The heart's a lonely hunter

Nathalie Reinholz scanned some pages from Volume 8 and I uploaded them to my Flickr account today. Thank you!

Volume 9 to South Carolina

Today I gave Volume 9 to my nice guests from HospitalityClub. They are going back to the United States tomorrow. The Y and kiss were contributed by Anna Maria Baltes, with toenail paint and curry and red hot chili pepper.

Volume 8 to my traveling brother

I sent Volume 8 to my other brother who is a travelling goldsmith. The funny envelope is entirely made of orange felt, with address and stamp sticking only loosely on it. Volume 7 and 8 are pocket sketchbooks with nice heavy paper.

Volume 7 to Ireland

Volume 7 has been sent off to my brother in Ireland today. I have started making funny envelopes, and they will go on Flickr too. You are encouraged to make funny envelopes too if you can't hand the Moleskine over directly. If you take a picture of your envelopes, please consider protecting the recipient's privacy by blurring out the address, as I have done in the example on the left. Then tag the picture with shareyourart.net when you upload it so others can find it.

First release

Today the first six volumes have been sent out with priority mail:

Vol. 1 Seattle, WA, USA
Vol. 2 Göteborg, Sweden
Vol. 3 Stockholm, Sweden
Vol. 4 Stockholm, Sweden
Vol. 5 Helsinki, Finland
Vol. 6 Tallinn, Estonia

All are Moleskine Plain Pocket Journals. For future releases, I will try to use thicker paper. For now, just skip pages if the other side shows through.

Introduction

This is a tangible art experiment for the internet age. Moleskine journals are sent around the world and people fill them up with their creativity. Some of the results will be posted on this blog.

I have received a traveling art book.
Now what do I do with it?

1. Register the book at bookcrossing.com.
2. Have a look at the stuff that may already be in it.
3. Add something creative. Use as many pages as you want.
4. Make digital photos (or even better: scans) of your pages and then
   • upload them to Flickr and tag them with shareyourart.net, or alternatively
   • add them to your journal entry on bookcrossing.com, or alternatively
   • email them to me at johann@rocholl.net so I can upload them for you.
5. Then give the book to somebody you love, possibly with priority air mail. Waterproof packaging (e.g. a Ziploc® bag) may be a good idea for some destinations.

All participants must agree that their artwork is published under Attribution-ShareAlike 2.5 (a Creative Commons License). For attribution, just write your name or initials on your pages.

What can I add to the book?

There are no limits to what you can put in the book. Some examples can be found below. Should your technique go through the paper, please spare the back of used pages. If you feel that your art is not good enough, please remember that this is not a contest but a collaborative fun project. Every contribution is welcome.

• A real shopping list
• A metaphysical love poem.
• A charcoal drawing of your cat.
• Your favorite bread recipe.
• A ballpen caricature of your favorite teacher at school.
• A collage of magazine headlines.
• A secret diary entry in very small font.
• An elaborate nude study in pencil.
• A riddle, decorated with watercolor flowers.

Can I make changes to existing artwork?

Yes! This is the most collaborative part of the project. This is where it gets really interesting and fun. If you work with existing art in the book, please abide by the following rules:

• Make a picture before and after your modification and upload both of them.
• Be sure to keep the name of the original artist visible.
• If you're going to cover a lot of surface, consider using a new page instead.

Who started this project?

My name is Johann C. Rocholl, I'm 26 and taken. Currently I am struggling to finish my computer science degree at the University of Stuttgart, Germany. This project is a result of procrastination before my exam in Formal Semantics and Complexity Theory.

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