Barbara T. Smith

Outside Chance (1975) is one of several performance-based works that employ technological apparatus by Barbara T. Smith (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 from 3-8 points (unlike nature, where there is a maximum of 6 points) and using only two characters (‘0’s and ‘1’s).’ 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.