Description:

Attention. Attention. How boring was your day at work? Certainly not as boring as this office. Continue about your repetitive, monotonous life. There is no reason to enter. It is neither exciting nor intriguing. Please note that time spent inside of ‘Auckland’s Most Boring Office’ is non-refundable. Enter at your own risk.

New Zealanders are struggling to catch up with our fast paced, ever-changing world, and often have little time to stop and reflect on what they spend most of their waking hours on; work.

In collaboration with Heart of the City’s Art Week 2022, ‘Auckland’s Most Boring Office’ is an interactive installation that gives Aucklanders an opportunity to vent, display positivity, suggest changes or display gratefulness for personally significant things in their workplace, despite the presence of ‘monotonous’ architecture. In the process, ‘Auckland’s Most Boring Office’ will transform into something special; illustrating that while workplace culture is stubborn, communities have the power to initiate change.

Constructed over 5 weeks, the final installation was a 3.6x3.6m interlocking skeletal plywood structure, with a repetitive façade mirroring the facades of surrounding Auckland high-rises. The interior consisted of a carpet tile floor and polycarbonate roof. Each modular panel was cut, routed, painted and pre-assembled into panels off-site for fast assembly and disassembly on O’Connell St. Dura-print paper on each wall panel was used to shield passers-by from the interior workings of the office. This also allowed light from the interior to shine through, illuminating coloured panels that were hung by visitors in each window of the office, achieving a colourful lantern-like quality as the evening darkened.

Visitors were invited to enter the office and journey through a linear predetermined path to mimic the undeviating nature of the workday, with three sequential interactions. First, ‘signing in,’ which involved individualizing each visitor with a nametag via the receptionist. This was followed by a cliché ‘water cooler conversation,’ where visitors were invited to reflect on what they were grateful for or what they would improve in their work life. They were then asked to draw this onto translucent coloured panels. Overall, visitors were most grateful for the people and colleagues that they worked with above anything else.

The final interaction surprised the visitors by offering them a treat - candy floss, in a colourful room juxtaposed to the sterile interior of the rest of the office, which gave them an opportunity to consider what their ideal workplace may look like. Upon exiting, visitors had the chance to display their drawing on the translucent coloured panel by hanging them within the windows on the exterior of the installation. Over the course of the night, the constant addition of these panels transformed the exterior of the installation from a repetitive monochrome façade, to a unique colourful lantern generated entirely by public interaction; a visible indication how working together allows us to change our every-day environments for the better.

Photos: Sasha Kilmartin and Oliver Ray-Chaudhuri
Sponsors: Heart of the City, Resene, Plytech, Warehouse Stationery & Angus Muir Design