Stop, Look, Listen, Learn

On January 12, 2007, at 7:51 a.m., world-renowned violin virtuoso Joshua Bell, dressed as a common street musician, played for forty-five minutes at the top of an indoor escalator system serving the L’Enfant Plaza subway station in Washington, DC.  An artist who commands more than $1,000 a minute for his performances, Bell played six classical masterpieces on his $3.5 million Stradivari-designed violin from the early 18th century.  More than 1,000 commuters hurried past Bell. Only a few gave him more than a passing glance, one recognized him from a concert she had been to the night before at the Library of Congress, and a grand total of $32.17 was tossed into his open violin case.  In the presence of greatness, virtually no one recognized him and none honored him as arguably the greatest violinist in the world! 

Joshua Bell was part of an experiment sponsored by the Washington Post to study how context affects the way people respond to a person or event. In other words, how does what I’m looking for affect what I see? Three days before, Bell had sold out Boston’s stately Symphony Hall at $100 per ticket for a “pretty good” seat, according to the Post article.  Those concert-goers had been expecting a spectacular artist and were duly rewarded.  Indeed, every other time Joshua Bell plays his violin in public, people are astounded.  But the busy, chilly commuters on that January morning, coming upon a violinist in jeans and a baseball cap playing for spare change, allowed their observations to take the path of least resistance.  As a result, they saw what they expected to see: nothing particularly noteworthy.

Source: Get Outta My Face, pgs 40-41