How can you ensure a creative idea is targeted and researched to maximise potential? – The Workshop Challenge
Following up from the previous blog posts, the outcome for this week to analyse the marketing and production aspects of our potential project. After doing our research and collect information, we are to put together our research in a report. In it I have included and outline of the project itself, what inspired me to do it, key results obtained from the survey I conducted to get better insight on the target market and their views on the topic in question as well as any challenges that such a production might include. The report can be found below:
CLEAN HANDS; FILTHY MINDS. – The Report
Do you have a secret? OR are you that person who carries other people’s secrets? Clean Hands; Filthy Minds. is a book filled with secrets, but there is a catch – they cannot be read unless the people contributing to it choose to hand over the key to the readers.
Inspiration
I was always fascinated by puzzles and ciphers. I find them very interesting – it is a way of hiding information in plain sight. It is a bit cheeky if you think about it. Waving around inside information yet no one gets what they are reading or what they are looking at. The level of secrecy linked to it makes it even more mystifying. The name is derived from that very concept: ‘clean hands’ in the sense that one cannot tell what is hiding or what is their past, whereas ‘filthy minds is the fact that people keep all sorts of secrets, from the most innocent to the most graphic and twisted. Yet keeping secrets can be a huge burden, whether the secret is that person’s or someone else’s.
The Project
The aim is to create a book with encrypted versions of these ‘secrets’. I want to combine the beauty of ciphers and cryptography as well as a person’s psychology in relation to secrecy. The contents will be written in ciphers. That being said, the book is also meant to be perceived as a printed art piece. This book is not meant to be read, but rather appreciated for its aesthetics and mystery that comes with it. It is somewhat of a passion project as it inclines for on the artistic side of the creative spectrum. However, I definitely like to see if this project is indeed possible, and if it is so, then how this whole project will turn out. That being said, I think that anyone who is interested in art as well as science, can appreciate this publication.
The Initial Process
The first step – and probably crucial step, is that of finding people who are willing to share a secret. One imperative point that I need to keep in mind as well as make sure that it is understood by the contributors is that their name will never be shown in the publication, unless they would like to do so themselves. I want to make sure that this is not a way of exposing them or that this is a confession that may incriminate them, should they choose to chare something very personal. To start off, I conducted a survey to analyse the audience (which I will talk about in further detail below) and I am considering making an open call and focus group to see what do they think what are their views on the topic as well as see if they are willing to contribute themselves.
BACK-UP PLAN: As a back-up plan, should people do not come forward, I am considering making this publication more focused toward the psychological side of the topic. The final outcome would still be encrypted, however the content may be more abstract.
The Target Audience
My target audience is relatively broad, given that almost everyone has been in a situation where he or she held a secret or was sworn to secrecy. In addition, fellow creative people, puzzle lovers as well as whoever appreciates the use of cryptography in real life. It can be said that it is a rather unusual book, hence it may not appeal to the mainstream book-buyers. In spite of this, the publication is geared more towards adults rather than children and teens. Possible adult themes may be present in the final publication, even if abstract.
Initial Data Collection
To understand better the direction I am taking for this project, I created a questionnaire where I asked people of all ages various questions in relation to secrets as well as cryptography. These included questions such as whether they ever kept secrets, what kind of secrets and how it affected them, in addition I asked people how did they feel when it came to the possibility of ever sharing that secret, even if encrypted.
Out of 37 respondents, 46% are female and 54% are male, with the age ranging from 25 years to over 45 years.
32.4% of the respondents said that yes, they have kept secrets at some point in their life, and 40.5% answered ‘sometimes’. I found that answer interesting as it implies a few things, either they are very secretive, even to the point where they do not wish to admit that they indeed have or had a secret. Interestingly enough, although the percentage was low in the first question, when the participants were asked whether they were asked whether where they ever asked to keep a secret, 97.3% answered ‘yes’, and many found it easy to keep the secret to themselves – 83.8%.
That being said, when it came to the point where they were asked if they would consider sharing a secret even though it would be encrypted, many where reluctant. 43.2% said ‘no’ and 37.3% said ‘sometimes’on the first question, and 45% persisted when told that the secret is impossible to read.
A full transcript of the question as well as a summary of the data can be read here.
Production, Distribution and Possible Challenges
From the numbers gathered from the questionnaire, gathering content for this publication can be difficult. I would be threading on sensitive content in this regard. I just need to expand my pool of people and be patient. I am slightly concerned in this regard simply because I would like to make this into a book, however depending on the volume of content possible other options need to be considered. In addition, I may need to seek help from third parties to help me better understand cryptography and ciphers, particularly from a scientific view This is so I can conduct better my research as well as be able to create, or find tools to generate, cipher codes.
When it comes to production and distribution, I am keeping all my options option, both local printers and foreign. Ideally, I would find a printing press that can make small runs. Being a non-mainstream publication, the demand would be moderate. However, I am willing to invest in the book and experiment with different textures and inks. As far as distribution goes, I am looking into obtaining an ISBN number and even speak to a couple of publication houses once the whole project has a clearer framework, (and that I am sure that it would be a book). However, depending on the costs of the production, I am considering of taking full authorship of the book and self-publishing.
