Cognitive Design

On the Significant Objects website, objects purchased for a few dollars at a garage sale are transformed into “significant objects” via fictionalized accounts (stories) and then sold on e-bay.   According to the site, care is taken not to hoax anybody on e-bay but to test a hypothesis:

“A talented, creative writer invents a story about an object. Invested with new significance by this fiction, the object should — according to our hypothesis — acquire not merely subjective but objective value. How to test our theory? Via eBay!” 

From a cognitive design perspective, the story is enhancing the “think and feel” layer of the artifact remaking it into a significant object with increased market value. Is it working? The site is actually a catalog of objects, their stories, purchase price and selling prices.  For example,

Purchase price was $2 and it sold for $32.08. Click here to read the story that created $30.02 of value.