Slopfest #19 · Spring 1949 · Vienna

Fire Together, Wire Together

A psychologist proposed that brain cells used together grow connected. So did our guests.

#19The only copy was taped to a Würstelstand. It rained.

Overhead photo of a ballroom floor taken from the balcony: dancers tangled in white string, the central knot tagged SLOPFEST #19

Museum status: Rejected by three major museums. Framed anyway.

Venue: Kursalon Hübner, the ballroom
Attendance: 189
Fun fact: 3 km of string, 1 knot, 7 marriages

What happened

Following the committee's reading of the latest brain research, guests were tied together with string whenever they danced with each other. By 11 p.m. the ballroom was a single knot and nobody could leave, which the committee called learning. Seven couples who were tied together that night later married, and one of them still has the string.

Elsewhere in 1949

Donald Hebb publishes The Organization of Behavior, proposing that connections between neurons strengthen with use.

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