This makes me feel Connected Delighted Empowered Enlightened Excited at an Cultural / Public scale
Key to the City
Paul Ramírez Jonas broke down the barriers between the private and public by giving the keys of the city to everyone
Artist Paul Ramírez Jonas confronted the barriers between the public and the private, between the leadership and the citizenry, and between the resident and the tourist—all by handing out a key. Creative Time and the City of New York supported Ramírez Jonas by allowing him to distribute copies of a master key every day via a booth in Times Square.
The project turned the tradition of bestowing the keys to the city in a civic event on its head, by encouraging people to take their key and hand it over to someone in a one on one “ceremony.” The keys unlocked sites around all 5 boroughs in the city, allowing people access to locked rooms in public spaces.
It encouraged people to interact with spaces within the city that they had never explored before, or to take their tourism to the next level during their stay. Each participant got to embark on an individual journey as they participated in the city-wide scavenger hunt, but also they became a part of a larger event by then bestowing that opportunity on stranger they met on the subway, or in a coffee shop, or wherever their paths happened to cross.
Contributer notes
What is surprising, refreshing, most interesting?
It's refreshing that people participated. The artist was able to get complete strangers to join in and share the experience.
Key Insights? What can we learn from this?
Experience design can be simple. This experience spread between complete strangers, simply via the creation of a master key.