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How To Transform Ordinary Things Into Valuable Objects By Telling Stories
Some years ago an anthropologist and a writer teamed up on the Significant Objects project. They visited local thrift stores, buying 129 objects, each valued no more than $2.
They invited professional fiction writers to create short fictional stories about each object. For example, author Mimi Lipson wrote about a mug with the word “Halston” on the lower edge:
Halston was having a birthday party for the Dupont twins, so I glued myself together and cabbed to the Pierre to pick up Bianca ($5). She’s still mad at Victor about the sweater, but I think it’s really because she found out that he went to Mick and Jerry’s black-and-white party at Mr. Chow’s. Bianca’s [posterior] is really getting too wide to wear Halston.
Armed with stories, the experimenters sold $128.74 worth of thrift-store junk for $3,612.51. The mug, bought for thirty-nine cents, went for $31.00.
Of course, the stories were revealed as fictional. Buyers received the object they purchased, along with a copy of the story.
