My project was based around the idea of being afraid of my own (and others) thoughts and dreams being controlled by others. So many of us base our decisions around what others say instead of following our own feelings and going with that. My 3D piece sort of just came to me, and although it changed a lot from the original idea, i very much like how it turned out. I had this idea of a cage that looks hand made and inside of this cage would be something to represent a person- it started with a heart but soon it turned into light bulbs. I thought that light bulbs represented a more full part of a person. Your ideas and thoughts come from your brain- hints the light bulb- Although your heart controls your emotions, it is your brain that you use to determine whether you follow your own emotions or let others prevent you from doing that. So inside of this cage i have some crashed up light bulbs (dreams being crashed) and also some "whole ideas" that are just still caged in. The cage represents the people on the outside influencing you in such a huge way, stopping you from following what you really want to do. The cage has no way out either- so once you have let others take over your mind- thats it, it could be to late for you to decide you want to follow what you want to do.
From here this cage was placed in a cardboard box with 2 signs on either side saying "Do Not Open". I wanted to determine how many people would follow what someone told them not to, or just do what they wanted. I placed the box in various places around campus and out of about 431 people who walked by only 4 people total opened it! I was very shocked. Most people i could not tell if they just do what they are told or if they just weren't curious. There were plenty of people who approached the box only to decide to not open it. The last person documented to open the box only did it because someone else did before her. The conclusions were very different than what i expected.
I loved doing this project because for the first time ever i was able to have my audience interact with my art whether they opened the box, stared at it, or just walked by without even noticing it- in any of those aspects they were interacting because i was watching and taking notes about them. The idea came very quickly to me for this piece but it took me a lot of time to put it all together.
If i were to do one thing different it would have been to have gotten a few small light bulbs working and to have placed them in the cage as well. I think that that may have had a larger impact on the people who did open the box. I just did not have the time and resources to get that done once i was given the suggestion to do that. Over all though i think that it turned out very well.
My 2D piece was set around the 3D one after it was finished. I painted (with acrylics) a light type of thing in the middle with the darkness over taking it from all sides and then placed my information from my experiment on the board- that way it was all displayed together and now the audience will be able to tell what happened and how that the role of them was incorporated into it.
The artist that influenced my piece was Dan Flavin. Dan Flavin is someone who works with fluorescent lighting to create interesting pieces of art that trick the eye. He is able to use colors and shape and length to make you believe that you are seeing something that you really aren't. If i had light bulbs working it may be more like from his influence, but just the idea of light bulbs inspired me.
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