The "We Think Alone" project makes public famous folks' e-mails on topics like money and advice. "Our inner life is not actually the same thing as our life on the computer," July notes. July 10, 2013 2:34 PM PDT (Credit: Magasin 3 Stockholm Konsthall) Ever wish you could peek inside someone else's e-mail inbox? Say, your boss'? Your girlfriend's? Lena Dunham's? Actually, you can (Dunham's, at least). For the next several months, performance artist, actor, and director Miranda July is giving the world a look at private e-mails written by celebrities including the star of "Girls"; NBA great Kareem Abdul-Jabbar; actress Kirsten Dunst; and Israeli writer Etgar Keret. The project, called "We Think Alone," aims to explore the way people present themselves in online communication, and how that may or may not differ from their non-digital personae. "I'm always trying to get my friends to forward me e-mails they've sent to other people -- to their mom, their boyfriend, their agent -- the more mundane the better," July -- who's probably best known for directing and starring in her debut feature film "Me and You and Everyone We Know" -- writes on the project page. "How they comport themselves in e-mail is so intimate, almost obscene -- a glimpse of them from their own point of view." On the HBO show "Girls," Lena Dunham plays a character prone to overexposing herself. Dunham's own private e-mails appear to be more subdued. (Credit: HBO) No, "We Think Alone" has no relation to the NSA's PRISM program (and July says she came up with the idea for the project long before the NSA brouhaha). All participants, from the well-known to the probably-lesser-known, such as theoretical physicist Lee Smolin, have agreed to share their digital correspondence with anyone who wants to read it. It's an intimate, and sometimes deliberately boring, look behind the public mask. "Our inner life is not actually the same thing as our life on the computer," July notes. "A quiet person might !!!! a lot. A person with a busy mind might write almost nothing." Those who want to view the e-mails sign up on the project site to receive a themed batch of 10 messages each Monday between July 1 and November 11. Themes so far have included money and advice, with Dunham's gentle but firm cautionary note to her friend with the apparently bad boyfriend getting lots of viral attention as an exemplary model of the your-guy-sucks genre. Routine, but also revealing The authors penned their e-mails before "We Think Alone" started, but they do get to choose which ones to contribute based on each theme. Some choices are downright quotidian ("My friend Jessica is buying my car for 7,000 I gave her your info for payments," Dunst writes), others revealing. "I have less than $1000 in the bank and no credit card debt and no savings. I am hoping that my new book will sell in the States and elsewhere in the new year to save me," author Sheila Heti writes in the 2009 e-mail she contributed for the money-themed week. Acknowledges July: "And of course while none of these e-mails were originally intended to be read by me (much less you*) they were all carefully selected by their authors in response to my list of e-mail genres, so self-portraiture is quietly at work here." The project was commissioned by Swedish art exhibition venue Magasin 3 Stockholm Konsthall as part of "Tip of My Tongue," a series of events and projects meant to "point away from the site of the exhibition itself, towards other virtual or parallel existences and experiences."
The "We Think Alone" project makes public famous folks' e-mails on topics like money and advice. "Our inner life is not actually the same thing as our life on the computer," July notes.
Ever wish you could peek inside someone else's e-mail inbox? Say, your boss'? Your girlfriend's? Lena Dunham's?
Actually, you can (Dunham's, at least).
For the next several months, performance artist, actor, and director Miranda July is giving the world a look at private e-mails written by celebrities including the star of "Girls"; NBA great Kareem Abdul-Jabbar; actress Kirsten Dunst; and Israeli writer Etgar Keret.
The project, called "We Think Alone," aims to explore the way people present themselves in online communication, and how that may or may not differ from their non-digital personae.
"I'm always trying to get my friends to forward me e-mails they've sent to other people -- to their mom, their boyfriend, their agent -- the more mundane the better," July -- who's probably best known for directing and starring in her debut feature film "Me and You and Everyone We Know" -- writes on the project page. "How they comport themselves in e-mail is so intimate, almost obscene -- a glimpse of them from their own point of view."
On the HBO show "Girls," Lena Dunham plays a character prone to overexposing herself. Dunham's own private e-mails appear to be more subdued.
(Credit: HBO)
No, "We Think Alone" has no relation to the NSA's PRISM program (and July says she came up with the idea for the project long before the NSA brouhaha). All participants, from the well-known to the probably-lesser-known, such as theoretical physicist Lee Smolin, have agreed to share their digital correspondence with anyone who wants to read it. It's an intimate, and sometimes deliberately boring, look behind the public mask.
"Our inner life is not actually the same thing as our life on the computer," July notes. "A quiet person might !!!! a lot. A person with a busy mind might write almost nothing."
Those who want to view the e-mails sign up on the project site to receive a themed batch of 10 messages each Monday between July 1 and November 11. Themes so far have included money and advice, with Dunham's gentle but firm cautionary note to her friend with the apparently bad boyfriend getting lots of viral attention as an exemplary model of the your-guy-sucks genre.
Routine, but also revealing
The authors penned their e-mails before "We Think Alone" started, but they do get to choose which ones to contribute based on each theme. Some choices are downright quotidian ("My friend Jessica is buying my car for 7,000 I gave her your info for payments," Dunst writes), others revealing. "I have less than $1000 in the bank and no credit card debt and no savings. I am hoping that my new book will sell in the States and elsewhere in the new year to save me," author Sheila Heti writes in the 2009 e-mail she contributed for the money-themed week.
Acknowledges July: "And of course while none of these e-mails were originally intended to be read by me (much less you*) they were all carefully selected by their authors in response to my list of e-mail genres, so self-portraiture is quietly at work here."
The project was commissioned by Swedish art exhibition venue Magasin 3 Stockholm Konsthall as part of "Tip of My Tongue," a series of events and projects meant to "point away from the site of the exhibition itself, towards other virtual or parallel existences and experiences."
