Wednesday February 22, 2012

Micro Media: handmade and hyper local modes of communication

7-9 PM

Continuing our discussion with artists and creative thinkers that take their practice out of the studio, this Salon will take on the issue of scale and methods of distribution in the world of "micro-media." All of the respondents are experimental publishers, producing small-run publications geared towards particular communities of interest. With this conversation we will address the potentialities and limitations of beginning small and staying small as well as engaging with hand-made production to create complex connections between makers and audiences. 

threewalls hosts a variety of public programs aimed at engaging audiences in a conversations about the visual arts. 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. The SALON 2012 series Of Other Chicagos also highlights Propeller Fund awardees and other artists and creative thinkers who work in the public realm. 

More information on the entire series here

Participants:

Brandon Alvendia is an artist and founder of variety of experimental curatorial initiatives. He is the director of The Storefront neighborhood cultural center, the Silver Galleon Press independent publishing project and was co-director of alternative art spaces artLedge (2004-2007) and BEN RUSSELL (2009-2011). His work supports the efforts of local and internationally based artists and producers by creating platforms for experimentation, discussion and collaboration. A graduate of The School of the Art Institute of Chicago (BFA '03) and University of Illinois at Chicago (MFA '07). Brandon Alvendia regularly exhibits in North America, Europe and recently in Sharjah, UAE. He was also the recipient of a 2010 Propellor Fund Grant from The Andy Warhol Foundation administered by Gallery 400 and threewalls, Chicago.

Marco Kane Braunschweiler is a design entrepreneur. Braunschweiler has collaboratively designed products for manufacture and sale in major American retail stores. Braunschweiler has lectured and presented programs on design, art and business at the Art Institute of Chicago (Chicago), the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago (Chicago), White Flag Projects (Saint Louis), and PS1 MoMA (New York) among others. Braunschweiler has exhibited at the Green Gallery (Milwaukee) and the Swiss Institute (New York). From 2007 - 2011 Braunschweiler was Co-Director of Golden Age (Chicago), a non-commerical project space dedicated to sharing ideas through exhibitions, performances and printed matter.

Edie Fake was born in Chicagoland in 1980 and has lived and exhibited all over the place. His visual art work, dealing heavily with the confluence of love and fury in queer utopian visions, has been shown at LACE in Los Angeles, Dumbo Arts Center in Brooklyn, and Gallery 400 at UIC Chicago. He was one of the first recipients of Printed Matter's Awards for Artists and his first book, Gaylord Phoenix, was released this past December by Secret Acres. He currently lives in Chicago and works as a small press sommelier for Quimby's Books. His work can be found at http://ediefake.com/.

John Neff produces works of art, organizes exhibitions and practices critical writing. He lives and works in Chicago.

Aay Preston-Myint 1981 > New York, NY > The 90s > The Midwest > School of the Art Institute of Chicago, BFA > University of Illinois at Chicago, MFA > Lecturer, Chicago State University > The Present.
I live in Chicago, and can't think of a better place to make and teach art. Though I love pie, I am less partial to cake, and similarly enjoy the beach, but not the ocean. I spend most of my day thinking about things like Futurity, Slime, Pageantry, Exploring the Possibility of Radicalizing Contemporary Gay Night Life, Singing in Unison, Body Hair, Doubt, the Problematics of Aestheticizing Community and other notions of "Projects" vs. "Objects". In addition to my own work in interdisciplinary media, I do collaborative programming with No Coast, Mess Hall and Chances Dances, and edit an online journal called Monsters and Dust. Year-round summer jams and mixtapes are available via the »Off Chances Podcast as well as »100 Days of Disco, a fluid archive of dance subculture.

Joe Proulx is the Editor in Chief (along with Aay Preston-Myint and Chris Pappas) of Monsters and Dust, an online arts and culture journal of the innovative, fantastic, fabulous, subversive, radical, thoughtful, hilarious, witty, shrewd, cynical, optimistic, dark, surreal, and sublime. Their first issue hit the internet after much anticipation, delay, and various complications involving computer code and pepper spray, in November 2009.

Nell Taylor is the founder and executive director of Read/Write Library (formerly the Chicago Underground Library) and co-creator of The Printers’ Ball, an annual inclusive event for the broadly defined small press community. She is an independent digital media consultant specializing in community-building and social engagement projects. She writes about culture, technology and occasionally wrestling for the Poetry Foundation’s Harriet blog and others and has a BA in film studies from Columbia College Chicago.

Image: Aay Preston-Myint