Once the 24 pre-reg­is­tered par­tic­i­pants are all inside the enclo­sure, the gates are shut, and the work begins. The drum­mer stands up and announces:
“Hel­lo, wel­come. Here are the gen­er­al instruc­tions. The work is divid­ed into three ses­sions. Each ses­sion is eight min­utes long with a one-minute inter­val between the ses­sions. All par­tic­i­pants must remain inside the gates for the dura­tion of the work, which is a total of twen­ty-six min­utes.
Now please lis­ten to the instruc­tions for Ses­sion One: At the sound of the drum­beat, all of you must all begin to cir­cu­late with­in the space. You can choose any direc­tion, any path, which you may change at any time, cre­at­ing your own spon­ta­neous, indi­vid­ual tra­jec­to­ry. But you must stay in con­stant motion until the drum­ming stops after eight min­utes.”

The drum­mer sits down and begins to drum a slow, steady rhythm for 8 min­utes. He has a stop­watch, which he is keep­ing an eye on. After 8 min­utes he stops drum­ming and stands up. He announces: “One-minute break.”

After 1 minute, the drum­mer stands up and announces:
“Instruc­tions for Ses­sion Two: Three stones, a red one, a black one and a white one will be passed from hand to hand, ran­dom­ly and con­tin­u­ous­ly for the dura­tion of the ses­sion. When the drum­ming begins the pass­ing begins. When you receive a stone, hold it for a moment and then pass it to a per­son near­by. Keep pass­ing the stones as they come so that they nev­er stop cir­cu­lat­ing dur­ing the dura­tion of the ses­sion. When the drum­ming stops after eight min­utes, stop pass­ing the stones and who­ev­er is hold­ing the stones must hold onto them.”

The drum­mer sits down and begins to drum a live­ly mid-tem­po rhythm (with some vari­a­tion) for 8 min­utes. He has a stop­watch, which he is keep­ing an eye on. After 8 min­utes he stops drum­ming and stands up. He announces: “One-minute break.”

After 1 minute, the drum­mer stands up and announces: “Instruc­tions for Ses­sion Three: You must all stand still in the spot that you’re in. When the drum­ming begins, with­out mov­ing your body, use your eyes to move around the space and to con­nect to oth­ers around you. While remain­ing in place, feel free to shift your pos­ture as need­ed to you let your gaze drift in and out of con­tact with oth­ers. Lock eyes with as many oth­ers as you can, for any amount of time. Keep scan­ning and exchang­ing gazes for the dura­tion of the ses­sion.”

The drum­mer sits down and begins to a brisk up-tem­po rhythm (with more vari­a­tion and impro­vi­sa­tion) for 8 min­utes. He has a stop­watch, which he is keep­ing an eye on. After 8 min­utes he stops drum­ming and stands up. He announces: “That’s it. Thank you.”

The gates are opened and the par­tic­i­pants are free to leave the space.