12/12 Chicagoes

1. I’m in Chicago this week, a visiting artist hosted by Columbia College’s Media Arts Dept. I’m very excited to give a workshop, a lecture, and visit with students one on one. I’m also excited to visit Intelligentsia and eat a hot dog. Below are some descriptions of what I’ll be up to.

2. Did I mention that I have a fake rock blog? No? Well…

Sheep, Failure and the Emergent Potential of Site.
Chris Kallmyer makes work with everyday objects like sheep, cheese, lawnmowers, and car horns to create site-specific works in places like museums, open fields, igloos and parking structures. He will be talking about his unique path from playing in punk bands in DC, his brief career as a orchestral musician in Europe, his role as dedicated cheese-monger, and current work making events and installations that articulates the dynamic between art and life – exploring the processes, customs, and environments through which humans have altered landscape and place. Chris lives in Los Angeles where he works with Machine Project and a rich community of artists and musicians in the NE part of the city.

Nyan Cat is a Lens
After exercises in mindfulness and listening, the group will move to a public space inside (or outside) where students will engage in focused observation and listening to the space. Participants will then assist in completing a spatialized and site-specific artwork based solely off audio samples from Nyan Cat. The work will use use everyday materials like teakettles, balloons, bells, rebar, or voice- and not-so-everyday materials like basic electronics, sine tones, and environmentally reactive algorithms. The work will be reapplied to several public spaces (interior/exterior) – and discussion will center on topics including sound art, site, human geography, gestalt psychology, and Nyan Cat.