The Portland Project

Portland A-Z

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

On January 1 of 2006, I decided to leave Portland. I had been here almost three months after travelling from Minneapolis. While I took to Portland very quickly, made friends easily, and generally had a wonderful time, I decided to move on. That was before the Portland Project.

The project was inspired by Latourex, the French Laboratory of Experimental Travel. According to the Lonely Planet book Experimental Travel:

Experimental Travel evades definition, but it can loosely be described as a playful way of traveling, where the journey's methodology is clear, but the destination is unknown.

Latourex devised dozens of travel experiments that, basically, allow one to see new, as well as familiar, places in a refreshing way. For example*:

Barman's knock: Sit at a bar and have a drink (sounds good already doesn't it?). Ask the bartender where his/her favorite bar is, go there and then do the same thing. And on and on and on. (Not necessarily in the same night.)

I was so intrigued by this that I tried it right away--only I wanted to visit coffee houses. The woman who served me a cup of tea at the Dragonfly coffee house (my favorite) in Northwest Portland, told me one of her favorite places was Coffee Time on 21st Avenue. It turns out it is right around the block from my apartment. In fact, when the patrons there get a little over-caffeinated and rowdy, or a chess game gets too intense, I can hear them from my window. On the morning of January 3, I confidently strode in and ordered a cup of tea and then asked the server where her favorite place was. She replied, "Oh, I can't say, I've only been here a month and I haven't been anywhere else." And so this experiment came to a screeching halt.

A failure? No, it just meant I was free for the next experiment, which is the Portland Project or Portland A-Z. Each of the following 26 days (actually it took 27) I alpha-roamed the city using the alphabet as my guide. Each letter served as a pointer to some place or theme. A could stand for a location like Alberta Street; an activity: art crawl; an item: an apple at a food store; or even an emotion: anxiety (wouldn't that be fun?)

This project was also partly inspired by my friend Nicole who home-schools her three boys--they were experimenting with an alpha-year! Each two weeks are devoted to a single letter.

I posted my essays and photographs without fail each day and invited others to participate and there were a few takers. By the time I got to R, I knew something was happening. I had given notice on my apartment, but was not doing anything to get ready to move. Over the next few days, it became obvious, I wasn't going anywhere. I was in love with Portland and was staying. I'm still here and if anything in this project stirs you, please feel free to comment. You can reach me at  tomas.mattox@gmail.com

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

*Here are a few other examples of Experimental Travel:
Ero Tourism: Arrange to take a holiday with your partner. Travel there separately and don't arrange a meeting time or place. Now look for each other. (The author claims he and his wife have found each other all six times they tried this!)

Chance Travel: Insert the name of your hometown into an index of a world/country/state atlas. Throw a pair of dice and count the number of lines down from the name of your town. The town you land on becomes your destination.

All content copyright Tom Mattox, 2006