About Create the Future
Inspiration"And as far as the X-F movie? I have no f****** clue. I think there's still a law suit, as far as I know the script has not been written, and as much as we all want it to take place as soon as possible, AND YES THAT INCLUDES ME, AND ALWAYS HAS, SO STOP WITH THE NONSENSE! It is out of my hands. Completely. Write to Fox guys, tell them to make it happen!" Gillian Anderson MissionThe project's mission was to urge fans of The X Files to write a letter addressed to 20th Century Fox, telling them how much the show is loved and missed and ultimately asking them to put legal issues to rest and to support the production of another X Files movie. Our goal was to gather as many letters of this kind as possible; they were collected worlwide by representatives of North America, South America, Australia & Pacific and Europe. At the end the packages of letters were sent to one place, so they could be put together in one single album containing the project's results. HistoryTimeline
Phase One: Letters"Create the Future" was a quick idea originally born on LiveJournal in August 2006, inspired by a message from Gillian Anderson to her fans (see quote above), and initially only meant to run a few months. But our plans didn't work out quite as fast as we thought they would, and so the first deadline for submission of letters had to be delayed. Over the course of the next months I was able to gather a team of invested helpers around me, some of who accompanied me until the very end, and more and more people participated by writing a letter. Unfortunately the project's progress was often hindered by real life intervening, but in summer 2007 we finally closed our mailboxes for good. The only reason why the project couldn't be wrapped immediately after that, was because the international mail-system failed to deliver most of the representatives' packages on first attempt, and all we could do was wait and try again. Most mailings reached their destination after all, but in case of the gathered letters from the USA, the worst scenario happened: they were lost. Phase Two: Making OfAs soon as the last lot of letters I was waiting for could be delivered successfully, I began working on finishing the project. I had begun looking for pre-made solutions of a suitable album months ago, alas in vain, since none of the models available in stores met my needs of measures and size. So I had decided to make a customized album by hand. Therefore I chose to buy black paper (90g, 50 x 70 cm) and cut each sheet into four equally sized pieces of 25 x 34 cm. Sorted by continent and country, I glued each letter to a page of black paper; the ones that were written on double-sided (a problem I hadn't considered before) I tried to fix with photo corners. Additionally I designed covers of handmade collages for each continent and country, primarily using the envelopes and stamps the letters were sent with, to separate these chapters. The designs that went on the books' front and back covers were made in Photoshop and can be seen here. 
As soon as all that was done, I brought the stack of loose pages to a book binder I had researched before, where I spent over an hour talking about specifics (and learning a lot about book binding). We chose to split the book into two parts, as he was worried the thickness of the book could result in a hampered turning of pages. For the books' spines we picked a strong matt black linen, and the words "Volume I" and "Volume II" in silver font. I also ordered a carton where both volumes could be put into together, showing the same design. Photos of the finished product can be viewed under photos. Phase Three: Final StraightOn February 26 I picked up the finished books from the binder and during the following few days worked out the final details. I handed over the package to FedEx on February 28; the delivery to the Department of Publicity of 20th Century Fox in Los Angeles, CA, was made the next day. To read what Fox thought about "Create the Future" go to reactions. 
The AlbumsContentTo give you an idea of what the books look like, their table of contents can be viewed here. For photos of the "public" parts of the books, please visit the photos page. Click the link to expand. JavaScript must be enabled. 
Table of Contents
ParticipantsA total of 295 people have participated in the "Create the Future" project. Below you will find the name of every person, whose letter is featured in the books, along with a cataloging number (#) and the page the letter is on. I have taken a photo of every page. If you would like to see your page, please contact me with your name and catalogue or page number. You will also find a list of letters that have been received by a representative, but got lost on their way to me. We were more than frustrated about this, but in the end there wasn't anything we could do. I included that same list in Volume II, so that at least your names were mentioned. Click the link to view the lists of participants. To change between the two lists, click the tabs on the bottom of the page. JavaScript must be enabled. List of Participants |