Using Charles Olson’s theory from his “Projective Verse” essay about the page as a “map of phenomena,” I gave a performance that worked from Olson’s essay and extended it, seeing a video frame or immediate space as also playing the role of map to conduit phenomena.

To do this, I collaborated with Eric Drasin, who was manipulating imagery in an open source program called VDMX.

The piece is a combination of different experiences I had during Occupy: a reaction to a dismissive interaction with an activist more interested in her celebrity than helping people; a reaction to a sign I saw saying, “My future is not yours to leverage”; and then later, thoughts I was having while taking the streets after the Trayvon Martin verdict.

I wanted to play with the parallel of having this “personal” text be the voice of the people, so I walked around in the audience and asked people to read sections while Eric recorded it back to blend into a noise crash that I scored for the finale of the piece.

A recording is here:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=00st5wH8dVY&feature=share&list=UU-OSfyW4349sQ564moI8YPw&index=2