I first heard about the Post Secret project in a magazine, Cosmo or Allure or some such girlie magazine. It was just a short little burb but intriguing non-the-less. What I found upon further investigation was an ongoing community art project where people anonymously send in postcards with secrets on them. It started in 2005 when Frank Warren began handing out postcards to strangers and leaving them in public places – asking people to write down a secret. It could be anything. His only request is that it is something true and something you have never told anyone before. The response was incredible. People sent in works of art with everything from accounts of criminal activity, secret desires, embarrassing habits, hopes and dreams.
There are a couple of aspects of this project that I find interesting. First the idea of submitting your secrets anonymously is very reminiscent of Catholic confession. For a generation that is lacking in religious affiliation, we seem to have forged our own version of confession through a platform that we are most familiar with – the internet.
Secondly is the idea of voyeurism that is inherent in the construction of a public forum for secrets. What drives so many people to look at website that contains other people’s deepest secrets or fears or insecurities? Warren says that there is security in it. By reading other people’s secrets, individuals realize secrets they never knew they had or find that they are not the only ones with that secret. It’s comforting to know that other people are worried about the same thing or share the same experience.
So every Sunday, Warren posts fifteen to twenty new secrets on the blog and I go every week - you could almost say religiously – to check them out.
Theres also a magazine/website a co-worker told me about called Found, and random things are found on the street and sent in.. you should check it out its kinda similar.