#boxtape

#boxtape is an event that lies between performance and sculpture. It bridges dance and visual art (sculpture in particular) to play at the fringes of performance art.

#boxtape subverts the traditional idea of performance in that the “dance” takes place during the whole length of time it takes to install /build the tape structure, usually over a week in duration. Anybody who contributes to the building of it takes part in the “dance” as well as assisting in the creation of the sculpture. Yet, as you focus on one aspect, the other becomes more ambiguous. It is similar to the uncertainty principle in quantum mechanics which states that the more precisely the position of a particle is determined, the less precisely its momentum can be known and vice versa. Yet the position and momentum are still two parts of the same event; it is the onlooker (the attempt to measure) that affects the outcome.

#boxtape sets up a basic continuum: where there is movement in one area it affects other areas, immediately recalling nonlocality and quantum entanglement. This requires people to remain aware of the whole space, and to take care of others in the web.

#boxtape is a perfect stigmergy: “a mechanism of indirect coordination between agents or actions.”[1] The tape displays a memory of every action that happens. Everything that happens informs all subsequent actions. A highly complex sculpture self-organizes due to the collective input of large numbers of individuals performing extraordinarily simple actions in response to their local environment. This phenomenon is also evident in the building of virtual spaces online: Wikis, and Social Media are all examples of the stigmergic hive mind.

#boxtape requires an intrinsically related correspondence between the structure and the aesthetic of the sculpture. The structure defines the look of the sculpture and vice versa. It is entirely site specific. Anyone who contributes to the building also brings his or her own aesthetic concerns with them. Some people lean toward movement (dance) and others lean towards building (sculpture) but everyone is engaged in both. Every participant, whether building it up or breaking it down participates. The tape structure is in constant flux, never finished.
#boxtape creates the conditions where both dance and sculpture get to move towards an in-between space/event, where the dance becomes the sculpture and the sculpture a dance, and anyone who participates becomes both a performer and a creator.