Connect the dots with sidewalk gum spots

Dots on the sidewalk left by people’s gum. It’s quite amazing how so many dots form.

The history of sidewalk gum dots.

A) For all these gum spots to appear, there has to be lots of people who spit their gum out on the sidewalk–not into a piece of paper, not on the street, not on the grass–but right on the sidewalk.
B) The gum has to be stepped on by some unlucky person—not kicked over, not picked up, not rained into the curb–but actually stepped on.
C) Then the gum stays and stays, accumulating dirt through time. Becoming the round black dot–joining many of its friends.

It would be fun to play connect the dots with all those gum dots. Either take a photograph and draw in some lines or use a piece of chalk and draw right on the sidewalk making some sort of image or message with these dots.

Or–one could purposefully place the dots on the sidewalk to strategically create an image or message. (although i don’t like the idea of permanently vandalizing public space, maybe the dots could be removed or something)

What sort of image/message should be hidden on the sidewalk?

Gum theme ideas:

• Spell out “chew on this”
• Spell out “no gum”

Walking theme ideas:

• Image of walking person
• Image of feet, maybe footprints

Random theme ideas (relating to how one can interpret seemingly random gum dots on the sidewalk to mean something):

• Spell out “Be random”
• Spell out “look for meaning”

Misc ideas

• Make the gum dots be different cities on a map of USA.
• Connect the dots is very simliar to creating your own constellation with stars in the sky. Maybe with this project it could be a Little dipper on the sidewalk. We can’t see many stars in the city, so recreating them on the sidewalk would be an urban constellation!