"I can pay for it myself."

Yesterday I conducted another social experiment at Ambrosia Cafe. This time rather than buying coffee in advance and waiting for a response, I decided to confront people face-to-face in hopes to gain more insight into individual responses to the project.

After customers placed their orders with the barista I approached them and asked if they would be willing to let me buy their coffee for them. Most people took this as a come on and held up their money suggesting they could afford to pay for it themselves and others avoided my eyes completely. About half of the people I talked to wanted to know why I wanted to buy them a cup of coffee, including the first man I talked to, who still refused the cup once I explained it was a social experiment/art project.

Lewis Hyde discusses the erotic nature of gift-giving in his landmark book, The Gift, which was something that I witnessed first-hand. Although two people did accept my offer to buy their drinks (see the receipts above) most people avoided any potential obligations that might come with this gift by declining.

Most of the time, we choose to use our consumer power to remain separate and unattached from the people around us, owing them nothing but the cash in our wallets. They sell their labor while we use a symbol of our own abstracted labor in exchange for consumer products. This abstraction separates us from the person on the other side of the transaction. Much of the push behind the movement to "Buy Local" combats this estrangement from the humanity of our economy.

After the first three customers I approached refused my offers I began to feel extremely sad, disappointed, and a bit hopeless at the rejection of my potential gifts. The second woman who agreed to let me buy her coffee, Kristin, mirrored these feelings in her explanation for accepting my offer. She said that she noticed the negative effect it had on her friends when she turned down their generosity and was making a conscious effort to be open to such opportunities. Her attempt to be more receptive was a foil for my attempt to be generous.

In developing the next iteration of this project I intend to focus on two questions:
How can gift debt be put to use in a positive way?
-and-
How can the feelings I experience while conducting the experiment drive the direction of this project?

Avril 50: Philadelphia, PA

My graduate seminar is in Philadelphia for the weekend and I just stopped into a small magazine, coffee, and tobacco shop down the street from the Institute of Contemporary Art called Avril 50 to test out my stimulus project on a different crowd. 

The owner, John, was very willing to collaborate once I explained the project to him. Post your comments here for all to read. 

Community Stimulus

Moments ago I stopped by Ambrosia Cafe on Maynard in downtown Ann Arbor to propose a collaboration. I paid for the next 20 small coffees and the barista, Jimmy, agreed to hand out cards, like the one above, explaining the project.

If you received a copy of coffee through this project or would just like to talk about it, please leave your comments here for all to read.

Art Hospital $5 Painting Show

Security Envelope for a Brighter Future: Prototype #13 (for coffee lovers)
Originally uploaded by bradwicklund

Here is a little something I dreamed up for the upcoming Art Hospital $5 Painting Show in Bloomington, IN. Be there and support a great venue!

Seminar at the Grocery Store

In an act of subversion, Natascha Sadr Haghighian conducts an interview with Tom Keenan for her New Museum seminar, Night School, at the Whole Foods around the corner. After being denied permission to hold her seminar in the grocery store, she decides to record the interview there anyways with a hidden camera and wireless microphones. The result is an interesting discussion on the politicized image as a stage, overexposure to such images, and how this effects public response.

Check it out here.

We See What We Want to See

In Liberty Square right now with one of my posters waiting to see how people react. Been sitting here about 15 minutes so far and have seen two people actively notice the sign. At least 50 people have walked by. Most people seem to just keep walking.

A third person noticed the sign now. All men. I wonder if this is just a coincidence? Now four men.

Most people look around like they are being watched after noticing the sign.

Another man seems to be watching the sign from across the street now while he smokes a cigarette. Now he's going back inside.

The sign seems to have blended in with the environment already. You would think more people would notice it. Cellphones and iPods preoccupy most people. They have better things to do.

Six men have noticed the sign now. If any women have seen it they haven't looked directly at it. Now seven.

Two police ride up on bicycles. Will they notice the sign? Will they care? I guess I will just stay put to see how they respond. They ride through the park, but may be waiting for me to make a move. They definitely notice the sign. As they rode by because the female cop made eye contact with me.

After taking a look around it seems as though they are gone.

I feel like many of the people who notice the sign must know I made it and put it there. They make eye contact with me as they walk by, wondering what this is all about. I should go check my parking meter and walk around to get a better perspective.

I fed the meter and got some coffee to warm me up. The sign is just where I left it. I don't know if anyone would tamper with the sign, at least not in the daytime.

There is an old man standing on the corner by the park and he also seems to be watching. He is walking towards the sign, but just goes past it.

A girl brings her friends back by the sign to see it. "Right there!" she says. She sits down for a moment and then jumps up, not sure what to do.

Not long after a middle-aged man with buzzed hair that is long and combed over in the middle sits down right next to the sign. Like the girl, he sits only for a few seconds before jolting up and walking again.

What is the purpose of public space? How should it be used?

The same man in a black fleece has walked by four times now. Twice in one direction and the second two times in the opposite. He says "hello" to a woman and clasps her hand, but keeps walking, like Venetians passing each other on the street with only enough time to say, "Ciao, ciao!"

The flow of people on the street seems to be slowing down as they sun sets and they return home to their families, roommates, and pets. I should do the same.

Stolen: My Thunder

You know when you have a great idea and you feel like your sails are filled by a gale force wind, blowing you almost uncontrollably towards your destination? That feeling when you know you're on to something special? That you've tapped into the collective unconsciousness and it is speaking through you, the only thing is it is also speaking through everyone else and someone else happened to hear the voice first?

Yeah, well, I had been working on a plan for a group curated show using a viral means of distribution and a group curation process and found out this week that the Brooklyn Museum has a show on display as I write, titled Click, that uses some of the very same ideas of group curation. The show isn't exactly the same as the one I was planning, but somehow after reading about it and listening to the panel discussion, I'm just not that interested in going through with my project anymore.

Enough complaining, because the project is pretty interesting. Just check it out for yourself on the University of Michigan Visual Resource Collection Blog.