Welcome to Project Tessa

This webpage is dedicated to Project Tessa (Textual Excellence by Stupendous Stemmatic Analysis). Here you will find the most recent information about the project as well as pictures and the most advanced 3D images. The project's motto, breeding a new generation of textual critics, reflects the ideology of its leaders.

Chronology

It is believed that project Tessa started sometime between the 10th and 12th of May 2007 (or around the Kalamazoo conference). Opinions surrounding this date are divided and more research is required before the case can be put to rest.

Suspicions about the existence of the project started on the 22nd of May, when a surreptitious test (of which nothing has been said until this moment), showed a tenuous line which in no way seemed definitive. It is known that this date is correct as it coincided with the launch of the Fine Rolls Project and I escaped with Terry to a bar rather than attending the super-boring speeches.

Absolute confirmation only occurred on Saturday 25th, when peeing on the most advanced piece of digital technology revealed the reading "pregnant." Clearly, this was, from its conception, a textual project. Unfortunately, there is no photographic record to prove this. But for those who might be interested here is a video of the same technology used for project confirmation:

Documents

Due to the importance of this project, it was decided that documenting each stage regularly was of the utmost importance. Here you can find photography that show these stages from different angles.

Development: Internal View

Here is the first documented record of the project (it has been theorized that the technology used is not the most recent, since comparative study of similar projects demonstrate that the grainy quality of this documents is similar to those of Nessie). This photograph, captured on July 6th, 2007, confirms the project's age as 9.6 weeks, suggesting that its beginning can be traced to Saturday, May 12th, rather than May 13th as hypothesized by Robinson.

The report indicated that the subject (of unknown sex) was correctly positioned in reference to its source of sustenance and possessed one brain and two legs. As promptly remarked by Lisa, this is much better than the other way around.

The second document allows one to appreciate the development of the different parts. However, technology lets us down once more and the image is again of what has been defined as "Nessian" quality.

At this point, it became clear that Proyect Tessa was femenine in nature. A fact, that was later confirmed by more advanced technology.

Due to the frustration produced by the first two documents of the internal view, the project leaders took the initiative of making a substantial investment (from their own pocket) to gain access to more advanced technologies. With great cost, we have managed to acquire the images and videos that we now want to share with the general public.

The following images are the result of 3D and 4D technology.

These pictures were captured on October 20th, 2007. Project age: 20 weeks. As it is possible to appreciate, the second 3D image shows that the subject was refusing to cooperate by covering her face with one hand, possibly to attempt to become inconspicuous(it is important to note that the hand has five fingers). One wonders whether she has anything to hide.

Images captured on the 17th of November 2007. Project age: 29 weeks. The first image shows that the subject was much more open to cooperation, it is even possible to see what some might interpret as a smile. Immediately, the subject proceeds to sleep for a while, proving the hypothesis that the more one invests, the less control one has over the situation.

Development: External View

The external development of the project has been less expensive to document. For this reason, there is a rich photographic record. As the project advances, the need has arisen to document the facts more frequently. What follows is a sample of the external views of the project's development.

The photograph on the left shows the project's appearance at 12 weeks and it was captured on July 21st 2007, just the day after the magnificent wedding of Martin and Michela that took place in the Via Appia Antica. The photograph on the right was taken in a hotel in Muenster on September 7th and shows that the project, at 18.6 weeks, had already visited at least four countries.

Left: the project at 20 weeks and one day. This picture was taken (September 23rd) in Pacentro in Edvige's kitchen while we were working on Teseida. Right: 23 weeks, October 6th, during a trip to Stratford with Leandro and Peter.

Here it is possible to observe a movement towards a more scientific treatment of the project. From 24 weeks (October 13th) onwards, the decision was taken to capture the photographs more regularly and within the same environment. All this so that any observations would not be affected by the different places in which the photos were produced. Left: 25 weeks, October 20th. Compare with the internal view, above.

Starting on week 26, we find the period of most accurate scientific precision. Note that from this point onwards, the attempt is to reproduce, not only the environment, but also the circumstances. Left: 26.4 weeks, October 31st. Right: 27 weeks, November 1st.

Left: 29 weeks, November 17th. Right: 31 weeks, December 1st.

Left: 32.4 weeks, December 10th. Right: 34.1 weeks, December 23rd. These two pictures were taken in a different location because the project had to move for the Christmas period to Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Left: 36 weeks, January 5th. Right: 38 weeks, January 19th.

Left: 40 weeks, February 2nd, Groundhog day and official deadline for the project's initial phase (as with many other research projects, this is already slightly delayed). Right: Leaders and result, nine days after completion.

Methodology

In order to achieve a better approach to our project we are using a methodology known as Hypnobirthing which consists of relaxation and concentration exercises. We have also hired a doula, who will be our assistant in this project.

Ideally, we would like to complete our project at home, where we feel comfortable and at ease. For now, we await for the confirmation of the NHS on whether we can proceed as planed.

We have (our academic friends will know) been engaged for years on research into the application of evolutionary biology methods developed for creation of genetic hypotheses in living organisms to stemmatic analysis of manuscript traditions. Accordingly, we see Project Tessa as an extraordinary chance to carry on this research, but now in the reverse direction: we intend to apply methods developed for the establishment of stemmatic relations in manuscripts to the creation of genetic hypothesis for a living organism (i.e., Tessa). To our knowledge, no-one has ever tried treating a living being as if he or she were a manuscript tradition. This is truly ground-breaking research. Many questions arise. Suppose Darwin had been a textual scholar, not a naturalist. Would he have edited the Canterbury Tales? Would he have called his daughter Tessa (for Textual Excellence by Stupendous Stemmatic Analysis, let us remember)? Would he have won the Ivanhoe Game? May we apply descent with modification to this living being, as if she were a scribal copy? What can we deduce about the quality of Tessa's exemplars? We are confident that her exemplars are her parents, i.e. us, but are we best described as originals, archetypes, or hypearchetypes? Are we entirely free from error? Contamination presents a special opportunity for innovative analyses because in this case, by definition, we have two exemplars, not one, with enjoyable possibilities of frequent shift of exemplar and hybridization.

We look forward to inviting our scientific colleagues to join us, in the remarkable supranational, multi-disciplinary, interoperable, research project which is Tessa. There are opportunities for Chris Howe and his Cambridge colleagues to analyze her biology at a molecular level. Linne Mooney will certainly be interested in both her scribal hands, with the exciting problems posed by mirroring, rather than identity. Dan Mosser will wish to reflect on the complex quiring structure of this bibliographic baby, the first-born member of the European Society for Textual Scholarship. The British Library will find archiving Tessa challenging. We are sure Mark Pallen will welcome the chance to add Tessa's eColi to his database. Naturally no project is complete without an interactive component and here is ours: we invite nominations for academics who you feel deserving of a rich-smelling, suitably wrapped, parcel of nearly-new eColi bacteria (by email please).

Stage 2: Tessa goes live!

In every project, there is a key moment when the project "goes public" for the first time. Up to that point, the project is private: only its creators and a very few others will know of it. In this "pre-public" period, we plan what might happen, based on the best information available to us. But this information will never be complete: there will be surprises, perhaps major ones, as the project approaches this crucial moment. A good project has to be prepared to adapt, and to adapt in a way that maintains the best of the original plans.

So it was with Project Tessa. We had planned an innovative, and somewhat controversial, delivery system: it was to be fluid and dynamic, but also local and domestic, with a very low carbon footprint and entirely free of all forms of stimulant, artificial or otherwise. We did considerable research into this system. At first, all seemed well. Around 2 am on Wednesday 6 February, preliminary indications suggested that we were about to enter the delivery phase. We began activating the long-planned preparations: setting up the fluid delivery apparatus in the domestic environment (i.e. our bedroom); alerting key project participants (aka "midwives"). We moved smoothly into the delivery phase. By 2 pm the apparatus was at work, with all participants in or around it. We began to plan for imminent success: appointing a Tessa-catcher, laying out the first Tessa deliverables (particularly the silver transportation objects photographed above).

Over the next hours, Project Tessa experienced her first major test, one that caused a radical alteration in this first project phase. We expected delivery within a few hours of full initialization of the project delivery apparatus, at 2 pm: that is, Tessa should be public and live by 6 pm. This time came and passed, and no Tessa. We were not concerned at first: we had anticipated such a delay, so all we had to do (we thought) was to activate the back-up mechanisms and wait. Surely our analysis was perfect! we might be delayed, but we must be on the right course!

Four more hours passed. By 10 pm, our confidence begin to falter. There had been no progress, and we were acutely aware that we were consuming precious non-replaceable project resources (in the form of Barbara's energy levels and ability to focus. We moved the project to the highest alert level, with enhanced monitoring of all aspects of progress. By midnight, the monitors were indicating not only lack of progress, but also that resource consumption was approaching a critical level. At 12.30 am (it was now Thursday, 7 February) we determined a course of action to meet this new situation. Barbara, our project leader and (at this time) the unique Tessa-bearer, would carry out a set of prescribed exercises (ambulatory, ascensory and giratory) designed to restart the stalled delivery progress. After one hour, 1.30 am, there would be an emergency full-scale project review, focussing on the effect of this latest exercise phrase and of the whole delivery process.

The prescribed exercise phase was carried out, and at 1.30 am the whole project team met for the emergency review. There was a free exchange of opinions at this meeting. On one extreme: some argued that we should continue the prescribed exercise phase, perhaps varying the pattern, along the lines that we should continue the original plan as far as possible. On the other extreme: others argued that the use of resources was reaching a critical point, and that continuing the original plan might imperil the whole project (of which delivery was only a preliminary, though necessary, step) and we should forthwith abandon the proposed delivery method.

In the absence of consensus, the meeting decided that the decision must be made by the Tessa-bearer, Barbara herself (on the premise that: "no uterus, no opinion", now extended to "no Tessa, no opinion"). Her decision was clear. It was now 24 hours since the delivery phase had been initiated. We had planned resources only for a twelve hour delivery phase, with reserve resources available up to eighteen hours. Thus, we had used up all the allocated resources, all the reserves, and we were now drawing heavily on the emergency resources intended for the whole project. Carrying on would use all these up. Hence, she made the brave (and very painful) decision to abandon the local, fluid and stimulus-free delivery system.

At 2.30 am, the project leaders moved the whole project to the emergency delivery plan. We contacted Birmingham City Hospital, and they sent a suitably equipped vehicle to carry the Project to the hospital. At 3.30 a further project review was performed, now involving hospital specialist staff. The decision was taken to move straight to the well-tried direct extraction technique (vulgarly, "caesarean section"). This is a rather draconian method, somewhat akin to the "scission" procedure used to separate person and daemon in the Pullman "Dark Materials" stories, and completely counter to the system first planned for the project. But what we must, we must.

Finally, at 04.58 am, the delivery phase was completed. Our lives will never be the same!

New Data

As research progresses, new data will be added to this site. If you would like to receive notifications of changes on this document, e-mail B. Bordalejo.

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