Circulating the Uncirculatable
For circulating the pop-up museum I relied on three methods: Word of mouth, physical flyers, and social media posts. All of these were meant to target different audiences. The word of mouth was to people I talk to on a regular basis, so it was meant for friends. The social media post was meant for acquaintances whom I do not talk to regularly but would see my activity on social media. The physical flyers were meant for DePaul students who I never talk to, because anybody passing by the bulletin board could see the flyer.
I decided to spread the pop-up museum via word of mouth to my friends. This is because I know my friends would not respond to a social media post, and they definitely would not look at the DePaul bulletin boards around campus. Attempting to convince them to come informally takes pressure away from them, and makes the event seem like a much smaller commitment than a personal invitation would. While I doubt this method worked because I know my friends, I also know this is the most effective mode of circulation for them. This mode of circulation felt the most genuine to me, because I was able to explain in an informal matter what the event actually was.
For acquaintances, I made a Facebook post. I chose Facebook because although Instagram is much more active, I have a larger network of friends on Facebook. I emphasized the free food and ability to talk about crazy el stories in my post for a number of reasons. I thought the free food would entice people to come, and knowing that one of the exhibits has to do with crazy el stories makes the event seem much less formal. I did not want to use the words Writing, Rhetoric, Discourse, or Public in my post, because I firmly believe these terms would make people less likely to come. Most people do not know what these terms mean so they would feel out of their depth and not come. I doubt this post will entice people to come because a promotional Facebook post is like shouting into the void. I personally have never seen a post like this and gone to said event, and I suspect the same is true for most people on Facebook.
The last and arguably least effective circulation method was the flyers I hung up around DePaul. As Delaney demonstrated in her first feature writing, these bulletin boards are not effective for addressing the public. Rarely do people look at them, and even if they did DePaul has such a low participation rate that I doubt it would matter. The bulletin boards I put my posters on and usually walk by (the Stu and SAC boards) are often cluttered which I bet leads to less people paying attention to them.
These three methods were my way of circulating the Pop-up Museum. I wish I could be optimistic and say they will work, but I highly doubt it. It is hard to get people to come to school events, and I worry that a pop-up museum would confuse people rather than bring them in. That being said I hope people come.
