Aesthetics of Order - An Exploratory Field Study of Journaling Launches in Toronto

AHRC: Nenna Orie Chuku: 551413

Founded by designer Ryder Carrol, the mission of the bullet journal is to support a mindful practice about how we spend our time and our energy. Under the bullet journal principles, the simple tools of a notebook and writing instrument create an abundance of creative expressions and documents, one of which is the set-up journal-keepers' maintain for their journaling practice.

Based within the unique stationery and journaling community in Toronto and using Jenna Hartel's Serious Leisure perspective in Information Studies, this research project explores how the set-up of journaling forms a distinctive sub-culture in the journaling hobbyist community. With interviews with journal-keepers, and observations at stationery expos and personal journaling environments, this research project contributes to building understanding on how contemporary journaling practices go beyond the act of keeping a journal to present the importance of the material, tools, environmental factors and social worlds of contemporary journaling.