TICKET MACHINE
This is my first attempt using Eyebeam to complete the artist blog post assignment. The project I chose to elaborate on is the Ticket Machine. This project is a Rube Goldberg type collaborative installation. It is a ticket machine that is triggered into action when someone drops a coin into its slot. The machine will then “unveil different worlds, created by the collaborators, and finally produce a printed ticket”.
I have chosen to interpret this quoted description of the project, and the project itself, as a metaphorical description of what the ticket offers to the bystander, or audience if you will. I feel the creators are attempting to make people more aware of what it is they are actually purchasing when they enter into a transaction for the slip of paper that is commonly known as a “ticket”. A ticket is first a pass into a new “world” or “environment”, whether it be a ticket for the theatre, a trip, a concert, a movie, or fair, especially the Renaissance fair. All of these wide range of places have a few things in common. They all require you to purchase a ticket to experience what they behold, and when executed properly, they will transport you into an other worldly place and making you forget all your worldly troubles that lie outside its walls. Some, like the ticket for the trip, will more literally transport you.
When people have possession of a ticket, they join a small privileged group that has exclusive access to an unexplored place. Though a ticket is a mere piece of paper, this project is meant to emphasize the meaning this piece of paper embodies. It carries the imagination and anticipation of the future, and of what new world and adventures this ticket will unlock for you.
All of these meaningful thoughts and messages all are conveyed to the audience in a mere matter of minutes. From the second the coin is dropped in the slot til the ticket is finally printed. This installation was created during the Eyebeam Roadshow 2010 at 01SJ in San Jose. Collaborators include: James Stone, Randy Sarafan.
I don’t necessarily have a critique of this work, more of a suggestion. I would like to have seen the machine print tickets for different exotic destinations that everyone wants to visit, but the majority of people never get the chance to. I feel like this addition would help make the artist’s message more salient. By making the person who purchased the ticket either remember a time when they wanted to go to the destination on their ticket, or create the possibility of them traveling to that destination in the future, I feel the viewer would understand and remember the message even better since it became a personal memory in the process. This is just an idea however, and I love the idea of the project in general, and am very curious as to how long this installation was installed. I honestly think this would have been very interesting and I wish I could have participated in it.
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