Check back regularly to see what gets added!
Description
You are invited to post a set of instructions that are designed to    1) in some way provoke thought about our society and culture, and 2) embrace the DIY ethos and the empowering benefits of participation. All posts that meet these requirements will be included in this ongoing project which can be followed here, or on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/doitdiyart. If you decide to follow any of the sets of instructions posted on this site, please post a photo or a comment on Facebook and share it with the Do It DIY Facebook page.  You can also email me your instructions, photos, comments, etc. at alish@lesley.edu if you are not on Facebook.




 Proposal #28 - 

 Since I haven't had any new submissions for a while I thought I'd add another one that I came up with:

Buy a No. 2 pencil from the supermarket or drugstore; draw concentric circles in the parking lot until there is no pencil left. Collect the shavings from each re-sharpening of the pencil and display in your home as “Residue.”
Proposal #27 -

 Here's one I thought of a few weeks ago, and finally decided I would go ahead and be a part of my own project!

 Tie yourself to someone else at the ankle, waist and chest to create a three-legged, two-headed, one bodied person. Spend the day communicating in any way you want other than talking.
Proposal #26 -

 Posted to this site from jl66:  Give a homeless person some money, with the stipulation that they do something with it to help humanity...


Proposal #25 -

 From Susan: Go someplace you've never been before; then get lost (intentionally).


Proposal #24 - 

 Posted by Stacey P. on the Do It DIY Facebook page: Support one of those DIY painting places. Drink wine, be social, and while everyone else paints the same picture of sunflowers, paint something else of your own. Dare to paint outside the box! Then post about the reactions and conversations that this action provokes.




Proposal #23 - 

 Submitted anonymously to this site:  Lie. It can be about anything you want. Just lie. Do it because you can.



 Proposal #22 - 

 Emailed from Joanne D.: Climb a tree

Proposal #21 - 

 Submitted by Jeff S.:  Everything you've ever seen/heard/smelled/tasted/touched...
everything you  haven't seen/heard/smelled/tasted/touched...
everything in the whole created world/planetary system/galaxy/universe...
could not have just happened.  Be aware of your appreciation that the
Creator wished to create it all.


Proposal #20 - 

Emailed in from Jon:  Disconnect yourself from all forms of electronic communication for a week (or go backpacking for a week).

Proposal #19 - 

From Chad R.:  Create a device that causes the user to experience time in a new way (a "clock" that tells time in a way different from the use of minutes and hours).

Proposal #18 - 
From Kelli:  Go on a walk and find a natural object. Now, invent a narrative about its origins, or perhaps about its capacity to have magical abilities. I have my fourth graders doing the exact same thing over the weekend...I think I will too.


Proposal #17 - 

From Ray:  Imagine it is the year 2030.  Create a list of things that you would put in a time-capsule that would represent life in 2030. 


Proposal #16 - 

Submitted by sbw13:  Celebrate everything all of the time.




Proposal #15 - 

From Bridget:  Try to love people (and animals) the way that they want to be  loved--this is not the same thing as loving the way you want to love.  
Consider that fact that a lot of the time we might be very selfish in our
expressions of love, and that true love is most likely not selfish at all...



Proposal #14 - 

Posted by Matt: Litter dimes all around downtown first thing in the morning.  Place some in easy to pick up spots and other in odd or uncomfortable spots. Tour at the end of the day and see the results.



Proposal #13 -

"Get comfortable with being uncomfortable." A quote by Jillian Michaels that seemed too fitting not to post here!


Proposal #12 - 

Submitted by an anonymous reader:  Think about engaging in a random act of kindness to a stranger, but don't actually do it.


Proposal #11 - 

Posted by abra: Do something you are sure to fail at.

Proposal #10 - 

From Charlotte: Make eye contact with everyone today, wherever you go.



Proposal #9 - 

From Bryn X: Give yourself permission to be tired, and act on it.





Proposal #8 -

Another proposal from the participants in "Play and Idle Creativity (A 72-hour Think-tank on Survival in the 21st Century)":  When someone asks "What do you do?", rather than respond with what you do for work, give a creative but true response about what you do in your personal life.





Proposal #7 - 

Posted as an anonymous comment on this page.  For continuity I have posted it in the list of proposals:  As a way to explore the roles that rituals have played in society in the past, create and practice a daily ritual of your own.  It can be for whatever you want it to be.  Your ritual should contain the following five elements:  it should keep alive a tradition, it should involve the use of your body in some way, it should contain both words and objects that hold significant meaning, and it should contribute to forming a community (however you choose to interpret this – for me ritual is a personal practice that helps me be a contributing member of my community). 


Proposal #6 -

Posted by Shawn Saumell on the Do It DIY Facebook page:  

Keep a dream journal or an audio recorder by your bedside. Each morning record the events of your dreams. Each day, post your experiences on your blog, Facebook wall, on a sidewalk with chalk in a public space, or any other creative outlet. Do not allude that this was a dream. Write it as if it really happened, because it did! It was an actual experience.

Nearly half of our lives are lived in another dimension with perhaps another consciousness and rarely talked about. These experiences should not be discounted or ignored. What happens when we share our memories of experiences from the dream world with this physical world? What responses would this illicit if a synergy is produced by an amalgamation of both realities?


Proposal #5 - 

This is from the participants in "Play and Idle Creativity (A 72-hour Think-tank on Survival in the 21st Century)":  Try to play like a kid again, like how you used to play before you became self-conscious about what others might think.  Play for the pure joy of it!  Maybe its playing "make-believe" or ...

Proposal #4 -

A proposal posted elsewhere by Aaron Lish last summer, but seemed fitting to share here:  When was the last time you lay back and enjoyed watching the stars? Whether it was last night, or years ago, it doesn’t matter. Go…go find a place where you can take a walk and enjoy looking at the night’s sky full of those beautiful, twinkling points of light we call stars. Go

Proposal #3 -

Posted by Julie Lindell on Facebook:  Look at the wall and knit.





Proposal #2 -

Submitted by Diane Hellar.  After thinking about the project description she said: plant an edible plant (it could be an herb or two in a pot, or adding a strawberry plant to your yard, or...).  Water and care for it.  Enjoy the fruits of your labor.






Proposal #1 -

This set of instructions is the co-creation of Sarah Barr and Aaron Lish: 1) Post an invitation for a dinner party on your local craigslist, or if that is too scary, join a social club (e.g. a knitting group or an organic gardening club) and after the first meeting you go to invite everyone to a dinner party; 2) redirect all of the conversation at the dinner party to be about either politics or religion (or both).

Submit your own proposal using the contact form below.

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