Cataloging the top objects of 2023
The annual tradition of media outlets rounding up items for “best of” lists is well underway. Articles with titles like Top books of 2023, Top video games of 2023, Top movies of 2023 all promise to deliver the absolute best this year has to offer.
But what sets Rob Walker’s annual list apart is that it’s not just a list of items, but of events that defined the year — and the objects defined by those moments. Rob Walker joined David Brancaccio to review his list of objects that defined 2023.
David Brancaccio: Let’s just get a taste of what’s on the list here. I mean, it’s gonna be some Taylor Swift something, right.
Rob Walker: Good bet. Taylor Swift is such a unique figure. Obviously, it was a big Swift-y year. She was the person of the year. So someone like that, they don’t just have merch, they have a whole ecosystem of trading, making and showing off in this case, friendship bracelets. And Taylor has also been in the news for her love life. And apparently Travis Kelce at the beginning of his courtship of Taylor Swift, made a friendship bracelet with his phone number on it and tried to get it to her.
Brancaccio: Perhaps as ubiquitous in the culture, although not the same level of singing talent, Elon Musk, there’s a connection here. What’s the Elon Musk object?
Walker: As you remember, there used to be a company called Twitter, which he bought. Then he got an idea for a new name which was X, had a 30 foot high letter X installed on the roof of the former Twitter headquarters in San Francisco —
News Clip: X owner Elon Musk has been tweeting saying the building’s landlord keeps calling the police about our sign modifications.
Walker: (It) made their headquarters look like the headquarters of some sort of super villain, but that was removed after complaints and the city is apparently going to level some fines. I don’t know where that stands.
Brancaccio: Yeah. And it’s interesting, right? Because Twitter is ones and zeros, it’s virtual, it’s on screen. So what’s the object? And you figured it out? But that does lead me to another question which is our world is so virtual. I mean, is it getting harder to find 3D objects in physical space that are emblematic?
Walker: I just think they’re becoming more intertwined and the more digital we get, the more we crave these sort of physical manifestations of the digital and the digital world amplifies physical things.
Brancaccio: What else you got here for objects 2023. Well, Barbie, enough said. Maybe picket signs from the big strikes of the year, the UAW but also of course, actors, writers.
Walker: Yeah, the clever picket signs really got a lot of attention in a good way for their cause. And there was one that was, “ChatGPT doesn’t have childhood trauma,” meaning it will never replace the great writers. But these are people standing outside of buildings with signs made with markers that echoed across the culture. Thanks again to social media.
Brancaccio: Are you going to bring any of these objects into your own personal collection? On your list of objects of the year is the Donald Trump mugshot t-shirt embraced by lovers of Donald Trump and detractors, all of them.
News Clip: In an interview with Newsmax, the former president called his booking a terrible experience, but it hasn’t kept him from selling mugshot merchandise on his campaign website.
Walker: This sort of merch of politics has just become one of the most interesting recent trends where anything that one side is criticizing the other for the other side turns into merch and the mugshot stuff raised $7 or $8 million in a matter of days after Trump was booked at the Fulton County jail.
Brancaccio: With his list of defining objects from 2023 journalist Rob Walker. He publishes his list in Fast Company. You can also subscribe to his newsletter on Substack. It’s called The Art of Noticing.
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