Isadora Dantas

I need your help! I have all these chocolates, but I’m on a diet. Would you take some?

While I was presenting my past prototypes, one aspect that was raised, is that maybe people are already desensitized by kind acts, in a way that you don’t even care, or may not will to respond to it.
So, at this prototype, I wanted to test how people would react if we took some annoying situations of our everyday lives and, at the same context, used it for the opposite purpose.
For example, people begging for money on the streets or in the subways seam to be so much part of our routines that we don’t even notice it any more, or at least try to avoid. This fact was even pointed out as one of the reasons why we close ourselves with our headphones, books or anything else, just so we don’t need to interact with these unpleasant interventions.
My idea was to take this exactly same scene but, instead of begging for money, offer something that almost everybody would enjoy: chocolates. First, I took a box and wrote with sharpie (exactly as I see most part of homeless people do): “I NEED YOUR HELP. I have all these chocolates but I’m on a diet. Can you take some?. I went then to a sidewalk and sit beside my sign, and waited.
Some people didn’t notice, others laugh, but just a few people stopped. First, they were more curious about what it was than the chocolate itself. As the time was passing, I started to directly offer, instead of waiting for someone to come.
The second part of this prototype was inside the subways, where I had a much more active reception. I tried three times, and I would always come up with the same speech (also pretty similar to those I’m used to watch): – I’m sorry to bother you. My name is Isadora. And I just want to wish you all a great day and offer some chocolate. It’s free.
At the first iteration, there were a lot of kids in the train and they seamed really excited about this idea. A lot of people took it. On another train, I repeated the same speech, but nobody accepted.
Finally, on my third tentative, I decided to try to make people laugh and I added the comment about being on a diet and that they should help me lose weight. It was pretty successful, people with all ages were laughing and taking my chocolates.

And a special thanks to Luiza Trigo for filming and photographing it! : )

This project was a continuation of my first one, Nice Quotes. The principle was the same: spread objects for random people to take and interact with. But instead of leaving quotes that could reach an audience that wasn’t particular interest in them, I decided to leave something that could be of real use inside its specific context.

I picked up a flower, a wii game that I didn’t want to use anymore, a book that I’ve already read, some stamps, some coins and a metro card with one round trip fee. I also made some cards to attach to them: THIS IS FOR YOU, EVEN THOUGH I DON’T KNOW YOU. LET’S SPREAD KINDNESS! E-MAIL:THEKINDCHAIN@GMAIL.COM.

And I left them where they would be more easily appreciated: I offered my wii game for free on Craig List, I left the coins at a payed public phone, in case people needed to use it as an emergency and didn’t have the change. And the stamps, I left them on an automated machine at the post office, because the last time I used it, I had to pay $10 on stamps, even though I just need two of them.

The flower doesn’t have a specific use except by what it means, so I left it inside a residential building, above a current newspaper that was on a bench. And the metrocard, I didn’t need to leave anywhere, because at the moment I entered the station, a stranger (visibly lost and coming from another country) asked to me how he could go the 14th station (we were on 18th), because he left at the wrong stop. It was a torrential rain outside and I gave him my metrocard so he could enter at the subway again.

One hour later, I revisited all these places, and none of the objects was there (except by the wii game, nobody claimed it). But once again, I didn’t receive any feedback. So I imagined how I could make it more appealing for people to interact, and I imagined a website that would present all these interactions, where people could download these cards and post what they are doing and also thank for what others have done for them. Besides it, there would also be a place where user could be ranked according to how much have they contributed so far.

1) THE ELEVATOR GREETING

I left the class with a will of being kinder each day more. And that thing about nobody greeting on the elevator stuck to me. So, next morning I decided to take a small step: 7:30 am I pasted a post it on the elevator, close to the buttons with the following message ” Good Morning! I hope you have a great day!”. I didn’t sign.

The last time I checked it was 9:00am, and it was still there. But then I had to leave the building and only came back at 9:00pm. It was not there anymore. It’s definitely a coincidence, but it happened that the next two people I had to share the elevator with, were really nice to me.

2) SMILING FACE

One day on the subway, I realized that I was isolating myself the same way as all the people I was criticizing. So I decided to leave my Iphone inside the bag and, instead of that, I  just kept smiling, until the time to leave the train. I don’t think it might have had an effect in others, but I was definitely in a better humor after that.

3) I SAW A BUTTERFLY TODAY

Once I’ve hear that butterflies are a sign of hope, just because they only survive in well balance environments. So, a couple of years ago, when I was really sad and a butterfly suddenly touched me, I decided that this was a good sign. Since then, I’m always searching for butterflies, not matter where I go. Sometimes, in Rio,  I would have to spend one hour on the transit to get at work, and I would see more than 15 butterflies on my way. The funny thing is that, when I talked about this to my friends, they were very suspicious: – There’s no way that there are some many butterflies around here. But once they started to pay attention, they would always see them.

Back to NY, when Cynthia suggested that I should compare my experience in both cities to understand why this “positive attitude” was so important to me, I realized that here, one of the things that bothers me, is that your eyes don’t have any scape to urban objects.

That’s why I decided to create my own butterflies and put them in the way to my work. I printed 40 of them in different colors, cut, folded and used that sticky tack to hold them from the middle. Every day I have to cross part of the Queensboro Bridge, and this time I spread them all along the bridge.

I arrived at work first, and when I asked to my coworkers if they had seen it, nobody said yes. It made me feel kind of frustrated. But on my way back, I saw a man pointing them to his colleague. And on the next day, many butterflies were still there. And some of them were even rearranged. What made me feel that maybe this could take me somewhere.

4) WHAT DO I SEE

The moment I found out that none of my coworkers had seen my butterflies, it made me wonder if I was seeing too much. So I decided to make a list of everything that I notice in the short way from home to work (5min walking + 20min on subway + 8min walking):

1. 2 asian women with kids in a stroller. One of the kids was blond, the other asian too.
2. The Big San Bernardo peeing on the corner. His elbows were injured.
3. The girl with wet hair, neither thin or fat.
4. The blind woman crossing the street.
5. The cute guy with stripped shirt.
6. the gradient of the fruit’s color on the stand, from red to green
7. the man with a big cigar that was the color of his skin
8. two women sitting side by side, both with leopard patterns shirts
9. feather on the subway (how did it got there?)
10. mustache posters
11. the guy that looked like Sven, but with a smaller head
12. wracked posters
13. the ocean of people going in my direction
14. the boy that kisses the girl that seams not to care
15. the lost glove on the pedestrians passage
16. Fourteen butterflies I left yesterday
17. yellow metal luggage tied to the water fountain
18. The reflect that the sun lights makes on the street through the bus’ window
19. the smile faces on the bridge
20. smile face on the door sign