One early morning a while ago I’m woken by a text message from my mother in Sweden “a guy is talking about your anti-social media project minutiae on the radio.” My first thought was “what!?” followed by “I really hope it’s something positive”. I knew it wasn’t my co-creator Daniel - who doesn’t speak a word of Swedish and probably would have told me if he was being interviewed. Since the app is completely anonymous and free from profiles, likes or comments I had no clue who the person might be or why he was talking about the project on Swedish National Radio. 

As it turns out the guy who was doing the talking was not just anybody but the actor Adam Lundgren - who is perhaps more familiar to a Swedish audience but also played a role in the HBO drama Chernobyl. Adam was being interviewed about his new TV-show “Vägra Social Media” (Refuse Social Media) when by a pure coincidence the daily minutiae alert occurred during the interview and the conversation turned to minutiae instead and how the project made him look at his surroundings in new ways. The project has received some good press (and reviews) yet hearing a complete stranger talking about it on National Radio was really special.

Most artists and creatives probably know how hard it is to make something other people care enough about to devote more than a few seconds of their time. This is especially true if your work isn’t about something that immediately engages (enrage) people (politics, religion, etc). I’ve made several projects that died a lonesome death on a hard drive somewhere partly because no one cared out what I had to say ( I don’t blame them). But after listening to the interview I began wondering why did this strange little project end up being more appreciated than others I’ve done in the past? 

There might be a few factors but I think the most important one is that minutiae return a direct value to the audience/participants. Minutiae is perhaps the first project I’ve done that’s truly interactive and where the participants actually get something back by interacting with the work. So, the lesson is, create work that returns a value to the audience and they might end up talking about it on National Radio.

Thank you Adam

Unfortunately, the interview is in Swedish only but perhaps it’s a good reason to practice if you don’t already speak the language.