From Participatory Populism by Lori Waxman:
With The Arcades Project, "we wanted to learn about contextual value from the audience at Nappannee." What would a Sunday shopper out to buy painted wood ducks and crocheted armchair cozies think about Lisa Norton’s empty-bleach-bottle-cum-piggybank? Not much, as it turned out: one man was impressed with the craftsmanship of Ronnie Wright’s photographs but disinterested in his subject matter of used cars; another thought Jessica Bader’s box of porcelain packing popcorn was clever, but wondered what she could possibly do with it. Relocating artworks normally received in a gallery setting to an environment where objects are judged according to a set of values based on functionality, craftsmanship, and cost led to an inevitable revaluation (and devaluation) of the exhibited art, but this was integral to the project’s conceptual framework and completely dependent on the audience of passers-by. It also gave Song and Olive a chance to talk to people they wouldn’t otherwise have met.
