Personal Reflections

• I really thought the “Human Again” piece worked really well as the introduction to the whole showing. It worked very well given the amount of people. I was very surprised to find that no one actively stopped participating by taking off their blindfolds or sitting down, etc. They went along with it to the very end.
• The beginning of the exhibition was really chaotic. At some point, I remember hearing all the exhibits kind of coming to life at once and hearing barking from one place, shouting from another, reading from one, music from another. It felt like a very very distinct shift in tone from the “Human Again” piece to that–which maybe worked or maybe didn’t for each particular audience member.
• I think spatially the exhibits were organized really really well! The room felt like it had a natural flow. Not in the sense that the objects all shared a similar goal, theme, relationship, etc, (because that wasn’t our goal) rather, it just all worked together in the space correctly. Also, all the performances seemed to work very well in their adjusted locations.

Guest Reflections

What Worked/What Didn’t Work

• Bailey’s box was a draw. One of them did enjoy it (mainly “because I got food.”) while the other one did not even approach it because she felt really uncomfortable about “him just wearing underwear and no shoes.”
• Omar’s Enraged Edibles was a hit. They both thought it was funny, but also very poignant in the way it addressed/handled issues “we’ve all learned of and have been exposed to.”
• Other notable favorites were Paige’s “Adam + Eve” video and Phoebe’s “Law & Order” performance.
• Carina’s Syrian refugee crisis performance was a source of confusion for both of my guests, but it was interesting to watch/listen to them try to figure out what it meant because after about 5 minutes of bouncing ideas of each other they decided that it had to be about the Syrian refugee crisis.

General Thoughts

• The performances were better than the objects. They felt more important or pressing than the static gallery pieces especially if they had to get moved around from location to location.
• They enjoyed the performances and being moved around much more than the free time in the gallery because it felt like it gave them more purpose.
• Preferred having clear instructions on what they had to be doing either by being moved around for a performance or by seeing a sign. One of my guests was willing to interact with anything and tried to see it all. The other guest was only willing to interact with objects that had explicit instructions like “watch me” or “taste me”, but not with the more abstract or unguided ones.
• “I didn’t know if we were allowed to interact with each other or talk in the beginnin.” But after a while they both agreed that they felt more comfortable doing so. And after they talked to people, they felt more comfortable doing different things and seeing the objects.
• They had no clue what our (the class) role was in the whole thing. Were we actors? Were we showing them how to interact with things?
• They felt like it was too chaotic early on, but that things mellowed out as they went along.