As she told me a story, my friend said in all seriousness:
"I think the thing that kept my parents together, for as long as they were together, was their equal love of bad weather."
This unique sentence jumped out at me. I would hear this line only once in my lifetime. And it almost stood alone as a very very short story.
Now, whenever I notice these vignettes popping out of conversations, I grab them and express delight to the people who speak them.
Evolution Of The Postcard
Harvesting unique conversational lines began with me scribbling them down in my notebook. The concept for the postcard came at the end of an art festival in Kosovo.
As I gave a card with my contact details to each new friend, I tried to include one of the unique sentences I'd heard him or her say during the 10 days we'd spent together (e.g. "I'm trying to be like a Roman in Kosovo.").
It was interesting to watch each person read their own little story. As recognition dawned and they smiled, I imagined them experiencing their language in the way that I had first heard it.
It was here that I decided to make postcards.
I pull out stand-alone sentences from a conversation and reintroduce them, with a time delay, by sending them back to the speaker on a postcard.
Most of the lines come from serious conversations and I find myself pointing at these unique sentences as they come dancing out of the context of the rest of the story.
I try to share this experience by showing them back to the speaker, later, separated from whatever else was said at that time.
I've kept copies of most of the cards I've sent to people. This is my collection. Each archive post has three or four cards. Click on any card to read a larger version.
In November 2007, I entered a second version of this design into series 224 of the cARTed picture show in Germany.
As I gave a card with my contact details to each new friend, I tried to include one of the unique sentences I'd heard him or her say during the 10 days we'd spent together (e.g. "I'm trying to be like a Roman in Kosovo.").
It was interesting to watch each person read their own little story. As recognition dawned and they smiled, I imagined them experiencing their language in the way that I had first heard it.
It was here that I decided to make postcards.
I pull out stand-alone sentences from a conversation and reintroduce them, with a time delay, by sending them back to the speaker on a postcard.
Most of the lines come from serious conversations and I find myself pointing at these unique sentences as they come dancing out of the context of the rest of the story.
I try to share this experience by showing them back to the speaker, later, separated from whatever else was said at that time.
I've kept copies of most of the cards I've sent to people. This is my collection. Each archive post has three or four cards. Click on any card to read a larger version.
In November 2007, I entered a second version of this design into series 224 of the cARTed picture show in Germany.