Thursday, September 17, 2009

Redesigned participatory action

Nicolas Bourriaud talks about how increasing globalization of the world and the increasing urbanization of populations have resulted in a society of "imposed" encounters. The idea that in such a dense population, interacting with other people of every minute of life is simply normal. Participatory arts however look for ways to take these encounters outside of everyday, systemized, interactions. So I thought about the different behaviors that people exhibit in public when dealing with people. Most intriguing was elevator etiquette, which has everyone facing one direction while standing in an elevator. Talking can be ok, but as long as people face one direction. So my idea is to have a few people enter an elevator with maybe 2 or so strangers. They would enter last, and as the doors close, they would just turn around and face everyone in the elevator. The rules are this:
1) Don't draw attention to what you're doing, or even address it.
2) Keep talking to a minimum.
3) Make eye contact with the people.

The idea is that they're forcing a direct face to face conversation with someone in a setting that is normally unacceptable.

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