Since its formation in 1984, Dumb Type has worked directly and ironically toward a broadening of the possibilities for artistic expression. Derived from the diversity of its members and from the different media the group uses, Dumb Type's aesthetic has acted as a refined, astute sensor in the realization of the group's projects. The technique of "work-in-progress" has been constant in each work, with the members traversing in any number of forms the variety of media humans have created.
Directly addressing the synthesized medium of "the body," the members have worked to express the "invisible communication" called love.

The first performance of <<Pleasure Life>> in 1988 marks the particular coherence of subject and form that characterize Dumb Type's works to the present day. This performance, which suggested that nothing can be achieved unless relayed through media, staged a cross-section of life representative of current culture and engaged the role of such things as media, information, the body, and order. In doing so, it became the theoretical basis for the group's future projects. Subsequently, the 1990 performance of <<pH>> offered a cynical simulation of 1980s post-consumer society. Controlled by a computer, a giant truss swung across the stage in regular cycles. Its position repeatedly threatened the performers' bodies, forcing the audience to confront the fact that technology is not necessarily beneficial for human beings. <<pH>> was a multimedia project employing installation, video, and printed matter.

Then, in 1992, FURUHASHI Teiji, a central figure within Dumb Type, announced his HIV positive status to the group and Dumb Type's works took on a new approach. Up to that point, Dumb Type had already been actively operating as an "art center" for new ideas: as an information resource, by providing artists with support, offering seminars and workshop programs and also running a salon type caf?. But with FURUHASHI's announcement the group began an aggressive campaign aimed at general society and took up such questions as AIDS and homosexuality. With their 1993 experimental <<S/N Seminar Show>> they committed themselves to this direction. <<S/N>>was a multimedia project that was decidedly multiply structured. Attacking the predetermined categories of gender, homosexuality, race, nationality--in other words, forced identities--they engaged these issues with irony and humor. The project, which was developed through the use of numerous media--namely performance, installation, books, compact discs, and the Internet--raised awareness concerning so-called "minorities," ready-made identities, and the consciousness and social actions surrounding these issues.

In October 1995, FURUHASHI passed away while performing in Brazil. Yet, before his death in 1994 a new project <<OR>> had begun to take shape. In what ways will it engage the new forms of communication and transcended borders portrayed in <<S/N>>? Dumb Type always questions: "Is art possible?" And their projects are appropriately therefore "works-in-progress."