On June 19, 2016 I started a daily practice of writing 50 questions a day. One year later, on June 20, 2017, this practice ended, culminating in a performance where I read all the questions I asked (all 18,250 questions). This durational performance piece started at 7 am and ended when I read through every question asked over the past year (roughly 20 hours).

The aim of this project is to explore a long-term ritualized thinking practice: one that is structured by questions, punctuated by a day, and completed in a year. The range of topics covered were rather broad and the only rules I established were:

1) ask 50 questions, all in one sitting, once per day

2) do not mention the name of anyone you know

3) do not repeat a question in one day

Here is a glance into the performance:

How long does attraction last? What sustains it? Can it last forever? Are things better now that the intensity has lessened? Does the lessening of intensity mean I will grow less interested? Does it mean I will sustain my life more easily? Does it mean I will disintegrate less easily? How fast do things decay? How quickly will I fall asleep? How can I create questions when my mind is mush? Shouldn’t these questions happen in the morning? Can I experiment with the time of the questions? The place? The mood? How can this be reflected in the questions themselves? Why couldn’t I give dating advice today? What is dating advice? Why was I asked? Why wasn’t I able to speak? Why was I so shy? Was it because I wasn’t sure what was being asked of me? Do I make you different? Do you make me different? How different? Who are you? Do I really need to live alone? Will my friends think I am abandoning them? What if I find a crappy place? Is it too scary? Is it too unknown? Am I one to not act out of fear? Isn’t it best to act because it is right? Am I strong enough? What is it about? Is this enough now? When will we know? When will the doubting end?