In my design process class at OCAD this term we learned about the process… of… well… design. No really, for real.

Ok, what that actually means is we learned how to come up with creative ideas on a deadline. Which is actually very helpful.

In one assignment we had to sabotage something we disliked in a way that was ultimately beneficial to society (which meant nothing illegal – which kinda ultimately makes it not really sabotage anymore but, whatever).

This is our final installation – an elevator sudoku board. It’s meant to sabotage urban society’s tendency to close off from one another (especially in elevators).

The theory was that this would make people WANT to talk to each other – about why the heck there’s a sudoku board in the elevator, and whether anyone want’s to play.

We used the conveniently located wood shop (oh… the many dreamy amenities of an art school *sigh*) to drill holes into dry erase pens so we could hang them from the vents in the ceiling (so they wouldn’t wander away). We also used masking tape (in eye-catching fluro colours) so that we could just pull it down and wipe it away when finished (thereby not vandalizing the school).

See! It worked! That’s a random stranger interacting with his environment and the people around him without prompting (other than the game board on the wall).

Heads up for future students making installations on site at OCAD:
When OCAD says: “your installation must come down after two hours”, they mean: “or else it will instantly disappear like Cinderella at midnight.”

Good thing we were taking pictures all along.