Group members: Ida (MI) Nina (MI) Thomas (UA) Sofie (MI)
Concept
The note that we handed out:
“Hello Traveller!
tell m about ur
travl…where r u
goin,who r u goin
2 visit?send m 1 sms
t nr 61689254.
Hugz from The Travel
Fairy;-)
xxx”
The concept behind The Travel Fairy (a.k.a. Rejzefeen) is to test peoples’ openness towards funny or maybe weird inquiries in the everyday life. How will they react to our little (almost personnel) message? Do they dare send a text message about their travel to a total stranger - a fictitious fairy?
We chose the train station because people travelling have to kill some time during their travel. Then they have time to think about our message and decide whether they will reply or not. With our little note we want people to think about and reflect on how their day was, where they are going, who they are going to see and so on.
We are anxious to see how many people will reply – we’ve expected that probably one out of fifty will answer. Our plan is to place the notes in the ticket slot machines – when you reach for your ticket you will get our note as well. The note is written in a sms-language so we suppose that it will mostly approach the young people.
Performance
We went to the train station and started checking out the location. At first we started putting the little notes in the ticket slot machines, but most of them weren't working, and the other ones had a long line, so we soon discovered that handeling out 200 notes in that way would take all day. We decided to try other ways of spreading the notes, and put some in the lugage boxes and started handeling out to people waiting for the train. We also went into a train and left some on the tables there.
We wanted to document peoples reaction, when they got the note a long with their ticket. Some people didn't even discover it, some threw it away without reading it at all. But some people also stopped and took time to read it and to decide wether to reply or throw it away. The video below shows theese reaction.
After some hours we were almost out of notes, and a caretaker-guy working at the train station found us, and explained to us that we were not allowed to spread theese kind of notes. He was also a bit angry, because it was his job to pick up all the notes that was lying around. After this we decided to leave, and go to a café and wait for some travellers to reply.
Documentation
Video
At first notice the girl in the back of the picture. She is taking a really long time to carefully read the message. After reading it she throws it in the trash bin and walks on.
Afterwards you see a couple just glancing at the message.
At the end of the video you see the caretaker guy following in our footsteps picking up all the notes, that people just threw on the floor.
Result
The first sms we got was this, it wasn't exactly what we had expected.
| from 22992668 |
|---|
| 01/03/08 15:59 Hej søde. Nu har jeg sendt 2500kr til dig, hvis jeg slik hel din krop næst gang får du 5000kr, jeg elsker og slik din dejlig krop. Tænke over det søde, min kærste skal ikke ved noget du lov mig sød. Knuz dony |
It was of course up to people themselves to decide what to write, and i was beginning to regret that we had chosen to use my (Ida) phonenumber. The Travelfairy didn't reply to this one…
The next sms was much better!
| from 20723224 |
|---|
| 01/03/08 16:20 Hejsa. Jeg jeg tager toget idag fra kolding til århus og retur da jeg skal arbejde i aarhus idag for nokia i tdc butik mvh kim |
This the travelfairy replied to, writing that she hoped he had a good day at work and wished him a good trip to kolding.
He replied with this
| from 20723224 |
|---|
| 01/03/08 16:25 hi hi..Hvorfor endelig de her sms'er men jo tak |
We decided that the travelfairy only wrote back once since we could sit typing messages all day.
The next one was this
| from 30424678 |
|---|
| 01/03/08 16:54 Det var dog skørt at ligge sedler over det hele! |
This the travelfairy also answered with a thanx for the sms and have a good journey.
The next one was also in the spirit we had hoped for
| from 60609895 |
|---|
| 01/03/08 16:57 Hej rejsefe! Jeg skal til hovedstaden. Jeg skal hjem og sørge over min bærbare som netop er gået itu. |
The reply to this was that the travelfairy was feeling sorry for the person and again wished him or her a good trip.
The person replied:
| from 60609895 |
|---|
| 01/03/08 17:01 Tak! Er det din første dag som rejsefe? Er du endnu blevet kaldt "rejsefæ"? Spøg til side. Hvor skal du hen rejsefe? |
The next couple of messages was from people going to a koncert.
| from 23888590 |
|---|
| 01/03/08 18:30 Hej rejsefe.. Håber ikk at du får rejsefe-ber… Vi skal til baby woodrose koncert i kolding.. Vil du med? |
The travelfairy of course replied with wishes of them having a good koncert.
Then one of them asked if the travelfairy was his godmother
| from 23888590 |
|---|
| 01/03/08 18:36 Er du min gudmor? |
And then he's friend asked the same question
| from 40517618 |
|---|
| 01/03/08 18:38 Hej rejzefe er du hans gudmor..? |
Another one going to the koncert
| from 50498658 |
|---|
| 01/03/08 18:32 På vej til baby wood rose koncert |
The travelfairy replied with telling them to have fun ("fyre den af").
And they send this back
| from 50498658 |
|---|
| 01/03/08 18:38 Allrite det skal vi gøre:-* |
Then the travelfairy got 23 empty messages from the first person who had asked if the travelfairy was his godmother…
I (ida) had promised myself not to answer the phone if it was a number i didn't recognised. But during the night (i was down town going to katapult and musik cafeen to koncerts), I accidently answered and it was a guy named leon asking me if i where the travelfairy.. I talked a bit with him explaining the projekt and asked him where he got the little note. he was at a party in århus and had gotten the note from a friend.
When i woke up the next morning a saw that someone had written real early
| from 22459594 |
|---|
| {{01/03/08 07:04 Hey rejsefed. Vi er på ved hjem og skal sove:-) |
The travelfairy didn't answer this one.. We had decided that it should only proceed the one day.
The travelfairy hasn't got any more messages since then.
ooh got a new message from one of them who had written before here it is
| from 60609895 |
|---|
| {{04/03/08 23:20 Hej rejsefe. Nu er jeg i århus igen. Denne gang overnatter jeg i havnegade. I morgen ska jeg til sønderborg. :-) ps det var mig med dem itu pc. Knus |
