At a crowded art opening a performance has started: a young woman is reading poetry from the mezzanine above the gallery. Conversations trail off and a hush gradually descends upon the crowd. People tilt their heads upward and reposition themselves to gain a better view. The poet is leaning against the glass wall, holding sheets of paper in one hand and a microphone in the other (she’s dressed in all black and has bright red lipstick), and as she finishes each poem she tosses the page dramatically to the floor. The poems are both playful and angry, suffused with self-deprecatory irony that seems to clash with the poet’s dramatic self-presentation. Despite the use of amplification, the poor acoustics of the gallery have the effect of muffling the sound, and after a few minutes of polite attention the din of conversation picks up again. People leave the gallery and others enter; friends greet each other and newcomers begin to circulate around the space. Then, when, the noise reaches a level where it’s drowning out the poet, someone lets out a ‘Shhh!’, which propagates through the crowd, and once again the ambient noise subsides and the reading takes center stage. This auditory seesaw continues throughout the duration of the performance as two opposing social codes, each with its own claim to legitimacy, battle each other for dominance.