Matthew Flower was born in 1972, grew up in Houston and Idaho, went to college in Boulder, and then in 1994 escaped to New York City, where he became part of the club and drag scene. He has described himself as “a radical queer emotionally driven, instinct-based concept artist and thinker.” Which makes him sound super academic, but he is not. In 2001, Flower began using the name Machine Dazzle, a nod to the fact that he danced with the troupe Dazzle Dancers and that he’d been called a “dancing machine.” What he does is design costumes for experimental forms of theater, costumes that are, in fact, performances in themselves. Machine Dazzle dresses the shows of his longtime collaborator Taylor Mac, one of them called A 24-Decade History of Popular Music, which covers the history of America in 24 hours. The MAD exhibition brings together more than 80 Machine Dazzle creations. On four nights—October 25 and 27, December 20, and January 10—Machine will introduce a movie that inspired him. The screenings are at seven P.M. and will be followed by talkbacks. Movie nights are $10. —Laura Jacobs