progress

the key to making of this book for me is to think of it as the perfect dummy.
I won't be completely satisfied with the writing or the layouts, but i'm enjoying making the whole thing happen. If i remain as motivated, in the summer i'll revisit and redo many parts of the book. I'm sure after having the physical book in my hands for the first time i'll come across all sort of problems, so instead of preventing it and all the hesitation i'll go ahead.
The only downside is the expense of all the printing ad binding, which shouldn't be all that much for the experience.
i'm revisiting my spreads from last week now, seems like i will have 5 booklet:
- City and the surrounding mountains
- typography ad textures
- Christo in Tehran
- conversations with cab drivers
- TV

I have material for these, if i can find the time :
- empty billboards series
- audio book
- traffic, getting around the city, snapshots of commute

40 days left

I want to revisit what i wanted this book tobe, what it can be and map out how this will happen.

I wanted this book to:

be casual, like a stroll in the street of an unknown city.
be accessible in terms of its structure. the reader can read a chapter or two, they should be somewhat conclusive on their own.
Fun, accidental and serendipitous. That is precisely why i enjoy discovering a city on foot.
It should be about finding pleasure in seeing the seemingly insignificant objects and building and streets and discovering your personal insight.
Discovery, it has come up twice already.
It should be layered, like when you visit a neighborhood for a second time you experience it in a new way, it is still open to new interpretations.
Conversations

Keywords o wrote down in my sketchbook in the summer:
Common objects
Transportation, driving, automobiles (Peikan, Kia Pride, Peogeout 206, Nissan Patrol, Peogeout RD, Metro)
City structure ( Old vs. New, Districts, Growth of the city, Maps)
Typography of the city (writings on the wall , etc.)
textures

What i have, want to scan/photograph:
-Newspapers
-Magazines
-flyers i have got when waling in the city (not enough)
-tickets
-money

flipping through channels in Tehran

You can access about 8 TV channels in Iran, 5 of them are the national channels with News, TV Series, Movies and Children's program (yes each channel produces programs for almost everybody). A few additional channels have been added recently; The Khabar News Channel, Quran TV and a handful of Educational channels featuring programs for children and adults.




Entertaining 75 million Iranians, over a third of them under 30, is impossible with this handful of government funded channels. This is where satellite dishes come into the picture. Owning a dish has been illegal since the revolution, however like all other laws that have been bent over the past quarter century nowadays almost every household owns at least one satellite dish. In Tehran most household enjoy their two dished, one aimed at European satellites and another for Iranian and Middle Eastern programs.


The LA based channels feature TV series, movies and music videos from before the revolution all the way to freshly(?) produced works of the flocks of "exiled" artists. Original programs produced by these channels often suffer underfunded production quality and are aesthetically mundane, at times you are simply watching some guy in a tie behind his desk trying too hard to explain his method of toppling the Iranian regime. Some extreme cases like the old man going by the alias Hakha, going as far as announcing the date of his arrival in Tehran and planning out his one man koodeta, provided some serious laughing material for Iranian public and also helped Iranian TV to effortlessly produce a few comic shows.




The catch is that while state has no right to investigate one's private space if they happen to "stumble" upon your dish and receiver they are allowed to seize it. Every few years when some distraction is desired by the government there is a raid and a good number of dished are collected, likely to be later circulated into the market.

Now sit back and Enjoy flipping through the channels.