Book Review: Suggestion Box
Suggestion Box by Illegal Art. (Amazon)
One of the projects of Illegal Art -- a collaborative of artists whose goal is to create interactive public art to inspire self-reflection, thought and human connection -- is Suggestion Box. In this project, participants carried around a white box with the word Suggestion on each side, asking passers-by to contribute suggestions without any parameters or restrictions. Naturally, the responses -- a small portion of the 1,800 initial ones featured here in the original handwriting -- are wide-ranging, from the serious like "Abolish the death penalty in the USA" to the less than serious like "People should not have dogs that look like themselves." The book and project become a snapshot of a time and place, and although the physical boxes only made their way around New York City, an online Suggestion Box continues the project indefinitely. So is the project successful? Does it inspire self reflection, thought and human connection? The responses indicate yes and no, with many being thoughtful, but many also being dismissive and curt. But maybe the written suggestions aren't the limit or definition of success. Instead, it's the undocumented effects beyond the actual suggestion, as if the mere act of making the suggestion were just the beginning of the "project". The act of intervention, of making people think about what to say and write, will stay with those people, perhaps leading to the self-reflection, thought and human connection the artists aimed for.
One of the projects of Illegal Art -- a collaborative of artists whose goal is to create interactive public art to inspire self-reflection, thought and human connection -- is Suggestion Box. In this project, participants carried around a white box with the word Suggestion on each side, asking passers-by to contribute suggestions without any parameters or restrictions. Naturally, the responses -- a small portion of the 1,800 initial ones featured here in the original handwriting -- are wide-ranging, from the serious like "Abolish the death penalty in the USA" to the less than serious like "People should not have dogs that look like themselves." The book and project become a snapshot of a time and place, and although the physical boxes only made their way around New York City, an online Suggestion Box continues the project indefinitely. So is the project successful? Does it inspire self reflection, thought and human connection? The responses indicate yes and no, with many being thoughtful, but many also being dismissive and curt. But maybe the written suggestions aren't the limit or definition of success. Instead, it's the undocumented effects beyond the actual suggestion, as if the mere act of making the suggestion were just the beginning of the "project". The act of intervention, of making people think about what to say and write, will stay with those people, perhaps leading to the self-reflection, thought and human connection the artists aimed for.
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