December 18, 2011 by ed

One of our all time favorite publications,
The Journal of Aesthetics and Protest, has just released the online version of the long awaited issue #8. The theme:
No other time than here
No other place than now
From
JAP:
As witnessed by the amazing and meaningful mutation of the #Occupy movement, these are transformative times. In editing this issue before the #, our perspective was that movement was imminent. Coming off the University of California Occupations in 2009/2010, we along with others expanded the call of occupation to "occupy everything," meaning all positions within culture. As such the trend of issue 8, and its editorial is the creative tension between institutions (socialization) and autonomy within creative practice.
Issue 8 is an exploration of grassroots modernism; an idealistic and productive inhabiting of the contours of our communities and habitus.
As such, we are excited about the range of psycho/socio-political explorations this issue offers. Marco Cuevas-Hewitt's piece reframes our understanding of time and space in relationship to (political) change, Ultra-red's article enacts this altered relationship in their contribution. Anarchist writer Ron Sakolsky traces Chicago's post-war Surrealists and their constructive linking of the IWW and EarthFirst! and the avant-garde. Choreographer Olive McKeon re-iterates beauty in the everyday as an exploration of space and possibility within conflict. Mattias Regan's article functionalizes these and other formal inventions and sees how avant-garde poetry becomes material for the popular creation of everyday subjectivity.
December 14, 2011 by ed
Jordan Martins, "Strange Attractions" @
Elastic Arts Foundation, 2830 N. Milwaukee, 2nd Fl
Thursday, Dec
15, 8 - 10 pm
Strange Attractions is a project based the Chicago-specific tradition of hand-painted, block-letter grocery signs which have come to be associated with Hispanic markets. By exaggerating the expressive colors and gestural rhythms of the original signs, Jordan aims to build patterns that simultaneously attract (fluorescent colors, bold shapes) and conceal (by undermining legibility). In this sense he sees them relating both to natural camouflage and bright plumage used by animals to attract mates, or broader notions of visual stimuli to affect or sculpt behaviour.
December 13, 2011 by ed

Juan Chavez directed his students to do this installation in the front window of the Co-Prosperity Sphere. Reception 6-9 this Friday.
December 7, 2011 by ed
Our friends Plural, in collaboration with The Center for Book Technology, will be exhibiting
Living Book, 2011 at Carrie Secrist Gallery Project Room December 10, 2011 – January 15, 2012. In addition to our work in the Project Room,
Derek Chan will be exhibiting his stunning work in the main gallery.
at
Carrie Secrist Gallery
835 W. Washington Blvd / Chicago, IL
Opening Reception:
December 10 / 5:00 – 8:00pm
Living Book, 2011 is a multi-media installation environment created by Plural and The Center For Book Technology. Living Book transforms the gallery space into an automated book production facility. Using custom-software, viewers in the space are captured in-real-time (every 60 seconds) from an overhead camera and projected onto the wall. Each capture is then printed onto single pages of a book in production. In addition, a keyboard allows viewers to author their own page(s), creating a spontaneous performance environment where a database of individual choices becomes a collective narrative.
The Living Book Production Facility will be open 5 hours a day, printing a single page every 60 seconds, resulting in a 300-page book at the end of each business day. Each week will become a collection of 5 books. Living Book 2011 will become a collection of 25 books.
Hours of operation:
11:00am – 4:00pm Tuesday – Saturday / December 12, 2011 – January 15, 2012
November 29, 2011 by ed
Monday December 5th ushers in another session of the Co-Prosperity School Fall/Winter session.
We are now accepting members. You should be one. Email coprosperityschool@gmail.com for contact.
The Co-Prosperity School is an Artist-Run School for and about the advancement and understanding of contemporary Chicago Art. Through guest speakers and class member presentations we will shine a light on the contemporary art scene of Chicago.
One of our goals is to break down the panel discussion dialogue of Chicago’s art and bring it to a more informal group discussion format in which shapers of Chicago’s Art World themselves tell of the contemporary scene. Members can discuss their own work, or the work of others over beer at big table.
The school is our collective effort in understanding what makes the art ecology of Chicago so mysterious, seductive and sometimes depressing.
Past guests have included: Tricia Van Eck, Michelle Grabner, Curtis Mann, Daniel Tucker, Hamza Walker, Paul Klein, Duncan MacKenzie, Cody Hudson, Carolne Picard, Jason Foumberg, Carrie Gundersdorf, Shannon Stratton, Juan Chavez, Tom Torluemke, Tom Burtonwood, Aron Packer, James Duignan, Nandipha Mntambo, and Barbara Koenen.
You should join us. It's $150 for the 8 sessions.
We start orientation on December 5th, 2011, at the Co-Prosperity Sphere in Bridgeport, the Community of the Future.
This session we welcome in some rad people-
Scott Speh, Owner of Western Exhibitions
Rebecca Zorach- art historian, writer, critic, organizer
Micheal Workman- Director of Bridge arts publishing, writer, critic
Louise Lincoln- Director DePaul University Art Museum
Stephanie Burke and Jeriah Hildwine- writers, socialites, artists
Edie Fake- Artist
Ok see u at class.
November 28, 2011 by ed
Map of the Heart is a series of participatory, public art projects combining true stories and the collective imagination of the individuals of a community to develop audience-interactive visual fictions. Please help our Friend
Hoyun Son, raise some funds to present her Chicago leg of the project. Any amount will go a long way.