Wednesday January 25, 2012

The Fine Art of Tinkering: adaptive re-use in object-making and public pedagogy

with guest respondents Brett Ian Balogh, Jessica Charlesworth, Nic Collins, Tim Parsons, Erik Peterson, and Charlie Vinz
7-9 PM

The salon program is an open, topical conversation, where the public is invited to participate in a moderated conversation around current issues in contemporary art practice. SALONS invite a group of respondents to be on hand and part of the discussion, but everyone is welcome to come and be apart of the dialog. 

threewalls’ 2012 salon series, Of Other Chicagos explores ways in which local artists and creative thinkers help us interpret, imagine, and participate in regional history and culture. By taking their practices out of the studio, the salon respondents featured in this series cultivate the potential for new types of collaborative processes and experiences for all Chicagoans.

This series begins with artists, designers, architects, and musicians who are tinkerers and tool makers. They challenge our experience of the everyday built environment with speculative design and public experimentation. We'll be having a conversation about the contexts in which they work, learning in public and with various publics, and the strategic adaptation of what already exists to create new avenues of expressions for both makers and audiences.  

Of Other Chicagos is organized by guest facilitator Penny Duff.  

BIOS:

Brett Ian Balogh is an artist working at the intersection of objects, sounds and spaces in order to re-imagine our environment. He received his MFA in Studio from the Department of Art and Technology Studies at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and his B.A. in Biology from the University of Pennsylvania. He is currently an instructor at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and the Illinois Institute of Technology, teaching courses in architecture, computer-aided design and manufacturing, do-it-yourself broadcasting and acoustics. He is a founding member of the experimental sound performance collective, Clairaudient and performs with the Chicago Phonographers. Brett is also a Free 103.9FM transmission artist, a member of the World Listening Project and the Midwest Society for Acoustic Ecology.

Jessica Charlesworth is a speculative designer with experience working for both public and private sector organizations to explore the future implications of their field. Since graduating from the Design Interactions program at the Royal College of Art in 2007, Jessica runs her own practice conducting speculative design projects, often collaborating with scientists, futurists, designers and academics including think tanks Foresight (UK) and the Institute for the Future (US). With this interdisciplinary approach she explores alternative futures that new technologies and science may hold. In July this year, in collaboration with Tim Parsons they installed Adhocism for the We Are Here residency series at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago, an installation exploring the intersection between the design process, performance and reappropriation.

New York born and raised, Nicolas Collins studied composition with Alvin Lucier at Wesleyan University, worked for many years with David Tudor, and has collaborated with numerous soloist and ensembles around the world. He lived most of the 1990s in Europe, where he was Visiting Artistic Director of Stichting STEIM (Amsterdam), and a DAAD composer-in-residence in Berlin. Since 1997 he has been editor-in-chief of the Leonardo Music Journal, and since 1999 a Professor in the Department of Sound at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. The second edition of his book, Handmade Electronic Music – The Art of Hardware Hacking, was published by Routledge in 2009. Collins has the dubious distinction of having played at both CBGBs and the Concertgebouw.  

Tim Parsons is a product designer and a writer and lecturer on matters 'design'. He explores a broad range of approaches, believing a project's direction should be shaped by a search for the definitive in relation to specific conditions, rather than by applying a pre-conceived style. Mixing influences from craft and industrial design, his projects examine notions of familiarity, functionality and the quality of materials and processes, producing simple, durable objects.

Erik Peterson is an artist, curator, and interdisciplinary game designer living in Chicago. Born in Madison, Wisconsin, he graduated with a B.F.A. from Washington University in St. Louis (2004) and a M.F.A. from the University of Illinois at Chicago (2010). His work has been shown nationally at the Orlando Museum of Art; University of Nebraska - Omaha; University of Arizona; Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum, Swimming Pool Project Space, Happy Collaborationists and Coalition Gallery in Chicago. Peterson’s commissioned and pro-bono public sculptures can be found in streetscapes, parks, parking lots, municipal pipes, and reservoirs throughout St. Louis, Daytona Beach, Chicago, and Florence, Italy. In addition to his sculptural projects, he is the creative director of Qeej Hero, a transcultural video game that features the Hmong qeej, and the founder of Hyde Park Kunstverein (HPK), a community museum that exhibits local and international artists and publishes limited-edition catalogs. The above projects were recipients of 2010 and 2011 Propeller Fund grants, respectively.

Charlie Vinz is trained as an architect and designer and practices many forms of cultural production. Happiest in a collaborative setting, he has worked on various projects with AREA Chicago, Aay Preston-Myint, Rebecca Mir, Ilana Percher, Theaster Gates, John Preus, Ed Marszewksi, Ken Camden, Public Workshop, Mejay Gula, and over 100 Chicago Public Schools teens.  He currently works with Rebuild Foundation on arts-based community development and adaptive reuse projects in Chicago, St. Louis, and Omaha.