The idea started out as a challenge to get people to define love, stemming from the last project regarding definitions of happiness where nearly every interviewee responded with something about love or the people they care about most in their lives. But, as soon as I began to work I saw the direction of this love campaign headed towards a corny, boring one way path that didn't seem fulfilling to my intentions or anyone involved. SO, I took a turn.
This project titled "The Fundamentals of Life" was created to get people to stop, think for a moment and examine how they live their life. Our world is consumed by so many superficial matters and shallow worries, people forget what's important and truly meaningful. We over analyze, we fear, we stress and let the pressure build. It's the small things that have all the power to tear us apart or make us feel whole.
So, I decided to get my message across in two ways: one of bombardment and the other, luck of the draw. Using all quotes I had saved over time because they touched me in some way, I wrote on tiny slivers of paper each saying in a different color, the color paired with the tone of the quote as best as possible. I placed all of the quotes in a shoebox and created " a game" going up to people and asking them to pull a piece of paper, read the quote, internalize it and then tell me without much more time to think:
what it meant to them
how it connected to their life
one word to encompass the feeling it evoked.
For the bombardment tactic, I decorated an elevator in Stadium with strands of tinsel hanging from corner to corner and posted bigger versions of each sign on the walls. I left the shoebox with the quotes on the floor so people had the choice to take one if they were curious. The whole idea was to catch people off guard and then once the doors closed, have them soak in the messages. The reactions however were all over the board! I observed as inconspicuously as I could, standing outside the elevators and at times riding with the passengers. A couple girls scoffed, refusing to get in. A few guys walked in and acted like everything was totally normal. Some people getting off were sparked with curiosuity wondering what it was all about. My favorite reactions were of a girl and of a few strangers my my friend told me about.
The girl walked in and was immediately blown away, actually giddy. She said she had been so stressed with finals and the little elevator display made her day. My friend reported that when he was in the elevator with strangers they were eagerly examing the display, saying how cool it was.
All in all the purpose of both tactics was to capture attention and force a moment of simple thought, I believe this was accomplished.
The girl walked in and was immediately blown away, actually giddy. She said she had been so stressed with finals and the little elevator display made her day. My friend reported that when he was in the elevator with strangers they were eagerly examing the display, saying how cool it was.
All in all the purpose of both tactics was to capture attention and force a moment of simple thought, I believe this was accomplished.
