Come Together

As a group we have been struggling with what it is we can do to bring people together in ways that they may not realise what is happening. Some observations I have made in the past few days are how a force of nature outside of our control is able to bring people together because of our need to stay in comfort or to keep a situation as pleasant as possible. This is when we try to connect with others.

Rain Shelter by Brian Q. Webb

On Wednesday we had a rain storm that made everyone stay under shelter. The streets became overcrowded and people were using the public transport instead of walking. Due to this force of nature, people had to become open to the idea of small crowded spaces. I was able to witness on my bus ride home two girls helping a lady and her pram get onto the bus, this was when a connection between the two sides started to happen. As they got on the bus they were friendlier towards each other and more open to stay connected. It would appear that the rain was able to bring them both to an area where a connection could be made from their needs of getting on the bus and helping each other get on it.

Over the past four days our group has been discussing ideas off each other without any thorough research or progress. I think this is because we haven't fully looked out what is possible from our concept yet and all areas or interests that can be involved. This is why I proposed that we actually look at other creative ideas and see if others have done something similar in the past or just understand what it is that we are looking for in our idea in relation to our concept. When it came to having a device or contraption that can bring people together I came across a lot of Coca Cola advertisements that used the wants of human possession to attract people and work together to create a bond between each other. It could be seen when a common objective was used to bring two or more people together and create a bonding network between each other. In these cases a coke vending machine would either need the help of two people working together to receive the cokes or the machine would give away free prizes to share with others. It was visible to see what effect it had on the students involved and how this coke machine catalyst was useful in creating bonds between what I presume could be random students. How my team could implement the same result would be questionable as we are unaware how to attract people over to our catalyst and to see if strangers would want to bond from it without using free coke.

References

Coca-Cola Happiness Machine London, 2010. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M0D3jKLz6sA&feature=youtube_gdata_player.  

“Pedestrian Zone”, n.d. http://pedestrian-zone.blogspot.co.nz/2008_10_01_archive.html.

The Coca Cola Friendship Machine, 2011. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bj3QLLTFDX8&feature=youtube_gdata_player.