Cardboard Cake

Making a cake out of cardboard as an artistic practice– a study on event scores

An event score is a simple text that asks you to do something. An event is the physical act of carrying out that instruction. For example, the score might be the words "Walk the dog," and the event is the actual act of a person walking a dog.

Cardboard Cake es un estudio dedicado a Lulis en su cumpleaños en 2025
The Cardboard Cake study is dedicated to Lulis on her birthday in 2025

The mise en place

In the context of Fluxus art movement, an event score is a text-based instruction for a simple, everyday action; while an event is the actual performance or realization of that score. At the studio, we use event scores in our divergence phase (’Adventure Day’) and during our prototyping phase.

Scores draw inspiration from the format of a musical score. Scores are often minimalist and open-ended, allowing for immense variation, chance, and audience participation. (See Milan Knizak's Cat (1965): The score reads, "Get a cat").

The event, as the resulting action of a score, is a single, often brief and simple, instance of an everyday action that is reframed as art. Events highlight the participatory nature of the work (i.e. the piece is not finished until you participate).

Fluxus artists emphasized the aesthetic qualities of everyday activities. The event invites anyone, anywhere, to enact the score, rejecting the elitism of the art world and the necessity of a professional performer, a formal art education, or a specialized setting.

For writers, two hints: one from Dylan Kinnett (”Writing can activate art/life works that writing cannot contain or control”), and one from Ursula K. Le Guin (”Writers sometimes have to let go and watch their work take off on its own, to places they didn't know they knew").

During autumn 2025, I had been watching The Great British Bake Off and making a weekly sockerkaka, when these cardboard blocks became available in my local BuyNothing group.