ONE MORNING IN CHICAGO A few years ago, a young American called Davy Rothbart found a scribbled message stuck to the windscreen of his car. It said: "Mario, I f***ing hate you – you said you had to work then whys your car HERE at her place?? You're a f***ing LIAR. I hate you I f***ing hate you. Amber. PS Page me later."
The note, obviously, wasn't intended for him, but it became the starting point for a project that would later take over Rothbart's life – Found Magazine and its online counterpart foundmagazine.com, an archive of disregarded or misdirected scraps, no
tes, letters and cards that have been discovered and submitted to the editors.
Those editors are Rothbart and Jason Bitner, two young hip-hop fans from Michigan, fast becoming figureheads of an international obsession with found objects. Next week they and like-minded souls will gather in Glasgow and Edinburgh, as part of a Found Magazine European tour. Their project has become an international success story, receiving around 2,000 submissions from readers every day.
Why are we so fascinated by other people's rubbish? When trying to decipher the notes on foundmagazine.com, one is immediately struck by how unusual it is to be reading other people's handwriting in this age of computers. The text is written on notebook scraps, match-books, flattened coffee-cups. Oddly, this can make what is written seem more real, truthful and personal – hand-written notes of "I love you", scraps saying "thank you" and even shopping lists seem to say much more about a person than anything we could read in print.
Found Magazine is not alone in exploring this modern concern. Web comics such as asofterworld.com explore the most intimate of thoughts – typed lines of internal monologue are layered over experimental photography, making the printed word seem highly personal. The Californian artist, Shelly Jackson, goes even further in this bid to re-associate words and people. Each of the 2,095 words of her new novel, Skin, is tattooed on to someone's body. Jackson's artistic ambition is labelled the "Ineradicable Stain" (visit http://ineradicablestain.com/skindex.html); she wants to make things stick in a world where words are disposable. Then there is Artist Trading Cards (www.artist-trading-cards.ch). As an alternative to trying to translate artists' very individual work into something that can fit on a web page, ATC asks artists to make 20 unique business cards that can be made from any material and from any design. ATC then organises meetings at which artists socialise and swap cards. The aim is to establish a way of communicating based on human interaction and the protection of individual style.
Found, then, can be seen as part of a much larger rebellion against the depersonalisation fostered by e-mail, online networking and text messaging. Think how much more significant and treacherous it feels to burn old letters than it does to empty the message inbox on your phone. There is a strong political impetus behind all this. Publications such as Found are inherently democratic, celebrating all forms of expression from all kinds of people. Toby Slater's website fOunD OBjEctS (www.tobyslater.com/foundobjects/foundobjects.html) embraces this political potential. One featured work is a hand-printed flyposter that offers several thousand words on the death of Paula Yates, before the author announces that he is schizophrenic and that "schizophrenia proves the secret service exists on subliminal levels"; another is a prostitute's card found in a phone box, saying "I like my job - 76867114". Slater's website features notes, posters and letters written by the mentally ill, political and religious fundamentalists, sex workers and asylum-seekers; he is giving voice to the most marginalised sectors of society.
Then there is the amazingly popular Postsecret.com, which received five Bloggies in 2006, snapping Best American Weblog, Best Topical Weblog, Best Community Weblog, Best New Weblog, and Weblog of the Year. Frank Warren, its creator, receives over 1,000 hand-written postcards a week. On each is written a secret from an unknown confessor: "I think pets should be able to exact revenge on the freaks that dress them"; "I've slept with my boy-friend's twin brother"; "dwarves creep me out and I've never told anyone"; and so on. Again, because the author has created the postcard and hand-written the confession, we are more inclined to believe them. Reading the confession "I serve decaf to customers that are rude to me" on a flattened Starbucks cup, you feel as if you were right there when he/she pulled the marker from their green apron pocket.
As Matt Wieteska, a frequent confessor, says: "It's very cathartic, people's comments are really supportive – it became a good way of getting something off my chest. Even if they don't post it you feel better somehow."
What lies beneath all these collectives of the collected is the impulse to reinstate the value of the human utterance; it doesn't matter who is saying it, or how they are saying it, or really what they are saying; the point is that humans are worth listening to.
One fears, however, that this celebration of individuality won't last for ever. Foundmagazine.com is already sponsored by American Apparel, and offers reams of merchandise, including T-shirts, bumper stickers and greetings cards. Commercialism will kill this movement, frauds will exploit the anonymous submissions process and, as the hype gets louder, we'll stop believing what we're reading.
For now, though, read on. If Found or postsecret.com are too contemplative for you, try www.passiveaggressivenotes.com and enjoy the many letters that begin "Dear asshole". Or, for some angsty indulgence, try www.cassettefrommyex.com and remember how simple life was when mix-tapes equalled love. Get surfing and share in the quiet celebration of humanity in all its aggressive, impulsive and creative glory.
• The Found Magazine tour: Forest Cafe, Edinburgh, 13 October, Sub Club, Glasgow, 14 October, 8pm.
The full article contains 1007 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
