Eye Contact Experiment to test limits worldwide
On October 15, a worldwide event will seek to promote human connections and put comfort zones to the test as it invites strangers to face one another and make eye contact for one minute.
The event is being organized by Perth-based group The Liberators International, who were inspired in part by a performance piece Marina Abramovic brought to New York's MoMA in 2010, in which she invited museum visitors to make prolonged eye contact with her.
The Liberators, who organize various participatory social experiments to promote love and humanity, have held other eye contact events in Australia and Berlin, but they're going big with the upcoming worldwide happening thanks to high interest on social media.
At last count, the group said on Tuesday that 89,329 people in 116 cities from 38 countries had signed on to participate. Public spaces such as the Place de la République in Paris, the Piazza del Popolo in Rome and Dizengoff Fountain in Tel Aviv have been chosen to host local events.
The global event page can be found on Facebook at www.facebook.com/events/669642313172865. From there, you can follow a link to the participating cities, which each have their own Facebook event page, or follow instructions to start an event of your own.
The organizers have also posted a video offering three tips for getting the most out of your eye contact: www.facebook.com/video.php?v=536477533181741.
The Liberators have documented their humanitarian events in a series of videos that they say have been viewed more than 100 million times. "The World's Biggest Eye Contact Experiment" will be their second multi-country experiment; for the first, "The World's Biggest Trust Experiment," participants in nine countries agreed to blindfold themselves and accept hugs from strangers.
Watch a video showing a past Eye Contact Experiment: www.youtube.com/watch?v=1EumnijQBhw
