Debrief on Blind Square

I thought revisiting the Blind Square experiment was interesting, after doing it initially about a year ago. After the first time I did it I thought about ways it could be done better. Some of the my ideas were suggestions also made by others this time, and other things I did not remember until the debriefing/reflecting afterwards.

The idea of counting (which worked last time) were sort of working at least initially this time. I was in the first few people when we counted. The first time through the count seemed to be including everyone, but everytime we counted it seemed to be less and less effective. I felt the decision to make corners based on the numbers was good, but that did not help the confused part of the group. Something that did not work were the two separate groups, both with different strategies talking over one another. The other thing I learned in my first experience, but did not remember is that the corners (or just the ends) should keep a tight grip on the rope, others should allow it to slide through their hands unless directed to move, so that slack in the rope can be absorbed by people spreading out, otherwise people get jerked out of position if there is more slack on one side than the other.

After the second count when we seemed to lose half the class I peeked to see what the problem was and saw there was a tangled circle. At that point I made the suggestion for people to reach left and right because somewhere the ropes crossed and that would lead them to determine who was correctly on the outside of the rope and who was stuck in the circle. I made the suggestion at least twice, possibly 3 times. When there was no agreement, and no action taken, I could not think of anything else to add, so remained generally quiet as there were already multiple leaders loud with instructions and I could not see one more voice (mine) adding clarity.

In the end I think we did it well, but not fast, through the combined action of the counting, then making straight corners and Jacqueline's advice to use what we knew of the quad, and our numbers for which wall of the square we were in to position ourselves. When she was the only voice, and she was able to clearly show where she was in relation to the picnic tables, people were able to relocate based on her voice and the intact walls moved into position to be fairly accurate as a final square.