Public Proofreading
I engaged with my peers and disrupted the normative use of public space by setting up my proofreading booth.
Using a booth modeled after Lucy’s “Psychiatric Help” booth from Peanuts, I engaged with my peers by helping them improve and prepare their written homework such as essays and term papers, essentially creating a “Proofreading Help” booth. This provided me the opportunity to create relationships with participants, as well as interesting relationships with and exchanges between onlookers. This was an exercise in using the media theory Relational Aesthetics originally proposed by French critic and curator Nicholas Bourriaud.
EXECUTION
By placing my booth in a public space, I challenged the normative use of that space. This oddity alone created relationships between onlookers as they attempted to cypher my purpose. Additional relationships were derived with onlookers bold enough to ask me what I was doing and why. Finally, relationships were created through direct interaction with “clients” who requested proofreading services. The booth was built rather simply, but made obvious quotational reference to Peanuts.
INSTALLATION
My booth is built from spray-painted foam core with sharpie hand lettering. Assembled with duct tape and dowels, it is easily setup by ratchet strapping it to a folding table. It can be setup virtually anywhere (where there isn’t a high wind), making the performance/installation almost infinitely portable. This allows me to setup and disrupt any number of public spaces where solicitation and loitering aren’t illegal.
Documentation of performance created for Media Theory
