For over 15 years, semiotician and author Josh Glenn and journalist Rob Walker have analyzed what objects mean — and how they mean what they mean — through a wide variety of online storytelling experiments. A few days ago, they debuted their first-ever object storytelling project that involves exhibitions in a single city. They chose Kingston.
Glenn, who at the time was an editor and columnist at The Boston Globe, and Walker, who had just published his first book, Buying In: The Secret Dialogue Between What We Buy and Who We Are, had long admired each other’s work, but they didn’t meet until 2008. Josh had just published Taking Things Seriously, a collection of 75 essays about objects of “unexpected significance,” and Walker registered that Glenn was (as he said in a recent interview) a “kindred spirit.” Walker proposed a storytelling experiment that would test whether the effect of storytelling on a random object’s subjective value could be measured objectively.
“Emotional attachment to objects goes back to ancient times,” Glenn told me. “We’re still doing it now, no matter how modern we are. People find objects meaningful. We know that objects become more valuable with stories attached to them, but can we test that? Can we economically prove a story’s added value?” Glenn asked.
It turns out you can. Significant Objects, a 2008–2010 literary, anthropological, and economic experiment in which thrift-store objects were assigned to writers — some famous, some up-and-coming — who crafted short works of fiction about each item, offered proof of the value of storytelling. Sold on eBay with the stories standing in for the usual item description, the 100 objects purchased for just over a dollar apiece sold for over $3,600 — an impressive 2,700% increase in value that had marketing professors and business journalists calling them up. A book version was published in 2012.
During Significant Objects, Glenn read up on the anthropology of objects and material culture theory. “I realized that the types of stories people tell about objects can be categorized — they fall into clusters.” Some objects are lucky talismans, for example. Others are “fossils” (reminders of time gone by), others are “totems” (offering guidance from the natural world), and so forth.
From 2017 to 2021, Glenn and Walker recruited hundreds of writers to write nonfiction essays about their own significant objects, which they published in volumes whose themes paralleled these clusters. They called this nonfiction publishing effort — the essays appeared on Glenn’s website HILOBROW — Project:Object. In 2022, one of the themes, having to do with objects that we’ve lost but can’t stop thinking about, became Glenn and Walker’s second book: Lost Objects.
The culture has followed along in finding meaning in the small things: Over 105,000 subscribers follow Walker’s weekly Substack called The Art of Noticing that offers “ideas, inspiration, and provocations for creativity, work, and staying human.”
When asked how noticing plays a role in the latest iteration of Project:Object, Walker points out the commonality of perspective. “The theme of The Art of Noticing is finding hidden value, overlooked value, and paying attention to what no one particularly wants you to pay attention to. We live in a culture that is very much trying to get you to look at the trending topic and participate in what everyone else is participating in. And we’re looking at kind of the exact opposite of that: Here are objects and tchotchkes whose meaning is not evident to an outsider at all — everyday objects such as a hair clip that doesn’t suggest a story — but there is a story if you push for it.”
Walker circles back to the beginning of their object experiments, noting that they went into Significant Objects not knowing what would come of it. “I think we would both be stunned if we could go back in time and look forward to now and see that we’re still exploring this topic of objects, story, meaning and how they intersect while still coming up with different ways of going at it.”
But they still wondered why people have such a hard time letting go of things they are ready to let go of. “These significant objects can be extremely hard to let go,” Glenn told me, “so you need new ideas, new thinking about ways to let them go.” Glenn and Walker’s conversations led them to wonder if a person’s community could lend a hand in the letting-go process. Since we know that its story and meaning make objects significant, what if a person’s community suggested new stories for the object — for example, by ensuring that the object went to a meaningful place or found a new life?
Last summer, Josh and his wife, Susan, relocated from Boston to Kingston. “There was something about Kingston that made me confident that a project like this — which could fail miserably elsewhere — could work really well. We saw how many people were cross-promoting creative projects here, and we were impressed by all the flyers for events happening throughout the city. Rob and I had talked about this idea for quite a while, but it always felt impossible to pull it off … until we came to Kingston,” Glenn says.
It’s no secret to anyone living in the Hudson Valley that Kingston’s creative community is flourishing: Walk into Camp Kingston on any given day and you’ll see dozens of creatives remotely co-working and networking. Take a look at their impressive community board — full of community events and job openings — and it’s arguably easier to find a job than a space to put your flyer. You’ll only be further convinced.
The Give It Up project began earlier this year, when Glenn and Walker recruited 11 Hudson Valley residents — a variety of creative people, both established professionals and upcoming writers who have never been published, everyone from a music critic to a school librarian — to take part in the experiment. Each participant was asked to write a short nonfiction narrative about an object they own that is too meaningful for them to give up, even though they might like to do so. The range of objects selected turned out to be just as diverse as the participants, from a broken barrette hair clip to a piece of tree bark to a bicycle.
I would be remiss not to acknowledge that I am both a contributor to and a venue for the project (I wrote about my broken barrette that has lived on my bathroom counter for years, and my family owns Rewind Kingston). I also had the opportunity to design the project logo, recruit some of the venues, and handle other miscellaneous tasks. The object exhibits, designing and photography were expertly curated by Bridget Badore, the founder of the online artist collective and third space and gallery Holding Space that called the Rondout home for a year in 2024. Exhibit postcards and posters were designed by graphic designer Tommy Sullivan, and project management and coordination were handled by Susan Roe.
In addition to being published online via a free Substack newsletter, the 11 objects will be on display individually in 10 venues throughout Kingston from Aug. 15 to Sept. 1: Camp Kingston, The D.R.A.W. Gallery at MKAD, Salt Box, Brunette, Rewind Kingston, Maison Après, Half Moon Rondout Cafe, Tilda’s Kitchen & Market, Red Owl, and Utility Bicycle Works.
Was it difficult to recruit these venues? No, because something shifted in the Hudson Valley after the pandemic — in Kingston, most dramatically. Glenn noticed it immediately. “People here are imaginative and open-minded,” he marvels. “Their knee-jerk response is to say yes rather than to say no.” Walker, who lives in New Orleans, was shocked, too. “It was remarkable, as an outsider, to see how high the percentage of participation willingness was,” he told me.
The objects will be gathered at Camp Kingston, from Sept. 3–10, for a group exhibit. Until Sept. 10, the general public is invited to weigh in with persuasive responses to the participants’ essays. (Responses can be submitted via the project’s website, or in some cases, right at the venue.) It’s up to all of us to help this experiment succeed by weighing in with ideas. In fact, Glenn worries the experiment will “fail” unless people — forgive the pun — give it up. So please go to the exhibits, respond to the essays, and engage with the project.
A closing party on Sept. 10 at Camp Kingston will feature readings by the contributors, a Q&A with Glenn and Walker, and an announcement of the most persuasive responses.
Then, the contributors will — or won’t — say goodbye to their beloved objects.
Join the family! 
