GIVE IT UP
By:
April 24, 2025
After the 2023 publication of Lost Objects (Hat & Beard Press), which developed out of our 2017–2023 Project:Object endeavor (here at HILOBROW), Rob Walker and I took a brief hiatus from our object-oriented story telling collaborations. But now we’re back… with GIVE IT UP.
The goal of GIVE IT UP is to explore what (and how) objects can mean to us, share our objects’ stories with one another… and develop tactics for letting go of meaningful stuff.
Here’s a link to the project’s homepage and newsletter. Please subscribe — it’s free!
GIVE IT UP is a place-based, interactive evolution of the Project:Object formula. Eventually, versions of GIVE IT UP may be staged in multiple cities and towns. The debut version of this concept will launch this summer in… Kingston, New York!
GIVE IT UP will proceed as follows:
- We’ll recruit 10 interesting people from in and around a particular town, city, or region. [We’ve already recruited 9 from the Hudson Valley, for the project’s debut.]
- Each participant will write a nonfiction narrative about why a certain object is too meaningful for them to give up… even though they might like to do so.
- The 10 significant objects, along with the object owners’ explanatory essays, will be placed on exhibit — in 10 venues in the area. [In this case, in Kingston.]
- Visitors to these exhibits will be asked to write short responses attempting to persuade the participants to give up these objects; subscribers to the GIVE IT UP newsletter will also be invited to write responses, too.
- The objects will then be collected in a single venue for a group exhibit.
- We’ll throw a party at which the participants’ essays and the “winning” response essays will be read, and after which the participants will bid farewell to their objects.
To see a list of interesting Hudson Valley folks we’ve recruited to participate in GIVE IT UP, among other things, please visit the project’s about page.
Stay tuned for more details…
SIGNIFICANT OBJECTS at HILOBROW: PROJECT:OBJECT homepage | PROJECT:OBJECT newsletter | PROJECT:OBJECT objects (Threadless shop — all profits donated to the ACLU) | POLITICAL OBJECTS series (1Q2017) | TALISMANIC OBJECTS series (2Q2017) | ILLICIT OBJECTS series (3Q2017) | LOST OBJECTS vol. 1 series (4Q2017) | FLAIR series (2Q2018) | FOSSIL series (4Q2018). 12 DAYS OF SIGNIFICANCE | 12 MORE DAYS OF SIGNIFICANCE | 12 DAYS OF SIGNIFICANCE (AGAIN) | ANOTHER 12 DAYS OF SIGNIFICANCE . ALSO SEE: SIGNIFICANT OBJECTS website | SIGNIFICANT OBJECTS collection, ed. Rob Walker and Josh Glenn (Fantagraphics, 2012) | TAKING THINGS SERIOUSLY, ed. Josh Glenn (Princeton Architectural Press, 2007) | TAKING THINGS SERIOUSLY excerpts.
