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?