Random thoughts

It’s been a wonderful experience to work with the V&A. Here’s a museum that attracts people from all parts of the country and the world. There’s so much there, literally millions of objects, too many even to go on permanent display. So by focusing on just 26 out of the millions, we have to be conscious that we are giving only the most fleeting glimpse into the collection. Pure chance too.

Yet, in a strange way, that element of randomness – why those 26 treasures with those 26 writers? – is a true reflection of life. The Internet now puts so much at our beck and call – potentially – yet how little of it do we actually access? It’s a task beyond the human brain to reach every crevice of the Internet, or every nook and cranny of the V&A.

So 26 Treasures is a random snapshot, but I think it’s all the more realistic for being so. What this randomness shows is that we can all be inspired to write by an object, any object. It’s not the 26 treasures that are universal, it’s the nature of inspiration. At an early stage we thought of the project as 26 inspirations, and that’s the way it has turned out. 26 Treasures has been an exploration of the nature of inspiration, demonstrating that there is always an element of randomness – serendipity, if you like – in every act of creation. Or perhaps that’s what we really mean by individuality? All individuals react in their own ways to the random acts that make life. Those reactions create stories.

- John Simmons