The Initial Inspirations

The things about Fluxus and scores were new to me. There were several ideas sitting around in my head. When coming up with my own score, I returned to them.

• Some of the scores in Yoko Ono’s “Grapefruit” require materials. I like the idea of that. What if I could have a score that would require materials that are readily available?
• I wanted to have a score that had an impact. After people read my score, they would walk away looking at the world a little differently. Not all scores are for this purpose, but some are. For example, the “Total Art Matchbox”, which provokes people to consider what art means and why they are preserved in museums. So, I wanted a score that has to do with materials, and I also wanted to have a score that could make an impact. What if it’s a score about passing materials around? I came back to the idea of a “kindness boomerang”. It was a video I watched on YouTube a while back. A person does something kind for someone, and because of that, that person does something kind for someone else, and so on, until the person who original did that kind thing is on the receiving end.
• Speaking of the “Total Art Matchbox”, I also like the idea that the score is written on the object that the score is about. Its meta nature strengthens its message. What is a readily available material that can accommodate words on it? What came to my mind is paper. Paper is everywhere, and we write stuff on it.
• Paper can have lots of words, that’s what they are for, but I am inspired by the vibes of “Grapefruit”. I honestly do not quite understand what those vibes are, but I think it has to do with the brevity of the text, yet they make you ponder. Thus, I wanted to have that level of brevity in my piece of paper, and to try and capture the vibes in “Grapefruit”.

At this point, the crux of my score has materialized in my mind. An interesting way for paper to be passed around and to be read by people is for it be folded into a paper plane, and then unfolded again to be read. This process would repeat. The instructions on the score must be written such that anyone who receives the paper plane are able to continue this process.

The idea that one person can be kind to another person requires some kind of contact. What if the paper plane could be that contact? What if people, upon receiving the paper plane and reading it, write words of their own to pass onward to others?

As the idea crystallized in my mind, I happen to have read the chapter “Food: The Raw and The Fluxed” from “Fluxus and The Essential Questions of Life”. A theme in that chapter is the life cycle of things. How are they born? How do they change? How do they end? The chapter compares food laid on the ground and tin cans. The former decomposes gradually, but the latter endures for what seems to be eternity. My score, if followed faithfully, ensures that it will never end. However, anyone is free to do anything when they receive the paper plane. They could think it is trash and throw it into the bin, or eat it. Or perhaps, the paper plane flies out doors on the ground, and is trampled on by the passerby, and then disintegrated by the weather. Still, anyone who writes on that paper plane and passes it on will never know the fate of that paper plane. In their mind, they could imagine that the paper plane, with their words on it, is somewhere out there, flying.

As a score that requires you to lose authorship over it, the fate of the paper plane can never be known (unless you are the person who ends it). The silver lining is that it is very easy to make this score. Below are how to make it yourself.

The Score (Original Version)

When the paper is folded, the top of the plane reads “OPEN ME”.
When the paper is unfolded, at the center of the paper, there is the set of instructions and some empty space below. There is also some diagrams on how to fold a paper plane.

1. Read the words on this piece of paper.
2. If you have a pen or pencil and there is space on this piece of paper, write down what the next person reading this needs to hear.
3. Fold the paper back up into a paper plane.
4. Throw the paper plane into an area where there are some people.

The Score (Final Version)

When the paper is folded, the top of the plane reads “OPEN ME”.
When the paper is unfolded, the very top reads “PLANE WORDS”. At the center of the paper, there is the set of instructions and some empty space below.

1. Read the words on this piece of paper.
2. Write down what the next person reading this needs to hear on this piece of paper.
3. Fold the paper back up into a paper plane.
4. Fly the paper plane into an area where there are people.

Changes Rationale

No more paper plane instructions:

• Less effort to get read the score, less noise on the page.
• You can’t fold the paper and follow the instructions on that piece of paper at the same time.
• Balance between “plane” and “words”. The reader can tell that the paper was once a plane from the fold marks. Adding a paper plane diagram instructions will draw attention away from the words on the page, thereby offsetting the balance between the two concepts. Removing those diagrams balances the two concepts.

“Fly” instead of “throw”:

• How you want to get the paper plane at a different spot is up to you. You can also just leave it somewhere. 
• More imagination as to how you can get the paper plane at different place

Don’t mention finding a pen or pencil:

• It’s implicit. Brevity is key, especially when I am trying to have Yoko Ono’s vibes in “Grapefruit”.
• You can use anything that would leave a mark on the page, like crayons.
• I am fine with people not writing anything down and passing the paper plane on. The score is a score, not the law.

Adding the title “PLANE WORDS” at the top:

• Giving something a name allows people to refer to it and talk about it. I would like the score to be talked about.
• A punny title to make it more memorable and friendly.

Story Time: How It Went Down

It is ironic that I made the score with one of the most readily available materials in the world, and yet, in the classroom, I had to ask someone for paper. (Paper being one of the most readily available material still made it easy to ask people for it.) For that person’s anonymity, I will not mention their name here, but if you are reading this, just know that I am very grateful for it, and your piece of paper was a part of everything I say here.

I had prepared the score, and even wrote my own words on it: “You are beautiful.” Those are words I can never say to a person in the face (perhaps because of deep psychological trauma, or perhaps because I am just shy), and yet, I believe those are simple words that would make just about anyone’s day.

When I actually wanted to try out the paper plane, Boston decided to rain the entire day. Thus, I decided to try out the score in Curry Student Center (CSC). It is strategic in that the space is huge, and there is a vantage point at the top floor where I can fly the paper plane, and then observe the reactions of the people that receive it. I always imagined that this score would be experienced outdoors, but it was a pleasant surprise to see that it also works indoors.

When I first tried to throw the paper plane, it plummeted straight onto the ground (the ground I was standing on, not the bottom floor). I apparently did not fold the paper plane correctly. After spending 15 minutes to fix it, I threw it out. No one had control over where the plane would land, except the laws of Physics. For one reason or another, the paper plane decided to land at the side of CSC where there are arm chairs.

I think there was a sorority event happening at CSC that day, because there were a lot of girls who were well-dressed, wearing the same dress. When I say “a lot”, I mean A LOT, there were rooms full of them. Anyway, I mention this now because the plane landed near people who were dressed for that event.

From my vantage point, I was not able to see how picked up the paper, or what their facial reaction was. But I what I was able to see is very confused faces, and people looking up trying to see where the paper plane came from. The paper plane was left unfolded, faced up, on an arm chair; someone must have read it, and decided to put it down.

For the next two hours, I would sit at a nearby spot, doing my homework, and observe the paper plane.

Nothing happened.

No one gave it heed, no one cared.

The unfolded paper plane sat alone on the chair. Even as swarms of girls (presumably from the sorority event) flood the area, that one chair that the unfolded paper plane was on remain unoccupied. It was as if an invisible barrier had been built around it. One would think that someone would want to sit down, and would lift the piece of paper up, and put it elsewhere, but for some reason, that didn’t happen. It is unsurprising that my score required it being dormant and untouched for long periods of time, but what surprised me was how that paper played a role in that social circumstance. It did not have any power, yet it had all the power to keep a chair to itself.

Eventually, I had to leave to get dinner and attend the Across The Spiderverse concert. As awesome as that movie is, there were times where I couldn’t help but think about what has happened to the plane.

When the event was over and I had gotten back on campus. I tried very hard to get into CSC. Most of the doors were locked, but I was able to find an unlocked door to a connecting building, and then again, several unlocked doors among locked ones to where the paper plane was.

And it was gone. The paper plane had disappeared.

Even as I am writing this now, I ponder where the paper plane is, and the reactions of those who have read it.