Visual music defends a most sublime impossibility—that the eyes may be seduced to hear. The concept has served as a useful analogy for the creation of art since at least the Renaissance … The synesthetic origins of The Kitchen are noticeably in the context of downtown theater. But nothing quite like it had ever truly existed—a room full of TV sets, where each night a different audience would assemble and make applause for a medium they could just as easily watch at home. The difference was in the communities it brought together…

One night in 1979, at the end of an evening of performances, ten artists stood in a line across The Kitchen stage facing a packed theater audience. The performer farthest left held a large cardboard box. Setting the box on the floor, he opened it and removed a smaller cardboard box…