For my project, I wanted to do something that would involve some sort of interaction and/or participation with the audience, (specifically strangers). The “Events” and event scores from the Fluxus Performance Workbook inspired me to create verbal instructions to be performed. My original intentions were to write them myself and give them away to strangers, but that would have taken away the exciting dynamic of having the audience be the “composers” of the “event scores”.
Two days were spent in various locations downtown Seattle trying to get people to participate. I didn’t realize how hard it would be to approach strangers and explain to them what I was doing and ask for their audience input. Another problem I ran into was trying to explain to them as simply as possible Fluxus Art, and the ideas behind my specific project. I had the participants write down on a card their instructions, and then to leave the card anonymous or signed as they liked.
Performing these written “instructions” was very enjoyable and even humorous. When you see a person doing something obscure or unordinary in a public environment, people take notice to the unusual event. Whether or not it is a public event or a private one, through doing this project I am more observant to little things around me that go on unnoticed or appreciated on a regular basis. I think for some of the ‘events’ I performed were personal things that the person who wrote them would want to participate in as well.
THe Following are the collected "Event Scores" from the week:
*Take a bus or drive with no destination in mind.
*Mask one of your five senses for a day
*Wear non-matching socks for a week
*Hand out flowers to those you don’t know
*Take a picture everyday of something beautiful
*Create a self-portrait using only food condiments
*Walk down a crowded street singing your favorite song from a musical.
*Cut out the entire center of a newspaper and read it intently in a public place.
*Sit on a busy street corner with a musical instrument and money in music case. Play the instrument when someone takes the money.
*Take a nap in a display bed in an upscale furniture store.
A few of them are things I have actually done before on my own, such as; handing out flowers to strangers and driving to nowhere. It was uplifting to know that other people thought so positively about peoples actions as I do. I was hoping that the participants would write a few absurd and outrageous instructions for me to do, but all in all I had a bvery good experience putting myself out in the public and getting people to volunteer for an artistic experiment of mine.
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