Title: Have it your way
2005
photos by: Peter Cox
Project commissioned by the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science, The Hague, with the support of Atelier Rijksbouwmeester.
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DEN HAAG – Nearby the main entrance to the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science, opposite The Hague Central Station, there’s an interactive warning sign which seems to be able to read the minds of passers-by. Unawares, passers-by are confronted with 99 pieces of typical pedagogical advice. Don’t I get a kiss then? Have it your way. You need a haircut. Don’t play with your food. I hope you’re going to clear that up. A chair has four legs! They are often the same sentences which parents and teachers use to correct children’s behaviour. By placing them in an unexpected context, the advice, rather than correcting any behaviour, gets you thinking. The design of the interactive warning sign is identical to that of other street fixtures, so that the passer by doesn’t suspect it’s a work of art but assumes it’s something governmental. Because a text only occasionally lights up, a passer-by gets the impression that the text is specially aimed at him or her.
© Sjaak Langenberg & Rosé de Beer
