Apart from the canvas of a notorious blank, college ruled paper, where do we doodle? Where do our pens and pencils itch to write in curly cursive, etch a geometric pattern, or create wan elaborate sketch? One of the most common (granted, unpredictable) locations is none other than the large Harkness tables designed to facilitate class discussions. Upper School history teacher Ben Bollinger Danielson likes to transform these doodles from something inappropriate into something positive, by way of what he calls “transformative art”.

Q: What do you think of both doodles in general and Harkness doodling in particular?

A: You have to be aware of when is a good time to doodle, when is not a good time to doodle. I basically have no problem with it but I think there’s a time to be looking at someone and not just doodling. [On the other hand], I don’t think you should Harkness table doodle because it affects the experience of others. This is a public space. So one of my jobs is, that, when somebody decides to carve something into the table, I turn it into more positive thoughts because apparently, they like to carve inappropriate words on there. And I turn those into more positive words, like “tuck your pants”, when it was originally something else.

Q: Do you think Harkness doodling is more of a problem of vandalism, or something else?

A: Yeah, I think it is literally defacing public furniture, and these things are going to last a long time. There’s a time and place, like if it’s a mural project, to decorate walls or tables. It seems to me, for whatever reason, that the great majority of things carved onto tables are inappropriate and that tends to be pretty easy to say that it’s bad.

Q: What makes it your responsibility to transform these Harkness doodles?

A: To be honest, I am going to be around this table exponentially more times than a student this year. It’s my twelfth year at SPA, four classes a day, over the whole year. The students who carved into the tables have [graduated]. I’m going to have fun turning it into something a little more benign, because I don’t want to have to read some stupidly inappropriate thing on my table.

Q: Do you consider your transformation of the doodles an art?

A: I don’t know if I’ve ever thought about it that way, but I’m going to agree with that. I’m now going to call it that for sure.

Q: So what do you call it?

A: I call it “transformative art.”

Q: So when someone says “transformative art,” your mind just goes directly to Harkness tables?

A: Apparently, now. You know, what I call it is “taking something that somebody wants to be inappropriate and negative and turning it into something funny and positive. So on the other table where it used to say something really bleak, like “no one lives”, I changed it to “mom one loves”, and that’s a more fun, joy-inducing thing. I think it would be an interesting project to assign people the act, the art of carving into tables. But I think right now these tables need to last for a while, so you should doodle on your paper.

Q: Anything else you’d like to add?

A: Nope. I’m an artist. Thank you.