Making of the Story Bazaar! Where do they come, where do they go?!

Ever since my grand declaration in the last post on my return to blogging, social networks and the other worlds, the 'real' world has kept me quite positively engaged. I have been on a consumption spree trying to materially realize my bank statement. And I am frightfully successful. So much so that I have slammed the breaks and returned to the cushion of an ever present virtual world. (Of-course I discount the internet, power bills and loss of 'productive time'?)

But to be fair to myself it has not been mindless retail therapy. There has been a fair share of productive loafing along the way, which I hope to cover in future posts. What prompted me to burst out with a post was this brilliant idea that I wanted to share.

As I pour through the ideas and goods and organize them, I realized that every object has a story and I so wish I could tell my own stories of them. But that is just self indulgence. The objects in themselves have a story - where they come from, what they have gone through - the people and regions - their plight and passion and politics. And having arrived in my sphere, my own stories with them. That's a hell a lot of stories to tell for one watch, razor or duster. But as I was reading the label on the white-board duster I realized it says a whole lot about itself, its journey and history.

It reminded me of the talk by this artist in Bangalore last year and her project - surplus rising -
Here is an abstract:

Julia Christensen is currently mapping dynamic visualizations of the movement of  global industrial equipment: where  it comes from, what it is, and where it goes.   Throughout this process, she is also documenting industrial infrastructure:   the buildings, roads, trains, ships, and seas that make up the global industrial  engine.  By tracing the movement of  abandoned factory machines while examining  the shells of vacated industrial infrastructure, we are able to track compelling   narratives about the roles of geography, industry, and politics in our industrial  complex.  This work will premiere at the Banvard  Gallery at the Knowlton School  of Architcture, Ohio State University, in Columbus, Ohio in March of 2010.    Funded in part by the Powers International Travel Grant.

Making of the Story telling Bazaar
It struck me that closer home, we have a microcosm of the industrial world with its stories carried on its labels. Now what if we had a collection of them? We could have a story bazaar!

One that tells the stories of its objects and patrons - their histories, politics and journeys.

So how do we create this story telling bazaar?
Well with a simple spreadsheet linked to map and some visualization tools.

To start with columns categorization would be along such lines:
product name
" category :

" product feature details:
" production details :
" distribution details :
" retail details :
and finally your story :

The next couple of days I will put out a shared document of the goods and categories that interest me. Broadly it would be food, electronics, personal care... Let us see what stories it tells .

My favorite story so far has been of this casio digital watch that I had for my tenth grade. It had all kinds of features including a glowing light! It was designed in Japan, manufactured in Singapore I think, distributed by some Dubai firm, bought in Saudi and used and lost by me in Bangalore.

Apart from memorable stories that become verbose, what I am hoping to achieve are visual stories of groups of consumer categories their geographies which should give a visual representation on globalization and also throw light upon our carbon footprint.

If it really succeeds we should hopefully have social network games that have people showing off their goods from across the world and gaining points for being the most globalized or the least - depending on their sensibilities . This group should be a dip stick for story tellers (researchers) and bored people that need an afternoon of entertainment!

What next?
I will draw up and fill out a spreadsheet of my loot. But would appreciate some template suggestions by you if this sounds fun or useful. Lets get down to some Object Coding shall we? :)