Revised Participatory Action

High fiving. Participants would congregate in one space, and on cue high five for one minute. The goal would be to see how many people outside of the participating group would join in the action. This would utilize an audience, not viewer (as defined in the reading).

Rules:
#1 Keep high fiving for the full minute, never stop.
#2 High five people outside the immediate group of participants. Involve the viewers.
#3 Enjoy it. Smile. High five happily. Wikipedia defines high fiving as the way: “to communicate mutual satisfaction between spectators and between participants alike, during a sporting event, or to extend congratulations from one person to another in any informal setting.” Keep that in mind.

This participatory art would alter the normal exchanges that happen within the space by forcing a change reaction. It would bend the everyday culture-determined need for a high five, celebration, and turn it into an action of pure exchange, celebratory or not. The audience would be active or this action would not work, hopefully opening people up for more exchange, or lessening the social anxieties people have when in a public space.

A few thoughts have come up during this assignment. Can a participatory action be done simultaneously in different spaces? For example, could one person be giving high fives in Annenberg, another in Gladfelter, another in the Library, etc. Would that still be participatory art? I realize it would be harder to measure the effect this would have. But if we had enough participants, students would presumably talk about it with their friends, on facebook and/or texting. I would be more interested in having participants scattered, doing the same action at the same time, than in one space. How many other people would start high fiving in the various spaces?

Also, has anyone ever heard of, seen, or participated in those group hug or cuddling events they have? I remember one a few years back on Rittenhouse. I’d be curious to know more about them.