Research - 'Before I die...'

I actually discovered this website last year while researching for one of my projects. I was looking at incorporating text into the project and ended up stumbling across this website. It caught the eye immediately as the front page is very in your face, but still relatively mysterious and got me wanting to know more.

The idea is brilliant. It requires participants to send in a polaroid of themselves with the answer to the question "What do you want to do before you die?" written beneath their photo. The creators, Nicole Kenney and Ks Rives state several reasons for starting it. They were inspired to do so around the time that Polaroid announced plans to discontinue production of their cameras and film and they also wanted to conduct an experiment. To see how different people would respond and whether it would make more people want to achieve their aims or desires. It's a fascinating concept and the response to it has been amazing. Like I'm already finding with my wishes project, some people take it so seriously and others have a much more fun response or a less serious one.

Perhaps my favourite part is that the pair ask for an email address from all participants because in a few years time, they want to get in touch with these people and ask them if they've achieved what they wrote on the polaroids or why not. That follow up will be brilliatn and I can't wait to see it. Although the project started in America, it has taken on a life of its own, with Polaroids being sent in from all over the world and specific sections on the site now for Asia, Europe and India. The pair became interested in how different cultures reacted to the question, with Americans often not being so happy to discuss mortality and death as other countries where both are discussed and welcomed more.

The project has a lot of press and has had lots of press and exhibited all over the place. There are books avaiable and the best part is that it's still an ongoing project with people just wanting to join in. It's the variety of responses and how people have chosen to make the images that interests me.
The three above are just some of the many that I looked through. I put them in for the variety and one because it made me smile. Part of doing a project like this is that you never quite know what you're going to get and I love the process of reading through the responses and being surprised. Perhaps some make you smile, make you sad, make you wish you'd thought that. But one thing that is constant is that every few responses there are some you can relate to. Any viewer will be able to find at least one they can relate to and understand as well which keeps the process going. I just find it all very interesting and it's a look into a person's identity.