Announcing "The Post-It/Emoji Project" or I *heart* sticky-notes...

It's Thursday, which makes today Day 4 of this experiment.  I had hoped to be posting a completed "Art" before now but alas, there are still tweaks to be made before "Spectacle" can be released upon the world.  For those who have been in VarnaLab, you may have seen the scrolling text, 90's nightmare that is this project.  For those who have not, fear not: you will have the pleasure very soon!

So, Spectacle might be loosely related to the activities that are otherwise occurring in the VarnaLab space, but this post is more about announcing that I have decided on an "Art" that directly engages with the space.  This work as of now, has no title... so we'll call it "The Post-It/Emoji Project" until I come up with something better.

As I mentioned in my last post, I've been thinking a lot about words and communication.  This is something that I have spent a great deal of time thinking about over the last few months, and has been built upon during my time in VarnaLab.  One thing that I find impressive and interesting about VarnaLab in the early afternoon is how quiet it actually is - particularly considering how much actual communication is occurring! Capitalizing on this thought process, I have been trying to come up with some way to engage with "quiet communication" that is reinforced by the digital world.

Some of you may have noticed by now that there is a growing wall of Post-Its (sticky-notes) just inside the door of VarnaLab.  I have set up this wall in order to collect the emotional states of the people in the lab.  I am collecting these words in order to create a data-set of the standard moods that affect those in VarnaLab in order to build a Lab-specific emoji/emoticon set for the lab.  The plan is to create a series of illustrations that represent the moods I have collected, and communications I have witnessed.  These will be published as a web-font, and also released as a set of images for VarnaLab members (and others) to use.   I am going to leave the Post-Its/sticky-notes in place for about a week (will pick them up next week) in order to get a good dataset, and then I will build the font.

I invite lab members to engage with the work by writing their moods and adding them to the wall as they enter/leave VarnaLab.  Perhaps this will also allow us to create a vision of our emotional states throughout the day, and increase our mindfulness, which isn't a bad thing either! :)

Have fun, and feel free to express yourselves! I look forward to collecting a rich dataset!

PS - I really do LOVE! sticky notes! If you want to discuss with me the aesthetic of the sticky note and its overall importance in my life, please feel free!

PPS - Do you call these pieces of paper with adhesive backs Post-It notes? sticky-notes? something else?