James Yeh writes on the Spontaneous Society for Faster Times, Jon Cotner’s ambulatory, real-life interaction/art installation, inciting strangers to interact positively with one another.
The project was created in hopes of reigniting a certain kind of social spontaneity that is lost on all of us by way of headphones and fast-paced lifestyles. It’s been garnering a lot of attention. Yeh writes about how this project is bringing back poetry to the public, Sappho-style.
“People can be so interesting, funny, surprising, and so on, if we’d only talk to them. Sure, I get it. And yet, the thing is, when is the last time you actually said to someone, totally outside your peer group, totally without any intention besides positive communal feelings, that where they were sitting was ‘a good spot for a picnic?’”
