Tales of self-infringement

I had to smile the other day when I was driving through Allentown and saw a guy sitting on a tree stump with his head bandaged. I don't usually derive amusement from the misfortunes of others, but I was pretty sure I recognized the big white strip of cloth wrapped around his skull. There's a very good chance that he was just following orders: orders from the "Self-Infringement" box in the window of Rust Belt. Orders that I put there.

OK, so they're not really orders. Just instructions. Directions. Assignments. Scripts, if you will, created by Brian Milbrand and me (actually, some--like the bandage piece--are actually swiped from the Fluxus performances of Yoko Ono and her colleagues back in the late 1950s and early 1960s). Every one is different; a few contain variations on a common theme. I can't tell you how much I've loved working on this project: coming up with new ideas with Brian or on my own, putting them in sealed envelopes, and dropping them off at Rust Belt like a surrealist mailman when the stock got low.

I have also loved seeing evidence here and there that people are really carrying out their assignments. At a party last weekend I spotted someone wearing a prize ribbon he'd been given by someone else, and I knew immediately what was going on. I've also found crumpled pieces of paper, cryptic notes, and other traces of various missions.

So what about you? Have you reached in the box yet? (Hurry--you only have about 12 hours as of now to do it.) I realize some of the assignments are top-secret, but if you'd care to write about something you've done or seen thanks to the box, please do!