Murphy’s Law Or:
How I Learned To Interrupt The Transition (2020)
Murphy's Law Or: was a networked, durational performance and participatory archive running from November to December 2020. Performing as "Disaster Girl," I invited participants and contributors to submit media that might otherwise be lost to the digital wasteland— existing media created, collected, or found.
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​The project, with its full title, Murphy's Law Or: How I Learned to Interrupt the Transition, implicitly asked, "Is it material now?" by challenging concepts of ownership and authorship through peer sharing and exchange. I called for diverse types of media: audio samples, field recordings, digital audio workstation (DAW) stems, speech and vocals, complete tracks (released or unreleased), photographs, scanned or digitally created images, visual artwork, video art, animation, graphics, loops, and code in any language, whether scripts, full programs, artwork, or hacks. During three performances that gradually increased in duration, I connected with participants on the video conferencing software Zoom and through comments on YouTube and Twitch. They would select media from the archive and share their screen, which was then projected onto me as I interacted with the visuals and audio, read poetry, and spent a lot of time upside down.
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Murphy's Law Or: brought ideas of repair, reuse, and recycling into the digital realm, communicating that the digital space is not immaterial. Video projections in this context could literally and aesthetically materialize digital artifacts and their transmission, moving beyond the flat screen. This form of liveness was a dynamic exploration of what lies between people, interactions, and elements, revealing transitions rather than electronic transmissions. By embracing the interruptions and uncertainties that come with digital and networked performance, Murphy's Law Or: opposed fatalism and conservatism, encouraging a perspective that sees disruptions not as failures but as brief moments of transformation, especially in the context of pandemics and the quest for personal empowerment. The epigram, Murphy’s Law, is humorous but worthwhile speculation. Although the adage “anything that can go wrong will go wrong” is negative, it conveys the practical impact of every situation. If there is more than one possible outcome of a situation, one of those outcomes will result in disaster or an undesirable consequence; somebody will do it that way.
