THE FINAL EXAM
Our month-long residency at PIFAS concluded with a final exam. Drawing upon the questions raised by the “Test-Taking, Test-Making” event two weeks prior, we used THE FINAL EXAM to undermine the formal borders of a test. John Muse, the guest speaker for the previous event, noted the reassuring role exams can play in our lives. In assessing a student’s aptitude in a specific realm during a clearly delimited space and time, a test implicitly suggests that these sorts of evaluations aren’t going on the rest of the time. What if the edges of a test are less clear? What if its rules are ambiguous or defined by the test taker?
The mechanics of THE FINAL EXAM were simple. We held all 40 attendees in a waiting room and told them that the tests would be taken in the classroom one at a time. PIFAS co-founder Brandon Joyce would call the name of the next test-taker and bring him/her to a secondary holding area directly outside of the classroom. While waiting for permission to enter the classroom, Brandon would converse with the person. A hidden microphone and camera fed their interaction into the classroom, where it appeared on a big screen television in real time. When the test taker was invited into the classroom, he/she was informed that the test had already taken place; the waiting area banter had served as a basis for evaluation. We then asked the test taker to sit down in front of the television and evaluate the next unsuspecting test subject.
