Library Spectacle

Joel, Siri, and I performed our spectacle last night and I could not be more satisfied with how it turned out. Even before we began, there were conflicts. Some dude was giving Joel some serious attitude when Joel asked him if he could use a table at 10 30. He would not leave. So, we adjusted our plans and ventured further into the reference room. Every table had a few people at it and once we finally planted ourselves in our positions and began to rip books, heads instantly turned. We were a group of about 7 or 8 people and the ripping was much louder than I had expected. It would have been hard to ignore. We definitely made a scene, writing on the paper with lipstick, throwing scraps into the air, and taping the ripped pages all around the room. People took pictures and videos of us, stared, and whispered to their friends in awe. Eventually, public safety was called and they demanded that we explain ourselves. We said that they were not library books and it was for an art class. One of the PS officers said "This is not an art studio!" They finally understood what our intent there was but they did not seem too happy with us so we gathered the scraps into books and left. At this point, many studying students had completely neglected their work to watch us be interrogated by "the law."

The aftermath:

The guy who gave us trouble before the performance started said to me "You should have run"

A picture was up on facebook within about 30 minutes with a caption saying "This is why I don't study in the library" and it had already been liked twice

I went to dittman immediately after the performance and a friend of mine had already heard about the spectacle

This performance definitely created a spectacle in my opinion, and even though I got a little nervous when public safety arrived, I think it was very successful. People seemed interested in what we were doing and it was certainly out of the norm for the reference room. I found it interesting that nobody approached us asking us what we were doing, if they were library books, or if we could quiet down. They kind of took the shy yet aggressive way by directly contacting public safety. Over all, I am very satisfied with the work we accomplished and I think my team collaborated wonderfully.