Ellen Mueller
Janet Wright with "Free Evaluations" sign
In “evaluTEC,” Janet Wright, a character representing evaluTEC, a self-help company based on the concept of self-evaluation for self-betterment, sits at a roadside stand waiting for interaction. She connects with passersby by first offering them a complimentary self-evaluation to help them through times of change. Then, she asks the participant to fill out an evaluation of herself because she’s currently being evaluated by an on-looking camera.
This piece also features a website, evaluTEC.com, which allows for another less-personal and more frustrating avenue of interaction. The personal interaction and the virtual one serve as foils of one another, and help add depth to this examination of people struggling to gain control of their lives, and the hurdles then encounter in their seemingly futile struggle.
With the evaluTEC project, I address the shared experiences of evaluation and success. Through the use of live interactions and the evaluTEC.com website, I examine how we quantify, measure, and compare ourselves. The project brings to focus an absurd and dehumanizing quality, which arises when applying an objective evaluation to the subjective idea of human success.
The idea of human success is one riddled with subconscious fears and insecurity, in part due to its subjective and unquantifiable nature. Because most humans have had the experience of striving for an intangible sense of success, and suffered being evaluated along the way, an empathy can easily be generated by sharing the these experiences with others. By cultivating this empathy, a sense of connection and community is instantly created. Within a continuously more isolated world, these moments of connection are valuable in altering mindsets and cultivating critical thought.
Janet Wright planting sign
Waiting for passersby
An evaluTEC business card?
Hi Ellen,
It’s interesting how your project invokes an important strategy of early feminism, namely consciousness raising (sharing and establishing empathy), but filters it through a corporate lens. I would imagine a reality tv show as a logical next step!
You don’t cite what the specific success criteria are: career, marriage, health, money. Is this intentionally vague on your part?
Thanks for reposting.
Cheers,
Susan
Hi Susan,
A reality TV show is a great suggestion (now the wheels are spinning in my head!).
I purposefully do not cite specific success criteria because I find it more interesting to see what the participant and the observer’s assumptions about the word are.
In creating the evaluation I initially hand to the participant, I used Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs as a guide, but purposefully tried to keep the questions seemingly random or very loosely related to one another. I aimed to provoke a feeling of suspicion or second-guessing in the participant as they filled out the evaluation. I wanted the initial experience to be somewhat confusing or unsettling. Then, when I asked them to evaluate Janet Wright, the character I was playing, there was a semblance of a hurdle the participant had to overcome – would they help this woman that had just put them through a somewhat unpleasant experience?
Overall, yes, it seemed that people’s empathy overcame their own discomfort the majority of the time (only 1 or 2 people walked away when asked to participate in the second evaluation). It was a very rewarding experience for both the facilitator, and the participant. They often walked away with a smile and a look of triumph, as if they had just stuck it to the man by helping my character through the evaluation process.
I loved this!!!!!!!!!! Great concept.