For my interruption, I set up a 'Language Assistance' booth on the 7:15pm Empire State Train which which went from New York to Albany. I taped the following sign up to the luggage rack above my seat
I also created a humorous yet informative pamphlet (seen below) for any visitors.
Interstice - Language Assistance
I also took pictures and video of my booth:
Sadly, the only person to ask what I was doing was the person checking tickets. I did notice one or two people staring at the sign and the pamphlets from a distance, but no one approached me.
Conceptualization
For my project I decided to challenge the idea of immediate interpersonal interaction from the relational aesthetics reading. I wanted my project to create long-term interpersonal interactions. What I imagined was an interstice that would shine a light on an abstract ability which is innate to every participant and vital in the creation of any dialogue yet very misunderstood; that ability is language. By getting participants to reflect on language for just one moment I hoped to inspire future instances of reflection, which would cause them to seek out those answers and create dialogues with other language users, igniting a larger conversation about language.
The setting for my project was something which I consider an exemplary interstice. Taking place on a train, the site of my project was located in a multi-layered physical interstice (i.e. It was set up in a row of seats, which is in between other rows of seats. In turn these rows are located within a train car, which is located in between other train cars. Finally, the train cars (a.k.a. the train) are constantly moving between two locations).
The train is an interesting location to examine the idea of public space. While the train itself is a public method of transportation, each passenger is entitled to privatize some portion of it (a contract which is instantiated at the moment they bought the ticket). However, one's privatized space is more open to intrusion by the public than in other situations. Of course there is a social etiquette which has developed to protect our private space in these circumstance (i.e. if your watching a movie use headphones, ask the person behind you if it is ok to recline your seat, etc) and it was these social constructs which I deliberately broke in order to interrupt the 'everyday life of the passenger'. By setting up my project in a privatized yet very public area it was easy to encroached on the space of others visually, which is why I put up my sign for 'Language Assistance' on the coat rack above my seats. I also placed the pamphlets on the fold-down table closest to the aisle. I would have used audio to attract (or annoy) more people, but I feared getting kicked off the train so I did not follow through with this.
