HUMAN HERMITS GROUP Experimentation
Experiment 1 - Beach st kilda Experiment 1 - road, beach road, st kilda
Chris talking about the project to a commuter cyclists.
Cyclists pleased with their free apples
Recording observations during the experiment
The first of the Human Hermit’s experiments was a major surprise and we probably learnt more from this experiment that all others combined. People are naturally curious, yet often too shy To act on this curiosity. The sign displaying the promise of free apples attracted a large number of people, but many came without saying anything, and gave limited responses to questions and greetings directed their way. Many people seemed to take advantage of the free apples and weren’t willing to reciprocate a good gesture, this didn’t go well with us and we decided to change out tactics in the middle of the experiment. Changes to the poster advertising free apples was made and we established an exchange system. The exchange system worked surprisingly well as many had no problem stopping for a while, first talking to us about our project which then transpired into talking about what their thoughts about Melbourne cycling was. Many gave us mixed responses about the community but it was clear that a lot compared the situation here to many established systems in European nations. Systems discussed included the new Melbourne Bike Share system that has recently been established in Melbourne. Many seemed to be sceptical about the system to due the price of the system and established helmet laws that prevent people form making on the fly decision about using the system. “If I wanted to just get on the bike and go for a ride I couldn’t because I wouldn’t have a helmet. I would have to plan to use the bikes which kinda defeats the purpose”. - Pedestrian As the time neared 2, many became uninterested in the apples, and weren’t willing to stop for many reasons. Many stated they were full from lunch and few people stopped. A lot seemed to be in a rush to get to somewhere after their leisurely lunch along the waterfront, or to get back to work after their lunch break. We chose not to approach people during the first experiment in order to gain more information about how people would perceive us and whether or not our approach to the events created would be initially Guerilla Advertising on the walkway successful.
Project variables Project variables - Incentive: Experiments with and without incentive for cyclists to stop will be performed. - Location: Experiments will be performed along a variety of cycling routes to test whether different areas yield different outcomes - Time: Certain times of the day will likely give different results due to peak hours in the morning and afternoon (before and after work/uni) - Project Involvement: The study of informality was also looked at with regards to our direct involvement in the project, in some cases we would drum up attention, in other we left it up to the public to act on their own curiosity - Weather: The project was dependent on the forces of mother nature, different weather yeilded a variety of different results. - Scale: The Human Hermit’s experiments varied in scale this was done on purpose to see what demographic (if any at all) were attracted to different sizes of events.
3 - beach road,st st kilda ExperimentExperiment 3 - beach road, kilda
Free Fruit! This experiment was conducted at the same spot as the first one. Considering the success of the first one we decided to try it again on a weekday. This experiment was conducted on a Tuesday morning at 9:30am. We used the same table as the first experiment in St Kilda, due to its good location, and that it gave us an area to set up our things. We also used apples in this experiment, because they were not too expensive, and quite easy to transport around. We had signs up stating our purpose, and a comments board for people to leave their thoughts. We had some music playing also to generate a reason for people to be interested in what we were doing. In the previous experiment in St Kilda we didn’t mark the ground alerting people to use. So we did so in this one. The placement of the markings were crucial, they had to be far enough so people could have enough time to slow and interact with us, but close enough to allow people to recognise that the markings related to our experiment. We thought, why waste money on printing large posters with our details when we can just use the ground. This large marking was our website and our motto. “Establishing a commuter community for the people of Melbourne”. Many people stopped to look at what it said. This was placed near to where we had set up, to allow people to connect the us to the sign. This helped to generate interest. Instead of us confronting people telling them about the our aims and the website, it was up to them.
Our setup was again using the same table and location as our first experiment, because it was very successful we decided to see how a different day and time would effect the results. This day not many people stopped out of their free will. So this time we decided to approach people, holding out an apple to people, generating interest. A group of 4 approached us asking what we were all about and proceeded to explain how here son was a bike messenger, and that she thought what we were doing was a good thing. She said that she was pleased to see that we were trying to generate a social commuting between commuters “Would you like an apple” was our tongue as commuters flew past us. And as the second person went past success! He took an apple. Chris decided to try another approach of chasing people down, and offering them an apple, this just resulted in people being freaked out. But as more and more people saw others accepting apples, they were more inclined to take one themselves. Some people asking why we were giving out apples, with us then explaining our project. Apples were flying out from our hands by this stage. But still not as many people stopped after taking an apple, compared to the first experiment where people spoke to us before taking an apple.
Experiment 2 - st2kilda Experiment - stroadkilda road The second of our experiments was conducted along the popular southern route into the city, St. Kilda Road (connecting to Swanston St). We chose to set up outside the popular Anzac Memorial as it would serve as a landmark for our site, somewhere many knew about and could be easily associated with. We chose to have a small setup but attract attention through chalk drawings along both the bike path along the main roads, as well as the pedestrian walkway that cyclists used frequently. The first hour was spent waiting for people to come on the own accord, but we immediately realised that this was not going to be the case, so we too a more hands on approach to gathering attention and getting people involved. We greeted both pedestrians and cyclists as they came by and managed to get a few interested pedestrians. The most egar participant in our event was from Europe and proceeded to give us insight into the cycling community here as compared to back where he was from. “Melbourne doesn’t have the social infrastructure just yet, but I can see they are trying, people here show too much discrimination towards other cyclists of different disciplines”. The man went on explain that he wasn’t a commuter himself due to the location of his work and the complicated and often congested route he would have to take every morning. This point stuck with us and made it clear that the safety of commuter cycling in Melbourne needs to under go several necessary changes to promote and establish a cycling culture. Over the next few hours few cyclists stopped, although several acknowledged our presence and stated they were interested but didn’t have the time to stop. It was clear that without incentive (apples) many weren’t willing to slow down and stop
4 - upfield bike path ExperimentExperiment 4 - upfield bike path Back to free fruit! This experiment lead us to one of the most popular commuting cycling routes in Melbourne, the Upfield bike path. Our first instinct was to start the experiment early, to get as many passers by as possible. But with knowledge of the parameters of the path, we decided not to do it during peak rush because of safety reasons. With so many cyclist passing by at one time, to have them stop and accept the fruit and talk to us if they wished would have been extremely dangerous for other commuters on the path. So we decided to start at 10am, on a Wednesday morning. We found a place where we were able to set up our things so we weren't interfering with the path. This way commuters could stop without being in the way of others. We set up our fruit which consisted of apples. As well placed signs on opposing poles to grab the commuters attentions as they road past. As the time went past their were only really people walking that passed us. They showed almost no interest at all with what we were doing. No eye contact, or expression of interest. Not one stopped to ask us what we were doing. As the bikers started to flow past we received no interest once again. A lot of the time was spent just standing there with no interaction between any of the commuters or passers by. So a new approach was needed. As in the previous experiment if people were not going to approach us the we would approach them. After waiting for a commuter that was going slow enough for us to ask them if they “would like an apple”, generating their interest in what we were doing, it was around 45 minutes. Two males flew past with not a word in reply. We were now starting to understand that people really just wanted to get from A to B. One eastern European man, mumbled something under his breath to us. We weren’t sure exactly what he said, but the only word I could make out was “newspaper”. But unfortunately we didn’t have any. He just continued to walk by us. As more and more time past, it was clear to us that people really had no interest in what we were doing. This path was more of a lane way to a destination. Rather then a social commuter route. It was barely wide enough for two riders to go past one another, let alone riding next to each other exchanging words. This experiment was not successful in terms of generating peoples interest fro what we were doing, but it gave us information into people behaviours in different areas of commuter paths within Melbourne.
Chris Dalamagas S3203603 - Daniel ward S3198413 - Oscar Langley S3231372