An elaboration on my last posts

Here's a sample image from PostSecret:


As may or may not have been clear from my earlier posts (dang character limit for text messages, all messing up my grand ambitions), I'm interested in the ways that Doulgas Huebler's request of museum visitors to write "one authentic secret" and PostSecret's solicitations ("You are invited to anonymously contribute your secrets to PostSecret. Each secret can be a regret, hope, funny experience, unseen kindness, fantasy, belief, fear, betrayal, erotic desire, feeling, confession, or childhood humiliation. Reveal anything - as long as it is true and you have never shared it with anyone before." from the PostSecret FAQ) reflect on each other. Does the public exhibition of PostSecret postcards change them? Do you think that, in both projects, the request to share something "true" spurs people to send "false secrets?" Are they just as valid?

I think that this project is especially interesting in the context of a quote from Huebler, taken from p. 260 in the "Conceptual Art" entry: "The world is full of objects, more or less interesting; I do not wish to add any more. I prefer, simply, to state the existence of things in terms of the time and or space."

How does the reconfiguring of objects made by others (in this case, "objects" which are, in essence, the experiences [mental and physical!] of participants [who are still clearly contrasted with the artist]) change those objects? Does it change the position of the spectator who participates? What about those who don't participate?

In response to Dan: I was totally thinking about making an "artotnot" website. But will it be art? HAHAHA.