Thursday, August 17

Without a helper, I have to carry the stations one at a time from my studio today. When I get to the corner with the first one, I have two people waiting for me! A friend, Monica, and a new acquaintance and fellow public-artist, RA. They use one of the stations while I run back for the other one.



When I come back, Monica and I take a turn.


When we were done, a few people had gathered in curiosity - following the principle that RA and I had discussed, that people on the street will only stop to check something out if it looks like something is already going on. These two people were both curious and asking questions, so I explained a little, and then suggested that they try it together, which they did!


When they were done, I used the station with the woman, who was very excited about her observations on her own process when using the station. She noticed that she went from awkwardly introducing herself, to telling about her day, to reflecting on how the events of her life are affecting her emotionally.

The last participants for the day are a pair of friends who were apparently engaged in a conversation as they walked down the street, in which one friend was dominating. When they finished using the station, he commented that when it was time for him to speak, he seemed to have lost his train of thought, and spent the time noticing and commenting on what was going on around him on the street.

Wednesday, August 16

I arrive at the corner to find a woman in a red shirt, who asks, " are you here for me?" I guess that she is someone who has heard of the project from my emails or the recent press in the Philadelphia Weekly- my hunch is confirmed when it is my turn to listen, and she tells me that she is Libby, she of the Fallon and Rosof artblog, who I have had on my mailing list for a few months now. It's a pleasure to finally meet her, and after we take a few minutes each, we chat about the nature of engaging the public in art actions. She hangs around for a while in the hopes of catching me with another user, but no luck. There don't seem to be as many people out as usual, and not a single person stops to use the station off the street today!

Later in the hour, my friend and housemate Liz comes by, and we take 3 minutes each before hoisting the stations on our shoulders and making our way back to my studio.

Tuesday, August 15

Another late afternoon in the sun... my housemate Michael helps me carry the stations from the studio, and then has to run to do an errand.

I get set up, and then hang back at the wall for a few minutes. A woman about my age comes to rest on the wall, but declines to try the station. After over-hearing me explaining the project to a couple of other passers-by, she decides to try it out after all ( not pictured). We take 2 minutes each, and she tells me that this is a different kind of experience- she is accustomed to writing her thoughts out, but not speaking them in this way.

After she leaves, a few of the same friendly young travelers from yesterday stop by, bringing others with them. The woman who had been here before explained to two others how to use the station, while I oriented two men who took an interest at the same time.


I get to hold their puppy while the stations were in use. This dog has a reputation for being a bad-ass, because on the night of the police confrontation, he made his way on his own from center city all the way back to the west philly squat house these folks are staying in. ( see Monday, August 14)


Everyone dispersed, and my next taker is a warm-hearted fellow-artist. Here he is perusing the use-log chart. After our 2 minutes each, he gave me a warm hug, and reminded me to stay real, as I am.


Towards the end of the hour, a pair of young boys biked up with curiosity. They tried it out for one minute each, using it in the spirit of a game, as I had noticed other young people have done. When they finish, one of the boys asks if they can do it again!


They take another 2 minutes each before getting back on the bike to go to football practice.


if you've tried it, don't forget to post a comment on your experience with the listening station!

Monday, August 14

A warm afternoon in West Philly... I begin with Ken, who helped me bring the stations from the studio. This week I am bringing out both listening stations, which will allow me to invite passersby when two other people have already begun to use a station.


Ken and I end up going back and forth with 2-minute turns, talking and listening on some ideas for our relationship, and on how annoyed I am with the police car parked right next to "my" spot- right under a "NO parking at any time" sign.
( and, look ma, sandbags!)


As Ken is leaving, a friend of his from the Temple MBA program comes along with his partner. They try out the station, and commented afterwards on how different it feels from an informal conversation, with its back-and-forth rhythm.


For a while, I get no takers, but people are definately not in as much of a hurry as they seemed to be during the morning hour of the first week's installation. I have a number of friendly interactions with people who express interest in coming back on another day with a colleague or friend. Having the information cards that I printed today seems to help with folks who are curious but not ready to try it.

A young man who seemed curious comes back around and spends two minutes telling me all about himself as if in a personals ad. He is from Turkey, a computer programmer, these are his favorite movies, etc... He seems like a lovely person, but I make sure to mention my boyfriend when it's my turn to talk. Even so, when we are done he asks if I have a boyfriend, and still suggests that I come over for dinner tonight. I decline, but am excited to have an open invitation to get to know him and hear some traditional Turkish music.

While we were on the station, a few young punk/anarchist travelers gathered on the library wall. I ask them where they are from, and we have a great conversation about traveling, dumpster-diving, police aggression and militant vegan straight-edge gangs. Eventually, they all decided to try the listening station.

While they all were going at it, my housemate Isaac and his friend Natalie showed up. The first time people were waiting in line to use the listening station!


Isaac noticed that for him, it was easier to listen than to talk for two minutes. We also discussed the various styles of listening- whether to respond with facial expression or not, to maintain complete silence, or to include non-verbal sounds of acknowledgement. I've noticed that I tend to use different listening styles depending on who I am listening to and what they are speaking about.

While Natalie and Issac are using the station, I strike up a conversation with a young woman who is working as a UPenn security guard for this corner. Her shift started at 5 pm, and she'll be on the job until 3 am. I step away for a minute to take a few pictures, and she starts encouraging other passers-by to try the listening station- great!

She and I take 3 minutes each before Natalie, Isaac and I pack up the stations and signpost for the day.

ps- did you use the listening station today? please post a comment on your experience!

week 2 begins tomorrow!

This week, August 14-18, the Listening Station will be available for your use at the south-east corner of 40th and Walnut in West Philadelphia, from 5-6 pm, Monday through Friday.

Participants will be asked to fill out a simple chart after use of the Listening Station, and may be photographed or video-taped ( no audio) with permission of the participants.

Come with a person with whom you would like to use the listening station, or come alone and use the station with me or with someone you have not met before.

Special Request!
If you are available to assist me in carrying the two listening stations and signpost from my studio to the corner of 40th and Walnut ( 2 short blocks), at 4:50 pm any day this week, please email me.

see you on the corner!

Friday, July 28

When I arrive at 40th and Walnut today, a group of high school students is gathered at the library wall. As soon as I put the station down, I approach them, and a pair of friends agrees to try it out:
When they finished, I asked them what it was like. One said it was hard to just talk for the whole time, but that she liked it. The other said she noticed that she liked the feeling of just listening.
Another pair of friends decided to try it too:
Soon after the group leaves, a pair of boys walks by, both eating candy bars. I ask them " would you like to try the listening station?" and they shrug at each other and sit down. They take 1 minute each, and go on their way again, after declaring the listening station "fun".

My last interaction of the week is with a man who has come by a few times going in and out of the library. He comes back after declining to use the station, and tells me that it's a " sweet piece" and that he really likes public art. I remind him that it's meant to be used, but he doesn't take the hint. He asks for my website, and while fishing around for a piece of paper, finds a book in his bag. He insists that I take it as a "fair trade", for what- I am not sure.
Upon later inspection, it appears to be a book bought at the library sale table, or at The Last Word down the street, and seems to be a useless analysis of the minor painter and orientalist, Eugene Fromentin.

For the last few minutes of the hour, I sit at the station, asking passersby, " would you like to try the listening station?"

Thursday, July 27

Back at 40th and Walnut again, this seems to be a low-participant day. More people are saying they don't have time, they're on their way to work. When I ask one man, " would you like to try the listening station?" he answers: " I already have one, thanks".
The view from the listening station (waiting):

Next, I have my first visit from the police. A bike patrol office pulls up behind me and begins to read the placard attached to the back of my seat. I turn around and ask him the same thing I ask everyone... he declines, and asks if I'm wit h the library, am I selling anything... I assure him I am not, and that I will be gone within the hour. He leaves, saying he won't bother me as long as he doesn't receive any complaints. I'll clearly need to check in with the library next time I do a week-long installation here...

My friend Michael arrives just as I have sat down with the first participant of the day- a woman who starts off my asking me a list of questions that I don't answer- what do you thing of george W? when will this war end? what's that building they're putting up? ( the new condo) how much do you think I'll need to open a savings account at the bank? once she starts talking, she gets on a roll. she tells me she has three children, and can't wait until they get 18 so she can " kick them to the curb". She tells me about her job as a child-care provider, and all about her co-workers, the children whom she affectionately refers to as rug-rats...

Michael and I take a few minutes each, and he remarks on how nice it feels to just be listened to. I tell him about how busy I am feeling these days, with this project in the morning, and my teaching job in the afternoons...

the signpost has been blowing over- need sandbags!

Wednesday July 26

I arrive at the south-west corner of 40th and Chestnut today to find a deafening jackhammer at work a few feet from where I had been placing the listening station.


This seems to require a new location- I decide to try out the corner of 40th and Walnut, a site that I had considered previously. There's better shade there in the morning, in the shadow of the recently re-opened Walnut West branch of the Philadelphia Free Library. It's a corner with more street life- sidewalk seating at restaurants, a park nearby. It's also at the edge of UPenn's campus, which will mean more students, but with a McDonald's, and one of the few grocery stores in the area, it still attracts all sorts of folks. I hoist up the listening station to re-locate.
At the new location, I seem to encounter more polite resistance- and also more challenging reactions to my offer of " would you like to try the listening station?" More than one person demands to know the point of the experience, or what they will get out of it. I'm determined to answer honestly- "you'll have to try to find out" - but it's not easy to hold that line!
Eventually a young man sitting on the wall of the library agrees to try it out- he came to print out resumes at the library, but has to make another plan, as it is closed. He tells me how his rooommate plays the same song on the piano every morning.
While we're using the station, my friends Nachshon David and Rebecca arrive, and take 5 minutes each:

Tuesday, July 25

Today I started in the sun near the curb and moved back towards the buildings once the shade there was large enough. Definately not as visible there.
Again, sitting at the station, asking: " would you like to try the listening station?"
responses vary from being ignored, politely declining, slight interest, and a few takers.
the first participant is a young man with an interest in public art, who comments on the gentrification of the neighborhood, and suggests video documentation of the listening station- something that is definately on my list for future installations. He also told me that he doesn't have to work until 3, he's hanging out until then, and will probably go smoke a joint before work.
The next young man I talk with is not willing to sit, so we take turns listening to each other standing over the listening station. He uses his whole time asking me questions that I don't answer, about where the bus goes, where there's an atm from his bank, and whether I have a boyfriend.
And then, I do get a woman who is waiting for the bus- we have just enough time to listen to each other for one minute each before the bus arrives. She tells me about renovations to her apartment, and the blueberries she had in her cereal for breakfast.

For my part, I am noticing my variable comfort level with my turn to speak with these participants. Sometimes I feel free to talk about what is going on in my life, other times I am more nervous, and talk mostly about my worries regarding how the project is going.

Monday, July 24

This is the first day of the preliminary listening week. Never having installed this piece in a public place, I decided to try it for an hour each day, 10-11 am from Monday July 24 to Friday July 28. I invited close friends to join me in using the station to help start things off- but the idea is mainly to invite passers-by to use the listening station with me.
To begin, I brought the listening station to the south-west corner of 40th and chestnut. This is the nearest corner to my studio. ( I am an artist in residence at the 40th st Artist in Residence program from July 2006 to January 2007)

This corner has a busy bus stop ( to the right in this photo), small businesses, and a new condo building being built across the street ( brown facade in the background) It is also near UPenn's campus, but far enough removed for a wider variety of people on the street.














So, at 10 am, Ken and I brought the station and signpost out, and sat down to listen to each other for 3 minutes each. When we were done, Ken stood a little ways off while I began to invite people walking by to stop and try the listening station.

My exact words were, " would you like to try the listening station?"

Almost immediately, I started talking with a man who looked to be in his early 30's, who asked if I had a dollar. I said I didn't have any money, but I had lots of time, and would he like to try the listening station? After a short amount of persistence, he agreed.

The flip-sign indicated that he should talk, and I should listen, and we agreed on 3 minutes each. After I started the timer, he asked what he should talk about. I shrugged and smiled. He shrugged too, and proceeded to rap and rhyme for the full 3 minutes, never taking his eyes off mine. I didn't catch everything, but it was a powerful ode to makin it in the city...

Over the next hour, I discovered that people coming off the bus were more likely to stop to find out what I was about than people waiting for the bus, contrary to my expectation.

I had two more takers that day- an older man who used his time to commend me on the project and comment on the usefulness of it in Phildelphia which to him seems to uptight. And, a middle aged woman who was on her way to the doctor and hoped she would have time to go to reading terminal afterwards.

A great first try, feeling confident and amazed at how well the simple direction of speaking and listening works. Realizing that I have to be on the job the entire time, approaching people. They won't come to me- folks on city streets want to ignore whatever is unusual or seems like it will inconvenience them.
And, need to find a way to have the station in the shade more!

the listening station

the Listening Station

a Listening Station is an object for two people to sit on

it is designed so that the two people must sit close to one another, and facing each other.

it is not a very comfortable seat.

it is not meant for lounging, eating lunch, or reading the paper

(although in its public installation it may end up to be used for these activities)

the Listening Station is meant to be used by two people who take turns listening to each other for equal amounts of time.

it is equipped with:

a brief list of directions,

a small digital timer,

and a set of flip cards on a post with the only two instructions:

“SPEAK” and “LISTEN”

the Listening Station can be used by any two people.

any two people:

regardless of age, race, class, religion, sexual orientation, ethnicity, nationality, occupation.

any two people:

regardless of whether they be acquainted or strangers, family relation, friend, lover, employee, employer, colleague, parent, child, spouse, roommate.

the Listening Station is meant to be used by two people who take turns listening to each other.

the person speaking may speak on any topic.

the person speaking may also not speak at all, and still be listened to.

the person listening, listens.

then switch!