a proposal for an intervention. a call for you to get your very own personalized napper hat.
IF YOU DON'T FEEL LIKE READING:
1. MEET WITH ME, TELL ME ABOUT YOURSELF, SHOW ME YOUR FAVORITE HATS AND FASHION
2. TELL ME ABOUT YOUR SUBWAY EXPERIENCES, GOOD AND BAD. WHAT DO YOU HOPE FOR? WHAT DO YOU AVOID?
3. I WILL MAKE YOU A HACKED-HAT FOR COMMUNAL SUBWAY SLEEPING. THIS MAY BE CAMAFLOUGED-STYLE, OR SMASH-OVER THE HEAD OBVIOUS. DEPENDS ON WHAT COMES OUT OF OUR CONVERSATION.
4. YOU TAKE SOME NAPS ON THE SUBWAY OR BUS. we discreetly film you.
i've been thinking a lot about the nature of "non-spaces" (the in-between spaces that we pass through) and how these generally very public spaces (public in the sense of congestion, mix of social classes, used by large portions of urban inhabitants) are becoming transformed, via technology such as iPods and cell phones. shared space is transformed into a collection of personal spaces.
the technologies that connect us to our friends or media far away tend to disconnect us from the social situations we are physically present in.
(if interested more on this and/or my take, please see the following article i wrote in New Media & Society this September. (my baby)
My music, my world: using the MP3 player to shape experience in London
simultaneously, both in London and in NYC, transport authorities encourage us to be polite to the very people we are systematically excluding from our worlds: the unknown stranger in the non-place
take a look at London's campaign
or this vintage NYC MTA ad
The napper hat is an attempt to:
1. encourage politeness and collaboration (or portray the absurdness of such requirements being imposed by transport authorities)
2. take a personal act that happens in shared space (which has the effect of making the shared space a collection of private spaces) and transform it into a shared act - maybe this will make the space truly more shared?
4. embed prescriptions in objects rather than signs
3. take a nap in this busy world
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