Sustainable souveniring

Watched the "Where the hell is Matt (2008)" video again tonight on a whim. I first ran into it a few weeks ago when a friend passed the link onto me as possible inspiration for a travel project. Every time I watch it, it blows me away. Beautiful images, beautiful music, beautiful idea.

I love this kind of travel project. It strikes me as being sustainable souveniring - you come, you see, you leave with something special you've made. Sometimes it's polaroids of a garden gnome in front of international landmarks (like in Amélie) and other times it's videos of you dancing in 40-odd countries around the world with hundreds of people (like this Matt guy).

And, most importantly, it's more fun and accessible for other people - far easier than 2500 photos and/or a 3 hour slideshow.

Once, one of my best friends decided to do a travel project someone who couldn't join us on a two-week vacation. She wrote "we miss you" in her notebook. Then, for two weeks, she diligently went around to random people (shopkeepers, butchers, tour guides) asking them if they'd be willing to hold the note towards the camera and look sad while she took their photo. The album was a huge hit with her friend, and my memories of the people we met while taking those pictures are some of my favourites from that trip.

Pierre and I have talked about doing something, but haven't figured out what we'd like to do yet. Probably won't have time to think about it 'till we're on the plane...