INSTANT GRATIFICATION at Mission Park

Members of the Berwick are very grateful to be among a very few invitees to the opening today of a short-term installation work by Roslindale-based artist RR Selavy at the Mission Park MBTA stop in Mission Hill. Selavy's peice INSTANT GRATIFICATION, produced in collaboration with the MBTA and underwritten by Palm Inc., will be on display for roughly 48 hours at the Mission Park bus kiosk (on the 39 and 66 bus routes.)

Selavy has managed, with the help of the corporate sponsorship of Palm Inc., to get the MBTA to collaborate in this simple, but effective, interactive public work. Using light sensors and the derriers of passengers, Selavy has constructed a thought-provoking public commentary on the mixed messanging which captive consumers are constantly confronted with. In this case, by working with his sponsor and collaborator to bring two out of synch realities in line with each other. Noting in passing a Palm Inc. ad at the site reminding passengers waiting for the erratic MBTA buses that "Life moves fast" and that they shouldn't "miss a thing", Selavy, well-aware of the notoriously unreliable 66 and 39 bus routes, was inspired to reach out and around the kiosk middlemen, to connect the advertiser directly to the client by asking for their joint support of his 48 hour adventure.

Known for his tongue in cheek responses to found environments, Selavy installed photosensitve transmitters under the kiosk bench that are active during daylight hours only on February 27, 2010 and February 28, 2010. When the natural light source is interrupted by the baggage or bottom of a waiting MBTA passenger, transmitters send signals to the buses on these routes (extra buses have been subsized by Palm Inc.,) and a 66 or 39 bus, bypassing any other stops between where it was when the signal came and the Mission Park kiosk, arrives within moments, astounding passengers who had expected to be settling in for a 30minute plus wait on a typical Saturday or Sunday.

 "The action is so small" says Selavy, standing with Berwick representatives and a few others at INSTANT GRATIFICATION's opening while bus after bus arrived to pick up passenger after passenger, "but it's not. For the typical weekend MBTA passenger, this simple thing is a miracle."

Berwickers boarding the 6th ass-retrieved bus, had to agree that this was both a pleasant and effective artistic intervention into the accepted norms at the Mission Park bus kiosk.

 See INSTANT GRATIFICATION, opposite 824 Huntington Ave, Boston, through 02/28/2010.

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