“My neighbors think my dog barks too much, but he doesn’t.” This problem was submitted anonymously to Westport Arts Center by a local resident , and produced some pretty diverse solutions from the think tanks.

Ghana told us to “Give your dog a calming name, like ‘Love’.” Serbia said we should distribute mp3 players to the neigbours of the barking dog, so they can listen to them whenever the dog barks. El Salvador recommended throwing a shoe at the neighbor’s window. That way, when the barking dog owner returns or complains about the shoe, you can talk with him. “Now, it isn’t between the pet and the human; it’s between neighbours!”

So, we set to work.

First we met Julie, whose dog ‘Duke’ is causing her serious problems. “He pretty much barks incessantly. He barks all day long non-stop. In our last house, we had the police show up a couple of times!”

She looked over the solutions, and decided to go for the dog named ‘Love.’

So, her brown lab ‘Duke’, is now ‘Love,’ and though he’s still barking, Julie says “it’s made me like him more because I’m thinking about love when I say his name.” [Update: artist John Ewing writes to say, "I liked the part of Julie's story where she said that b/c she was liking her dog more , she took him for more walks and as a result, he was actually barking less... "]

“I think I’ll tell the neighbors about his new name, and see what they say. They may even start to like me better.”

The next action was a bit tougher. Based on El Salvador and Serbia’s solutions, we made up a ‘barking doggy bag’ consisting of a shoe for throwing and an mp3 player, and went door to door distributing them to neighbors of an alleged problem dog.

The first person we spoke to knew immediately what we were talking about, but told us we were at the wrong house. “You want the house by the bridge,” he told us, and as we thanked him and walked away, he added, “but they’re not going to be nice.”

With that warning, we headed straight off to the belly of the beast, past “Beware of Dog” and “Do not enter” signs, and knocked on their door. I could see two dogs waiting behind a fence in the house, as a white-haired man approached the door.

“Hello?”

I explained the situation. Think tanks in Ghana, Mexico, Serbia and El Salvador had considered his problem of the Westport barking dog, and we were here to act on their solutions.

I handed him a clear plastic zippered case containing a shoe and an mp3 player.

“Why don’t you come in?”

And so, we sat down on their couch, and were immediately greeted by their two dogs, with a paw in hand and a ton of licks. The bigger dog carried a single worn slipper for us to share. It seems the controversy surrounding one of their dogs had caused some serious problems. A petition had been circulated around the neighborhood claiming that the dog was vicious, and to have the dog removed or destroyed. And while the dog owners encouraged us to hand these kits to their neighbours, they confessed “… they’re not about to lighten up…”

“It’s a cute idea, and nice that they think they could do something in the neighbourhood, but, well, I think it’s a bit beyond that.”

But they accepted the barking dog kit and pointed out the specific neighbours they thought were most important to contact.

Next house. I knocked. A man came to the door, and opened it just enough for his head to peer at me through the narrow opening. He didn’t seem to think it was so cute. “This is ridiculous. What is this really about?”

I explained again and was sent away “I’m just not interested in trying these problems at all. We have the law for that.”

The last house also saw flaws in our thinktanks’ solutions, but for entirely different reasons.

“We don’t have a barking dog problem; we have a violent dog problem. You have the wrong solution. If we had a barking dog problem, your solutions would be welcome.”

(Read more here about how Ghana Thinktank is solving Westport’s problems as part of the Optimism exhibition).

The following note was dropped in the ‘Problem Box’ at Westport Art Center for Ghana Thinktank to solve:

‘My concern for our area is the amount of pesticide use for our beautiful gold courses and our fancy lawns, which are hurting our wildlife, flora and fauna AND human life. There is a large incidence of cancer in the area. I wish we could all appreciate the beauty of dandelions.’

The think tank in Mexico (see their picture here) came up with the following solutions:

1) take surveys with the goal of giving people the necessary information i.e. do you want cancer?

2) organize a forum with experts (ecologists and experts in chemicals and agronomy

3) ads with the help of famous people who would help distribute the message “Don’t Use Pesticides”

4) also make an internet site

5) make golf courses and lawns with artificial grass

6) look for “adoptive parents” for dandelions. People who would grow large fields of dandelions and preserve them

7) have a dandelion competition with prizes for the best arts and crafts made from dandelions

In response to solution number 7, artists from the Ghana Thinktank attended Westport Town Council on Tuesday. Christopher Robbins sent me the following update this morning:

‘What we are planning is to aim for an officially sanctioned “Westport Dandelion Festival” as part of a broader Dandelion Promotion Campaign that will integrate many of Mexico’s solutions. Essentially, the plan is to the use the cute appeal of the dandelion as a sexy way to raise awareness about pesticide use in Westport. Thanks to Gene Seidman, Jerry Kuyper, and Emily Laux, we know have a cadre of interested people to help us do this properly.’

I will keep you up to date on their progress.

Optimism, an exhibition exploring the dreams and realities of making progress and changing the world, is on view at Westport Arts Center through November 30, 2008.  More info.

Pictured: Ghana Thinktank, a project by John Ewing, Matey Odonkor and Christopher Robbins. Photo by Christopher Robbins.