Before Rauschenberg began working on Set and Reset with the choreographer Trisha Brown and the composer and musician Laurie Anderson, he anticipated that it would be "one of the most unique theatrical challenges in my career. . . . No one could be more curious about this than I am." His set served as a projection ground for black-and-white stock footage with found sound that he had edited together. For most of the piece, Rauschenberg’s sculpture Elastic Carrier hovered above the dancers as they moved to the hollow tones, percussive beats, and sliding electronic scales of Anderson’s score. Rauschenberg made the costumes out of sheer gauze onto which he silkscreened photographs he had taken of urban details throughout New York.