Post Secret was a community art project set up by Frank Warren in late 2004 which set about asking people to mail in their secrets on a postcard. There were to be no boundaries to the secret as long as it was in completely truthful and had never been spoken before.
This saw a storm of postcards which could be incredibly simply some postcards just uttering single words to completely elaborate pieces of art. The secrets being shared covered a whole range of subjects confessions of secret desires, confessions of lost love, hope and courage to confessions of criminal behaviour. Something they all did have in common however was the addiction it left the audience with to read.
The website, which was set up in January 2005, is updated every sunday with new secrets chosen by Frank, sometimes concentrating on a particular theme around certain holidays. The website currently has over 39000 people registered on their community group forum.
The post secret art project is interesting as there is a healing power behind the postcards for both the person who writes the card itself to all the people reading the card too.
This got me thinking about the power of communication and the power of anonymity.
I feel that the post secret project gains power by the fact the person sharing the secret keeps their anonymity and can share without threat of people finding out that their secret has been published unless they decide to share that with someone themselves. Giving them the power of expression without fear.
Looking up anonymity i found that mostly the things that are associated with anonymity are lack of identity, loss of personal self. However I feel that post secret allows people to take back their identity without revealing their name. Personally therefore i feel that anonymity need not be seen to be lack of identity and that your name or the use of your name does not give you the power of expression.
