The Significant Objects Project

At last friday’s PSFK Conference I had the pleasure to see Rob Walker present his ingenious The Significant Objects Project: He purchased some random, insignifant objects (mugs, ashtrays, kitschy decorative pieces etc), to then invite a talented, creative writer to invent a story around it. Invested with new significance by this fiction, the object should — according to Rob’s hypothesis — acquire not merely subjective but objective value. How to test our theory? Via eBay! And boy, he was right, see the Experiment’s Results here.

3 Comments leave a comment below

  1. Love the creativity behind this. It’s interesting to see how much each object could sell for.

    Is this a lesson in art or psychology, though? :)

  2. I loved it too! @tanner he said it was both!

  3. Really great project this.
    A book that explores the subject of objects really well is Sherry Turkle’s ‘Evocative Objects: Things we think with’. Her MIT credentials ensures the book has gravitas but is also really accessible in revealing the emotional power of everyday objects.
    http://www.amazon.co.uk/Evocative-Objects-Things-We-Think/dp/0262201682