Cotton Candy Competition at SculptureCenter

LIC Block Party: Saturday, August 22nd, 2015
Free Admission

In 1897, a dentist named William Morrison invented a small mechanical centrifuge that would melt and extrude sugar as tiny filaments of “floss.” Millions of cavities later, we continue to relish cotton candy in all its simplicity: sugar and food coloring, flung in circles and gathered on a paper cone, amidst a whirlwind of carnival sounds, disorienting rides, and what may be best described as a cornucopia of debauchery. Our booth at SculptureCenter’s LIC Block Party was a paean to these simple pleasures of summer.

Cotton candy is of course produced through the intersection of two complex actors, namely: the cotton candy machine, and the human operator who spins the paper roll to build the treat itself. For our booth at SculptureCenter we’ve added another twist, if you’ll excuse the pun. Two human operators will each metabolize a discrete cognitive disruptor, a chemical wrench in this combine machine of sorts. And since we can only play doctors on TV, these enhanced machine operators may only be ourselves, i.e., Where’s co-directors. 

Pitted in competition, two candy-coated scientists absorbed a different activating material—weed and booze, respectively— then faced off to produce a better, or shall we say more interesting, finished product. [Team Alcohol won the day.]