This research project is about participatory dynamics, specifically billboards, since they relate directly with use and abuse of public space. Through this project we seek that the spectators ask themselves if they have a passive attitude before a system that promotes consumption through billboards or, on the contrary, if they can be a proactive actor and express their personal point of view.

During the Project we developed a strategy for the public to manifest their individual opinion (what do you want to communicate?), just like their social point of view (What should billboards in your city communicate?). The intention of these questions was that participants questioned if the system is imposed externally or inhabitants of a city can shape it as they want.

The project took place during the Sundays of April 2010, in the Glorieta de Insurgentes, where we put a metal blackboard of 1.25 x 2.24 m. Next to it, we put a binder with visual research about billboards in Mexico City, as well as a series of pictures (images and words) extracted directly from the language used in billboards, as well as their opposites.

We invited passersby to create a billboard message in a limited time, then to observe and select the materials of the pictures provided. In each session we changed the elements we could use on the blackboard. We took words and images that were heavily used and added others from more critical texts and contexts. At the end of each session, we captured the “billboards” of participants with two photographs. The first picture captured the work and the second the author with their submission. Because of this strategy, the public recognized itself as an author and the person in charge of their ad. Finally, the 62 resulting pieces were put in a blog and transformed into a video, projected a year later in the same spot where the intervention took place. The log of the project can be found at tuespectacular.blogspot.com. Come see it.