Who ever said New Yorkers were rude or unhelpful?
In what might be the cutest art/social experiment conducted in the history of art/social experiments ever, NYU art student Kacie Kinzer made a smiling cardboard robot that could only move in one direction and let it loose in Manhattan to see who would help it out. There’s a video of the experiment at Gizmodo.
She placed the little dude (called a Tweenbot) in one corner of Washington Square Park with a flag attached listing its destination (the opposite corner). Whenever the bot would get stuck in a pothole or was headed toward traffic or grass, the kind New Yorkers would stop to turn him in the right direction and help the little fella get on his way. Kinzer has made a few Tweenbots and placed them in other parts of the city – they always make it to their destination intact, thanks to the kindness of strangers.
Nobody stepped on him, shot at him, cursed him out or did any of those other things that would fit the ”mean New Yorker” stereotype. Also, the dog at the beginning of the video that wanted to go play with it was super ridiculously adorable too. -Liza
