A Little Experiment I Conducted Gave Me Some Hint
Day 27 of 30-Day Writing Challenge
The event, held at Frye Art Museum – I had never displayed my flower arrangement before – was quite a unique opportunity for me to experiment something new.
Between 100 and 200 visitors were expected to show up between a rather short time span from 11am to 2pm.
There were three other exhibitors. TeaLeaves would offer tea tasting. Fran’s chocolates would offer tasting of their new product. Botanical Colors would conduct a color-dyeing workshop.
What should we Five Senses Foundation offer? A normal ikebana demonstration would be too boring. Another workshop would wear out the visitors…
On the round container I placed two large branches and spread a fishing net on the branches to make a platform of the arrangement.
I bought bunch of different kinds of flowers – mums, carnations, dahlias, hydrangeas, all in different shades of pink. And some greens and a few white flowers to add accent. Why mainly pink? Because the event was to celebrate Color of Biodiversity, announced by Pantone earlier in the year.
Right before the event started, I asked each of the exhibitors to place one stem per person onto the platform. I placed a large hydrangea in the middle, to create a focal point.
The door opened. Visitors started to come in. The first stop was Tealeaves, where they enjoyed the tase of Color of Biodiversity tea. The next stop was our table.
“We are trying to collaboratively create a flower arrangement. Would you please participate? Good! Please pick one flower or a green stem. Place it wherever you like. When this event ends at 2pm, let’s see what kind of work we can create together.”
In the course of three hours, well more than 100 people came by. Nobody turned down my offer. Some picked pink, some green, some white. Everyone placed their stems carefully where they thought appropriate.
Three people caught me by surprise.
One person cut out the stem entirely and placed the white mum flower on the tip of the branch on the right. One person made a circle by twisting and weaving a green vine, and placed it on the left branch. And One person picked a hydrangea stem, flipped it upside down, and carefully hang it on the tip of the longest branch on the left.
Out of a little over 100 people who participated in this collaboration work, three people placed their stem in such a way I didn’t expect at all. And to me they were most inspiring!
This was an interesting experiment. Three out of 100. Maybe 3% of whatever happens to me can inspire me. I will set this rate as my expectation!