31.022509

CSI: VANCOUVER POLICE DEPARTMENT GENERAL INCIDENT REPORT

CASE NO.: 100127845

DATE FILED: 02/25/09
FILED BY: Officer MC


Describe your TAD project in 15 words or less.
Case No. 100127845: An investigation conducted 01/25/09 - 02/23/09 on a 'Maggie Chan' yields an evidence collection (total: 30) inscribed with InDesign CS3 shortcuts.

What inspired you to do this TAD?
The inspirations for my TAD were two main objectives I had strived to hit:
1. to learn one new ID shortcut per day
2. to have my TAD project serve as a true representation of me, and my daily experiences during the specified 30 days (as opposed to any ol' 30 days)

Thus, my TAD began as a conscious gathering of miscellaneous items (aka 'things I've left behind') to document me and a day's particular high or low point with a tie (as abstract as it may be) to a certain ID shortcut - the tighter the tie, the stronger the mental association, and the better the chance of remembering the select shortcut string.


EVOLUTION AND TRANSFORMATION

How did your TAD evolve over the course of 5 weeks?
My TAD evolved by the second day with a Vitamin B+C pill, which prompted me to protect my scattering of items with small plastic ziplock baggies - a move that reminded me of evidence collection from a police investigation. Which then inspired me to take photographs of each recovered piece of evidence 'at the scene of the crime', complete with evidence no. markers and the now overly exposed metal ruler to provide scale - www.blipfoto.com/maggiechan. Each entry in the investigation blog features a piece of incriminating evidence with description, type of offense, suspect(s), and victim(s).


REFLECTION

What themes or threads developed in your TAD?
Do spelling mistakes and quirky comments count? The obvious theme would be the CSI twist where a 'crime' is committed daily in this investigative 30-day documentary. Beyond that, each piece of evidence is taken from my everyday life: the consumables I routinely eat and drink, the symbols based on by how I felt physically and emotionally - it could be anything from the everyday mundane to the rare and unexpected. In a way, you could say I am one of the threads running throughout this project. Another theme I would like to point out is the aspect of a second life. Many of the featured objects in the evidence log are serving another purpose before they are disposed of.

What did you learn about yourself as a creative person during this project?
I learned that as a creative person, I have this overwhelming need to see the 'final destination' of a project in order to feel confident that I've fully developed a concept that is logical and consistent throughout. However, sometimes, you really do need to just launch the idea and let it go to evolve on its own, rather than trying to hammer out every little detail beforehand. I also like to use metaphors and analogies to fully understand concepts and happenings. During this project, I was reminded that the results fare much better when you work with the unique attributes of each item, rather than to force it to fit within the (often mentally established) confines of an outlined concept.


SIGNATURE OF REPORTING OFFICER: Officer MC
DATE SIGNED: February 25, 2009