| |
Suggestion Box,
by Illegal Art.
One of the projects of Illegal
Art -- a collaborative of artists whose goal is to create
interactive public art to inspire self-reflection, thought
and human connection -- is Suggestion Box. In this project,
participants carried around a white box with the word Suggestion
on each side, asking passers-by to contribute suggestions
without any parameters or restrictions. Naturally, the responses
-- a small portion of the 1,800 initial ones featured here
in the original handwriting -- are wide-ranging, from the
serious like "Abolish the death penalty in the USA"
to the less than serious like "People should not have
dogs that look like themselves." The book and project
become a snapshot of a time and place, and although the
physical boxes only made their way around New York City,
an online Suggestion
Box continues the project indefinitely. So is the project
successful? Does it inspire self reflection, thought and
human connection? The responses indicate yes and no, with
many being thoughtful, but many also being dismissive and
curt. But maybe the written suggestions aren't the limit
or definition of success. Instead, it's the undocumented
effects beyond the actual suggestion, as if the mere act
of making the suggestion were just the beginning of the
"project". The act of intervention, of making
people think about what to say and write, will stay with
those people, perhaps leading to the self-reflection, thought
and human connection the artists aimed for.
|
