The Walk

In my previous installation I had one of my friends run and walk next to stranger while they were working out on bayshore and got their reactions. This time I decided to stick with the same concept, but I went a little further. Me and 5 of my friends walked down to bayshore and I had them all spread out along the sidewalk. Once they all were spread out I waited for someone I saw walking to be the victim of my project. I decided I would prefer a male because he would end up surrounded by girls. Finally, I saw a man in the distance walking who seemed to have really big hair and decided that would be the one. As he got closer I realized it was not hair, it was a sombrero hat. I started following the man and filming, and then the first girl walked with him.

As girl #1 started walking with this man he looked at her at first and looked away, but then he turned back to her and said "hola" and started having a conversation with her. He pulled out a card that said Four Greens Running Club on it and tried selling the running club he was a part of to my friend. He told her that this running club meets every Tuesday to run on bayshore. Once you do it 10 times you get a free shirt, and if you continue you get certain badges.

Then girl #2 joined, but he did not really notice her that much. I don't think he noticed her at first because she walked behind him to get next to girl #1. All 3 continue walking and having a conversation.

Girl #3 then joins. When she started walking next to him he looked at her and said "are there more?". He then continued talking to the girls and talked more about the running club he is doing and asks for all of their names. At this point they were pretty much covering the sidewalk and people had to walk around them.

As they kept going you see girl #4 join the group. She starts walking with them but has to walk a bit in front of them because there is not much room. once he sees girl #4 walking with them he asks her her name as well. He then told the girls "if this is my last day on earth I will die a happy man." He proceeded to tell the girls that he used to be in the navy and more about his life. He also asked the girls how they knew each other, so he figured that they were all friends without them saying anything.

Finally girl #5 joins the crowd. She walked up to them and he goes "oh my more?" in such a shocked voice. He was so confused at what was going on, but was definitely not upset. He asked girl #4 for her name and continued to converse. He told them that he was going to Germany in a couple of weeks for a few months and he was very excited. One of the girls asked about his hat and he said he was wearing a sombrero to celebrate Cinco de Mayo.

Once the girls were at the end of the road they said there goodbyes and the man gave them his name and told them to join the running club, and they went on their way.

I was extremely shocked, but happy about the way everything turned out. I am so happy that the outcome this time was so different than last time and that it was not just the same thing over again.

Strange Runner

At 6:00pm on a Monday I went to Bayshore Blvd with my friend Lauren. When we got there I had Lauren run or walk with random people that were working out. I got inspired to do this project when writing my paper on my artist, Vito Acconci. His piece "The Follower" inspired me to do my piece.

This was Lauren's first victim. When Lauren started running with him he looked at her like she was some crazy person. Then once Lauren kept running with him and didn't stop you could tell he started to feel awkward. He started fiddling with his iPod to make it seems like he was doing something else and trying to avoid her.

Victim number two: This guy did not really notice Lauren or look at her at all. He might have felt awkward so he did not want to look at her, but I think he just was really into his workout.

Victim number 3, or should I say victims?: This time Lauren decided to start running with the boys high school cross country team. Before Lauren started running with them they all were talking. Once they realized that some strange girl was running with them they started to stop talking and quiet down. You could tell they felt extremely awkward, especially since they are high school students.

Victim number four: Then, what do you know? The girls high school cross country team starts running by, so Lauren decides to run with them too. As you can see in the picture there is a man riding a bike next to them, that was their coach. No one really realized that Lauren was there, but the whole time Lauren was running with them the coach was yelling at the team.

Last but not least, our last victim: This victim was probably the best victim that we had. As you can see in the video Lauren started walking with him, but what you can't see is what he was doing. While she was walking next to him he kept speeding up and slowing down to see if she would follow him, and she did. He would glance over at Lauren but never fully looked at her. I think that he felt extremely awkward, but was trying not to show it in his face.

Man Down

I had one of my friends lay down in the middle of the sidewalk in Vaughn courtyard (college campus) to see what the reaction would be from students walking by and whether are not they would walk around the body, stop and stare at the body, or totally ignore the body. I videotaped one encounter where people were walking by and they looked at me confused about what to do. When college students see something that is not normal to their everyday life, or every day life in general, they don't know how to react or proceed. I noticed that they look around for guidance or answers.

In the video recording I posted there are two couples walking by at around the same time. Both of the couples noticed me filming, so they looked at me to tell them what to do. They would walk around the body laying down in confusion. The couple with the male and female needed me to tell them they could keep walking. Once they passed the body, after I stopped filming, they kept looking back at the body and me to see if I was going to walk or talk to the body that was laying down.

At one point I let the body lay in the middle of the sidewalk and I stood far away so people would not think I had anything to do with this body laying in the middle of the sidewalk. When I did this students would either stop and walk the other way, totally ignore the situation, look around in confusion, or go to the body to see if she was ok, especially since my friend who was laying down has a cast and crutches. Once I started moving closer to the body, or stood closer to the body, that is when people would look at me to tell them what to do.

This work of a body laying in the middle of a sidewalk works best on a college campus in the middle of their courtyard because it is so wild and different that college students don't know how to react. College students aren't normally used to dealing with out of place situations, so their reactions were the best reactions to get. They need guidance and are used to a smooth ride that once they encounter an obstacle in their lives, they don't exactly know how to deal with it.

The point of this project was to see how people would react when something that is not normal to their every day life is placed right in front of them. This is an invasion of personal space and walking space because it was done in the busiest part of campus. I wanted to see how students would deal with an awkward situation that they do not see on a day to day basis.