The Art of the Public Secret
Nearly two decades after futurist author David Brin declared privacy dead, we've never been more obsessed with secrets and confessions. It was a viral collaborative art project that (arguably) inspired a secret-telling app funded to the tune of $36 million. And with the two largest secret confession apps now feuding over which platform compromises users' privacy least, it's again up to collaborative art to tell the most compelling stories about truth, secrets, lies, and privacy.
The Truth Booth
The Truth Booth, a creation of artist Hank Willis Thomas and the Cause Collective, offers physical privacy within its plastic confessional walls. But the booth confers no digital privacy, with selected videos from the booth made readily available on Vimeo. Participants are prompted to complete a two-minute video beginning with the words "The truth is..."
(Images of Truth Booth are courtesy of the Cause Collective)
Confessions
Candy Chang, best known for her "Before I Die" chalkboard installations, filled a Las Vegas art gallery with paintings and wooden tiles displaying visitors; confessions. Each of the more than 1500 confessions is displayed online forever, from "I stole over 15,000 from the company I work for" to "I'm addicted to cheating. I'm sorry," and the lighter-hearted "I eat too much cheese."
Mechanical Nun
The Mechanical Nun guides sinners to her confession booth, records their admissions, and uses the locations of confession participants' misdeeds to create an interactive "Sin City" map. She debuted at 2013's Project Nunway event, hosted by San Francisco queer nun collective The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence. She was allegedly booked to roam the playa at this year's Burning Man, but seems to have been a no-show. Did the Mechanical Nun quit her habit?
Exchange Secrets
Nova Pan's pop-up secret swaps in New York City consist of a folding table, two identical sticky note and pen sets, and Pan herself. People who stop at the booth write a secret on one sticky note, while Pan writes one of her own on another. After the trade is completed. the strangers' anonymous secrets live on Tumblr at exchangesecrets. Pan has set a goal of trading 1,000 of her own secrets for secrets from strangers.
Confessions Underground
A Snapchatter's worst nightmare: Your private confessional video, broadcast to thousands of subway commuters. Confessions Underground asked Toronto residents to confess on video, giving permission for their images and voices (but not their names) to be broadcast on the city's subway system screens, in full view of more than a million daily commuters.
Whistleblower Art
A self-organizing collective of street artists, featured on whistleblowerart, plasters cities with art celebrating those who make public the secrets the US government would have preferred to keep hidden. Edward Snowden and Chelsea Manning are the most popular subjects, but the more controversial Julian Assange appears here and there, too.
Urban Confessional
The "free listening project" Urban Confessional includes a throng of artists promising to be available for anyone who needs to be heard, during activations by groups of participants around the city of Los Angeles. In addition to listening, the confessors are willing to talk, dance, sing, scream, or cry with people who need it.
