CMU School of Drama


Friday, September 25, 2009

Help Wanted sign during G-20, in Pittsburgh

gigapan: "Carnegie Mellon University freshman Sarah Ceurvorst and other students created this huge sign near the CMU track."

11 comments:

Brian Alderman said...

Sarah did a great job creating this gigantic sign. I was able to watch and brainstorm at times as she was trying to figure out how to build it. Unfortunately, due to crew and a shoe project, i wasn't able to help her out building it, but I'm glad so much of the CMU community was able to. My one issue with this gigantic help wanted sign is that it has a limited viewing audience. From the ground, the true sense of the sign can't be seen. Only from the helicopters and airplanes was it truly visible, and i think that limited its impact somewhat.

MBerger said...

I would disagree with Brian's interpretation of the impact this sign could have had. Our university is directly under the flightpath of most international inbound flights, meaning that as world leaders flew in to the conference, they were welcomed with this large help wanted ad. I do not know if this was the intention of the design, but it certainly was a nice side benefit.

Liz Willett said...

I cannot believe that I completely missed this. It really is a testament to the power and humor of the student. She wanted to make a huge sign, so she did it. I have no idea how she managed to, but with some creativity and a lot of planning she pulled it off. I agree with Berger, I think that a lot of flights got a glimpse of this sign, but also the higher floors of nearby buildings also got a pretty good view.

I think the fact that only a certain audience could see it is saying something. She was trying to reach a group of people that have the status and money to fly. I might just be reading into this too much, but she was trying to reach those with financial pull and help them understand that the economic crisis is reaching out to not just our businesses, but students and the people.

Tom Strong said...

I saw that under construction but at first all I could figure out was that it wasn't made to be viewed from the ground. Until I walked around and got a better view from several points around it I couldn't even tell what it said. The GigaPan picture from the top of the garage shows it a lot better, but I would still like to see what it looks like from the air, preferably from the commercial flightpaths as someone earlier mentioned.

Andrew said...

I too missed this, and I can't imagine how! This is great to see a CMU student--a freshman at that--taking such an initiative to make something so powerful. Kudos!

During G-20, myself and a few other friends, went down near Carnegie Library and saw a huge protest taking place. What I was surprised by was how peaceful everyone was--most people were just singing, dancing, and taking pictures. That's why this act of peace isn't terribly surprising to me.

This particular protest we were at didn't get violent until the riot police stopped pushing people back from the road, and instead decided to throw smoke and tear gas at the crowd since people didn't disperse "quick enough." It just is so striking how peaceful some protesting can be, and still get under fire from authorities.

The idea about status is interesting. Most of the protesting people are "lower class" and students--I wonder how many of them were able to see this sign in it's ideal form. My guess is not so many, though I could be wrong.

Hjohnson said...

I'm so glad that somebody took time to actually say something intelligent and reasonable during the G-20--plus she had a really creative idea. I feel like for about three days straight, people were just yelling about any and all grievances. That is not an effective way to get your point across. Sarah's right, lots of the protests just ended up in chaos, and I feel like some of the riots consisted mostly of people who gathered to watch a riot rather than people who had a message.

Rachel Robinson said...

I had no idea this was there!!! I wish I had been able to see it, and I'm sure that there are many people on campus who didn't know it was there. Even though that may be the case, I still think that to anyone flying overhead or passed it on the ground, it must have been a very powerful statement. Regardless of how many people saw it, the ones who did will remember it and what it meant, and will pass that statement on when they tell people about the sign.

Danielle F said...

I definitely missed this too, but seeing as how I never leave the building, this comes as no surprise. Sarah was apparently able to successfully coordinate the planning, building, and installing of this sign. I'm wondering how difficult it was to get permission from the CMU people to use their practice fields...

However, I do appreciate the goal of the sign--to convey a simple message to people overhead. A humongous "Help Wanted" sign says a lot, and hopefully it had the desired impact on those who saw it.

Devrie Guerrero said...

it really impressive all the effort, time, and money that must have gone into the sign. Part of me feels like it wasn't the design that made people miss it. For me the g-20 mostly focused on the protests or thing that the police were involved in. In interp today, we talked all about this. there was an illegal sign about the environment placed on a bridge that got attention, because there was a confrontation with police. Most of the class didn't even know what was accomplished during the G-20 with the leaders. the media mostly focused on the protests and riots.

Isabella said...

I feel like this sign was not only successful in its design and execution but also in the clarity of the message it was trying to communicate. I was present at the fence on Thursday afternoon as well as later on at the demonstration in Schenley Plaza and spoke to several of the people both from pittsburgh and out of state that were also present there. My main reason for conversing with them was to find out what they were protesting because I felt that while there had been a lot of commotion and build up leading up to the G20 even with in the school of drama I was still unclear on exactly what most people were protesting. Sadly in not all but many cases speaking to the different protesters did not make their purpose any clearer, even when they were part of a big group or had signs or paraphernalia which should have made their cause obvious.
I feel like this sign is loud in its simplicity and directness, and because of this accomplishes much of what other G20 protesters failed to achieve, it communicates a definite message to other people.

Cody said...

I knew the something was there, but did not know what or take the time to find out. I have to agree with most that the sign was successful and also agree with others that it was not. Most people in our community, as this blog proves, had no idea what it was. However, I am sure that all of the news helicopters saw it and stores were done on it. And I am sure that it reached a number of the world leaders who flew over it. However, the sign is a bit vague. There might have been something that could have been said to make a better message. I can't think of exactly what that might be, cause I am trying to cram in comments at the last minute. Either way, kudos to Sarah for taking steps to make a point and a difference in the world.