Lampposts in Bristol can now talk. And so can postboxes, parking meters, bridges, signposts, bollards, bus stops and cranes.

All of these pieces of “street furniture” can respond to text messages as part of Hello Lamppost, winner of the Watershed’s inaugural Playable City project.

Wandering out of my office yesterday lunchtime on the first full day that Hello Lamppost was in operation, I took in familiar surroundings with new eyes, seeking out bollards and bins and looking up high at lampposts festooned with flowers.

Listeners to the Today programme on Radio 4 had earlier been informed of the project, to a typically baffled reaction.

So I decided not to look for a lamppost. Too easy.

Instead, for my first conversation with an inanimate object, I selected something with an unknown function at the bottom of the steps next to the cathedral. It’s this green box on the left:

I texted the Hello Lamppost phone number with the number on the mystery box. Within seconds, a new message pinged into my inbox.

“Good afternoon. Thanks for waking me up. I haven’t seen you before, have I? What’s your favourite thing around here?”

A few minutes earlier I had just been telling a friend about the room in At-Bristol which is at a slant, making it completely disorienting and also making the seemingly impossible possible, like rolling a ball uphill.

But I answered the box’s question with a favourite place in Bristol, not just in this small area; the garden at the back of the cathedral with seats and flowers among the graves.

I was then told somebody else’s answer to the same question, about picnics and cold beer, as this isn’t a solitary pursuit but one in which stories are shared

In the words of the organisers, it’s “an opportunity to rediscover your local environment, share your memories of the city and uncover the stories that other people leave behind”.

This was the lamppost I later texted:

This time the conversation was about staying up late and admitting being afraid of the dark, especially when there aren’t many lampposts about.

My first Hello Lamppost experience was more than slightly surreal but also fun and thought-provoking.

To find out more and see how you can take part in the project, which runs until September 8, visit www.hellolamppost.co.uk.