Follow These Tips For A Better Time

The front side of the brochures we handed out. These were detourned from a King County Transit brochure. The text reads: pssst. follow these tips for a better TIME! your time was: (here we put peoples' time). * have your MANIA ready * standing? CONSIDER FURTHER CAFFEINE SUPPLEMENTATION (variant: some of these, we instead said "standing? STAND FASTER) * remove your HESITANCY from the EQUATION * speak up if you want to use the TREBUCHET * give up your MOLASSES TO those that need it more than you (Variant: Some of them said "give up your CNS DEPRESSANTS" instead. side note: "Give up your molasses" is how we've started to say "hurry up" now.) * STRETCH AND MAKE TANGIBLE THE FOURTH DIMENSION. * don't cross in front of the bus * know the alternatives - LIFE has many choices for more information: sf0.org/groups/time

fast, easy, WOW!

The front side of the brochures we handed out. These were detourned from a King County Transit brochure. The text reads: fast, easy, WOW! SF0's got news for you! ready... set... and go! HAVE YOU CONSIDERED THE FOLLOWING TO HELP YOUR SPEED? * SHARKS * BEARS WITH YOUNG CUBS * JUNKYARD DOGS * MOUNTAIN LIONS * BEES ... for more information: sf0.org/groups/time ... King County CHRONONAUTIC EXXON: We'll get you there

TedPro Pensive

We were very pensive about going into a tourist attraction and timing people. You know, worried that it's intrusive and bizarre. This is TedPro being pensive. "What if we get thrown out? Oh, I know. We'll just mark when we get there and time how long it takes them to throw us out, and let them know any tips for how to throw us out faster."

Mutans Pensive

Mutans was very worried, less about getting thrown out by security, and more about ruining other peoples' days with rude intrusions.

EMP plus SFM

The Experimental Music Project and the Science Fiction Museum share the same space. This logo expresses that union nicely. TedPro and Mutans are spookily visible in the reflection.

SFM Building

The Science Fiction Museum is located right next to the Space Needle in Seattle. I can't decide if the flowing, pseudo-organic, plate-metal architecture of the SFM and EMP is dramatic and beautiful, or tacky and off-putting. So that's pretty ideal.

Entrance Sign

Here's the entrance to the SFM. In fact, the rock museum and the science fiction museum are kind of indistinguishable inside: one gate, one ticket, just different labels on different exhibits in the one shared space.

SFM Entrance

The Nirvana exhibit billboard for the Experience Music Project is under attack by the giant robotic bug for the Science Fiction Museum... which is how things were for Nirvana during their heydey, too.

Battlestar Galactica

We were hoping to time how long people took to look at a Doctor Who exhibit. But we got there and all the exhibits were about guitars, punk rock, and Nirvana. I'm all for those things, but that's not what we were trying to do. We asked where the Science Fiction Museum was. "The only Science Fiction Museum exhibit we have right now is the Battlestar Galactica exhibit upstairs. The rest is closed while we install the Avatar exhibit." Fair enough. Battlestar Galactica it is.

Viper Cockpit

We wandered around the Battlestar Galactica exhibit looking for a good display to time. We decided it would be better to time one that isn't interactive, so that people wouldn't be overstimulated. Other displays included: a spot where you could stand that would tell you if you were a Cylon or not (which was broken), and an interactive display that asked you what you would do during the difficult moral choices in both Battlestar Galactica television series (which was surprisingly emotional). This display, Apollo's Viper from the second series, seemed like the ideal display: large, visible, and in an open space so that we could time people without crowding them.

Timing Area

We set our parameters pretty carefully: We would time those who were watching this exhibit, from the time they started looking at the exhibit until they looked away and paid attention to something else. If they looked back, we'd restart the clock. If there was a group going through the museum together, we'd continue as long as some member of the same apparent group was watching the exhibit. Once we were done, we would approach people and let them know their time, and offer them the brochure.

Yay Maria!

We approached people, told them we were measuring their time for a project, and then told them how long they watched the exhibit. If they were still interested and not totally hostile, we asked if we could take their picture. Most people were either jaded or suspicious, and said no. One family said yes ("I'm not on the FBI wanted list right now, are you, dear?") but their picture came out really really dark. Maria, here, is the only person who had a visible picture and agreed to it. English wasn't her primary language (I think maybe she was Dutch?) and she seemed confused about what we were doing. Once she got the idea that we were doing a project of some kind, and timing people who watched the exhibit, she was perfectly happy to have her picture taken. Yay Maria!

Mutans And Ghost

Afterwards, Mutans took this picture with a fellow ghost in the Science Fiction Museum Gift Shop, which was, oddly, totally separate from the Experience Music Project Gift Shop.

Scowling TedPro

TedPro, Science Fiction Museum exterior. TedPro bought some Octavia Butler books in the museum gift shop, in bag in this photo. Also in the photo: TedPro's "I refuse to have a good time" scowl that is a clear sign that TedPro is enjoying himself.