The Daily Plan-it / Dean of Students Blog, Columbia J-school

More than 150 students, faculty and staff participated in student Jennifer Redfearn’s “Hat Project” during the two weeks before graduation. Scroll below to see the photos and to see Jennifer’s original e-mail request (the project has since closed).

Date: Mon, 30 Apr 2007 08:43:02 -0400
From: Jennifer Redfearn

Fellow J Schoolers,

As the year comes to an end, I’ve made it a personal mission to photograph
students, faculty, and staff for something called the *Hat Project * (see
FAQs below). It’s been a challenging and inspiring year, and as a
community we’ve experienced some difficult times and an inconceivable
tragedy. This is a way of ending the year on a light note. It’s also a bit
selfish. I’m in awe of the talent and experiences of people that I’ve met
at school. The Hat Project is an opportunity to meet more of you and fully
enjoy the last couple of weeks we have together.

The photos will be uploaded daily on FLICKR. I’ll also make a folder on the
shared drive so that everyone who wants copies can download the photos to a CD.

Check out the HAT PROJECT!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/hatproject/

*FAQS
What was your inspiration for the Hat Project?
*A group of us were having drinks at 1020 (at 10:20) last week, and someone
passed around the hat. Different people tried it on, and we noticed that it had
transformative powers. One moment someone looked like an ordinary jschooler -
then poof! - they shape-shifted into a street dogging journalist from the 1940s
or a writer for the New Yorker.

*How do you know it wasn’t the effect of alcohol?
*That’s a really good question. The following day I started taking more
pictures and noticed that the hat had the same impact. It has the power to draw
people out and allows you to express an extended version of yourself.

*I want to be in the hat project. How do I sign up?
*I prefer to catch people on the fly, engaged in a moment. But if I haven’t
found you by the time classes end, please email me: jtr2113[at]columbia.edu

*Wait! Isn’t that Bill Wheeler’s hat?
*Ah, ha. You’re very observant.

*Are you hiring at the Hat Project?
*Yes, Julie Hartenstein is accepting applications for a 2 week unpaid
internship. You can make me coffee and occasionally write photo captions, I’m
kidding. Yes, if you’re photo savvy, I could use help resizing the images and
uploading them to Flickr.
*
What do you hope will become of the Hat Project?
*It is my dream that someone will be so inspired by the Hat Project that they
will throw a “Wigs and Hats” party where everyone dresses up in outrageous wigs
or hats and dances until the wee hours of the morning. (If I didn’t live in a
studio, I would throw the party).

-Jennifer Redfearn

We have a new way for us to have a giant pool of school photos of all kinds. If you have any photos you’d like to share (fun, serious and anything in between), please follow these instructions.

Create a FREE account at http://www.flickr.com.
Upload some photos, making sure you fill the “tag” field with the following:
“columbiaj2007″ (no quotes) - this is the key to the success of this project… That way, all our pix can be found very quickly.

For the captions, please TRY to use the following format:
KEYWORD IN ALL CAPS WITH A COLON: Followed by some text
eg: RWI: Student on a bus tour in the Bronx
other keywords - INTL, ORIENTATION, PICNIC, etc, etc, etc.

Here’s what we have so far:
http://flickr.com/search/?q=columbiaj2007
or
http://flickr.com/photos/tags/Columbiaj2007/ (click on any photo to see the
captions, even during the slideshow).

Please take a look and try it out…

NOTE: We have 100 photos as of Nov. 7
34 photos as of Oct. 10, 2006