I have an interactive art piece I sometimes bring with me when I go to festivals called “Math Anxiety Camp.” The project consists of a little math book I wrote, more of a pamphlet, full of funny, weird, and famous math problems that are designed to elicit both laughter and anxiety. Problem number 1 is “Name a number that is 3.” Problem 18 asks you to count backwards from 100 by 7s and state the last positive number you count. This problem is known as “serial sevens,” and even has its own Wikipedia page because it is used by psychologists to elicit anxiety in experimental subjects. When I give problems, I try to rush my subjects, and I make buzzing noises when they get wrong answers. I say things math teacher should never say like “You should have learned this last year.”
Good art elicits emoitions, and I know of no other art piece that is designed to elicit the emotion of math anxiety. As a math teacher, math anxiety is an emotion I deal with regularly. Manifesting it at a festival where this emotion is out of context and the stakes are low gives me a novel way to interact with people around their math anxiety, and I’ve learned a lot from adults about their experiences learning mathematics as children.
Anyone who achieves anxiety from my art project wins an a achievement award, namely a yellow sticker. Interestingly, I’m not able to make everyone anxious with my little book of math problems because a lot of people enjoy math. I still give them a sticker if they want one.