A window is a window is a window

It turns out to be as true with TICTOC as it is true at the neighborhood café - people prefer a window seat.

TICTOC is the performance art and street theater component of Manifest, and it's my responsibility to program all the artists. This year, our proposals from current students and alumni were way up. The most requested location? A window display.

There's a creative irony to this, though I have to utilize a timeworn cliché. Artists are the ones most encouraged to think outside the box. I understand the value of constraints. A few good restrictions, either self-induced artistic parameters or the consequential limits of time, money, or space, often make for an active creative process. As producer, one of my constraints is that there just aren't enough windows to go around. Some windows are being used for other purposes, while others are too close to activities that would somehow encroach on the integrity of a planned performance. Yet another window became off limits because of planned street repair that would make it impossible for the audience to see the artists. Does a work of art exist if nobody witnesses it? The answer might be a declarative Yes, but no one proposed such a project this year.

Thankfully, we've made it work out - we've found the malleable points and hammered out solutions. This year, we have one enclosed window display at the Museum of Contemporary Photography, and we've made good use of windowed lobby spaces. Several performances will be roving from location to locations, while others will be stationed outside of buildings or tucked neatly into exposed crevices. It's taken a bit of collaboration, some creative scheduling, and a few concessions, but that's the nature of festival work. Inside or outside the box, there's plenty to see on both sides of the glass.