Silly Random Additions to Campus

These were my fun contributions to our five plotted out regions of campus. With a large bucket of chalk in hand and other nifty supplies, Jeannie, Scott and I set out to complete our installations last week. There was much singing of songs from Mary Poppins as well as great brainstorming of other installations we wish we could add to our community. And so we began...

I began with Scott's chosen area. This area focused on wellness, fitness and fun as well as the goals people associate with these ideas. To break up the monotony of the daily "must work out", I wanted to incorporate our beautiful university park as well as the benefits of companionship. For these reasons, my installation here was this:

"Take a walk with a friend ending here."

The gazebo is an excellent spot on campus to take a break from the daily grind, to sit and talk with another and to reflect. Walking with a friend is definitely a refreshing and different form of exercise, one that you may not consider exercise at all! (Subconscious exercising! Huzzah!)
In addition to this "to do", there were arrows added to the surrounding sidewalks to usher pedestrians to the area.
(A note for any future chalkers, make sure you bring a lot! A message can certainly wipe out many sticks of chalk!)

Jeannie's zone was about researching, a common activity for the college student's agenda. This can be grueling and boring. Sometimes we do not get to do assignments on the most interesting of topics. My goal was to provide an opportunity for discussing something completely relevant, current and exciting: the zombie apocalypse! To make this accessible to those pushing their way through their studies, I chose the study rooms in Halle to place this item of interest.

"Discuss your plans for the zombie apocalypse."

As an afterthought, I also added another discussion in other rooms:

"Discuss your plans for the FINALS apocalypse."

For this, my goal was to have students share inspiration and hope with one another to help studying students feel connected to others. I hoped some might even add resources they will use or tips to de-stress during the week so others could use them as well.

In DC's area about our connections and ideas of "home," I wanted to take that even further and connect home with family/friends and the holidays. College students often are short on money (hey, who isn't nowadays?) and buying gifts is on the "to do" list this month. By placing this eye catching sign in a well travelled area (the community laundry room!), I made a suggestion that could make the holidays more meaningful and debt-free.

I learned snowflakes are difficult to draw.

Even if the students did not decide to make a homemade gift, perhaps this would inspire them to bake cookies or participate in other festivities.

In Alessa's "abandoned" zone, I wanted to make a comment on things we abandon. Childhood memories. Goals of "going green." Reflecting on nature. I highly enjoyed finding the perfect tree in a well travelled area and anticipated the reaction to it.

Everyone loves a hug.

The day after I saw one of my friends had actually posted about this on Facebook. It got over 50 "likes" in less than 12 hours. Perfecto!! Many people commented as well saying they had, in fact, hugged the tree. They completed a "to do" without blinking an eye! My final Silly Random installation was placed in the forever-busy Pray Harrold lobby. This area was deemed "The Busy Zone" and for good reason. A normal schedule of a student: class, eat, study, class, rinse, repeat. Especially with finals around the corner...we all know it is a recipe for Major Stress. When I initially began to think about "silly", I thought of my childhood and things that made me happy. Bubbles! Teddy bears! Balloons!
Balloons are for celebrating! They are colorful and bring joy. That is what Pray-H needed this week, a little cheer between the last classes of the semester. Here I posted simple instructions for interaction for this piece. If they chose not to do it, well I hope the random colorfulness brightened their mood.


Some of the answers included Grading, research papers, stress about parking and passing tests. One writer also expressed concern about birds eating the balloons after they were released into the air! (I had not thought about that!) As promised, our little group trekked outside for the ceremony of "releasing stresses" into the night sky.

(Video coming soon, Blogger is having issues!)


Thank you Scott for filming :)

Overall my experience with this project was rewarding. I was glad to connect with other classmates as well as the campus in new and innovative ways. This project has inspired me to do a community art project for my Capstone. We will have to see what comes up! :) It was a pleasure working with DC, Alessa, Scott and Jeannie as well as hearing about all the other interesting projects everyone else came up with!

Hope everyone has a good final week. Remember--add some silly and random into your life!