The SOD Project

I came across this piece of research with thanks to my fellow arty farty Rachel :)

So again, a theme which is emerging from my findings is that installations play a key role in participatory art. They create conditions which evoke responses and reactions from the viewer.

Roger Maddox, who was one of three artists working collaboratively on this project was inspired to create a crosswalk (or a crossing that is similar to a zebra crossway in England) and actually install it as a crossing by using strips of sod, otherwise known as dry grass.

  

Maddox stated that,

"As we observed and documented people traversing the crosswalk, we noticed that children were the most notably excited, jumping over and upon the strips of sod, and then retracing their steps. Many people walked around the strips of sod, most probably due to cultural conditioning - some may have not wanted to 'disturb' the sod. Those who are attracted to what departs from the norm were clearly impressed. No one appeared to be either upset, or annoyed, some were clearly amused, and others paid little attention."

Taken from: http://www.lukanovich.com/installations.html 

So the installation recieved mixed responses from its interactees. As Maddox highlights, it was mainly children that were excited about the 'unsual' crossing whereas others were not particularly phased by it and it evoked no response whatsoever. The term 'cultural conditioning' is interesting. What does this mean? Does it refer to the context that the work had been placed into? Did certain members of the public not want to interact with it as they thought that this would explicitally identify them? Or did other members of the public interact with the sod as it temporaily replaced the crossing as required them to engage with it to allow them to safely cross the road?

But does this installation constitute participatory art even though the public didn't create the strips of sod themselves? I would say yes! I say this because the public were being documented interacting and engaging with the installation and the sod, or in some cases not at all.

There is an element of risk in this kind of art. Responses may be gained, or responses may not be gained at all. Or, the materials that are provided to create participatory art may be stolen, for example as documented in The Secret Lives of Benches blog that I am following.

So in the wider schemes of things, maybe participatory art doesn't necessarily have to be about asking the public to physically create something, but respond to something that has already been created/installed? Very interesting indeed...