Leftover.*
Just wanted to take a moment to thank everyone for visiting, reading, and spreading the word about Significant Objects. Yesterday we posted our 100th and final (for now) story — one by Jonathan Lethem. We couldn’t be happier with how it’s all turned out. Although we launched without fanfare in July, last month some 18,000 unique visitors viewed over 130,000 pages. (This month, the flood of traffic actually crashed our server for a few days.) As of Friday we’ve auctioned off $118.95 worth of thrift-store junk for $3,391.51! Of course some auctions are still open; as we parse the final data in the days ahead, we’ll post our findings here.
Obviously we couldn’t have done this without all the great writers who contributed, all the bidders, and all the readers. Thanks so much!
[* To see what that box used to look like, go here.]
Coming up: As mentioned, we’ll be publishing some of our runner-up stories from the BBQ Sauce Jar Slate Contest, while we wait for the last of our auctions to close. We’ll also be gathering our data — and pondering the future. You still have time to obtain one of the original 100 Significant Objects, in our store.
Recent reactions from elsewhere:
Click to check out pictures of Significant Objects in their new homes.
Maryland Morning interviewed Rob and, more impressively, got Lizzie Skurnick and Laura Lippman to read their S.O. stories on the radio, here. Crooked Timber offers some interesting analysis here, considering this project in the context of “how central the investment of cultural ephemera with significance has been to cultural and artistic imagination, lo the last 40 years or so. Ephemeral is the new eternal. Yard sales and eBay, the new sites of the Sublime (whereas a Romantic poet once had to trudge to a picturesque ruin, the seaside, or a mountaintop.)” Game Playwright also has an excellent writeup, here. Box Vox, still inspired Ben Ehrenreich’s story, has more on marbles, here and here. MacLean’s refers to us as “Web shtick” here; whatever, MacLean’s.
Did we miss your take? Please let us know in the comments.
Keep up:
- The Significant Objects Owners Flickr Pool is here. If you bought one of our objects we’d still love to see it in its new home!
- Get Significant Objects posts via email here.
- Follow on Twitter: @SignificObs.
- Significant Objects Facebook Page.
