Brainstorming an Environment for "Transfer"

While wrapping up the propel project, the students of BDS 101 are venturing into part two of the project "What Language Looks Like". This involves drawing a word, particularly a verb, out of a hat, building 3 foot versions of that word, in our case "transfer" out of cardboard, and photographing them around campus.

Our homework for today was to scout out particularly good places to place the word "transfer". So yesterday afternoon, in addition to running some errands, I ventured around campus brainstorming creative locations to place this over-sized verb.

Here is what I came up with:

Idea #1: The bank, a whole lot of money gets transferred back and forth, especially with my account and being that I'm from Iowa. My idea is to place the letters like they're waiting in line to be helped; waiting to transfer some of that hard-earned money that they've gotten posing for our group around campus.

Idea #2: The Union reception desk where lots of people call in needing to be transferred to different offices within the building. My idea is to place the letters either on the desk or on the ground in a diagonal line pointing to the girl talking on the phone.

Idea #3: The elevator where large numbers of people are transferred to different floors. My plan is to have the letters ride up and down on the elevator and take pictures of them on each floor with different groups of people standing around the letters. I think this could make a really cool concentration of photographs.

Idea #4: The KU transit system, we just came up with this idea today during class and I'm not sure how probable it is but we thought it would be cool if we gathered some of our transfer student friends, especially the ones from different countries and asked them to sit on the bus holding our letters. They would sit in the window seats so people walking on the street could read it in addition to the people riding on the bus.

Idea #5: The driveway of a house for sale. Although I wasn't able to get a picture of this, I think transfer as in a job transfer (and having to move away) is a definition that packs a narrative as well as an emotional appeal.

Idea #6: A bus stop, my idea here was to have the letters sitting on the bench, waiting for the bus to come. The storyline in my head is that you're waiting for the bus to take a journey to get away, to transfer to a different, more ideal destination. I also thought it would enhance the composition if we put a suitcase and backpack next to the letters in addition to having someone sitting on the bench. I think it would communicate the message in a clearer, more emotionally-heightened fashion.