Field Experiment: Can we gather information about what inspires and/or discourages our fellow students at Pratt Institute by creating a public survey that calls for collaboration?
Plan #1: To make several posters with a variety of prompts and hang them around campus. For example:
______ inspires me to _______________________
__________discourages me from _____________
Wouldn’t it be nice if ________________________
Plan #2: To make “Mad Lib” style posters using paragraphs from the Pratt Institute website, taking out some of the words and allowing people to fill in the blanks.
Goals: To observe whether our posters generate interest, and which locations or prompts are most effective. To see what we can learn about our Pratt community by setting up this informal survey… what are people thinking about, and wishing for, as they are waiting for the elevator?
Observations: The posters that were hung in recently remodeled areas were removed very quickly. The one that was hung on an older wall remained and did get some attention. Interestingly, a majority of the responses we received in this particular case express an interest in time- freezing time, being younger, being older, etc.
Messages left behind:
Wouldn’t it be nice if it was gold. Wouldn’t it be nice if grades didn’t exist. Wouldn’t it be nice if all the rats, mice and bugs died. Wouldn’t it be nice if grad school was free. Wouldn’t it be nice if I could sleep. Wouldn’t it be nice if I were younger. Wouldn’t it be nice if we all actually cared about our government and rights? Wouldn’t it be nice if you could pause time, even if only for a minute. Wouldn’t it be nice if there was more cherry pie in the world. Wouldn’t it be nice if we were all older, then we wouldn’t have to wait so long. Wouldn’t it be nice if I could have both of them. Wouldn’t be nice if he wasn’t so far away.Wouldn’t it be nice if I got laid. Wouldn’t it be nice if I could freeze time. Wouldn’t it be nice if I flew to Neverland every night. Wouldn’t it be nice if I could reset the world. Wouldn’t it be nice if everyone did work.
Plans for the future: Hang all posters in the older parts of campus. Try hanging them off campus. Experiment with different sentence fragments as prompts. Use these responses to create a collaborative public design project.
Design That Moves You 
