• people •

This project began in October 2009 in a coffee shop over little cookies. • • •

Lea Redmond of Leafcutter Designs has a project called Care Instructions in which people pin their clothes tags on a map to locate where their garment was made. Participants receive an ecologically conscious clothes tag in return to sew into their garment as a replacement. As people participate, the little tags accummulate on the world map.

Lea was thinking about turning her mapping project into a kit for other people to share with their own friends and community. Sam Bower of greenmuseum.org, suggested that the map could track other purchases as well, such as food, consumer goods and even reused and home-made items. How fun would that be?

Over the next two weeks we discussed the idea enthusiastically every day and began playing with prototypes. We then shared the idea with friends and the response was overwhelmingly positive. Finally, on a Sunday at Karma Kitchen (a gift economy restaurant in Berkeley, California run by Charity Focus) Sam mentioned the idea to our friend Richard Whittaker of Works and Conversations Magazine. He encouraged us to consider making the whole project into a gift.

Perfect!

• partners •

Our goal is to have shopping•cart•ography spread far and wide and become part of our culture. An idea as interesting as this should be free to adapt to fit local needs. We can envision designs by various artists, multiple language versions and maps in various sizes. It's up to you. You can download an editable file here and then modify or adjust it as desired. All we ask is that you please respect the Creative Commons license under which this is released (shopping•cart•ography is designed to always be given away - never sold). Send us a link and digital file so we can add your version to this site and share it with the world.

Interested in helping this spread? We welcome you as a partner. Please share this idea and help more people make art from the context of their purchases.

• special thanks •

Richard Whittaker
Anne Veh
Yolanda de Zuloaga

• some logos •