Would you pay someone else's parking ticket? Would you buy a stranger a wedding gift? Would you live in your office? Is your shed your church? Would you eat a baby?

"Probably Not" answers the first four, and it is an obvious "No" to the last one.

But the latest exhibition at the Northern Gallery for Contemporary Art raises all these questions and more.

The exhibition is called A Modest Proposal after author Jonathan Swift's famous essay.

Swift, who lived in the 18th century, suggested that starvation in Ireland could be easily solved if poor people simply ate their own children.

The essay was a serious joke: Swift was criticising society and the government through his ridiculous suggestion.

Much of the work on display at the NGCA, on Fawcett Street, does the same thing.

All the suggestions and questions raised cast a satirical look at the world we live in and turn the spotlight on how we behave day to day. With some brilliant results.

Sean Hawkridge, a young artist from Liverpool, bases his art work around random acts of kindness.

He has bought wedding presents for strangers through their online wedding list, paid a man's parking ticket and bought a bottle of Champagne for people he didn't know in a restaurant.

Perhaps most bizarre of all, he once organised a group of friends and colleagues to meet on a street and cheer and clap passers-by.

The effect, seen on film at the exhibition, is bizarre.

At first people are confused, but gradually other pedestrians join in and a friendly mob is created, before everyone gradually drifts away.

Sean said: "It was about a personal need to connect to people in the daily grind. I also wanted to know how people would respond to generosity from a stranger. I think it makes them quite uncomfortable.

"People like to be in control. It's strange when someone you don't know spends money on you.

"With the wedding list I had a phone call from the mother of the bride saying 'Why have you bought us a present?'

"It's also about my response, I tend to mumble quite a lot. I don't tell them I'm an artist."

Like most artists, Sean takes his work home with him.

He said: "I try to do it in my own life. Three weeks ago I gave my friend a lap top and I like to leave a pound in the trolley – it's about wanting to be a force for change."

"I honestly think I get more out of this than I give.

"These acts seem to create a kind of urban legend which gets passed on and hopefully that makes a difference."

Artist Andrew Cooke takes a different approach with his Guide to Maintaining Dignity in the Workplace, which encourages people to withhold enthusiasm, take up smoking, and adopt the "oh I forgot" and "I don't know anything about it" strategy.

The exhibition includes huge videos, paintings, animation, sculpture and music

Benrik Ltd, Ben Carey and Henrik Delehag have brought tongue-in-cheek "self-help" suggestions to the exhibition and invite Wearsiders to sign a "Doomsday book" resistance movement.

Artist Paul Bloomfield looks at national identity in his part of the exhibition through a film of flags which morph into each other and by creating huge banner flags to represent countries that don't exist.

Paul, who studied at Newcastle University, said: "I made the banners by cutting up words from popular love songs, because love songs have a mass appeal and flags represent the masses.

"It can mean whatever people want it to mean. Artists don't give you the answers they just pose the questions."

Claire Fontaine, The Klassnik Corporation, James Rigler, Adam Latham, Jens Strandberg, Benrik Ltd, Paul Bloomfield, Kaoru Katayama, Narda Fabiola Alvarado, Andrew Cooke and Sean Hawkridge have all contributed projects to A Modest Proposal, which will be on display until September 13.

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