Thing String Essay
In October 2008, I was in New York City to present The IMAGINE Device at an event.
Arriving in New York is always inspiring. It was a brisk afternoon as I checked into a hotel room on the Lower East Side. After checking my gear to be sure everything had survived the journey, I found myself with a couple of hours to kill before it was time to get ready for the event.
I took the opportunity to take a brief walk through the streets. I needed the final touch for the evenings outfit, and what better place to search for inspiration than the streets of New York?
Suddenly, it hit me— a single piece of thread as an accessory.
Thing String was born.
As an accessory, Thing String is formless, durational, and often happens by chance. Sometimes, without warning, Thing String can be passed from one person to another, in a phenomenon I have deemed “Spontaneous Person to Person String Transfer.”
Most interesting is the natural tendency people have, when they notice you wearing the accessory, to remove it from your outfit. Without warning, complete strangers will walk over, touch me, grab the final touch to my outfit, pull it off, and drop it on the ground.
I do not view such encounters as invasive.
In fact, I embrace these opportunities to inform people that the string they so blazingly removed from my clothing is in fact, part of my outfit. I then explain that this was my accessory, before reaching into my pocket, removing a spool of thread, breaking off a new length of thread and returning it to my shirt.
Such opportunities also allow me to tear off a piece for them and place it on their shirt. Few people have ever refused. After all, Thing String is completely harmless. In fact, most people forget they are even wearing it until a different stranger approaches them and now removes what has become their own accessory.
My explorations with Thing String thus far have taught me that such a casual invasion of personal space provides for an almost instant breakdown of personal boundaries. Within 20 seconds of an encounter with a complete stranger, who, if not for my string, may never have talked to me, they have touched me and I have touched them. The inherent level of intimacy created by this is the perfect foundation for a conversation that can unfold in countless directions. Perhaps even creating relationships that can forever transform both parties involved.
If at the end of our exchange the other person finally asks me what the point of the string is, I answer truthfully— it’s a conversation starter.
This essay was originally printed in the magic: magic book. Click Here for Details
