Regular readers of the blog will know that I have a love of Paula Zuccotti's 24 hour inventory of our lives project called 'Everything we Touch'.
I have waved the book around at numerous events, and included it in my KS3 scheme of work as a cornerstone of my 'Geography of our Stuff' unit in Year 8.
I asked Paula to speak at my Presidential GA Conference in 2023 but in the end we couldn't quite make it work.
The book is available second hand on a number of sites with prices that are rising, which is good to know as I have several copies. Here's a description of the project from Paula's website, or you can search through the posts on this blog to find out other examples of where I've used it, and see what the project looks like.
What's the first thing we touch when we wake up?How do our favourite things reveal our hopes and fears?
Can objects tell the story of our lives?
Imagine how your day would look if you recorded everything that you touched.
From smartphone to soap, from spice to spoon... what if they were all brought together in one place? Would they tell a bigger story?
Driven by this idea, I travelled around the world to find people from an incredible array of ages, cultures, professions and backgrounds. I asked them to document every object they touched in 24 hours. Then she gathered those objects together and photographed them in a single shot.
From a toddler in Tokyo to a cowboy in Arizona, from a cleaner in London to a cloister nun in Madrid, Every Thing We Touch is their story told through the objects they own, consume, need, choose, treasure and can't let go.
Each image is mystery, a story, a work of art. Each is a moment in time: a life and a world reflected back at us.
I noticed on Paula's Instagram that there is now an installation of images from the project.
I hope to get to see this.
Here's an interview with Paula which has a very nice illustration and further details on the project.
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