Bob Ross Nite

“Just be a whisper that floats across here.  Very delicate.”

“And here, just a happy little tree. Make it happy.” 

_ _ _

On two separate occasions now, individuals have taken a stab at interpreting these arguably amorphous directions from Bob Ross.

Over a set of speakers, I played a Youtube video of Bob Ross instructing viewers through a painting, but participants were not shown the video. Given only the audio to follow along with, the group was left to figure out what the painting was intended to look like based on Ross’s vague verbal guidance.

What was originally intended to be an experiment in interpretation of audio direction quickly devolved into a visualization of the group’s varying attention spans…note the lion and the figure reminiscent of Frankenstein…

And thus was born Bob Ross Nite, which is — to steal Bob’s hallmark phrase — “a happy little accident” from a failed conceptual art experiment.

Think Paint Nite, but less legit and more fun.