Sagmeister's "The Happy Show"

I didn't know what to expect from Stefan Sagmeister's exhibit at the Chicago Cultural Center, for I was not familiar with his work. I was pleasantly surprised to see that his exhibit was centered on the definition of happiness and included many interactive elements. I thought to myself, "this actually seems like a cheery not so serious exhibit, I might have fun seeing his work". This was true in the beginning.  The gumball machine where you were suppose to get a gumball that corresponds to your level of happiness was interesting. All of the machines with high numbers (7,8,9, and 10) were completely empty. I remember thinking, "there is no way people are that happy, they must be in denial and decided to pick a safe choice". I walked away from the gumball machine with my piece of gum from the number 6 machine. Next I came to the station where the instructions were to draw a symbol that represents happiness that is not a smiley face. For such a simple question I found it difficult and decided to just draw something that made me happy. I drew a quick picture of my dog and moved on. What I enjoyed besides the interactive element were the statistical charts and graphs on human relationships and they way he illustrated them. They were informative retrospective. 

As I made my way throughout the exhibit I noticed that the initial fun mood I was in had grown more serious as I saw more of his work. Sagmeister wrote a lot of thoughts on the walls that felt like diary entries of thoughts I, as well as others may have had before. Before I knew it, his exhibit had turned serious and introspective. I started to think about the times I've come across old journals and diaries from when I was younger and reading about how I felt then and comparing that to now. Some were embarrassing but thinking back many were written about almost solely negative emotions; rarely any were happy. It was weird connecting his exhibit to my own life in that way. 

Overall I liked the The Happy Show, it was unexpected and left me with things to think about once I had left. And after reading "How to Define Problems" I think I understand what Sagmeister was trying to do. He identified a problem he had, and that was trying define happiness. His exhibit is essentially his thought process to solving that. he used maps and charts, wrote his comments and used visually artistics means of communication to show that. Then displayed them together into what is The Happy Show.