Mark Ressl, thesis architecture student at the Cooper Union, sent me a text message one day asking if I “still did video stuff,” and that was the beginning of what became an ongoing collaborative thesis exploration involving travel to Alabama, performance art in private and public spaces, and many late night conversations and debates about architecture, space, art, and New York City life.

This project was the first iteration of our work together. Mark had approached me with concepts and a design in mind, and my role was to produce the videos that were to be projected in the presented version of the performance.

EXHIBITION VIEW

There were two versions of this presentation. Here are photos of the second installation and space:

From the start, the piece was focused on the experience of the participants and creating a space out of their perception of a space.

PROJECTED VIDEOS
The following are videos that were produced and projected onto the fabric structure that Mark created.

Mark designed and sewed together a hat-like structure, which was worn by the performers for the duration of the performance. For part of the performance time, Mark gave the performers direction, sometimes watching and sometimes just letting them move without knowing how his directions were being interpreted. For the rest of the performances, Mark let the performers do as they pleased and explore the situation and use of the fabric structure on their own. After a few performances, Mark replaced one of the performers so as to experience the situation first hand.