Who are you?

The most asked question.

Answer. . . . . . .

We're not telling.

Why are you anonymous?

We prefer to remain anonymous. We really don't want it to be about us and we feel that some of the romance of the idea would be lost by us being known.

What was your main aim of the mpf book?

The main aim of this book is merely to make peoples lives more interesting. Whether this is art or not is really open to debate.

How did you come to enter the Pigeonhole City competition?

The pigeonhole city competition has become an interesting by-product for us. The idea of entering was brought to us by an architectural student friend who pointed out how well missing presumed found fitted to the competition brief. The competition provided us with the opportunity to present some of our work and ideas to a wider audience.
(pigeon hole city)

How many book are out there?

At the moment there are only a small number. We are in the process of creating 50 books destined for capital cities worldwide. Our hope is that people will be inspired by the project to create and release their own book- we have already had interest from the USA, Hawaii and Sweden as well as in our native Scotland.

Is there a way of tracking the books?

Each mpf book has a number on the spine of the book. We can supply you with an official number if you email us a request for one. This will hopefully allow the creator of each book to track its progress through this website.

What do the books look like?

The books we started and suggest using are A6 black cartridge sketchbooks.
We then use a stencil to spray paint the READ ME on the front in white and a pot of gold paint to hand write the "missing presumed found?" on the back. The book number is drawn on the spine using the gold paint and then the whole book is given several coats of weather proof varnish.

Why do you send postcards?

It is something we like to send people from the media who show interest. Its an attempt to boost the profile of the project, presenting its ideas to a wider audience. They are a novel way of giving people a little souvenier of the project.
You can view all the postcards in the "downloads" section of the site.

Are you concerned for the safety of the books?

The original creator of the idea within mpf does worry about the fate of his first book. He says "It is like my wee child and like any parent I fear for its safety". Others in the group, who were not involved in the beginnings of missing presumed found do not have such an emotional attachment. The biggest fear has always been that the next person to find it will either destroy it or decide to keep it. However even if they keep it, it will one day (maybe fifty years from now) get out and again and live on. Hopefully it will live on long after we have shuffled off the Earth.

What do you want people to write in the books?

What people write in the books is completely free.
This is an attempt to have total freedom of speech. We want it to be a mouthpiece for people opinions and perceptions of the world around them. But if people want to use this to shout and swear then that is up to them if not our direct intention. We want them full of personall things. What makes you happy? What makes you sad? Whats your favourite moment? What happened on your favourite day? Whats the most important thing you have learned in your life?

Where did the idea come from?

The story behind the idea is a strange and meandering tale. Click here to find out the origins.


Is this a copy of the 1000Journals project?/ Do you know that an american guy is ripping off your idea?

Its not and he's not.

We've heard about the 1000journals project and honestly both projects are seperate and completly uninfluenced by each other. Both had been running for two years before they became aware of the others existence.

Someguy (the creator behind 1000journals) and ourselves have talked about it and have come to the amazing realisation. The very first mpf book was made at almost exactly the same time as the very first 1000journals journal. One in Glasgow the other in San Francisco. Two minds thinking up similar ideas on either side of the world. We were sent an interesting email about this which you can read here.
We think Someguys site is excellant and were suprised but delighted to hear about its existence.

Why do the entries all begin after the 25th March 2002?

We felt that as of the competition win on 25/03/02 the mpf was reborn. We decided to only cover the books and stories we recieved after that date.

Also, before this date we didn't really have a proper system for tracking or recording the books and we didn't keep all the emails we recieved. So to be honest we don't know where they are, or who found them.

I found a book dated before 25th March why am I not included on the website?

See above