Beauty in Context
The Washington Post did a really interesting experiment the other day: they had Joshua Bell, one of the world’s top violinists, play as a street performer in a Washington D.C. subway station to see if anyone would notice. Some people did. The vast majority didn’t. The article is very wonderful to read, with some videos. Some of the parts I loved:
“It was a strange feeling, that people were actually, ah…ignoring me….I was oddly grateful when someone threw in a dollar instead of change.” This is from a man whose talents can command $1,000 a minute. Before he began, Bell hadn’t known what to expect. What he does know is that, for some reason, he was nervous.”It wasn’t exactly stage fright, but there were butterflies,” he says. “I was stressing a little.”
And this one:
The behavior of one demographic remained absolutely consistent. Every single time a child walked past, he or she tried to stop and watch. And every single time, a parent scooted the kid away.
And this:
“Yes, I saw the violinist,” Jackie Hessian says, “but nothing about him struck me as much of anything.” You couldn’t tell that by watching her. Hessian was one of those people who gave Bell a long, hard look before walking on. It turns out that she wasn’t noticing the music at all. “I really didn’t hear that much,” she said. “I was just trying to figure out what he was doing there, how does this work for him, can he make much money, would it be better to start with some money in the case, or for it to be empty, so people feel sorry for you? I was analyzing it financially.” What do you do, Jackie? “I’m a lawyer in labor relations with the United States Postal Service. I just negotiated a national contract.”
