Reality Adjustments

talo-pieniDuring the research project I made seven reality adjustments.  Here they are for you to try out by yourself!

REALITY ADJUSTMENT #1: A Real Story (Rilla)

The Rules

    1. Buy a lamb, name it and build a relationship with it. The sheep can live in a farm, but you have to visit it often so it starts to know you and rely on you 
    2. Learn to shear the sheep. When the time comes, shear it in a gentle manner.
    3. Learn to wash and spin the wool.
    4. Knit socks of the wool.
    5. Go out with the socks and give them to a random person, whose feet seem to be the correct size. Tell the story to the person – what kind of character the sheep has, where it lives, what phases did the work include. The receiver is given no other evidence – s/he has to decide to believe in the story or not. Independently from her/his opinions the story still stays true. You must not reveal you are working on an art project – if the person asks, why are you doing this, say: “not because of any special reason” or something like that. 
    6. Continue this for the lifetime of the sheep.

 

REALITY ADJUSTMENT #2: Reverse Pickpocketing

The Rules

Insert some money, lotto coupons, entrance tickets etc. valuables randomly to people’s pockets, when their coats are hanging in a rack in public premises. If you get caught, do not tell any reason for your activity.

 

REALITY ADJUSTMENT #3: Take Me Home

The Rules

  1. Grow some new houseplants by dividing plants you might have at home. If you do not have any plants, steal branches from public spaces or ask from your friends. There is an old belief in Finland that stolen cuttings grow better roots, and if someone gives you a cutting, you should not thank that person in order to make sure that the growth will start well.
  2. Take care of the plants for several months so that they start to look like real, independent plants, not only branches stuck in the pot. Watch the plants grow and new leafs emerge.
  3. Go out with a plant. Select somebody and offer the plant to her/him. Ask the person to take care of the plant because you are not able to do it anymore. Tell that you have grown the plant by yourself, but do not let anybody know you are making an anomalous act.

 

REALITY ADJUSTMENT #4: The Simplest Act to Cause Embarrassment

The Rules

Print out some PUSH and PULL stickers and insert them to doors in public buildings – to the wrong sides of the doors, of course.

Variation:

Greet a random person by saying  “Good morning!” in the evening and “Good afternoon!” in the morning.

 

REALITY ADJUSTMENT #5: Plastic Pebbles

The Rules

  1. Collect some ordinary pebbles. 
  2. Make 3D scans & prints of the pebbles, and paint the prints as faithfully to resemble the originals as you can. 
  3. Take the original and the replica pebbles back to the place where you found them.

 

 

REALITY ADJUSTMENT #6: “Because You’re Worth It”

The Rules
Search copies of the Smiling Boy or Smiling Girl statues in the second-hand markets and spread them around for anyone interested to pick up one. Be careful to keep the geographical and/or temporal distance between sculptures long enough, in order to reach the impression of a misplaced object instead of a street art project.

 


REALITY ADJUSTMENT #7: Making Dreams Come True 

The Rules

  1. Select one of the most resilient daydreams you had when you were a child. Something which was then outside your reach but could be possible to implement in your current situation
  2. Make the dream come true (at least to some extent)
  3. Observe yourself: how did you feel when you made the decision to implement the dream?
    How did you feel when the dream had been accomplished?
    How similar/different are you from the child-you? Are you the same person anymore?

Check out “Ontography of a horse”, an art piece which emerged from my implementation of this reality adjustment