Orbeez and Artwork
When my sister was little, she was obsessed with Orbeez and had approximately a gazillion of them. If you've never touched them, they remind me a bit of boba (which is part of the reason I refuse to even try boba tea). I was pretty quickly banned from touching them on account of they were really fun to squish because they would pop in half but it's "not nice to break your sister's things." I kept doing it anyway.
Anyway, I was really interested in what Classen had to say about early museums and the expectations of touching the things on display, especially with how museums transition to no longer allowing touch.
Orbeez have no real value outside of touch. They're kinda fun to look at, but not that interesting, they have no interesting smell or sound, and while I've never tried tasting one... please don't taste Orbeez. But, there's no real point in having them unless you're able to touch them.
At the same time, though, my sister's gazillion or so Orbeez eventually dwindled down. This was not, entirely, my fault. She and her friends broke some of them too, others got lost or given away or thrown at my head and never returned. I guess the nature of things you have to touch is that they are degraded or lost pretty easily, especially when they're so small.
Funnily enough, she paints now and she likes getting to touch her own finished artwork in a way she never be allowed to touch anyone else's.
She still hates when I touch her stuff. Some things never change.
I loved you bringing up orbeez ( I also would smush them under my fingers every time I played with them), I never have thought of them so deeply in the "life cycle" kind of way of them always dwindling in numbers the longer you have them so it was super trippy to think of them in that light. I also think it's interesting they invented this "toy" thats only method of entertainment is how good they feel.
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