Overview of project
Why this project/the class
The goals were:
1. Visitors will add their voice to the exhibition by adding words to the sequence.
2. Visitors will contribute to connections by participating in a continuous photographic record.
3. The majority of participants will take the Flickr URL with them.
4. Visitors will visit the Flickr site to see how their word connects to others and see how other visitor's contributed.
Evaluation methods
Facilitator observation
The facilitator, who was stationed next to the sculpture and was present to answer questions and take photos, used a paper chart to tally the number of visitors, groups, and participants. The facilitator's chart tracked the visitors' levels of interaction (walked by, stopped and watched, asked questions, participated) and their attitude (smiling, laughing, helping others, frowning, or ignoring). This observational method was unobtrusive and required no interviewing. Its faults and errors were due to lack of group consensus on what and how to count before beginning the project. Each facilitator tallied categories in their own way and there was particular confusion about whether groups should be marked as one participation or as though each member of the group was an individual participant. To see the charts, click here: Participation chart for Alphabet Soup with Xavier.Our final and most accurate measurement of participation therefore is the number of photos in the Flickr stream.
Findings:
Project participation
- We did not get everyone to participate. A few people ignored us and the Xavier work, walking past us as though we meant to solicit something. Many more people stopped, looked and asked questions. Of those that stopped, some still walked away without participating. A few people walked away but came back later to participate.
- Many of the people who stopped and asked questions seemed to be drawn in by the Flickr photos streaming on the computer screen. They often watched that to understand the activity instead of reading the instructions or to clarify our verbal explanation.
- Many of the participants engaged positively with the activity - the majority smiling and/or laughing. Some even stayed after they had completed their word and photo to see what the next person would do or to see how their photo (once uploaded) contributed to the Flickr stream.
- Most participants understood the activity and were able to create a corresponding word, then were willing to have their photo taken (with the understanding that it would be uploaded to a publicly accessible Flickr photo stream).
- # of cards taken
- Overall participation in relation to overally Henry attendance
Project Limitations:
- The venue's attendance is low and, being on a university campus, the number of people who could have been drawn in as they passed by was dramatically reduced over the weekend.
- The general attendance was very low on Sunday and may have been due to the fact that it was Superbowl Sunday.
- The majority of the visitors and activity participants were friends/family of the group members or were fellow Museology students. They had been personally been invited to the Henry and came specifically to support the project. We were unable to track how many visitors participated in Alphabet Soup with Xavier because they had an affiliation with class members as opposed to visitors who had otherwise heard about the project or those whose visits were unconnected to the project.
- Our data collection method was inaccurate and incomplete. As mentioned above, the Xavier group did not communicate clearly about the data collecting before beginning the project. This led to inaccurate numbers and mismatched counts of participants versus photos. Furthermore, as the group member serving as the faciliator was often busy explaining the activity and project, taking photos, or uploading the photos to Flickr, there were times when marking down observations was sidelined or a visitor was simply missed.
Discussion
what worked.
magnets were attractive/familiar to people
moving screen of images was attractive
different way of learning what was going on - more people seemed to learn best by watching a) others B) flicker stream c) instructions
what didn't
had to be heavily facilitated
physically moving letters was cumbersome
paint was weak
words read "backwards" from right to left - people may have had difficulty when seeing actual set up. then understood more when saw flickr.
people still may not have "gotten" the idea
people still seemed to be nervous/shy or not inspired or not wanting to be participatory that day.
camera looked formal
tucked away space may have been intimidating
Initial obstacles with the work and the gallery:
be careful - everyone wants to touch him
communication needed more time - took a while to straighten things out.
they had information but wasn't processed til last minute
short time frame - development was compressed - 4 weeks.
what would do different
some things.
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