Kunsthalle Wien

Outside Chance (1975) is one of several performance-based works that employ technological apparatus by Barbara T. Smith (b. 1931, Pasadena, California). Smith used a mainframe computer to make it ‘snow in the desert’ in a live event in Las Vegas. Computer scientist Richard Rubenstein helped Smith programme a PDP-10 computer at the Irvine University of California to generate 3,000 unique ‘snowflakes’. Smith recalls: ‘We made flakes with three to eight points (unlike in nature, where there is a maximum of six points) and using only two characters (1s and 0s).’ Smith disguised herself with a wig and sunglasses before checking into the Union Plaza Hotel in Las Vegas and dropping the snowflakes from a room on the 21st floor. The event was filmed by a local TV company and broadcast on the evening news.