About Those Longshot Challenges

Saturday, July 30 2011

About Those Longshot Challenges

So, this time around, we didn’t just give you a theme (DEBT) but also five challenges. We did this for a couple of reasons. First, we wanted there to be easier ways to contribute to the magazine. We kept hearing from people that they really wanted to do something but they ~~were hungover~~ had too much work or ~~forgot until the last minute~~ were stuck at a cousin’s wedding. So, the challenges provide a few quick ways to have the Longshot experience.

But we also have an ulterior motive. By directing a lot of people to do the same thing, we may be able to create a bit more structure and coherence for our magazine.

Now, here are the challenges with a few more thoughts about each one.

1) Answer this question: I owe __ for ____.

This is simple. We’re going to take your submissions and create a visualization for the website and use some of them in some way in the print magazine. We’ve already received responses from the hilarious (“I owe Bill Clinton for teaching me to love Fleetwood Mac.”) to the heartbreaking (“I owe my mother for not leaving me like she left her first son.”) We owe Craig Damrauer for this excellent idea.

2) Tell us how much personal debt you have and when you think you’ll pay it off via this form. (Don’t worry, it’s anonymous and we’re not capturing any personally identifiable data.)

This one’s pretty self-explanatory. You enter a number and we’ll do something with those numbers.

3) Take a portrait of the person you owe the most. Write a 100 character caption explaining. Submit it here.

I’m really hoping we get the kinds of awesome portraits that Pictory seems to bring in so easily.

4) Illustrate your own personal debt map. (Hint: You don’t need a GPS. Think.) Submit it here.

This is probably the most confusing, but what we’re hoping for here are illustrations in the vein of Christoph Niemann or Wendy MacNaughton. Can you draw your own personal geography of debt?

5) Go out and pay off a debt you’ve long had. Then either write up your story or tell us about it via Longshot Radio, which is like StoryCorps on speed.

In the past, we’ve been very mildly disappointed that more people didn’t seize the opportunity to go out into the world, do something, and come back to tell us about it. So, this is our attempt to nudge you in that direction.

Feel free to hit us with any question you might have. We’re obviously monitoring @LongshotMag but you can also get in touch with me, @alexismadrigal, or on email at alexis.madrigal[at]gmail.com.