What is an Object Party?
A gathering where each person brings an object to be looked at and talked about. An opportunity to practice close attention (“heighted noticing”) and interpretation (creative readings). The party is intended to breathe new life into the thing, reveal what may be lying dormant, see it for what it “really is”—bring it all to the fore!
The experience is recorded in words and scribbles and collected in the Object Party Archive.
How to choose an object?
The object chosen should be from one’s “background”, meaning the environs of the day-to-day. It might be on the mantle or desktop, hung on the wall, in a drawer, or on the car’s dash. To be sufficiently “background” the object's qualities are latent, overlooked, and seldomly draw eyeballs that truly see it (i.e. it’s not noticed much, or not anymore). This object might be something kept around for its appearance, it’s symbolism, its practical use, or for no discernible reason at all (it’s just there). When choosing an object, it should be small-to-medium in size (fit in one or two hands) and not too fragile to interact with. There should be no shortage of these objects around as novelty ought not factor in.
What else?
- one object per person per party
- for anonymity the object should be brought in a nondescript brown paper bag (one object per bag)
- the bringer of each object should stay anonymous for the duration of the party
- a paired edible item (not anonymous) may be requested and should be relevant to the brought object (up to the bringer what that means)
- all other details (potential additional themes or constraints, start time, date, location, etc) are communicated via email
- each party lasts 2-3 hours
- a phone-less event