Petite Étude
Pick a question
You don't need all of them. You need one.
A tiny research project is four things: a question you care about, a way of noticing, a record, and an end date. It runs for a while, and then it stops. It does not have to be useful — it is better if it is not.
Filter by the kind of attention a question asks for, or by how long you want to give it. Open one to read it properly, then start it. If none of them is your question, write your own at the bottom.
Archival Work
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Catalogue One Shelf
Where did each of these come from, and why is it still here?
Take one shelf. For every object on it: where it came from, and why it stayed.
4 weeks · photographs and notes
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The Screenshot Dig
What have I been quietly collecting?
Excavate the screenshots in your camera roll. Sort them into categories you invent as you go. Name each category.
2 weeks · photographs and notes
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A Concordance of One Word
How do I actually use this word?
Choose one word. Search it across all your messages. Copy out every hit, in order. Read the result as a single text.
2 weeks · writing
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Your Notes App as a Found Manuscript
Who was writing all this, and what did they want?
Read your notes app from the top to the bottom, as if you found it. Copy out the lines that a stranger would find strange.
2 weeks · writing
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Annotate Yourself, Ten Years Ago
What would I say back to them?
Read a journal you kept ten years ago. Annotate it. Argue with it if you need to.
6 weeks · writing
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The Receipts
What kind of person do my groceries describe?
Keep every grocery receipt. At the end, read the pile as a portrait of someone you're meeting for the first time.
8 weeks · photographs and notes