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The US Surgeon General has warned that digital culture is making Americans mentally unwell and socially isolated. The DC Public Library's answer is an exhibit and deck of cards from Copenhagen designed for you to put your phone down and say something real.
Starting this summer, the Library is installing Concopia, a Danish exhibit and conversation game, at four neighborhood locations across the District. At the center of each installation is The Concopian Chamber of Wonders, a labyrinth of 33 cards enlarged to two meters tall. Visitors walk through it, encounter questions they did not come looking for, and end up talking to strangers. An accompanying deck of 50 cards pushes the same instinct further. One card, titled "Tentacles," uses the biology of jellyfish to ask players what they risk when they say what is actually on their mind.
"Public libraries have always been the ultimate 'third space' where we constantly challenge ourselves to offer experiences that surprise, delight, and bring people closer together," said Richard Reyes-Gavilan, executive director of the DC Public Library. “Concopia brings us back to the foundational elements of human connection. By inviting people into genuine, face-to-face conversations, this exhibit allows neighbors to fully see and hear one another, showing how modern libraries are catalysts for real-world discovery and empathy.”
The initiative addresses a problem psychologist John Suler named the online disinhibition effect. When anonymity, the absence of body language, and the social rewards of public shaming replace normal human exchange, civil conversation collapses. In a May 2023 advisory, Surgeon General Vivek Murthy declared loneliness and isolation a public health crisis, warning that the health risks of lacking connection are comparable to smoking daily.
The exhibit runs through September 3 at the West End, Bellevue/William O. Lockridge, Francis Gregory, and Woodridge neighborhood locations, with programming at all four. The full Concopian Chamber of Wonders moves to the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library from September 9 through October 22.
Concopia at the DC Public Library is made possible with support from the DC Public Library Foundation. For more information and related events, click here.