SCRIPT was an experiment in art, living, and performing. For once month, I gave control of my life to the internet. Every day, a script of my life for the following day (called the ‘Tomorrow Script’) was posted online. For example, on January 31st, the script for February 1st was posted.
Anyone that visited the site was able to edit the tomorrow script, wiki style. Participants could script lines for me, stage directions, costumes, settings, etc. They could also write themselves into my script. They could make additions as well as remove or modify previously created script content. The participants could choose to make their edits anonymously or not. At midnight, the Tomorrow Script was closed for editing, becoming the script of my life for the next day, posted on the site as the ‘Today Script’.
Throughout the day, I would make every attempt to perform every line and detail of the script, though improvisation beyond the script was allowed. This was a durational performance that lasted for one month non-stop.
So as not to detract from the experience of living and performing for me and the script contributors, I kept only minimal documentation, capturing occasional photos or videos with my camera phone. In addition, I maintained a public daily blog where I reflected each night on the day’s performance and the project as it evolved.
The tension between keeping control and letting go resurfaced throughout the project. I was also a script contributor, meaning I had some control. However, one goal with this project was to open myself to experiences that I would normally rule out because they didn’t fit with my concept of myself. It was also to find out what my limits were and why. For this reason, I rarely changed anything, leaving everything in that was logistically possible.
When I closed the editing of the tomorrow script each night, I made sure that it was in a state where it would be feasible to perform everything the next day. In this way, I could wake up each morning with a finalized script for my day’s performance, decisions about my life for that day had already been made.
I wanted to understand how others – friends, colleagues, anonymous strangers on the internet – would act and feel with this kind of control over my life. Would they exploit it? Feel uncomfortable? Care to participate at all?
I also wanted to learn how I would act and feel while performing these actions. Could I step outside of the set of actions and ideas I normally limit myself to? Would the whole process be freeing or restricting? Where does performance and reality start to blend together? How would the project and how would I change over time?
