Monkeys with words

In the modern world, words are all around. Our constant companions as we go about our daily life: on walls; on doors; on cars; on computer screens; on food; everywhere. But even so, you don't expect to see giant words held aloft by 30ft monkeys. So, you can imagine my excitement last week when I read an article about a Scotland-wide art exhibtion currently on show. The exhibit in question is part of a global project by the Austrian artist Stefan Sagmeister called "Things I have learnt in my life so far" and features six giant monkeys in different cities around Scotland, each holding a different word which, when combined, make up the phrase "everyone always thinks they are right".

All well and good you might think, but what does that have to do with "I want a word"? Well, on the face of it perhaps not much. But I think it's interesting to see that I'm not the only person interested in looking for new ways to use words. Admittedly our approaches are slightly different, but an interesting comparison nonetheless.

On Saturday afternoon I headed down to Princes' Street Gardens to check out our local monkey for myself, and was disappointed to find it had gone AWOL. The reason, I presume, was that it was extremely windy on Saturday, which is not ideal for a 30ft inflatable. The exhibition's on for a few more weeks though, so maybe I'll get to check it out later. I'll let you know...

There was a bit more disappointment on Sunday too. Last week I was interviewed by "The Sunday Post", a Scottish national paper, and I was hoping that the resulting article would appear in this week's edition of the paper. Unfortunately it didn't, so I'm now crossing my fingers for next Sunday.

Don't be too distressed though, the weekend wasn't all bad news as I did find out that someone in Brazil had written about "I want a word" in their blog. I've no idea what it says, but I thought it was pretty cool anyway!

I guess that's all I've got to say for the moment, except for a big thank you to the people that have bought words over the last few days.

I hope you're all doing ok.

Chris

http://www.iwantaword.com/