Josh Glenn and Rob Walker have a thing for… things. For the past 15-plus years the duo has been collaborating on object-oriented projects that centralize on the value material items hold in our lives. Starting August 15 until September 10, the pair’s newest project GIVE IT UP, which can be seen as a culmination of their decades-long life’s works, will be shown as their first in-person conceptualization at various pit stops across Kingston.

Glenn and Walker connected after Glenn was, admittedly, “fanboying” over a serial column Walker ran in the New York Times Magazine from 2004-2012 called “Consumed,” which centered on how branding and marketing culture were perceived through an anthropological lens. Walker has been a prolific writer on consumer culture for most of his career, publishing books “The Art of Noticing” (2019) and “Buying In: The Secret Dialogue Between What We Buy and Who We Are” (2008), as well as many columns for notable publications such as Bloomberg Businessweek, The Atlantic and The New York Times.

Meanwhile, Glenn, a semiotician and former editor/columnist at the Boston Globe, published Taking Things Seriously (2007), where he conducted interviews with “interesting people to tell stories about objects they had in their life.” Walker got connected after reading and enjoying the book and soon realized their shared passion for material culture.

Their first collaboration together was “Significant Objects” (2012), born out of their shared interested in the value of objects, specifically if that object held a significance through a story told about it.

The experiment was conducted on eBay with items the duo purchased from thrift stores. Enlisted writers then crafted fictional stories about the items which served as their descriptions. The average price paid per thrifted item was $1.50, and the sale price was around $35. Their success helped them produce their findings into a book.

After this, they wanted to explore the nonfiction realm of materialism, which resulted in “Project Object,” a more general open call to people who had special stories to tell about an object, and “Lost Objects” (2022). Fifty stories resulted from the posed question: what is the most important object you’ve lost?

The only realm yet to be skimmed by these material-obsessed auteurs was the physical realm, which brings us to GIVE IT UP.

To have a person’s personal object be exhibited in a communal space is, according to Walker, “crazy, but it’s also sensible because these objects mean something; shouldn’t they be displayed in the same way as things with market value are displayed?”

As the rumblings for this new project began to take hold in the pair’s minds, Glenn moved from his native Boston to Kingston. “We wanted to be closer to nature, skiing and hiking,” Glenn said, “we had friends who moved to Kingston over the years and we came to visit and loved it right away.”

The new “accidental canvas” of Kingston, according to Walker, became the perfect setting to explore their idea of decluttering our lives. Walker describes the experiment as a combination of The Moth meets Marie Kondo; The Moth is a personal storytelling podcast and Marie Kondo is the patron saint of decluttering.

“We decided to zero in on objects you own, things that are like ‘why do I still have that?’ Some things are inexplicable, and some are like, is it that important to you or should you get rid of it?” Walker said.

The result was 11 Kingston locals writing about and offering up an object of theirs that they’d like to get rid of, but aren’t quite sure how. Included in this lineup are Camp Kingston’s Samuel Shapiro, MKAD board of directors president Maggie Inge, Rough Draft’s manager Drew Broussard and “Kingston 76” author Adam Snyder.

“There’s such a creative community with stories to tell, it’s diverse and has a lot going on, but it’s small enough that you can get your arms around a project like this,” Glenn said.

The objects and their stories are on display at locations around the city, with exhibits designed by local creative Bridget Badore of the former Holding Space Place in the Rondout district. Some of the venues include Rewind Kingston, Maison Apres, Red Owl Collective, Tilda’s Kitchen, The DRAW Gallery, Camp Kingston and Salt Box. The full list, with a useful map, can be seen here.

To tie it all together, viewers of the various stories and objects are encouraged to write-in to the writers/owners of the objects to persuade them to give the item up. The responses with the most sway will be announced at the closing event on Sept. 10 at Camp Kingston, where the project participants will decide, in real time, whether they’re going to give their object up.

The stories will also be available to read and respond to on the GIVE IT UP Substack page, which can be seen here.

Glenn acknowledged that relying on the public for a project like this can be tricky. “This is an experiment, we don’t know what’s going to happen, it might be a failure ... maybe nobody will participate.” Despite this possible suboptimal outcome, the duo is curious whether “there could be a narrative, therapeutic cure or solution that could help break the spell of an object, help you let it go.”

“Worst-case scenario, we cause great stories to come into existence,” Walker said, and expanded on the idea of our relationship between objects in our lives, “it’s easy for more to walk into your house and say get rid of this stuff, but it’s not respectful to the relationship to the stuff.”

Their hope from GIVE IT UP, Glenn said, is that “people will get a nuanced appreciation of what objects can mean to us and how they mean to us, what kinds of stories they tell. Then, conversely, in order to help us let go, is there a way to make a ritual or story to that story of the object.”

Make sure to check out the GIVE IT UP objects and stories either on the aforementioned Substack page or in person at any of the participating locations. The website, again, can be viewed here, and their Instagram account can be viewed here.