Story Stones
2025
Creative Direction/ Fine Art
Parsons School of Design
Humans make stories. Stories make humans.
Story Stones is an interactive fine art project that asks users to share and archive moments of human experience. A Story Stone is a flat river rock with a near-field communication sticker. This sticker uses internet alchemy to transform the Story Stone into a listening and recording device.
Story Stones exist in three configurations: Individual, Community, and Collective.
Individual Story Stones ask users to record a response to a Story Stone prompt, like Love, Anger, or Family, then pass the Stone to another person who records their story. Each response is documented on the Story Stones Online Archive.
Community Story Stones are arranged in a circle in a public park. Participants are asked to pick up a Stone with a prompt, share their story, and pass it on to the next person in the sharing circle.
Collective Story Stones is the gallery installation configuration. The Stones are set up to play an individual audio recording. The listener touches their phone to the Stone and hears a Story from the archive.
The river shapes the rock as the rock shapes the river. Story Stones document the riverbed of our collective human narrative.
A big thank you to everyone who has submitted a Story Stone recording.
Submit yours here: https://www.studioowenmosley.com/story-stones
Early ideation:
Story Stones movement map:
Early social media outreach:
Story Stones:
Each one features a river rock with a near field communication sticker. This sticker allows users to upload memory recordings to the online archive.
Story Stones installation in Brooklyn, New York:
