The Encounter The Occupation

People by themselves listen to headphones

or eat or on laptopsFocused on own issues

Not interacting with strangers

No alcohol.

People in groups of friends seem a lot hap-

pier and con�dent.

People only talk to strang-ers when there trying to sell them something, be-

cause they know the reason why there being

spoken to.

Eating and smoking is what people tend to

do in groups.

People don’t appreciate being confronted in public by strangers if you just want to

have a chat.

Didn’t see anyone sitting alone who wasn't read-

ing, or eating, or listening to music, or on laptops

Everyone has to be doing something. No one was

doing nothing.

Lots of people watched us. But nobody was brave

enough to join in.

Some children mimicked us though. They wanted to join in but the parents wouldn't

let them

Children don't get as em-barrassed as easily as

adults do. This may be why they get away with playing games without people staring at them.

People aren't fussed about how you share the public

space with them, as long as you don't try and get them to

join in.

Nobody asked us what we were doing and why we

were doing it.

People of Footscray seemed to be used to

odd behavior.

Adults playing games in public is not particularly

socially acceptable.

The Installation The Carte Blanche

If a lot of people are all inter-ested in one thing, there

more willing to talk to one another even if there com-

plete strangers.

People are more likely to react and be involved in

something if its not a stranger asking them

There's no reason for people to feel uncomfortable if

there is no stranger talking to them.

Even if people know that we stuck the signs there to get

reactions out of them, and that we were �lming. They were still more likely to be involved be-cause we weren't near them, just observing from far away.

Its an unusual thing to see a homeless person

outside RMIT.

The people who looked like other RMIT students looked like they barely

noticed, as they are prob-ably used to seeing weird

behavior happening in and around campus.

People who weren't students thought that what we were

doing was very unusual indeed.

Laying down on the street, even under a shel-ter, makes you feel very unsafe and vulnerable.

Nobody asked if we were okay. People only just looked at us with curiosity or

disgust.

These boys had no hesita-tion sitting down on the

signs in the middle of the walkway. People who were on there own didn't stop at

all.

The people to get the best reactions

from are the ones in larger groups.

Because Swanston St isn't a place where people sit down and relax. It’s just a thorough-fare. So we would have been

noticeable.

The Tea Party The Robot PartyThe aim of the tea party was to interrupt peoples jour-

ney with a “pleasant surprise”. Tea is a cheap and widely accepted drink and was a perfect thing to o�er people

as they walked by. I was also hoping to create some-what of a community by getting people that we got to join us, to get talking amongst one another as they are

all sharing a common interest that is tea drinking.

Continuing on with trying to create a “pleasant sur-prise” for people, I participated in the robot party,

which involved dressing up as a robot and going down swanston street on a tram handing out cupcakes or

“space cakes” as we called them.I thought that if I handed out the cakes to people who

weren't moving, and couldn't run away from me (because they were on a tram) then I would be more

successful in creating that sense of community amongst who ever I gave cupcakes to.

We were able to get various groups of people to come over and join us for the tea drinking. Which was good. Except we had trouble keeping them there, because

they were okay with just us and them sitting there to-gether, but as soon as we got another group to join us, the �rst group would feel uncomfortable about there

being all these strangers around, and they would leave.One group that joined us and drank our tea didn't even talk to us, but kept talking amongst themselves like we

weren't there.

People were more willing to accept cupcakes from us. Partly because we were in a larger group, and also be-

cause they were stationary and gave us an opportunity to hassle them a bit more.

Another contributing factor was that because they were stationary sitting on the tram, and we were o�ering the cakes to everyone, they were able to see everyone else

eat the cakes, which made them more willing and con�-dent to do so also.

The Talking Eye

The talking eyeball is an installation I chose because its eye catching and portable. The eye-ball talks to people walking by using a walkie talkie that is concealed inside.

I have moved away from the idea of hand-ing out food or bever-ages to people to give them a pleasant sur-prise, because I felt

that my presence alone was making

them feel uncomfort-able. So I created this

inanimate object to do the talking for me.

Brunswick

Swanston Street

The actions I took in Brunswick were a�ected by the weather, however I did get some reactions from people. I didn't get any body trying to talk back to the eyeball though.

I got less reaction from people in Swanston St. The tra�c was a lot louder and I don't think they passers by could hear me on the walkie talkie. Two people did stop and have a close look at it, although I’m not sure if they could

hear it.

The Talking Eye

Richmond

After my actions in Brunswick and Swanston St, I decided to try a quieter and more suburban location. At about 5.30 pm this street in Richmond was dead quiet. Firstly, I sat the eye ball at the bottom of a tree amongst some

bushes and I sat the walkie talkie behind the eyeball so that it could be heard. A lady walked passed and she looked very puzzled when the eye ball started talking to her. Then she got a bit frightened and quickly walked

away. Then another older lady who was walking her two dogs came by and she actually stopped and talked back to it! She said “hello” a few times but then shook he head and walked away

Then I hung the eyeball up in a tree on the other side of the street and waited further up the street. Two boys came past and they also stopped when the eyeball started talking. They didn't speak back but they laughed at each other and one of them looked like he would touch it but then he got a bit scared and they both jogged

away.I think the creepy part for the people who interacted with the eyeball was not that it was talking, but that there was obviously someone watching them, as I made the calls personalized by saying “hew you with the two dogs”

or “hey you in the white t-shirt”

Carlton

I set up the eye on a tree in the Carlton gardens in the afternoon on a week day. Most people only looked at it as they walked passed. As I was setting it up, a woman with a pram stopped and started talking to me, and her toddler was very interested. The toddler kept saying “wow”. As I was walking to go take it

down an elderly couple stopped and discussed it for a few moments.

ConclusionMy original Intentions were to change the way people felt in public space by creating a “pleasant surprise”. After doing my actions with the talking eye ball I can’t say that I achieved this, but I did get reactions never the less, especially from the people in Richmond. It was very clear that the

people who encounted the eye ball in Richmond were very disturbed. The two boys who even ran away from it looked very worried at the fact that

someone was watching them, and they didn't know where from. The lady walking her dogs wasn't worried at the start, but when she realized that the things the eye ball was saying were actually personalized to her, and not just a recording, then she backed of, looking all around for where the person talking through the object was hiding, and briskly walked away, shaking her head. This I believe was the most successful action, as I did

change the way people feel in that public space at that time. I made them scared.

I discovered that night time is when people’s moods are

most open to change. At night time people are more

vulnerable, and take any-thing out of the ordinary quiet seriously. Especially

when that thing is someone talking at you from hiding in

the bushes.

I also discovered that it is far easier to make someone feel

uncomfortable, and in this case, scared, then it is to

make them happy.

The Psycheography

Hot, sunny, dusty weather.Musty smell of booze- Soon realize that this is because of homeless man around

the corner.

Cigarette smokeSwearing

Shopping trolliesBad music on phonesCars, trucks backing

out- “beep beep”.

Cafe- co�eeChattingWalking

LaughingSoft music

Trams- “ding ding”Cars with fumes

Hot, dry and sunny.

Smells:Petrol

OilCar fumes

Sounds: Man sweeping glass of the back of a toe

truck.

Smells:Very very bad seafood

smell. Like o� �sh.

Sounds:Don’t know because I

can’t get over the smell.

Children’s clothes shopLooks like ghosts in the window.

Smells:Pharmacy smells

PerfumesSoaps

Clinical smells.

Street noisesTrams, trucks

CarsPeople

Smoky, dusty, dry air.Sunny

Sound of police carsShopping trollies.

Re�ection on Investigations• My discovery of public space is that there are so

many rules and regulations for a space to be people friendly that the aesthetics are put on the back burner.

• My discovery of people is that we take advantage of public space but don’t take responsibility for it.

• My discovery of myself and other people and is that a sense of community is developed in a public space if

a common interest is shared with the people there.

• For peoples journeys from where they are coming from to where they are going to be interrupted by this

event/installation and for them to leave feeling uplifted after the experience I caused.

• To provide a pleasant surprise, and unexpected turn for the better.

• Like the feeling you have after running into a friend on the street.

Interests for my next actions

• After the activities of handing out free cups of tea to people to try and create a “pleasant surprise”, I discov-ered that people don’t feel entirely comfortable taking

beverages from random people on the street. I think they were a bit suspicious.

• Another thing they weren’t comfortable with was the presence of other strangers around them (the

other people we tried to get to join us for tea).

• I’ve decided that my actions were hardly successful if they didn’t provide the “pleasant surprise” that I was

hoping to achieve by drawing people together encouraging them to be social with random strangers.

• Still want to provide a “pleasant surprise” for people, but not in a way that makes them feel uncomfortable.

• Create an installation of some kind which challenges my �rst two discoveries from semester 1.

• The installation should provide the “pleasant surprise” that I attempted earlier, but should be more subtle as

not to make people feel uncomfortable.

Reflections on Actions

Interests for further actions

Fiona de La Lande

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