Stop wasting paper people, especially you Joey. 
As usual we are inundated with letters.  We try to respond to all of them. Every couple of days, though, we will pull a random letter from the 
mail bag and answer it right here on our site. Keep those letters coming.		 Where is Serrup anyway?
This week's letter comes from Joey in Wyoming.  Joey is 9 years old and he wants to know "If you did tape art in outer space would it still be public art?" Here is Erica to answer your question.  That is a very good question, Joey, and a kinda complicated one.  First you would need to establish what you took the term public art to describe - personally we use the term to talk about work made in the public realm, that carries the spirit of the artist and yet is made in such a way that it is translucent enough that people (as in whoever happens to wander by) are drawn in and feel that they have an "in" to the work.  When we take up the mantel of public artists - we consider our role in terms of the idea of artist citizens (we feel, that rather like Plato's philosopher-kings, there is a very real need for artists as social leaders and thinkers and doers).  As an artist citizen we believe it is important to mediate the activity of self expression with the awareness that your work is going to be seen and experienced by people.  This brings in a lot of issues; like for it to be truly public it must be accessible to the public - and this means that there should be literal and figurative access.   

In terms of your question about Tape Art in space - this would present a real limitation, in terms of an audience's physical accessibility.  If people were unable to see the work ...well it might function at the level of a kind of conceptual-public art ... as in work made so people are able to enjoy the notion it is simply being made - even though they don't have an opportunity to view it first hand. Perhaps the pure whimsy of the fact someone went to the effort of making Tape Art in space would carry sufficient resonance to move people ...but personally I think it would be pushing the envelope and running the risk of being an act of intellectual snobbery.  And on this score it would fall short in terms of figurative access - because it would be too dense and abstract for most people to approach - let alone embrace. 

But one of the greatest problems in terms of our definition of public art - that I see with the idea of Tape art in space - is the fact that by isolating Tape Art where people can't experience the work for themselves you are perhaps, we would argue, cutting people off from the opportunity of experiencing the creation process.  Part of what makes Tape Art so inherently transparent is the fact that it is formed in front of people, using a medium everyone understands (and has used themselves in some capacity).  A finished product is not some random piece of art dumped into a public space for people to puzzle over, instead it is home-grown in each place, for each space.  We have often felt that the absolute simpleness of what we do is its strength - there are no tricks or gadgets, we are just two people making large visual daydreams with our hands.  When someone approaches us to comment on our work or share a story, this exchange often informs and effects what we do next - this interchange is woven into the fabric of the mural.  More directly, we may even draw individuals who happen by, recording their passing directly onto the wall.  All these intercictions are vital to the integrity and dynamism of the work and help to insure that the works are truly public, public art. 

So, in conclusion, I think the emptiness of space precludes the essentially human interaction necessary to breed a piece of public art. 
 
Properly cornered and shingled.Properly bashed.
Tape Technique
Protection from Rain
To protect your delicate Tape Art works from the elements we suggest that you employ the proper technique for each individual condition you may experience.  In the case of rain we recommend that wherever possible fold the tape over an edge.  Also, it is very important to "shingle" the tape.  In the "shingling" process, one makes sure that each layer of tape is overlapped over the piece below it so that rain will slide down it, sort of like shingles.  It is also important to smash the living daylights out of the tape, bashing it shamelessly onto the wall (just in case).
 
Now. 
A harrowing story of loss. So Erica calls me over to the grill near our wall and says "Can you please look down there?" Of course,  being one that is		 The Great Sacrifice.
pretty much game for anything, I bowed down into the undignified position necessary to assess the situation at the bottom of this particular draining facility.   Bobbing in the water below was the unmistakable pinkness of her chapstick, The Chapstick, the very vehicle that has stopped the chapping of lips all winter.  Good God, what happened?  I found out that it was either that or the keys to the lift we are using to make the mural.  I assured her that she had made a good decision.
 
Rough draft. We are getting there, don't worry. Here is the most interesting thing from the mural today. We are often asked if we sketch out any of our ideas on paper before we put them on the wall. We never do, but here is an excellent example of an idea being sketched out on the wall in tape.  This is the art object we have been talking about.  It is a large statue.  Mike did the first draft of the large male sculpture piece to get a sense of scale for the piece, with the understanding that the final piece was to be a female.  Erica then made a female figure in  proportions relating to the larger figure.  The male figure's outline was then removed.  Often things are sketched in this manner so the final drawing is the result of several evolutionary steps.