saic

Today's Podcast is with the Robin Rowe. Starting from the early days of working on his families organic farm in Illinois Robin’s life and career have taken him all over the world; for example working for the U.S. Department of Defense, sailing in the Aircraft Carrier USS Lincoln, working as a U.S. navy research scientist and all the while also staying relevant and busy in the startup space, and by 35 he was the Chief Technologist and Enterprise Manager at the multi-billion-dollar engineering firm and defense company. He also had stints at Lenovo, AT&T and DreamWorks Animation. Tune in for a fascinating and wide ranging conversation.

Join Tyler and Sophia as they sit down with Luke DeVore the Director of Engagement and Immersive Technology at SAIC. Luke’s journey into immersive tech began during his time in the military where he found himself adapting training programs for the US Government. 

Links:

• https://www.ntsa.org/events/2022/2/23/ntsa-february-webinar 
• https://www.saic.com/ 
• Guest LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/luke-devore-26207617/
• Twitter: @tylerhgates @sophiamosh 

Visit the VR/AR Association at www.TheVRARA.com for more information about how you can get involved with this worldwide organization to help gain exposure and share ideas and best practices with other experts in the industry.

Subscribe to the podcast wherever podcasts are found or listen to past interviews at www.TheVRARA.com/podcast

Do you have an interest in being a guest on our podcast or have a guest recommendation?  Email vicki@thevrara.com and let us know!

In the second episode of this season, we take a peek inside Patient Info—a DIY artist space here in Chicago that retains the structure of its former purpose: a doctor's office. To get a better understanding of the space and how its intact history converses with the work showcased in the venue, we sat down with MFA student and Director of Patient Info, Brian Jucas.


Patient Info Instagram: @patientinfo
Patient Info Website: patientinfo.club

SAIC BEAT Instagram: @saicbeat

In this two-part season, we speak with SAIC students working beyond the studio, outside the institute—After hours. Our first episode follows BFA student Katherine Skwira-Brown as she guides us through the complicated creation process of her Terrain Biennial exhibition piece, 'Porch Portal'.

Katherine’s Instagram: @katskiraart
SAIC BEAT Instagram: @saicbeat

Terrain Biannual website: https://terrainexhibitions.org

Brontë's stories:

1. At 14, her likeness landed on a Japanese billboard

2. While shopping for a tartan bag, met someone whose famous ancestor killed her famous ancestor

3. Got dumped at a military ball in an English castle

Which is honest? Which are deceitful, falsehood-laden subterfuge? Click play to find out!

Possible band names arising from our conversation:

The On-Again, Off-Again Boyfriends

Naval Rave

Illegal Tweed

Anna's stories:

1. Introduced to Canada by a moose in heat

2. Followed on Twitter by Coco Peru, drag queen extraordinaire

3. Rescued from a sewer grate by power-drill-touting dad

Which one is the truth? Which two are dirty, dirty lies? Listen to find out!

Possible band names arising from our conversation:

1. Normal Dads

2. The Meese Have Eyes

3. Tension Tamer

Laura Meyer (MFA 2021, Writing) dreamed of being the first female in Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers. After touring internationally under the stage name Cygne for more than a decade, she wearied of the road, and decided to make a change. Laura tells us the story of her Dylanesque origins, the ecstasy and desolation of the road, and what you do when you're at risk of outliving your dream.

Laura's songs in this episode (check out Cygne on Spotify):

"Scars," from Passenger (2015)

"Miracles" and "All Roads" from Let it Breathe (Softly) (2017)

What do Diogenes, Frank Sinatra, and Phillip Corner have in common? Simon Anderson, associate professor in SAIC's Art History department, weaves them — and many others — into a wide-ranging challenge to the idea of "making it."

Janet Desaulniers, co-creator of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC)'s MFA Writing program, received a contract to publish a short story collection at the ripe old age of 25. The book, titled What You've Been Missing, ended up taking 20 years to publish. We talk with Janet about the thrills and perils of early success — of making it before you've made yourself.

By the time she was 16, Tricia Park was a professional violinist. Labeled and marketed as a child prodigy, teenage Tricia toured constantly, playing 70-80 concerts a year. But when, in her early 20s, she aged out of the "child prodigy" range, concert numbers decreased, and she was faced with a major, unforeseen transition. In this episode, we explore the many ways she has adapted to post-child-prodigy life, including her MFA thesis, a novel exploring her Korean heritage.

Music in this episode:

Violin Sonata No. 18 in G Major K. 301, 1st Movement - Mozart

Performed by Tricia Park (violin) and Conor Hanick (piano)

Source: Tricia's YouTube channel

Violin Sonata No. 1 in G Minor BWV 1001, Adagio - Bach

Performed by Tricia Park (violin) and recorded exclusively for SAIC Beat

“Red Prairie Dawn” and “Sandy Boys” - Traditional

Performed by Tricia & Taylor, violin/fiddle duo composed of Tricia Park and Taylor Morris

Source: Tricia & Taylor’s YouTube Channel

Jill DeGroot (MA 2020, New Arts Journalism) wanted to be a marine — well, she wanted to play flute in the U.S. Marine Corps band. Early in her life, playing flute gave Jill sense of fulfillment, which gave rise to a passion and competitiveness for the instrument in and out of school band. For many years, Jill considered the flute her "calling," but while studying flute at DePaul University, disillusionment set in. The last few years have seen Jill shift from traditional classical music to the ultra-contemporary New Discipline, and also to journalism, which she uses to commemorate ephemeral concert experiences. Jill's story suggests that a "calling" has as much to do with what life wants from you as what you want from life.

Featuring "Throw Me To You And Back Again" by Jesse Marino, performed by Riley Leitch and Jill DeGroot. Audio courtesy of the artists.

Learn more about:

SAIC

F Newsmagazine

C a c o p h o n y

School of the Art Institute of Chicago undergrad Emma Collins (BFA 2019) recounts her experience balancing two kinds of studio work — art school and indie rock. Emma's schoolwork is a blend of fibers, fashion, and performance, and she also plays a myriad of roles in the Chicago-based outfit Jungle Green. Helmed by songwriter Andrew Smith, Jungle Green accounts for themselves on Bandcamp thus: "VARIETY = INFINITE POSSIBILITIES."

Jungle Green Songs in the Episode:

1:30 — "All My Life" listen/buy

4:28 — "I Love You, Ooo Ooo" listen/buy

8:34 — "Happiness" listen/buy

Learn more about:

SAIC

F Newsmagazine

Jungle Green

Lemon Twigs

This week: Ken Fandell and Christy Matson! Introduced by Duncan and Hologram Richard.

This week: Philip von Zweck (Bad mofo, artist, and storied, long running host of Something Else on WLUW) and Simon Anderson (Associate Professor Department of Art History, Theory + Criticismm SAIC) interview a living legend, Genesis Breyer P-Orridge. Breyer P-Orridge was in town for an exhibition S/he is having at Western Exhibitions.

Genesis P-Orridge and performance artist Lady Jaye Breyer began a collaborative effort begun in 1993  that focused on a single, central concern: deconstructing the fiction of self.  Frustrated by what they felt to be culturally enforced limits on identity but emboldened by the radical power of love, P-Orridge and Lady Jaye applied collage and cut-up techniques to their own bodies in an effort to merge their respective selves.  Through plastic surgery, hormone therapy, cross-dressing and altered behavior, they fashioned a single, pandrogynous being, Breyer P-Orridge.  The work is an experiment in identity, a test of how fully two people can integrate their lives, and, ultimately, a symbolic gesture of evolution and the alchemical union of the male and female halves of the human.  Although Lady Jaye passed away in 2007, Genesis has continued Breyer P-Orridge, putting into question not only the limits between self and other but also life and death.

Genesis Breyer P-Orridge was born in Manchester, England in 1950. S/he was a member of the Kinetic action group Exploding Galaxy/Transmedia Exploration from 1969-1970. S/he conceived of and founded the seminal British performance art group Coum Transmissions in 1969 and was the co-founder of Throbbing Gristle, Psychic TV, and the spoken word/ambient music performance group Thee Majesty. Throughout Genesis' long career, s/he has worked and collaborated with William S. Burroughs, Brion Gysin, Derek Jarman and Dr. Timothy Leary, among others. H/er art has been exhibited internationally, including recent exhibitions at Deitch Projects, Mass MOCA, Centre Pompidou, Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis, Barbican Museum, the Swiss Institute and White Columns, amongst others. Upcoming exhibitions will include a solo exhibition at Rupert Goldsworthy in Berlin, a keynote address at the Erotic Screens Conference, Centre for Public Culture and Ideas at Griffith University, Brisbane, Australia and a lecture at the Museum of Modern Art, New York in March. H/er archive was recently acquired for the permanent collection of the Tate Britain Museum. 

This week: Our Open Engagement series draws to a close with an interview with conference organizers Jen Delos Reyes and Harrell Fletcher.

This week: We talk with artist and visionary Nils Norman.

Nils Norman was born in Kent, England in 1966. He studied fine Art Painting BA Hons at St. Martins School of Art in London. After graduating in 1989 he moved to Cologne, Germany. There he lived for three years and collaborated with the artists Stephan Dillemuth and Josef Strau at their experimental storefront project Friesenwall 120, during this time Norman also set up a small gallery space in London, which later became Milch. In Cologne Norman worked for one year assisting the German painter Gerhard Richter in his atelier.

His first US exhibition was at the Pat Hearn Gallery in Chelsea (with Denis Balk and Simon Leung), after which he began to be represented by the late Colin Deland at American Fine Arts.

Norman founded an experimental space called Poster Studio on Charing Cross Road, London. This space was a collaborative effort with Merlin Carpenter and Dan Mitchell. In 1998 in New York he set up Parasite, together with the artist Andrea Fraser, a collaborative artist led initiative that developed an archive for site-specific projects.

Norman now lives and works in London. He exhibits internationally in commercial galleries, museum, and in public and alternative spaces. He writes articles, designs book covers and posters, collaborates with other artists, teaches and lectures in European and the US. Norman completed a major design project: an 80m pedestrian bridge and two islands for Roskilde Commune in Denmark in 2005 and is now working together with Nicholas Hare Architects on a school playground project for the new Golden Lane Campus, East London. He has recently finished an artist residency at the University of Chicago, Chicago, USA.

As part of the ongoing collaboration between Bad At Sports and Art Practical, as well as the summer series exploring social practice, this week Brian Andrews and Patricia Maloney sit down with Natasha Wheat as she prepares for her upcoming exhibition and temporary restaurant “Self Contained,” which opens at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago on July 13.

Currently based in San Francisco, Wheat is an American artist whose work attempts to understand and interrupt the way that human beings exist together. She is interested in the social hierarchy of space, utopian attempts, and the tension between exclusivity and inclusion. Wheat founded Project Grow (http://www.growinginalldirections.org/), a Portland Oregon based Art Studio and Urban Farming Project that includes people with mental diversity. Her recent work examines agriculture in relationship to human culture, distribution, and control. She received her BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2008.

Wheat has exhibited collaboratively and individually at The UC Berkeley Art Museum; The Pete and Susan Barrett Gallery, Santa Monica; Rogaland Kunstsenter, Stavanger, Norway; G2, Mess Hall, and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago.

Check out the text version of this interview, starting July 1, in Issue 18 of Art Practical. http://www.artpractical.com 

Mark Dion was born in 1961 in Massachusetts; he lives and works in Pennsylvania.

Dion is known for making art out of fieldwork, incorporating elements of biology, archaeology, ethnography, and the history of science, and applying to his artwork methodologies generally used for pure science. Traveling the world and collaborating with a wide range of scientists, artists, and museums, Dion has excavated ancient and modern artifacts from the banks of the Thames in London, established a marine life laboratory using specimens from New York’s Chinatown, and created a contemporary cabinet of curiosities exploring natural and philosophical hierarchies. His approach emphasizes illustration and accuracy but is charged with a biting undertone. Dion has a longstanding interest in exploring how ideas about natural history are visualized and how they circulate in society. Dion’s work has been presented at many U.S. and international museums and galleries, including solo exhibitions at the Vancouver Art Gallery, Vancouver; Galleria Emi Fontana, Milan; Wexner Center for the Arts, Columbus, Ohio; Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, New York; and Deutsches Museum, Bonn. Dion has been commissioned to create works for Aldrich Museum of Art, Ridgefield, Connecticut; the Tate Gallery, London; the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco; and The Museum of Modern Art, New York.