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.
Fieldwork
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Every Door on One Street
How many decisions are there in a row of doors?
Photograph every door on one street. Colour, handle, height, what's stuck to it. One street, all of it.
3 weeks · photographs
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The Same Plant, Every Morning
What does one plant do while I'm not looking?
Go to the same garden in the morning. Photograph or sketch the same plant. Say nothing about it.
6 weeks · photographs
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One Old Street, One Detail a Day
What have I walked past ten thousand times?
Pick one street in the oldest part of your town. Each day, photograph one detail you've never actually looked at.
30 days · photographs and notes
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Five Plants
What is growing where I walk, and what is it called?
Learn the names of five plants you pass regularly. One at a time. Photograph each.
3 weeks · photographs and notes
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Same Block, Every Day
What changes on a street that doesn't change?
Walk the same block once a day. Log one thing that is different.
30 days · photographs and notes
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The Oldest Date
What is the oldest thing my neighbourhood admits to?
Find the oldest date visible on any surface near you — a lintel, a plaque, a manhole cover. Then find the second oldest.
30 days · photographs
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Desire Paths
Where do people refuse to walk where they were told?
Map the worn shortcuts across grass and gravel in your neighbourhood. Photograph each one.
4 weeks · photographs and notes
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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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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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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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
Embodied Studies
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Wordless, Then Words
What is there before language gets there?
Do something with no words in it — swim, knead, dig, dance. Write for three minutes the moment you stop.
4 weeks · writing
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Ten Minutes on the Floor
Where does my body actually touch the ground?
Lie on the floor for ten minutes a day. Map the points of contact. They move.
30 days · voice notes and writing
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The First Sound
What does my city say first?
Every morning, log the first sound you hear before you open your eyes. A call, a bird, a scooter, a kettle.
30 days · voice notes and writing
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The Same Fruit, Daily
When exactly does a season peak?
Eat the same in-season fruit every day. Rate it out of ten. Say one word about why.
4 weeks · writing
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Sound Map, 6am and 10pm
What does my house sound like when nobody is performing?
Record or describe the sounds of your home at 6am and at 10pm. Same two moments, every day.
2 weeks · voice notes
Oral History
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The Recipe, Narrated
What is in the hands that isn't in the recipe?
Cook a family recipe while the person who taught it to you talks you through it. Record the whole thing.
4 weeks · voice notes and photographs
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A Skill in the Family
Who knows how to do this, and how did they learn?
Interview an elder about one skill your family has. Record it. Let them go off-topic.
4 weeks · voice notes
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First Impression
What did I look like before we met?
Ask up to five friends what they thought of you the first time. Record the answers. Don't defend yourself.
4 weeks · voice notes
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One Question, Five Friends
What happens when the same question meets five different lives?
Ask five friends the same unusual question. Record the answers. Don't lead them.
3 weeks · voice notes
Divinatory Instruments
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Synchronicity Log
Is it a pattern or am I a pattern-finder?
Log every coincidence, however small. Six weeks minimum — it doesn't get interesting before that.
6 weeks · writing
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Guess the Weather First
How well do I read the sky I live under?
Every evening, guess tomorrow's weather before you check anything. Log the guess and, the next day, what happened.
30 days · writing
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One Card, Gut First
What do I already think it means?
Pull one card each day. Write your gut reaction before you look anything up. Then look it up.
30 days · writing
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Dreams, Tagged
What keeps coming back?
Log your dreams for a month. Tag each one with three words. Read the tags at the end, not before.
30 days · voice notes and writing
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Used and Avoided
Which of my gifts do I keep stepping around?
Each day, log which of the gifts your chart names you actually used, and which you avoided.
6 weeks · writing
Process Studies
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One Sentence, Another Language
What does a language feel like in the hand?
Copy out one sentence by hand each day in a language you're learning. Don't translate it in the app.
6 weeks · photographs
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Copy It by Hand
What does the hand notice that the eye skipped?
Copy one beloved paragraph by hand, every day, for a month. The same one.
30 days · photographs
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Mend It So It Shows
Why did I keep this?
Mend something visibly. Photograph every stage. Write down why this object and not another.
4 weeks · photographs and notes
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Rewear
How many outfits are already in the wardrobe?
Wear only what you already own, in a combination you've never worn before, every day. Photograph each.
30 days · photographs
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Draw the Cup
What does the fiftieth drawing know that the first didn't?
Draw the same coffee cup every morning for two weeks. Keep all of them, including the bad ones.
2 weeks · photographs
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The Line That Snagged
What catches, and does it keep catching the same way?
Read one poem each morning. Log the single line that snagged. One line. No commentary.
30 days · writing