Blog Post 5: Fluxus Performance Workbook Part 2 + Part 3!

I wanted to perform this one because I had just been broken up with and the last thing they gave me was a cute little match box with an owl on it. We went outside to preform because I wasn't allowed fire in the building. I needed the performance of striking a match to last at least five minutes, so in the beginning I pretended to not come prepared to perform, asking each individual if they brought a match. This turned into me acting as a character. A clumsy jester like persona. Searching far and wide for a match box, only to find one hidden away in a tree (in my sleeve). I drop all the matches in the snow in excitement, upon opening the match box. Trying to pick them back up and strike them, but they had all succumb to the elements. No fire was to be had, that is when I remembered I kept a single match in my left shoe for times such as these. I take my shoe off, the match falls into the snow, but I quickly pick it back up and strike it on the match box. Fire erupts from the match, only to go out as quickly as it had been struck. Class dismissed.

For this performance, I used a radio from an MP3 player that I found at my coop Orion. It has Bluetooth®, so I connected it to my wireless speaker, which I propped up next to a radio looking thing that I found in the classroom that was placed on top of a rolling cart also found in the room. This was stationed in front of one of the windows that had less clutter and where the sun wasn't blocked by a tree. When time started, I pared the devices and connected the MP3 player to the radio. I quickly jumped up on the windowsill and played the radio which was set to be on the student radio station 89.0. I proceeded to do an interpreted dance, moving my arms to try to get a radio signal. Playing around with my body movement and the position of the radio. Mixing song and static in real time with my body movements. At one point, there was complete static until I moved my other arm which was not holding the radio. The room erupted with magic as my body became the radio antenna. At one point, I changed the radio station to classical music, staying on that station until I concluded my performance once the five minute timer went up. I probably could have gone for longer, but I'm glad I allowed for more time for my other classmates.