Strange Tours
Four artists. Four weird and magical tours. 166 participants.
Our mission:
A fundraiser event for the Odyssey Works’ book - Odyssey Works: Transformative Experiences for an Audience of One
The event can be: anywhere.
We can do it: however we want.
It should be: fun, engaging, possibly interactive.
The following is what we created.
Secret instructions:
Dress like a tourist.
Go to the Grand Central Station main concourse.
Look for people holding umbrellas.
750,000 people pass through the Grand Central terminal every day and for one strange evening, we joined them.
A dream-like gift.
Strange Tours was created, alongside two other equally unusual events in San Francisco and Baltimore, to build excitement for, and give back to funders of the Odyssey Works’ Kickstarter for the forthcoming book “Odyssey Works: Transformative Experiences for an Audience of One.”
You can see me here holding a hand-crafted bouquet of all-seeing butterflies as we prepare for the first of the evening’s tours.
From left to right: Ayden LeRoux, Dare Turner, and Kelly Jo.
Photo by Nick Normal.
From the umbrella hubs, participants were directed to one of the four artist-led tours, each with staggered tour times to accommodate early birds and late-comers alike, this also allowed early arrivals a chance to participate in multiple tours.
It will be magical and strange, uncanny and unexpected in every way. It will feel secret, but be public - it will feel familiar yet odd in that really good way.
Photo by Nick Normal.
An amazing result.
Participants were enthusiastic and fearless as they entered this unknown experience.
Each uncanny tour guide harnessed the kinetic energy in the space to create unexpected shared moments.
Photo by Nick Normal.
On the tour I designed,
participants traded secrets arm-in-arm with strangers using call and response.
We used the familiar: People in NYC LOVE to give directions
Integrated into each unique tour was a wayfinding experience where participants learned to engage playfully with strangers by asking for directions to unconventional places.
Participants were separated into groups of two and given a simple script for approaching strangers that began with:
Excuse me, where might I find a place...
(Participants then chose one of the following locations to ask about)
… to listen to my own thoughts?
… you have never stepped foot?
… with no light?
… with a snake?
… to have a universal experience?
… with patterns others don't see?
… where rationality falls apart?
… with mathematical truth?
Participants of Strange Tours enthusiastically describe what it’s like to engage with strangers in Grand Central Station NYC asking for directions - albeit to unconventional places, like ‘a place with patterns others don't see’ or ‘a place where rationality falls apart,’ in New York, in 2015, by Odyssey Works collective.
For the magical finale of my tour,
participants followed me in procession down an unused train track as I waved a hand-crafted bouquet of all-seeing butterflies.
The track narrowed to a point with a seemingly endless dark expanse in front of us. The tour ended with everyone screaming in unison, into the future, a personal ‘future secret they would like to one day have.’
Strange Tours’ guides include Ariel Abrahams, Vibha Chokhani, Kelly Jo, and Andrea Williams, with help from Ayden LeRoux and Dare Turner.
With special thanks to Nick Normal for documenting the evening.
Strange Tours took place on the magical evening of November 6th, in 2015, in Grand Central Station, in New York City.