Make Me: Fountain Square
7 p.m. on Dec. 4
Will begin in front of the fountain in Indianapolis, IN
Make Me: Mass. Ave
7 p.m. on Dec. 5
Begins in Toolbox Men’s Supply Company, 753 Massachusetts Ave., Indianapolis, IN
A woman is wearing a large, fluffy maroon tutu while she flicks clothes hanging on racks outside Muncie Civic Theater. She turns to see a mannequin.
“Wait, am I supposed to be dressing the mannequin, or myself? I need instructions!” said Nancy Prater, Ball State director of marketing and communications and online and distance education.
The group of graduate students she's talking to — called Danger Laser Falcon — reassure her that there is no wrong way to do Make Me: Muncie.
Make Me: Muncie was an interactive experiment run by Danger Laser Falcon in downtown Muncie on Dec. 3. Two racks of clothes sat between a male and female mannequin with signs inviting passersby to dress the mannequins to make them handsome and beautiful.
Danger Laser Falcon is a group of four Emerging Media Design and Development graduate students, Elise Lockwood, Sean May, Emily Cornetet and Jared Lynch. The students decided to use clothing to challenge participants' definition of gender and identity, Lockwood said.
“Make me handsome,” was written on a chalk board next to the male mannequin. He was dressed in a T-shirt, a blazer and a fur-rimmed cape, topped off with an alien mask.
“We’re trying to challenge gender biases, those questions ‘What do guys wear? What do girls wear?’ We’re looking at how gender effects our view on identity,” May said.
The project is for a class called “Transmedia Storytelling,” which challenges students to solve a real life problem. Participant reactions have been mostly positive, Lockwood said.
“Our worst one [reaction] was someone saw the sign that said, ‘Make me amazing,’ and they said, ‘Make me amazing? No thanks.’ So, our real challenge is the weather, not the people,” she said. “We’ve had barely anybody come out tonight.”
The windy, 34-degree weather may have affected participation in Muncie, but Danger Laser Falcon is also going to Indianapolis next week for Make Me, and it will be indoors for one of the events.
“I’m really excited to take it to Mass Ave and Fountain Square [in Indianapolis], where there will be tons of people. I can’t wait to kind of, fully unleash this,” Cornetet said.
Regardless of participation, the group’s goal for the evening was met, May said.
“I know it’s cold, but people are stopping, people are looking," May said. "The people we’ve talked to agree with our mission, and they’ve said this is something they care about, which is what matters to us."
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