1. Stage/organize/perform a happening or activity involving the class in a public space
2. Research projects of Harrell Fletcher and Miranda July. Using their ideas, aesthetics, and inspirations as your influence, curate a show of your own.
3. Visit "Learning to Love You More Website". Choose an activity provided that involves an audience, neighbor, stranger, or the class and do it.
My Project and Intentions: I chose the third option and visited the learning to love you more website. I liked the idea of project 30 and decided to expand a bit on it. Project 30. The website simply says, "Ask two or more people who are strangers to you and to eachother to hold hands and then take a picture of the. Take the picture when they aren't smiling. Please make sure the picture includes the faces of the strangers." I added to this idea by including myself in the photo. I chose to photograph two strangers holding hands, then have each of them take a picture of me holding hands with them. I wanted each person involved to have a chance to be behind the camera and look at the situation from the same angle. I included a reflection and multiple photos in my project.
Unfortunately I no longer have the digital images I took. I took pictures of the project once put together, but the quality isn't the best. Because this is the first class I've taken that also addresses video and sound I experimented a bit. I included a video reflection that went more in depth about each group of people. However that also got deleted with my original digital photos.
The Documentation:
Strangely Acquainted
Amanda Hudson
Intermedia: Learning to Love You More Project
The website’s project description: Ask two or more people who are strangers to you and to each other to hold hands and then take a picture of them. Take the picture when they aren't smiling. Please make sure the picture includes the faces of the strangers.
My version of the project: Ask two people who are strangers to you and to each other to hold hands and take a picture. Then have the strangers take turns taking a picture of you holding hands with each of them. Take the picture when they aren’t smiling and include their faces.
Problems I encountered: I found this to be much more difficult than I had expected. My first difficulty came about when I set out to begin the project. I quickly realized finding a situation where I could simultaneously approach to strangers. In some cases I had to approach one stranger passing by, ask if they had a moment, and wait for another to pass by and hope they were willing to participate. I found that bus stops were a great solution to this problem.
Another problem occurred when I explained the project to people. I always included that they didn’t have to smile, but something about a camera makes people smile. Once I noticed that people were smiling regardless of what I said, I started to go along with smiling as well. However, you’ll note the first few pictures I’m not sure if I should smile or not.
A final problem was the one I was expecting to encounter but actually turned out to be the least of my problems, people declining to participate. I found that little old lady’s at the bus stop would rather not have their photo taken and that two good looking young men are a little to embarrassed to be holding hands downtown while getting their photo taken.
Other interesting aspects: I felt like I was conducting research on body language. Everybody’s hand holding style was different, and sometimes predictable. Some went for more of a handshake other for clasped hands. Some put more distance between each other and others were hip to hip.
Questions about how to use my camera was also interesting and predictable. Younger people either knew how to operate the camera or quickly checked it out and had few questions. The older people I encountered asked for me to show how to operate it and didn’t assume even if their guess was right.
The variety of first reactions kept the project fun and exciting. Some people I thought were going to be enthused weren’t, and some I thought would turn me down but were actually excited to help. Some people were very nervous and uncomfortable but still went a long. I had a few people ask me my name, my major, and how the project was going. One man was overly excited, almost acting as if it was joke.
The last thing I found interesting and didn’t think much of until now that I’m reflecting on the project was the interaction people shared right before they held hands. There was two common behaviors; one was to introduce themselves. Sharing each other’s names and a quick handshake. The other behavior was usually quick eye contact paired with a smile.
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