With Valentine’s Day on the horizon, we decided to create one Valentine’s Day themed score that we each individually act out for our audience members. Because two of us did not have direct contact with someone, we must be able to act out these scores for our audience virtually.

Our Telematic Score

How to make a Valentine’s Day card:

  1. Conduct an interview with your Valentine. Ask them the following questions.
  • What shape do you associate with?
  • What is your love language?
  • What is the last dream you remember?
  • When was the last time you felt joyful?
  • How can you lose yourself for hours?
  • What is your happy place?
  • What are three words to describe yourself?
  • Describe your perfect date
  • How do you feel about abstract art?
  • What sounds do you love? 

2. Make a Valentine’s Day Card based off the interviewee’s response. 

3. Show the card to the interviewee. Write down the first thought they say in response as the inscription. 

The Results

Helen’s Valentine

This is such a fun and ingenious way to create a custom card for someone special. What makes this telematic experience interesting is that your volunteer audience doesn’t know that they’re the audience. They only become the audience when we record and inscribe their first reaction to the personalized Valentine.

Helen’s interviewee’s answers
An oval-shaped card with a landscape and pipe cleaner clouds.
(Left) Inscription (Right) Poems based on interviewee’s answers

Celia’s Valentine

The person I interviewed was my good friend Zhang Yu, who gave me a wide variety of answers to work with to create his card. To me this telematic script was a fun activity because it was very open ended; I tried to push myself to create a card that was fun, colorful, and abstract, but more importantly held true to Zhang Yu’s answers. I enjoyed getting to show him the end result and surprise him, and he liked how he was able to take part in the creation of the artwork without physically doing anything.

Celia’s Interviewee’s Answers
The Front of Card
The Inside of Card
Inside of Card w/ Inscription

Anishwar’s Valentine

I interviewed one of my friend’s from both CMU and high school whom I am currently separated from due to the fact that I am on campus and she is remote-learning this semester. This telematic score was a really fun exercise and experience for me because it allowed me to get to learn new things about my friend, as well as engage in an interaction that was only possible through telematics. Our distance allowed me to hide my actions and made the big reveal of the card a surprise.

Anishwar’s Interviewee’s Answers
Left (Back of Card) Right (Front of Card)
Left (Inside Cover of Card) Right (Inscription)