On their daily walk to class, students might come across something different from the routine campus scenes: statues, posters or dumpsters observing the street through googly eyes. The question of how, or when, posters started having eyes was one shrouded in mystery, but students found that eye contact with inanimate objects adds fun and uniqueness to their day.
But where did the googly eyes come from?
On the r/USC Reddit page, user emo-otter posted “Day 1 of putting googly eyes around campus before getting in trouble” on Sept. 9, 2021. It seems that emo-otter is still active, as he posted “Butterfl-eye (Day 31 of putting googly eyes around campus before getting in trouble)” on Saturday, Oct. 7.
Emo-otter, or Nevaeh Li, a sophomore at USC studying interactive media and game design, shared his insights about this two year project with Annenberg Media. Li said the idea originated from TikTok videos showing people putting googly eyes on everything, but he wanted to do something special at a university setting.
“I’m definitely considering the fun part of it. If I just put it on a random pillow or a random chair, that’s not going to be that funny. I’m looking for things that are missing their eyes. The second aspect I look for is, are they USC enough?” Li said.
After he posted the googly eyes on Reddit, Li said he received many positive responses: “I never thought it would go viral. Not viral viral, but 300 likes is a lot for me. Reddit is famous for people bickering over stupid things, but I feel like this is a moment where people can just be silly.”
Comments under reddits included “amazing work” and “I love this.” “You brighten my walks around campus,” commented Reddit user lazato42 on Sept. 22.
The influence of the googly eye project reached faculty and staff of the USC community across various platforms. Connor Morrissette, senior staff writer for USC Football, tweeted “The Trojan sword has eyes today” on Sept. 19. It was retweeted by USC Trojans Football. On that day, a video showed the googly eyes watching over athletes walking past after finishing their training.
According to Li, the project started off as a “silly idea,” but it turned out to be more long term. “As a freshman, I was mildly depressed clinically. This project really made me climb out of my bed to do things. But I do feel like some people are getting joy out of my project,” Li said.
Chloe Kwan, a sophomore studying interactive media and game design who joined Li for the project, agreed.
“It brings joy to people, but it also gives me and Naveah the opportunity to explore the campus while searching where to put the googly eyes on,” she said.
“I’ve seen more of campus because of these updates than I did in two years here,” commented Redditor momsbiryani on Oct. 2 under the post “Tirebiter (Day 30 of putting googly eyes around campus before getting in trouble).”
“I do have basic industry standards of putting googly eyes,” Li said.
He doesn’t put the eyes on signs that are crucial for people to get around.
“I don’t want to actually interfere with just putting them everywhere so that [people] can’t see where they’re actually going. It’ll be annoying.”
According to Li, there’s a secret schedule for putting up the googly eyes. He wishes to keep the project mysterious, even though he is no longer anonymous. Usually the googly eyes are taken down within a few hours after he puts them up, which adds a discovery and timeliness element to the project.
“You feel like you’re just doing something that’s mysterious while, at the same time, legal,” Li said, “I feel like some people just like that sense of mystery in our life because in school, life can get really boring and everything is predictable. But if you see a pair of googly eyes popping out like ‘Whoo!’ Then you’ll have something different in your life.”