Concept Brainstorm

Brainstorming Results from 01/11/11 - 

 

BIG QUESTIONS

how do we get people to engage with each other, not just with objects?

how do we get people to come in & engage?

how do we keep barriers low with provocative ideas?

if we do any outside stuff, we need a weather strategy

 

1) Big Idea: Engage teams of visitors with the exhibit by sending them to find images of the art elsewhere - maybe in the Henry, maybe around campus.

This could be very structured, like a scavenger hunt, or more happenstance; use some kind of provocative image/object to add a little extra excitement. Visitors could bring the images back to the gallery? – ORRR take a photo of the "found" location showing two team members (requiring interaction!) with the image (& leave it there). Some kind of goofy prize & a team element – everyone loves competition! Locations could have some exhibit- or art-related meaning; images are similarly meaningful; connections with people who’ll let us hide images in there space are meaningful for the Henry, too. This feels like a way of making the "DIG” idea/Henry collections access move offline.

• Visitors will form teams & seek, send/retrieve images from the exhibit.
• Visitors will report increased appreciation for Vortexhibiton/the Henry collection/whatever works get used in the project.
• Visitors who complete the activity will make at least one return visit to the exhibit: once to start the activity, once to complete it/retrieve their "prize."

 

2) Big Idea: Dress-up for adults.

Either visitors themselves, or paper dolls, get dressed up in assorted items (images of Henry costume collection items? Real clothing that echoes collection items?). Inspired by the aprons/Cindy Sherman photo in the exhibit. Is there a way we can use the tech lounge green screen to create backdrops/etc. that align with a series of different artworks/collection items? We'll want to make sure to select works (as backdrops and to dress up with) that allow for multiple participants/building narratives.

Dressing people up in aprons or other stuff to interrogate/poke fun at clichés, stereotypes; visitors can take a picture (and send it to people? to Hankblog?). Big challenge: how do we lower the social barriers to doing this with "real" dress-up? Dolls or images are a tangible take-away for visitor, making connections to the exhibit/collection. A marketing idea, too: print a paper doll off Hankblog – take it to the exhibit & dress it up, take pictures of your doll with art (either in gallery or outside) - ORRR - the paper doll as an invitation to play real dress-up?

• Visitors will report having fun.
• Visitors will create scenes/characters/narratives that echo themes from the exhibition.
• Visitors will share the results of their participation with audiences beyond the gallery.

 

3) Big Idea: Visitors “airing their dirty laundry” by posting items on a clothesline that travels between the gallery and the skybridge outside.

This one's inspired by the aprons in the exhibit: participants can post secrets, rants, objects, images, etc. that cycle into & out of gallery through window (MAYBE – depends on logistics; could also move between the gallery & walkway above). This element would connect gallery visitors to the high-traffic space outside (& vice versa). Participants (or a facilitator) would pull their secrets/etc. up & out the window for others to see AND down into gallery where they’re exhibited (driving people inside). This one requires some logistical work: can we use an actual clothesline rigged up, or something else metaphorical/cheap/weather-safe? does that window even open? The act of sharing/exhibiting from outside as an incentive to get people (esp. students) inside, maybe offer a pass to non-students who participate so they can see their work? Flexibility of how to engage with this element: you can "air" your view, you can write/hide it, you can participate later too, by adding Henry’s campus box OR website OR whatever on reverse of cards.

• Visitors will both contribute and read one another's additions to the "airing."
• Visitors will be inspired to enter the exhibit by participating outside (and vice versa).
• Visitors' contributions will echo themes from the exhibit: suspension (physical & metaphorical), surprises, mixed messages.

 

4) Big Idea: An homage to the confessional booth installation Amanda mentioned.

Invite visitors to tell us what object they hate/don't understand/etc. (potentially "unacceptable" opinions), by talking to us through a screen. Alternately, some kind of unfacilitated version of this: invite people to tell (someone? a stranger? one another) something they’ve never told before... these prompts could be object-focused, secret- or other-random-fact-focused, etc., etc.

• Visitors will share opinions that surprise us (if facilitated), or maybe that contradict the curatorial narrative.
• Visitors will report using the "confessional" space; they may or many not report what they shared inside when prompted.
• Visitors will articulate some opinion about one or more works (if facilitated).
• Visitors will encourage one another to visit the booth and/or report positive reactions to its presence.

 

5) Big Idea: Set up a real-life "chat room" for visitors in the Panoptos salon space.

Curators were excited to get visitors to chat online, but they don't. Instead, have visitors identify/mark themselves as part of a live “chat room” (in salon space, others can look down onto it…). Perhaps markers are something like colored or coded name tags that highlight accessible, non-art interests or topics (maybe? or maybe images of works in the show?). Visitors can find others to talk with based on that marker of their interests, with a built-in conversation starter. (Maybe also offer some kinds of conversation prompts, or "chat room rules," whether genuine or arbitrary/silly ones?)

• Visitors will engage in conversation with one another in the salon space.
• Visitors who converse will show increased hold time in the salon space over other/baseline visitors.
• Visitors will attend to the art (and/or one another) with observable behavior (i.e. pointing, laughing, talking, moving back & forth between Panoptos salon space & gallery space)

 

SECONDARY component for any ideas: advertise (cards w/passes? something else?) a hashtag/place to text updates to from inside the gallery, to capture images/thoughts/level of traffic/etc.