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"Bouncing balls" freshman picnic.

Major collection: MIT General Collections
Named collection: MIT Hacks Collection
Object type: hack
Maker: Place made: United States, Massachusetts, Cambridge, MIT
Date made: 1990
Materials: rubber
Measurements: 1in diameter
Nomenclature: ceremonial artifacts
Classification: societal artifacts

Small super balls with black smiley faces. "In August 1990, a photographer was organizing the incoming students on the collonade just below the Great Dome for the Class of 1994 picture. After arranging and rearranging the crowd of students, he took aim. Suddenly, a vertical banner unfurled from the entablature high above. "Smile," it read, immediately followed by a deluge of 1,994 smiley-faced superballs. The balls bounced 20 or 30 feet into the air after the first impact just behind the assembled students; soon the air was alive with ricocheting spheres. None too pleased, the photographer shouted for atention, "Please stop throwing balls at the camera!" and then ducked the resulting onslaught." [Nightwork, revised edition, p. 146]


1991.060.001

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