Busycle Visits the Experimental Station
The Busycle, a 15-person pedal-powered traveling art piece, spent the evening of June 10 at the Experimental Station and lumbering through the local streets of Woodlawn. Described as a story-collection vehicle, the Busycle is crossing the country from Boston to San Francisco and regaling pedalers and collecting their stories in the cities where it stops along the way.
The piece was created by Boston-based artists Heather Clark and Matthew Mazzotta, with the help of more than 50 volunteers.
By its creators' own admission, the Busycle presumes neither to provide a response to ecological problems, nor to be a practical technology. In fact, pedaling it a mile is a workout. Moving it across the country from city to city requires a bio-diesel vehicle.
What the Busycle does do is provide an experience of participating in something greater than oneself; no single human could power the Busycle alone. Indeed, fewer than 15 people might stall the Busycle entirely. The discovery of the importance of everyone's participation is food for much discussion and interaction among pedalers, and arrival back at the point of departure truly marks a collective achievement.
This sense of collective participation and sharing carried through to the storytelling aspect of the event. Following the Busycle tours of the neighborhood, participants shared stories around a fire, stories which will be shared on video with participants in the next city.
The Experimental Station would like to thank Mess Hall for its coordination of the event.
