sair goetz
signaling-polaroid_1200dpi_011.jpg

Signaling Sigils

Signaling Sigiling is an experimental typography soft-sculpture collective writing performance project. Participants use miniature meditation cushions to form letters and sigils that prioritize queer liberation over legibility.

Like a prayer or radio waves cast out into the vastness of space, a signal broadly cast has a quiet grief, fear, and faith; it is sent because it must be, without expectation of affirmation, but with the persistent hope of it.

Open Call for Paid Performance Collaborators

Looking for Paid Collaborators for a group performance piece that explores the body and gender in relation to letterforms and language, exploring the liberatory possibilities of identity– & text– (il)legibility.

Apply here by Sun, Aug 27, 2025

Project Info

FAQs

 This project is made possible by Collective Futures Fund.

About this project

Privacy

  • The performance, rehearsals, and development process will be recorded through video, audio, photographs, and writing. 

  • All collaborators will have the right to redact or request alteration/obscuration of their image, voice, and/or writing before any of it is made public.

  • I will not share any of your data to any third party without your permission.

Who should apply

  • Boston** Trans* Folks

  • * This project treats trans* as an umbrella term. If you do not feel aligned with the gender assigned to you at birth, you are welcome here.

  • ** This 2025 iteration of the project is funded by a Greater Boston Focused org, Collective Futures Fund, thus preference will be given to folks who can be physically present for rehearsals & performance in Boston. Folks based elsewhere are still welcome to apply & will be contacted when funding is secured for a location-flexible iteration of the project.

Project Commitment

  • 2–3 rehearsals

  • 1 performance

  • Budget for ~12 hrs of active human-human time, please factor in your own decompression time accordingly.

  • Nature of public distribution/audience (In person, on zoom, for film festivals, for Community Access Television, etc) TBD by cohort of collaborators

Project Timing

  • Fri Aug 1: application opens

  • Sun Aug 24: application closes

  • Wed Aug 27: applicants informed of status (including waitlist, if necessary), schedule/acceptance form sent to accepted cohort (including scheduling)

  • Sun Aug 31: schedule/acceptance form due

  • Mon Sept 1: rehearsal schedule firms up, waitlist folks invited

  • ~ Sept 10–Oct 4 OR ~ Oct 15–Oct 31: 2–3 in-person rehearsals, 1 performance, dates TBD by cohort

Pay

  • $300 honorarium (at minimum)

  • An even split of profits made from performance, publication, or documentation

Study in Signaling: Numinous Cackling was an experimental typography soft-sculpture performance project. For the Ides of March, I performed a solo act of wailing and signaling. Like a prayer or radio waves cast into space, a signal carried quiet grief, fear, and faith. We signaled when seeking comrades, we signaled when organizing, we signaled when taking direct action. Even when sent without confidence in being heard, a signal was an act of persistent hope.

To do this, I used miniature meditation cushions, shaped into the three forms of the Kombinationschrift modular typographic system, designed by Joseph Albers in 1926 as a utopian distillation of the Latin alphabet. Modular typography, like trans experiences, embraced playfulness and liberation over legibility.

The cushions’ reflective sides created a photographic flatness that resembled typography, obscuring the bodies behind the text. Held in front of the body, they served as armor, allowing for vulnerability in the text rather than the body. This tactile comfort also allowed for vulnerability in vocal performance. I did vocal somatic exercises that energetically purged me (and maybe us) of the rage I had been trying not to vomit up for weeks. I invited all in the audience to join me in some articulate and inarticulate sounds, in hopes that we could collectively signal a shift in our era.

FAQs

    • Favoring aliveness, presence of performers over perfectionism: 

      • Honoring what emerges from the dynamics/energy of the collaborative group.

      • Co-developing a “script” as a set of prompts rather than rigid language.

      • Rehearsal prioritizing somatics rather than set words or action (e.g., prompt: find vocal resonance that vibrates the part of your lungs that meets the sides of your body).

      • Improvisation as a way of saying yes to the present moment.

    • Invitations to audience somatic participation: this work rejects the idea that a good audience sits still & quiet. Call & response, movement, questions to the audience are encouraged. A previous performance asked the audience to sing with sair, and a few friends were planted in the audience to help ease that ask.

    • Always Be Cackling: Playfulness, Power in not power over, Catharsis, Group healing 

    • Trans* performance doesn’t need to put a performer's gender identity on display. 

      • The collective & individuals will decide how/when/if their body is visible/legible.

    • Past performances have been informed by: 

      • The mood of the room

      • The astrology of the day 

      • The life state of the performers

    • I prepared these performative sculptures like a hotpot buffet. I assume that each participant will take what nourishes them and share the recipe for their favorite combinations or flavors with others at the table. I can share my recipes, too, but I’m more excited to share the ingredients & create a space where you are excited to experiment and eager to share yours.

    • On a philosophical/experimental level, I’m interested in how to create a non-hierarchical performance space centered around these performative objects.

  • sair götz - project instigator, grant writer, form maker, volunteer

    sair götz (they/them) approaches word & art smithing as embodied spell-casting. They believe that through honed language, fantastical channeling, typographic rituals, and sweaty sports, they can compost trash timelines into nourishing futures. They are a technological dumpster diver, finding divine inspiration in obsolete innovations in fields such as silent film, letterpress illustration, and lemon husbandry. These playful and devotional endeavors manifest in all time- and test-based media: video, books, essays, performances, music, software, and signage. Conversations about drag, legibility, and vocal expression are sure to quicken their heart. Gender, race, etc. identity FAQs are here.

    Mikhael Ganesh - paid collaborator based in San Francisco. 

    Mikhael Ganesh is an artist and archivist from Kolkata currently living in San Francisco. His research is an ongoing exploration of transsexuality and bodily memory through the lenses of language, labour, form, and critical archive theory. He is deeply influenced by theory, scholarship, and dialogue rooted in third-world diasporas. He thinks of his grandmothers daily. 

    sair and Mikhael have collaborated on a number of writing and facilitation projects together. While Mikhael will not be participating in any IRL rehearsals, he contributes greatly to advance planning of facilitation.

    • You don’t know what you don’t know. Collectively, we can make wiser decisions

    • These objects are meant to be played with!

    • A beginner’s mind always makes new discoveries 

    • From sair: “To feed myself by feeding people. Just like it feels great to have people eat food I cook, it feels good to have people play with art I make”

    • Open calls expand communities beyond existing bubbles.

  • Yes! Please share it in any community space you trust! 

  • How will I be paid?

    • Zelle or Venmo 

    How much & when?

    • a minimum of $300, paid within 3 days of the performance date

    • An even split of profits from performance, publication, and documentation gleaned within one year of the performance date.

    • One copy of any publication(s) that come out of this collaboration

    • A cute new set of queers, future collaborators, & co-conspirators !!

    • Choreographer

    • Typesetter 

    • Script writer

    • Composer / soundscape director

    • Videographer / documentarian

    • Photographer / documentarian

    • Performer 

    • 2D designer for social

    • book artist

    • Hype guy!

    • Short answer: However you want! 

    • Longer answer: The collective will make broad strokes decisions about credits/distribution.

  • The group will decide! They all have their pros and cons, I’m considering Discord, WhatsApp, Signal, and Telegram.

    • Show up to all scheduled meetings (2–3 rehearsals, 1 performance)

    • Build a community agreement!

    • Be present! If there is demand, we’ll have an optional grounding time before each session.

    • Contribute according to the role you choose! Check perfectionism and fear of failure at the door!

    • Know your privileges, don’t make assumptions of others, deeply listen.

    • Check in with yourself frequently and communicate your needs openly

    • Logistics

      • Performance Date

      • Rehearsal Schedule

    • What venue(s) will this performance/artwork live through?

      • IRL performance:

        • Where?

        • Guerilla or institutional approval?

      • If Online performance:

        • Sync or async?

        • What platform(s)?

      • Documentation:

        • Forms/ format(s)

        • Distribution

    • Relationship to audience: 

      • Is the audience present? 

    • Will this work call upon any existing orgs for co-sponsorship or support beyond Collective Futures Fund?