I have been silent… but BUSY. ‘expressions corner’ has toured every governorate in Lebanon, and in some cases quite a few districts in the governorate. It is almost incredible that from a handful of close friends, relatives and colleagues, I established links that span through a wide network of social activists and designers who were able to help me organise ‘expressions corner’ in their local area. Their help involved finding a venue, scheduling a day, recruiting participants and/or putting me in touch with someone who could help me better than they can.
To establish these connections, I relied on a method that we often use at Uscreates. This is Link Tracing, and it is a snowballing method which involves relying on your contacts to build more contacts, and then asking these new contacts to provide you with even more contacts, and so on until you reach the right person who is willing and capable of hosting ‘expressions corner’ in his/her local region. I refer to these hosts as ‘gatekeepers’ as they provide me with access and insight into their communities. Having only ever used this method in the UK as part of my work at Uscreates, I was dubious as to whether it would prove efficient in Lebanon as the two countries have various behavioural and cultural differences. Additionally I was concerned that long distance communications may not be reliable in Lebanon as I would need to liaise with contacts that I have never met or seen, through the only mediums I could use: Email, Skype, Twitter and Facebook. Nevertheless, the method has proved surprisingly successful, and this might be a result of the favour-exchange and socially active culture prevalent in Lebanon. The gatekeepers were not only willing to offer their time and contacts for ‘expressions corner’, but (being social activists themselves) they were also genuinely interested and passionate about this project aligning with their social integration aspirations.
Below is a Link Tracing diagram illustrating the initial contacts I had (in black), and the links established from there to finally reach the group of participants engaged in ‘expressions corner’ (in red):
Here is a quick update on the 43 participants who have expressed their views in ‘expressions corner’, and following is a mapping of the regions covered and those in progress:
7 February 2010: Tyr – 6 Participants
7 February 2010: Shouf – 1 Participant
6 March 2010: Tripoli – 4 Participants
11 April 2010: Nabatiyeh – 2 Participants
17 April 2010: Mina – 5 Participants
16 May 2010: Zahleh – 8 Participants
12 June 2010: Batroun – 3 Participants
4 July 2010: Metn – 4 Participants
11 July 2010: Sidon – 5 Participants
17 July 2010: Keserwan – 5 Participants
I am still hoping to host ‘expressions corner’ in the following locations, and any help in finding a venue and participants is much appreciated:
Shouf, Beirut, Bsharreh, Zgharta, Akkar, Baalbeck, and any other regions in the South east and Beqaa areas.
I would like to thank all those people who have contributed to this project, and particularly William, Hanane, Habib, Tonnie, Maya, Laurice, Fouad, Sarah, Roy, Mireille, Nahi, and Suhair. Your have been so amazingly supportive. And finally the biggest thank you must go to my dear brother Cedric who has helped facilitate most of ‘expressions corner’ sessions and who has proved to be extremely reliable and efficient. Strangely he had studied Hotel Management and I, Graphic Design, and somehow many years later our interests collided with this project.
An ‘expressions corner’ lunch will be held in August in Beirut, and will bring together all the individuals who were involved in Link Tracing. This is an opportunity for myself to finally meet and thank collaborators face to face, as well as for them to meet one another and share their common interests within this topic area. The lunch will also help gather feedback on ‘expressions corner’ and find out about other similar projects happening in the regions.
