project 23/

A DEVICE FOR THE ARRIVAL OF GUESTS

E. Lisovskaya, Housewife, Chkalovsk

Today, during a time of avid flourishing of tourism, the televi- sion, radio and other means of information forcing someone to wrack their brains over something unfamiliar is no small task. It is impossible to surprise anyone, and you could say that "every- one has virtually seen everything already" - from a rare work of art to an amazing sea creature - even if it is only on a photo- graph or a screen.

Therefore, to arouse strong interest and a desire to focus one's attention on something unknown for some people today seems to be impossible and even improper, and just the opposite, when inviting guests today it is customary to speak only about things that are widely known, to speak about what everyone already knows. It is precisely this used by the proposed project of a device which will "work" as soon as "wittingly all-knowing guests" arrive. The "device" is an old plywood board that has stood out in the rain for a long lime and then dried out by the sun, with a brown piece of felt cut out in an accidental configuration nailed to the center. The "device" is hung on the wall in such a way that soft armchairs standing form a semi-circle in front of it. The guests sit down and completely unwittingly - the "device" has been tried and tested for a long time - a flood of utterances will begin - the farther on you go the freer they will become - the impressions and images that everyone knows came into their heads in connection to what is hanging before them. The absurdity of the thing hanging on the wall absolutely automati- cally provokes a flood of banal associations and gradually the guests begin to get drawn into a fascinating game: how many sim- ple and ordinary stories can be told about such an extraordinary incident.

A DEVICE FOR THE ARRIVAL OF GUESTS

1. Obtain or create artificially an old frame (170 x 110 x 4), covered with plywood on both sides with loose edges and cracks in them. The plywood is light gray, slightly blue.

(Old pale-blue paint.)

2. Nail a piece of felt in the center of its surface (the shape and form should be as in the sketch). The felt should be old, dark brown with a hairy cover sticking out from all sides. (If the felt is gray, paint it dark brown so that the paint is absorbed into the felt.)