An anecdote can be a great place to start a project. As part of the Time-Based Art festival in Portland, presented by the Portland Institute for Contemporary Art, I organized this project from the anecdote of a friend. Sierra Norris had told me about someone she knew who covered the bedroom door in butcher paper for their child everyday, so that when they came out of the door to their room, they experienced the dawning of another totally new day, like a breakthrough.
My project involved asking volunteers to breakthrough the butcher-paper-covered door of a Portland cafe from 1-2pm on three consecutive days. I initially was asking the owner, Jonathan Legare, if I could do this with people coming out of the bathroom. It was soon discovered that that would have been too akward so the natural choice became the main door.
