Background Information
In class, we watched this video about a lady who put a $20 bill inside a book and left it on a street corner to observe what people would do when they came across it. She waited and stalked people for a long time to see if/how they would react. This is the video:
The Assignment
I was a little uncomfortable when I found out that our assignment was to basically recreate what the lady in the video did. I didn't think I could sit and watch people without feeling really self-conscious. Our job was to place a random object somewhere and observe how people would interact with it. We could record our observations via photographs, sketches, or simply in writing.
What I Did
As uncomfortable as I felt doing this "stalker" assignment, I went ahead and did it. If Mulan could defeat all of China, I could stalk a few random people one afternoon.
As it turns out, I didn't have to stalk random people. That afternoon, we were having people over, so I just placed my karate bo staff in the front yard. When people came over, they ignored it for the most part, but some of the little kids picked it up to see what it was. (I was sitting on the front porch, not-so-stealthily observing how people reacted). I felt uncomfortable taking pictures or sketching people, so I wrote this instead, and here you are, reading it right now!
As it turns out, I didn't have to stalk random people. That afternoon, we were having people over, so I just placed my karate bo staff in the front yard. When people came over, they ignored it for the most part, but some of the little kids picked it up to see what it was. (I was sitting on the front porch, not-so-stealthily observing how people reacted). I felt uncomfortable taking pictures or sketching people, so I wrote this instead, and here you are, reading it right now!