Issues regarding participation

Currently in my project i have acquired around 4 pieces, with 8 participants involved. At this point i was hoping i would have more participants however getting people to be involved is quite hard. Some of the problems i faced while collecting participants was availability. Many participants told me that they are busy, or when we organised a date for them to draw they didn't show up. I think this is because the majority of participants are around the ages where they are doing their own individual university work or working at their job. Because of this i am currently aiming to broaden the demographic, asking older family members and friends of friends to participate. My attempts to collect participants through the website and social media showed some issues too. The few participants i collected via instagram were also the age where they are doing university work, as instagram users are usually young. This brought back the same issues that they are busy most of the time. When i initially created the instagram account i aimed to make it as diverse as i could in attempts to attract a larger demographic, however i still ended up only attracting people 18-23.

I think the lack of participants relates back to the fact there is no reward for their services, they are just participating out of kindness. If i were to pay participants like in Aaron Koblin's 'The Sheep Market' i guarantee i would've got more participants. If i were to do this project again i would add a reward for participants to encourage them to join in on 'Friends on the Other Side'. They would come for the reward and stay for the interaction.

One more issue i came across was the lack of participants due to the fact they believe their art skills aren't good enough, even after i assured them there was no skills needed. I think this stems back to an insecurity of their artistic abilities and the fear of being judged, as these pieces are showcased in a digital exhibition. I do assure participants that their work will never be judged harshly, instead admired for their beauty and individuality. I support all art styles and skills, even for amateurs. Personally i believe no matter the skill level that art is art. I managed to convince a few people who had this worry to participate and in the end they said they enjoyed the experience so i think my project is doing its job.