This Art Collective Wants To Help You Be a Better Person
Why Odyssey Works spends months to make experiences that only one person will ever understand.
I n 2013, while Rick Moody was finalizing his divorce and moving in with his new fiancee, four strangers were digging into every corner of his past. Moody, a writer known for Garden State and The Ice Storm, had volunteered to let artists from Odyssey Works interview everyone close to him and study his entire career output. They would use their findings to create an “Odyssey,” an experience that promised to change his life and make art in the process.
Since 2001, Odyssey Works founders Abraham Burickson and Matthew Purdon—along with a team of collaborators—have turned the artistic process on its head by creating elaborate experiences for one person. The way they see it, Odysseys are a remedy to the problem of putting art into the world and having it misunderstood by a large audience. About twice a year, a detailed application process brings in around 100 people interested in being an Odyssey participant. Applicants hand over thirty personal references and answer probing questions like: What would your future self say if they met you right now? Once the Odyssey Works team chooses a participant, the person is asked to clear their schedule for one weekend in the near future and then told to go on living their normal life.
Moody’s Odyssey, as recounted in Odyssey Works: Transformative Experiences For An Audience Of One, out Wednesday, is the most elaborate the group has done. After studying Moody for months, the team manufactured small experiences for him—like creating a children’s book that Moody would read to his young daughter, not realizing that moments in the book would begin appearing in his everyday life. Or leading Moody to an empty storefront in Downtown Brooklyn every two weeks to find a new mysterious object each time. There was also an impromptu flight to Saskatchewan, Canada where he was briefly held up by Border Patrol because he couldn’t explain why he was there or where he was going.
With so much attention on digital experiences, from fitness applications that tailor your workout to VR systems that allow you to explore the ocean’s depths, Odyssey Works argues that a truly personal experience can’t happen at scale. Magenta spoke with the book’s authors, Burickson and Ayden LeRoux, about designing with empathy and artistic evolution.
Does it ever feel uncomfortable to spend months digging through the life of a stranger?
Burickson: We’re intentionally falling in love. There’s just great pleasure in getting beyond the first impression of a person and getting into this place where you connect on a deeper level. It builds an inevitable recognition that their struggles are equal to your struggles.
LeRoux: Yes but also, when we pick someone, there’s usually something about them that we don’t quite understand or like. Sometimes I think: ‘I wouldn’t be friends with that person because of this quality.’ But because we’re working on an Odyssey, we get to unpack and understand their quirks, instead of just dismissing the person, like you might do if you’re dating someone. We have to get past whatever bothers us, and I think that it’s that level of commitment that forces us not to discriminate in a way that socially, as human beings, we often do.
Has getting to know the participants in intimate ways changed how you approach your personal relationships?
Burickson: Absolutely. I no longer look at the people I meet and immediately dismiss them based on their personalities. I always ask myself: ‘Okay, what’s on their questionnaire? What would they say keeps them from achieving their dreams? What are their dreams? What would we have to do to reach them?’ That’s been the long-term effect. There’s a part of me that longs to know what’s going on beneath the surface. Especially when people have more unpleasant personalities.
LeRoux: Yeah, and being in New York, so many conversations start at this superficial level with the question, ‘What do you do?’ I’ve tried to dismiss that question from my vocabulary.
A lot of this has to do with building empathy, which is a big topic in technology today.
LeRoux: Our lives are so oriented towards spending time in front of a screen. I think the reason people light up when they participate in an Odyssey is because it’s such a rare feeling these days. People really crave the idea of designing with empathy when all day long you’re just scrolling through an endless feed on your phone or computer.
Burickson: We have these nonstop empathetic disappointments. It looks like it’s for you, the advertising says it’s for you, but nobody is really home.
LeRoux: So much of technology is often in the realm of customization and becoming bespoke and being responsive to your specific needs as the buyer, but ultimately that just stacks up a bunch of filters that keep you from interacting with real people. I think people are startled and they’ve sort of forgotten what it’s like when you have to do the work to empathize in real life.
How do you maintain diversity when you have an open call for participants?
LeRoux: We usually avoid artists. We very specifically choose people who are vastly different from the person before. If we choose a twenty-something immigrant, next time it’s going to be a guy in their fifties with kids and a stable job.
What do you think this process teaches participants about themselves?
Burickson: One thing that I learned when an Odyssey was made for me was that all I wanted in life was what I got in one of the scenes, which was to walk with a friend, literally and figuratively. I thought I wanted more sophisticated things. There were all these complex and beautiful moments that were artistically extravagant in my Odyssey, but the moment that moved me deeply, most deeply, happened when I was just walking down the street in San Francisco alone, and then as I was walking, one friend came out of a store and started walking with me. He didn’t say anything. He just walked with me. Then a few blocks later, another friend came out and he started walking with me. We walked. That’s it. Ten blocks, no plot, no story, nothing sophisticated, and it was all I wanted in my life.
LeRoux: I think that also speaks to something that I see time and time again in our work affecting people. All the artistic complexity is great, but I think what ultimately resonates with people most is when they feel really seen. I think that moment Abe’s talking about is just a moment of being seen and having people by your side who understand you. People are so excited to fill out the questionnaire when we have an open call because nobody is asking them any questions about themselves. It’s teaching them how to be better humans.
To learn more about Odyssey Works, attend the book launch event on November 9.
