Jordan Wayne Long: Message in a Box

 
Image: Box Piece Number Two. Performance/installation, 2011

For Jordan Wayne Long's upcoming performance, "Box Shipment #2," he will be locked in a crate and shipped from Bald Knob, AR to Portland, OR over 7 days, communicating exclusively through an online game called LOTRO. The performance will take place on July, 7th 2011 at the Fourteen30Contemporary @ the 937 space curated by Rocksbox Fine Art.

Jordan Wayne Long recently earned an MFA from Cranbrook Academy of Art.

Via email:

Long's [upcoming] project involves shipping himself while locked in a crate from Bald Knob, Arkansas, to Portland, Oregon, for a show on July 7, 2011. While in the crate, his only connection to the outside world will be through Lord of the Rings Online (LOTRO), an online community and gaming platform. 

Long's work deals with trauma and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. He explores the mechanisms he and others use to cope with PTSD, focusing on how people who are confined to their homes due to physical or emotional trauma find online games a place where they feel safe to enter once more into the social sphere. Unlike the physical world, they can enter and exit whenever they choose, be whoever they want to be and feel like functioning members of society again.

By locking himself in the crate, Long seeks to create a world wherein he functions as a member of this online community only. At the same time he plans to examine how this game functions as a mechanism to help him deal with his own issues with claustrophobia. The Defense Department this month unveiled the T2 Virtual PTSD Experience, a project developed at Joint Base Lewis-McChord that lets users explore the causes and symptoms of combat trauma. developing video games for the purpose of helping veterans reintegrate back into society. Additionally, recent research shows that some video games, such as Tetris, can help block traumatic images and provide some PTSD sufferers relief while activated in the game.

Long ran Box shipment #1 as a test to ensure this was indeed possible.

During his journey, two blogs will run on Long's website. I [Bradi Roberts] will be with the crate and blogging about what I experience external to the game, and the other (an LOTRO player) will share what he sees from an in-game perspective. Said in-game character will quest with Long the whole time and blog about their in-game adventures. Once the crate reaches the gallery, there will be a final performance at the Fourteen30. contemporary's satellite gallery, which is the 937 space curated by Rockboxfineart.

People will be able to follow this performance via Twitter, Facebook, Long's website, and during the final performance in the gallery on a live blog.