On Sept. 20, a scavenger hunt will begin in the MARTA train stations.
The project culminates a three-month residency by Georgia Tech alumni Mira Kaufman and Owen Rohm with the Fulton County Public Art Futures Lab and MARTA Artbound.
"We're making art, but we're also doing community engagement," Kaufman said. "We wanted to focus on getting people to slow down a little bit and appreciate the spaces they're passing through."
"We love this idea of exploration and history. It's a little adventure every time you get on MARTA."
— Rohm
Kaufman is an urban planner, artist, and public policy expert. She has a B.S. in Public Policy and a dual M.S. in Public Policy and City and Regional Planning.
Rohm is a mathematical artist, technical designer, and public transit enthusiast. He has a B.S. in industrial design from the College of Design.
MARTA themed sticker art by Kaufman
Why is it so important to slow down?
The pair said they were partly inspired by the book How To Do Nothing by Jenny O'Dell.
"She talks a lot about how our attention is one of the few resources we have, and a lot of companies are trying to monopolize it and use it to make money. But by choosing how we focus and what we focus on, we can affect how we experience the world," Rohm said.
"If you only consume media the algorithms feed you, your life will be different than if you take some time to notice a little detail in an artist's work or something you pass by every day. I think that attention allocation leads to a more nuanced understanding of the community and the environment you live in."
Kaufman and Rohm's hunt will take players through multiple stations with clues incorporating the history of the buildings and people who brought Atlanta's public transit system to life. Everyone who plays will get a prize, but the first people to solve the puzzle will win MARTA-related collectibles that Kaufman designed and Rohm 3D modeled and printed.
They hope participating in the scavenger hunt can help foster more appreciation for MARTA, which in turn can lead to increased public support, engagement, and funding.
"It's such a growing movement in the United States to appreciate public transit or want better public transit," Rohm said. "We want to do whatever we can to support it, and this is our way of contributing."
Visit the official scavenger hunt website to join the fun!
