What if I plant
A SEED?
Year /
2016
Back in 2014, I was in my second year at Emily Carr University of Art + Design. I was looking for a fun summer class, and I found out there was a book binding class. I registered for the class and had so much fun learning how to print and bind a book. During this class, I kept thinking about what my book is going to be about. And then, an idea came up. What if I created a book that can hold a story written by number of different people?
I thought it would be quite fun to see and started to bind a book of blank pages. When it was all bound, I started the first page with a simple sentence, "A boy planted a seed". And I named it A Seed.
With this blank book in my hand and a pencil, I went to Robson Square in Downtown Vancouver where I thought I could meet a lot of people. As expected, there were many people enjoying the sun, chatting with friends and just relaxing. Now I just needed to approach random people and ask if they could write one or two sentences for this book. Well, it took me about an hour to take the courage and finally start a conversation with people that I've never met. After few trials and polite NOs, I found a tourist couple from Europe who were willing to write few sentences for the book!
When the couple finished writing on the second page (and drawing), I thanked them and continued to ask around other random people to continue the story. I tried not to read the book until it reached its last page. And when it did, I started reading it with excitement and laughed so hard soon after. The story evolved into something I never expected!
Here is how the story goes:
Despite its ending, it was truly fun and interesting to see how the story evolved. I really appreciated people's time, creativity and sense of humor. I just wish I bound the book with many more pages to see how it would have ended with longer storyline.