Is the Sanka Ashtray primarily an example of a promotional item, or tobaccania? Is the Elvis Chocolate Tin primarily a container, or a novelty item? Why did we name the Spotted Dogs Figurine and Mule Figurine the way we did … Continue reading
The holidays are over, and here at Significant Objects we’re back at work, assiduously analyzing the data from our project’s experimental phase. Last month, we finished up our quantitative analysis; in 2010, we’ll focus on a qualitative analysis of our … Continue reading
Last month, I said that if enough of you wrote a six-word story about the Scottish Doll, an object purchased for Significant Objects but then thrown into the garbage, I’d pick a winner and issue a prize. Forty-odd stories later, … Continue reading
According to our highly scientific Adjusted Sales Rank table, the following objects were the 25 most significant of our experiment. Let’s consider these significant objects visually — i.e., without mentioning which authors wrote which stories, and without reference to the … Continue reading
On Friday, I posted an Adjusted Final Price table, which allows us to compare our 100 objects’ final prices with their final prices adjusted for Duration Factor. It took a bit of doing, but — after the jump — please find … Continue reading
I say “sorta” because although there really is a contest, the winning story won’t be posted to eBay. Why not? Because the Scottish Doll was thrown away, and therefore can’t be sold on eBay. Read about the Scottish Doll’s fate … Continue reading
Some of you have speculated that the Significant Object experiment’s duration affected sales prices — that is, you’ve speculated that objects auctioned off in the experiment’s first weeks no doubt sold for less, on average, than did objects auctioned off … Continue reading
Today’s installment of Dorothy Gambrell’s popular webcomic Cat and Girl riffs on significant objects:
Shown above: ready-to-mail boxes containing the last three objects from the Significant Objects experiment, along with a few odds and ends that didn’t end up being assigned to a writer during the duration of the experiment. There are currently two … Continue reading
In the months before we published the 100th story in our Significant Objects experiment, many of you clicked on an author’s name — in the Contributors list, at the right-hand side of this page — and found yourself directed to … Continue reading
If you couldn’t access the Significant Objects website yesterday afternoon/evening, or at other times recently, you weren’t alone. As of yesterday, our web-host had served up nearly 30,000 pages during November, which is more than the combined total of pages … Continue reading
Congratulations to Matthew J. Wells, whose BBQ Sauce Jar story — entered in a Significant Objects contest earlier this month — triumphed over 600+ other entries to earn top honors, from a panel of judges from Slate.com, as well as … Continue reading
1. Although we might not approve of every use to which their new owners have put our ex-insignificant objects [that’s the Cape Cod Shoe, above], we encourage them to send us photos of the objects in their new contexts. Or … Continue reading
Benjamen Walker’s always excellent WFMU show, “Theory of Everything” is about Significant Objects today. It’s on right now! Check it out.
Earlier this month, when we announced that Slate was hosting a fiction contest to select one of the 100 stories we’d publish as part of the Significant Objects project, we figured that it would only take a couple of days … Continue reading
Last month, in an update, I explained our Significant Object categorization scheme: a FOSSIL is an object that bears witness to a vanished era or way of life (including childhood); an object that played a role in a crime or … Continue reading
Significant Objects published a three-part series of cartoon stories in collaboration with The Center for Cartoon Studies. Today, instead of publishing a new Significant Objects story, we’re going to post three runners-up. (Note that only the three finalists were colored; … Continue reading
Significant Objects published a three-part series of cartoon stories in collaboration with The Center for Cartoon Studies. Today, instead of publishing a new Significant Objects story, we’re going to post three runners-up. (Note that only the three finalists were colored; … Continue reading
