Just read this story on the internet today. 

I think it needed to be shared. 

A girl I met freshman year stopped me in the hallway of Shriver today and told me she had been following the Couch Project Chalkboard Confessions. She said how excited she was to see the girl in the ice cream shop who wrote “I want to be in New Zealand” because she herself had just gone there!

Her face lit up as she expressively retold the story of when she first saw it, and how she was super stoked and even showed her mom the photo.

I totally understand where she’s coming from, if anyone ever so much as mentions Peru or Machu Picchu I geek out!  

She then inquired about wether or not that girl had actually been to New Zealand or if she just wanted to go someday and I thought how cool it was that my project sparked a common interest between two complete strangers!?

That’s exactly the response I was aiming for :) 

The simple reason I started this Couch Project was because I’ve always been a curious listener. The lifestyle of a listener tends to go hand in hand with one of a collector. I collect the words, images and ideas of those around me. However, this year I started to realize that I wasn’t alone in doing so: we as humans are a compilation of things we have gathered and learned from those around us. After 21 years of gathering, I came to the obvious conclusion that there are people not at all like me who hold some knowledge on life itself. A desire to collect their stories and lives propelled me to create something that I could share with others just as curious as I was. So inspired by the idea that we are a collection of those around us, I dove into the realm of digital art and captured small snapshots I found profound and provoking of my interactions with strangers. 

Smaller installments put together on one interface is what makes the Couch Project. The projects as individual parts each reveal something small about human nature. Chalkboard Confessions are compiled portraits of people completing a single statement about themselves. 

“I want to be…”

This piece was the result of approaching strangers going about their everyday life and asking for their participating in the project. All of the responses were completed on the spot and directed by no one else other than those holding up the boards.

Kodak Collaboration is a collection of photographs taken from a disposable camera left with a note inviting people to take a photo of whatever they wanted. The results were completely out of my hand, seeing as the installment was left to live out it’s life without my supervision. Every single picture taken by strangers is posted on the site, and I left nothing out. 

 
The Question Box is an anonymous poll asking people what it was they are doing here. I wanted a way of giving those not directly participating with the project a chance to also proclaim something to the world. The question itself was taken in many different lights, and each response represents the ways people reflected on their own time here. 

Lastly, Conversations on the Couch was created as a way of listening (to just a few) strangers to find out what wisdom they could set free onto the ears of curious pupils as myself. With the help of some friends, we set up the couch in public spaces all over Cincinnati and encouraged people walking by to stop and talk to us for a while. I constructed a set of videos to highlight the experience we had and to provide a fleeting look into the lives of those participants.  

Through this entire project, I’ve found that people possess this rather incredible trait to surprise you, if given the chance.

The simple reason I started this Couch Project was because I’ve always been a curious listener. The lifestyle of a listener tends to go hand in hand with one of a collector. I would collect the words, images and ideas of those around me and I realized that I wasn’t alone in doing so: we as humans are a compilation of things we have gathered and learned from those around us

There are seven billion people on this planet and you are just one. But this fact shouldn’t make you feel insignificant. The entire history of our existence is fueled by just one person after another. A single person can change the course of the future. One just as complex as you. 

Outside of my comfortable habitat, there are diverse people not at all like me who hold some knowledge on life itself. That concept really started to resonate with me. So inspired by the idea that we are a collection of those around us, I dove into the realm of digital art and captured small snapshots of my interactions with strangers that I found profound and provoking. 

Collecting all of these small projects and installments together is what made the Couch Project. The projects apart reveal each something small about human nature. Chalkboard Confessions was the first portion I completed. Chalkboard confessions are portraits of people completing one statement about themselves, “I want to be…”
After some inspired work from a friend, I made a chalkboard out of wood with the unfinished sentence on it and walked up to strangers asking if they wanted to participate. I was hardly ever turned down. I really liked the idea of these “confessions” representing themselves within the Couch Project because to me they felt like personal manifestos written in chalk.

Kodak Collaboration was an installation I have always wanted to complete. I tied a disposable camera to a spot after some deliberation on what would be the best way to leave a camera out in the open, and left a note inviting people to take a photo of whatever they felt like. What struck me as interesting about this project is that the results are completely out of your hand. I posted every single photo taken, and as a group it is a way of seeing the world in another light through of the eyes of people you might not ever know. Having an installation where the results were totally put (literally) into the hands of strangers held such an exciting anticipation.
The Question Box was an anonymous poll asking people what it was they are doing here. The question itself could be taken in any sort if way, perhaps what you’re doing on the internet? or In ohio? or on this planet? I found that each response represents the attitudes and different mindsets that people have on their own reflection. I enjoyed seeing responses similar to one another. 

[I need to work on this part]

So this project was created as a way of listening (to just a few) strangers to find out what wisdom they could set free onto the ears of curious pupils as myself. I’ve found that people possess this rather incredible trait to surprise you, if given the chance.