Cedar's project presented an interesting problem: where is a place that people congregate and have nothing to do but kick a wooden ball with strangers? Our class answered with the bus stop. This location yielded a high result (reciprocation of kicking the object) with our class for several reasons. We had a large group aware of the project. We had a large group of outsiders to work with. We built a positive momentum within our area and ran with it.
Within our group of four, creating that same environment was extremely difficult. There are very few locations where students are stationary and are waiting for something. We decided to try Shine Student Center on a thursday afternoon. The four of us split up and scoured the area. There were very few areas were students congregated for a period of time over a few minutes. We reconvened and decided that the entrance was our best option, for people there was a small group of people and the chance of more to come.
We set up the situation like the bus stop. Three scattered to other areas as "fake" bystanders and one of us (me) was the aggravator. With such a small amount of people, building momentum was extremely difficult. I was persistent, but not aggressive. If people asked what I was doing I simply smiled and continued to kick the rock. The experience felt threatening, for peoples reactions were very hostile at points. I became hypersensitive to the reactions of everyone around me. The whole time I felt very involved with something--which is very hard to describe. As we just started to get bystanders involved, a woman came up to somebody at the front desk, stating that when she came back, she was going to bring someone who was going to stop this. That's when individually, we disappeared at random intervals.
It's almost disturbing how our minds are set to perceive nearly anything as a threat. It seems like it's an animal instinct that we will never truly leave behind.
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