Instruction Sets For Strangers
Posted by admin | Filed under Uncategorized
Inspirations
Walter Martin and Paloma Muñoz
MTA Statues
After observing Union Square, we noticed that the statues were placed in areas that were not easily accessible. On that basis we wanted to bring objects into people’s personal space and document, their interaction with that object.
Observation
The Social Life of Small Urban Spaces
William H Whyte
Patterns
Girl Watchers
People Watching People
People Coming to the park to partake in the activities
Spaces between people sitting vs. people standing
Performers ie. Musicians, Dancers
Events ie. speech or rally
Observe & Do vs. Do & Observe
Observe & Do
1st Iteration
POT
We placed the pot on the bench with an extension cord coming from the pot. Inside the pot there was a switch hooked up to that end of the extension cord. The cord was placed behind the bench and ended at a location behind some shrubs. We were interested to see see the results of this, but it was difficult setting up this piece without someone seeing us. Once they saw it belonged to us no one would try to use it. This would work better if it was setup very early in the morning and then we could watch it through out the day.
Seating Pad
This was used as a direct result of our observation of people sitting on what appeared to be uncomfortable surfaces (wooden chairs and concrete steps).
Both approaches seemed interesting, but did not yield desirable results. It was difficult to place the objects and document peoples interaction with it, because they would see us placing the objects. Therefore, we would need to change our idea. While looking at the list, their were a couple of words that stood out: people, performers and speech.
Back To The Drawing Board
We know from our observations, that people came to the park mainly to watch other people, performers and non-performers alike. We began asking ourselves, what makes people so interested in watching other people? Will that desire to watch also spark the desire to perform?
With those question in mind we moved on to the second iteration of the project.
Mega Phone: A Chance To Perform
With this tool and a video camera we journeyed to the park to give people the chance to perform.
We targeted people randomly as we walked once around the perimeter of union square.
The results were very interesting. Some people were very shy when given the opportunity to say something. Common questions were: “What is this for?”, “What am I suppose to say?”. Conversely others would often stop what they were doing to say something or prompt us to approach them, once they saw someone else performing the action.
In conclusion the megaphone produced the type of interaction we expected. There were certain things that we didn’t expect, which made the results more interesting.
Perversed Comments
People not knowing what to say and saying that in the megaphone.
People saying no thanks.
