Examining installations as a performative object, we examined William Forsythe’s dance One Flat Thing, Reproduced. In this dance, Forsythe inserts a grid of tables to establish a new, unfamiliar datum for which the dancers engage.
At Knowlton Hall, the building is ruled by datums, with constantly intersecting ramps and floor plains. It’s materiality is known: concrete, glass, and steel. Our installation challenged both of these properties by establishing a new datum line and a new, unfamiliar and unidentifiable materiality: rubber ducks. Going up the ramp, visitors go under, through, and above the datum of ducks. Some ducks are always stagnant, others are constantly launched into sinusoidal motion, setting off chain reactions into an otherwise stoic building.