Abstract
Singular value decomposition (SVD) is a mathematical technique used throughout the sciences and engineering, which decomposes data, represented in terms of matrices, to construct an “optimal base” that can contain key information. SVD serves as a conceptual framework in Singular Value Decomposition, a performance by a research collective consisting of Janet Biggs (visual artist), Agnieszka Międlar (mathematician), and Daniel Tapia Takaki (physicist) with dancer Vinson Fraley and musician Earl Maneein and supported by the Integrated Arts Research Initiative (IARI) at the Spencer Museum of Art. Their work together aimed to be substantive to their fields and generative of each other. Drawing from discussions of tool-sharing in the philosophy of science and performative research paradigms, this article examines the collaboration and performance to consider the sharing of conceptual frameworks as an approach to collaborative, interdisciplinary research.