Significant Objects/404 Edition

Sand Art by SD Keaton (sold 11/10/21)

Significant Objects 404 Edition 2021 is a public humanities experiment in fiction and capitalism.

How much value does narrative add to an object? To find out, the students in Ander Monson's English 404 (Advanced Fiction) class at the University of Arizona purchased objects from thrift stores for less than $5, wrote stories about them, and published them as live Ebay auctions in October and November 2021. That is, between 10/26/21 and 11/12/21, readers can read the stories on Ebay and bid on the live auctions, should they want to. The winning bidder receives the item and a signed copy of the story. Profits, if any, will be analyzed and split equally between the writers.

Objects are presented and sold as is, with no guarantee that the story below has any claim on fact. All auctions are up for 7 days.

Once sold, the stories and photographs are archived here. We will add sales data at a future point.

All stories and Ebay listings will be listed here as they go up.

This project follows the bright star of the original Significant Objects project, organized by Rob Walker and Joshua Glenn in the late oughts.

Questions or comments? Drop Ander Monson a line on twitter or via email.