On the afternoon of May 13, students flocked around the University of Oregon’s Memorial Quad. They were met with a large inflatable beach ball bounding around its center. Groups of students took a break from their busy schedules to cheerfully bounce the ball around, often caught off guard to the weight of the large 12×12 ball.
“It’s not super heavy, but when its got a lot of power behind it, it can hit you pretty hard,” said junior Kelly Kenoyer, an international studies and journalism major. “It’s pretty fun to get under it and kick it up into the air.”
The ball was brought by traveling Iranian artist, Negar Farajiani, who was hosted by the art department to speak at a public discussion on “Domesticity & Public Space in Iranian Contemporary Art” in Lawrence Hall. She has brought the ball to Yazd, Iran; Dubai,UAE; Teblisi- Rustavi, Georgia; Toronto, Canada; and in the United States, where it bounced around in Chicago, Irvine, and now Eugene. In about a month, she will bring it with her to Berlin, Germany for the public to play with.
“The concept is about globalization and conception,” Farajiani said. “I’m trying  to take it all around the world, all countries, cities and see what kind of behavior people express with the ball.”
She was invited to Eugene following her lecture at the University of California, Irvine, by Farhad Bahram, a UO fine arts major. Bahram did many projects with Farajiani back in Iran before he started his graduate studies in the United States.
“She came to the U.S. a few weeks ago to do a speech at the University of California, Irvine,” Bahram said. “She stopped by here to visit me, so we thought that it would be a great opportunity to have her do a lecture here.”
Note: An earlier version of this article stated that the ball was brought to Tokyo, Japan.  It is was in fact never brought to Tokyo. 

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The 12×12 ball has featured at locations in Iran; Dubai, United Arab Emirates; Georgia; and Tokyo, Japan before being brought to Chicago, Irvine and now Eugene. (Andrew Field/Emerald)