 words into visual icons so they can be combined onto one enormous tapestry together?
First, I copy-pasted over ever individual response into a spreadsheet, dividing the information up between the specific answer, name of participant, how they'd like to be credited (or not), and expanded explanation of their answer if they provided one.
I am sure that at some point in my life I have made a spreadsheet. I do not, however, remember this. And I've definitely never made one in Google Sheets. I'm pretty sure I also have some kind of undiagnosed learning disability (that's a whole other story), so figuring out even basic computer programs is bizarrely difficult for me. All of which is to say that after several hours of poking and prodding my rudimentary spreadsheet last night, ultimately I made a bestial noise at my laptop before shoving it under the couch in frustration and Matt observed "You got so mad at your computer that you literally buried it like an animal."
This morning Matt went in and tinkered around so that I could classify each submission into its own category and group them together (the task that reverted me into a primate the night before). (Ironically, one patron listed "Spreadsheets" as the activity that gives them joy and oh my lord I wish you had been there to help me!)
Very broadly, I sorted everyone's submissions into the category of Nature, Animal, Physical Object, Art/Creativity, Feeling / Spiritual, and Activity. It's not a perfect system, to be sure.
Like Daydreaming, is that an Activity (where I put it) or does it go under Feeling? Singing, Words, and Writing with my best friend, are they Art/Creativity, Feeling/Spiritual, or Activity? I put Fraggles under Animal, because Physical Object didn't feel right. Shit, maybe they should go under Family/People. Fuck.
Shakespeare (both watching and performing) was a puzzler, because the work of Shakespeare would definitely go under Art/Creativity, but the watching and performing of it seems more like an Activity?
Now that each submission is basically grouped in with its kin, I will start the first artistic part of this project: translating these individual words into simple icons to represent them.
Wish me luck.
PS: DOES ANYONE HAVE A TITLE SUGGESTION FOR THIS PROJECT?
I'm just calling it Project: Joy or The Joy Project right now, but I'm not in love with either of those :-/
Comments (22)
'The Happy-stry' flopped into my brain before it could stop itself
😂
If the joy word isn't.... sparking joy as it were... maybe something that evokes the vibe? Spontaneous combustion.... Reasons for Being... I'm not going to be able to land the title that will feel right to you, but maybe sit with the feelings you want to evoke and see if something pops up you like
Fabricating Joy :D
What about Seaming Joy?
This is so cool. I'm really looking forward to how it turns out!
me, zooming into your spreadsheet image: oh noes. Why isn't wombat in with animals?!? me, realising that's probably not the full list: it's okay. The wombats are there somewhere, I'm sure. 😅
Haha yes, I promise they’re there in the actual document! Just didn’t fit in the tiny screencap 😅
Oh my gosh, so many good contributions! And yeah I feel you on the learning disability stuff, shit's rough sometimes.
I like tapestry of joy that someone suggested earlier. I'd also throw in "the fabric of joy".
Ooh, "fabric of joy"! "Stitching together the fabric of joy" for a tagline, hmmmm......
Embroider-Glee
LOL
This is really so cool!! Also, re: spreadsheets -- I feel you. Somehow my job involves wrangling with them, and rarely do I come out the winner. I don't understand how some people manage to get spreadsheets to do so many things!
😮💨 😭
It's me! I'm the spreadsheet person! And you're correct: I would have LOVED to help put this together. Just seeing the screenshot made me light up. I'm so sorry it was initially a miserable experience for you but you did it and now you can move on!
I get you on the spreadsheet joy. I don't consider myself an expert by any means, but there's something VERY satisfying about organizing stuff into rows and columns and then messing around to see what patterns emerge.
I wish I'd realized you needed spreadsheet help, I could have put it together in Excel for you! I'm currently doing an inventory of all my stuff, after spending 3 years making an inventory of all my university's 40k microscope slides. (Not. Exaggerating. :P ;) )
Just wanted to say how impressive that is, and what a huge service to future science students! My mom worked managing data for a long time and, wow, what an accomplishment of data and information management 🤓
Personally, I think it already has a fantastic name. Can't wait to see this come together!
Stitched Together?
OMG you just came up with that just now and I've been bonking my head against the wall for weeks 😭 I love it. Lemme stew on it. If not the title, that may very well get worked into a subtitle.