Tim Miller’s 1983 COST OF LIVING included dance, theatre, video, slide projections, Miller’s own music, and clips from Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony in an exploration of the abysmal spaces between life and death. In preparation for the performance, Miller conducted a “Survey of Human Happiness,” which included questions like “What is the single that most helps you go on in life?,” and the artist used the responses to the survey as a starting point for his experimentation, which included filming and showing parachute jumps by the nine actor-dancers in the ensemble. By combining themes of suicide with spectacular absurdity, COST OF LIVING paved the way for cross-medium experimental performance.