Bits is a body of modular, handmade paper sound machines built for collective, functional movement. Each piece began as a stone lithographic image, translated at a 1:6 scale through pulp screenprinting and plastic embedding on denim and abaca fibers. The sheets were then wet-stretched over custom handmade frames. Magnets and light-refracting beads are set into each form allowing them to connect to each other and move fluidly from hanging on the wall to being passed hand to hand during collaborative space building.

The project's first full-scale activation brought performing participants together to take up and collaboratively build space — making music and practicing improvisational movement with the bits as both instrument and architecture. Bits is inspired by the functional movement of the print shop, and by a desire to replicate that kind of purposeful, working movement as a way of building relationships: pulling a room out of its taken-for-granted self, and drawing attention to the emotional feedback loops of the spaces we move through together.

Production for Bits was supported by a residency at Women's Studio Workshop in Rosendale, NY.

Credits Workshop generously hosted by Future Space (@fu_ture.space) Video shot and edited by Jasmine Zheng (@jasminezheng.png) Audio performance by The Captains (@thecaptains.hq) — Josue Bessiake (@josuebessiake) and Leonie Smith (@leeleeesmith) Audio assistance by @leouhre and @astoria0777

Thank you to everyone who participated — it was a privilege to have such generous collaborators bring this work to life.