DC's Final Post

Unfortunately, I was not able to do any of the documenting
myself. However, thanks to the rest of my group, a couple of the images were
documented. Much of the process for me was maintaining anonymity and yet not
being a vandal. At about 2:30 in the morning last Wednesday, I set out with a
backpack containing a small box of chalk, my fixative spray (to see if it might
provide some weather proofing), and I was covered in mostly dark clothing
(though still wearing shorts). The temperature was cold, but thankfully, the
wind was virtually nonexistent and I felt very comfortable out there and very
aware.
I made my way over to the valley and found my first spot to
mark. Being in the home section and attempting to address the issue of “breaking
practicality”, I sought to get people out of their comfort zones. I wanted to
write something like “do something different for an hour before going back to
your room”, but it was just too wordy and the chalk gets eaten up like crazy.
Having planned my location for the best possible privacy, I needed something to
pull people to this area. So I wrote the words “follow the trail” with several
arrows leading people to the location of the sign. I ended up writing “Try
something new today” and I decided to test my fixative spray on this. As I was
spraying, I noticed a man who must of worked custodial in the Dining Commons
building taking out garbage, so I booked it to my bookbag (which was set aside
with everything but the spray) and grabbed it and ran until I was at the
staircase on the hill by university pond.
I proceeded towards my next mark, the student center. Being
in the recreation zone, I decided to write “Stop what you are doing in 1 min.
and make something happen!” This of course was slightly ruined by the melting
snow off the awning in the morning and it was filled in by others in the group.
Thanks! In order to gain attention from other entrances in the SC, I wrote a
little sign saying “Go around” to point people to the other entrance. It is important to note here that I avoided
people’s prying eyes as I worked. I chose to avoid the computer lab entrance as
it was too busy and I also had to avoid weather and possibly cameras as best as
possible in making my markings. So if I did do one right in front of an
entrance, it had to be quick, and I had to be facing the other way.
As I was venturing over to Mark J in the “research zone”, I
wanted to get people to avoid using the internet for researching as is too
common now. Everyone googles answers too readily and rarely uses their own
ingenuity. Being that they were still doing construction and one of the
construction workers was outside smoking, I had to be extra stealthy. I set my
stuff aside except for the piece of chalk I would use and went towards the spot
I had picked out, hugging the wall. I even used the camera on my phone to
stealthily peak around the corners (it is very small and I never snapped a
photo, I just looked at the screen in camera mode). Noticing he was gone, I
proceeded hastily in writing my words and made my way out of there. I wrote: “Don’t
use the internet to research anything today”. Then I quickly ran off to my next
location picking up my pack on the way.
The next place I went to was the “old/abandoned zone”. I
searched around for a while trying to find the best place. Many of the places I
thought of were either too hidden or too wet. I finally settled on an outer
wall at Jones-Goddard near one of its entrances. In an attempt to break
practicality, I wrote “can you abandon something you use a lot?” I feel like we
are often too obsessed with things and sometimes need to get away from them.
Our phones and internet and coffee and so on sometimes take us over.
Finally, I made my way over to the busy zone. Again, I
searched for the best place between Pray-Harrold and Quirk to chalk. I was
attempting to optimize visibility (yet remain mostly invisible as I worked) and
stay clear of the weather. I settled on the Pray-Harrold entrance by the
loading docks where many people enter and exit and I wrote: “Skip your next
class to do something nice for someone”. I noticed how so many people use class
as an excuse to not interact with people. But really, how important is each
class? Sometimes, missing a class is detrimental to your grade. But many
classes I’ve had did not warrant my attendance all the time and the same applies
to many other people. We really shouldn’t use class as an automatic excuse and
we should consider the validity of what we’re doing whether it is going to or
skipping class.
In review of the project, it would have been great if I
could have got some spray chalk. I wanted to avoid permanence, but it would
have been easier to apply and it would have lasted a little bit longer. I
thought I could find it in stores, but not even Dick Blick had any. It was so
disappointing. I should have really tried to get it a long time ago, because
even the internet was inaccurate in what stores had or might have it. I feel
that I did a pretty good job at addressing the issue of “breaking practicality”
in spite of my restrictions. I may have had to avoid people and wetness. I also
had fun though as I snuck around the campus using stealth and parkour to
navigate paths through campus.