Hush-Hush

PostSecret has to be one of the most compelling on-line art experiments I’ve seen. The underlying concept is simple enough. People send in anonymous postcards with secrets written on them. Some of them are funny. Others are sad. And some are disturbing. Scrolling through these postcards has a definite frisson of voyeurism, regardless of whether they’re all genuine. It also makes me think about all the secrets we carry with us on a daily basis. Do we keep these secrets for our own selfish reasons or for the sakes of others? Perhaps the secrets we keep say as much about who we are as the things we choose to reveal.
And yes, I have one or two secrets myself. But there’s no way I’m writing any of them down on a postcard. The only way to pry my secrets out of me is through generous amounts of alcohol combined with explicit promises of carnal pleasures. I’d make a horrible spy. Get me drunk and start nibbling on my earlobe and I’d gladly reveal all kinds of national secrets. And when I ran out of actual secrets, I’d start inventing ones just to ensure the earlobe nibbling continued.