Impromptu & pop-up

Fun temporary engagement of people in places. Accessible. Joyful.


Volunteer artists and activists engaged trail users in an impromptu finish line celebration for average, everyday Canal Trail users.  Participants emerged from their hidden positions to surprise runners, bikers, and walkers. Unsuspecting Canal trail users were shifted out of their everyday mindset to begin wondering what it would be like to experience more public art and community celebration in their public spaces. Everyone passing through also got a big dose of good ol’ fashioned encouragement.


Working with White River artist Lisa Eliot in an effort to beautify an otherwise mundane shore of the White River, artists from the surrounding community and nearby high school used their boots to etch upon the fresh snow a series of highly visible eddies and swirls to compliment the flow of the frigid water. Artwork was visible from nearby bridges as well as the hospitals and university on the opposite shore.


This collaboration with Know No Stranger first made it's debut with Art in Odd Places and was recreated forOxford Kinetics Festival. Well-dressed human-pigeon-hybrids interact with people on the street. With briefcases full of birdseed, these peckers engage humans by doing birdbrained things like digging in trash, skittishly flying away from danger, and throwing breadcrumbs to/at children and adults. Pigeon Business provokes a surreal experience by creating a bizarre mishmash of two species that share a habitat but rarely interact: pigeons and businessmen. 


Part of Spirit and Place Festival, 2012, This commission brought a sense of play to otherwise ordinary public spaces. over 70 Semi-permanent decals were installed city-wide and invited passersby to engage in creative play. Games involved physical feats, meeting strangers and site-specific interaction with the streetscape.

  • "Monumental Boggle" has players forming new words from existing letters on the war memorial.
  • "Pied Piper" requires competitors travel in opposite directions around the downtown circle, attempting to amass the larger group of pedestrians along the way.  The player with the most new friends wins.
  • "Born in a Barn" has players predicting how many restaurant patrons will accidentally leave the door open at an iconic downtown eatery.
  • "Shoe Put" tells players to loosen the laces on a shoe and fling it for distance.
  • "Phone Booth" invites players to see how many people they can fit crammed atop the gamespot decal.
  • "Flash Dance" involves dancing along to music in passing cars.

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