People, I don’t know what’s come over me, but I can’t stop posting about warm-and-fuzzy stuff. Yesterday I had a slow day at work and organized the shit out of my Google Reader, adding tons and tons of blogs, mostly courtesy of the lovely and tiny Susnan. It was via one of these blogs (thanks, design*sponge!) that I stumbled upon the Mysterious Letters project. The people who started the project, Lenka Clayton and Michael Crowe, explain it as such:
In April 2009, we sent a personal, handwritten letter to each of the 467 households in the small Irish village of Cushendall. We hoped these unsolicited letters would prompt neighbourly discussion, spreading across the town, promoting community curiosity.
Lenka and Michael saw this as an art project, and that’s it. Pretty simple. Here are a few sample letters that they sent to the people of Cushendall:
And my favorite:
Perhaps it’s all the warm-and-fuzziness taking over, but I thought this project was nothing but adorable. This clip from a local news program (worth watching if only for the accents, eee!) shows that locals had a different reaction to the mysterious letters. In fact, most of them were at best confused and at worst creeped out and concerned for their safety. I see their point, though I do love the idea in theory. As the anchors say at the end of the clip, Lenka and Michael plan to expand their project and eventually write these letters to everyone in the world. A bit ambitious, maybe, but I’ll be looking out for mine!
What do you think, dear readers? Lovely or creepy? What would you do if you got an unsolicited handwritten letter from a stranger?
[Posted by Mallory]
six words to change the world. 