Fluxfests, gatherings of international artists who are inspired by the Fluxus art movement, have been held in American and Canadian cities since 2009. Usually, over the course of the festivals artists perform original and historic scores at events in several venues. The Hotel Dada Fluxfest was the first Fluxfest held completely in virtual space. 40 artists were each allotted approximately three minutes to perform.

I was challenged to engage the audience, the other performers, with a short, interactive performance that was interesting no matter what language you spoke. I wanted to use the distortions created by the laptop camera as part of my performance. The idea of demonstrating baby sign language seemed ideal. I could move my hands close to the camera, so they appeared huge. The audience could copy the hand signs. It was simple and in the spirit of Fluxus. Baby sign language is a set of hand gestures taught to babies to help them communicate before they learn to speak. Some of the signs are the same as American Sign Language. I wore white and had a white background so my hands would stand out. People did follow and repeat the hand signs.

Here is the score for my performance:

– Mimic a baby crying. Say WAH, WAH, WAH. Three times.

– Say LEARN BABY SIGN LANGUAGE

– Repeat each word three times (except where noted) while making the baby sign for the word with your hands

– HELP

– HURT

– HUNGRY

– DRINK

– PLEASE

– SHARE

– MORE

– PLAY

– I LOVE YOU

– YES

– I (say once while pointing to self)

– LOVE (say once while crossing arms over chest)

– YOU (say three or more time while pointing at people)

– NO

– SHIT

– ALL DONE

– BYE (say only once)