Learning to love you more

We've written before in NeoGuides about Miranda July as an author, but she's an eclectic talent and the "Learning to Love You More" project, which she co-created, rates its own separate mention.

The idea is that July and fellow artist Harrell Fletcher dream up assignments, from simple to profound. Anyone can complete the assignment and upload a report, in words and pictures, detailing their experience on the project's website. Some of this material is also then used in physical exhibitions (so far in various cities in the US, UK and Japan) and in book form.

Why "assignments"? July and Fletcher write, "Sometimes it is a relief to be told what to do. We are two artists who are trying to come up with new ideas every day. But our most joyful and even profound experiences often come when we are following other people's instructions. When we are making crepes from a recipe, attempting to do a handstand in yoga class, or singing someone else's song."

So far there have been 68 assignments, including "Make a child's outfit in an adult size ... and wear it as much as possible", "Make a flier of your day", "Hang a windchime on a tree in a parking lot", "Take a picture of strangers holding hands", "Spend time with a dying person", "Take a picture of your parents kissing", "Re-enact a scene from a movie that made someone else cry" and "Make an encouraging banner" (pictured).

More than 5,000 people have done one or more. The resulting reports including a photograph sent in by a Sydney woman of the outfit she wore "on the night of the unplanned loss of my virginity", including underpants and the shoes she kept on "the whole time" and a transcript of an argument sent in by a woman in Florida in which she confesses to secretly using cocaine. Some are more banal, but as a whole, the reports make up a touching and intimate cross-section of human experience.

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