I decided to install my snail zebra crossing around lunchtime because I thought that there would be more people walking through the park at this time. I managed to set the piece up at a time where there weren't many people walking through, there was only one man that passed us at the set up. I found a bench that was close to the location so that I was able to observe and hear the passers by but they weren't able o directly connect me to the piece. I found that all the people that passed were pretty positive towards it and they smiled and thought that it was quite quirky.
Before I set it up I was worried that there might be dogs that it might endanger if they got hold of the snails but I actually found that the dogs that passed it didn't really take notice of it and seemed to ignore it. just after I set it up a man walked past me and commented about it saying 'oh look its a snail zebra crossing, amazing that someone has got some imagination' I thought this was quite funny that he hadn't realised it was me that had set it up.
I found that the snails really stood out and people did take the time to notice them and to read the sign, what I thought was good was most of the people passing it actually came from the other side from where it was facing but this meant they pent a little more time to read the signs they passed it.
I was interested to see how different groups of people would interact with it for example who would notice it more, would people walk on the paper or over it etc. I thought that children would probably interact with it more because its something to discover but I found that it was mostly adults that seemed intrigued by the idea and a few children actually just walked/ran passed t and it was the adults with them that drew their attention to it.
One thing that I didn't really count on happening was people picking up the snails themselves, there was a couple of people that did and out them back but at one point there was a couple of children that started to pick them up and collect them so I had to tell them not to remove the snails. I didn't really think that anyone would do this as I thought that they would see as something to observe rather than remove. I feel I could have used this in a way because I could have made more snails and replaced them as they were taken, it was interesting to see that most people actually just looked.
There was a group of people that seemed to stand and look at the piece for ages (shown in picture above) and it was interesting that they paused for long and eventually they did take a few pictures, I asked one of them afterwards what he thought about it he said 'innovative, different, unusual and his first thoughts were why did I choose blue for the snails' I thought that was interesting and not really something I had taken into account that people would think of.
As I was removing the installation there was a couple with dogs that asked me what it was for and if they could take pictures, they seemed fascinated by the idea. This is where I noticed that the dogs didn't seem to take any notice of the installation.
Overall I think this was a really good experiment with the use of an installation and seeing how people react to something so simple, I came away with reactions that I hadn't expected and the things I had expected didn't really happen so it was a very good experience and would love to be able to develop on this if I was able to be able to create something throughout the whole arboretum.
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