A wide shot of a ceramics studio, featuring students working with pottery wheels and other tools.

Sid Branca

Assistant Professor, Adjunct

Bio

Education: BA, Theatre and Performance Studies, 2009, University of Chicago; MFA, Interdisciplinary Arts & Media, 2015, Columbia College Chicago. Exhibitions/Performances: The Wrong Biennale; Iceberg Projects; Chopin Theatre; Ordinary Peepholes; Wretched Nobles film series; Alphawood Gallery; C33 Gallery; Salonathon; L.A. Art Book Fair; South LA Contemporary; the Neo-Futurarium; GIFbites; Templehead Gallery; the Inconvenience; Pritzker Pavilion; Logan Center for the Arts; The Plagiarists; Chicago Fringe Festival; Smart Museum of Art. Publications: American Vampire podcast; Bad at Sports; Video Video Zine; VAM Magazine; The Midwesterner; the College Art Association Conference blog. Awards/Residencies: Arteles Creative Center Residency; Finlandia Foundation Grant; Diversity Infusion Grant; Swarm Artist Residency; Chicago Performance Lab Residency; Rosenblum Award. Professional Affiliations: New Media Caucus; First Floor Theater.

Personal Statement

I am a multi-disciplinary artist, performer, and writer: I make videos, live performances (often with video or sound elements), books & texts & spoken word pieces, music & sound works, new media & multimedia projects, and occasionally installations and stand-alone still images. 

Areas of Interest:

  • Virtual identity and the role of technology in our experience of the corporeal body and the IRL environment 
  • Genre tropes of science fiction, horror, and the music video, and their metaphorical relationships to queer & trans experiences, and to political structures under capitalism
  • Speculative autobiography (alternate futures, performance personas)
  • Poetic adaptation (particularly the tragedies of ancient Greece) 

Current Projects: 

  • An experimental film about an extra-terrestrial who processes dysphoria and trauma through an obsessive love of Earth musicals
  • A research and writing project on gender and criminal justice in the "paranormal procedural" genre of television
  • A podcast about the politics and psychology of the Twilight franchise (American Vampire)
  • Serving as the New Media Director of First Floor Theater

Courses

Title Department Catalog Term

Description

This course is designed to introduce students to the language and histories of the moving image arts and the diverse ways in which artists have contributed to them. Throughout the semester we will examine a range of approaches to creating moving image work. We will compare and contrast established ?norms? with radical and experimental approaches to these various media, leading to an understanding of the rich, complex, and evolving landscape upon which individuals have been making, and continue to make, moving image art. Students will engage with this expanded field through lectures, readings, screenings, meetings with visiting artists as well as becoming active in discussions and practitioners in the field via group projects. Working in small groups, students will complete a series of short projects to introduce them to the various pathways of the department. By the end of the semester, students should have gain basic production and postproduction skills as well a good understanding of the key concepts relevant to contemporary film, video, new media, installation and animation.

Class Number

1234

Credits

3

Description

This course is designed to introduce students to the language and histories of the moving image arts and the diverse ways in which artists have contributed to them. Throughout the semester we will examine a range of approaches to creating moving image work. We will compare and contrast established ?norms? with radical and experimental approaches to these various media, leading to an understanding of the rich, complex, and evolving landscape upon which individuals have been making, and continue to make, moving image art. Students will engage with this expanded field through lectures, readings, screenings, meetings with visiting artists as well as becoming active in discussions and practitioners in the field via group projects. Working in small groups, students will complete a series of short projects to introduce them to the various pathways of the department. By the end of the semester, students should have gain basic production and postproduction skills as well a good understanding of the key concepts relevant to contemporary film, video, new media, installation and animation.

Class Number

1572

Credits

3

Description

This production course will explore the legacies of punk and alternative cultures via DIY (do-it-yourself) methods across an array of mass media. Topics covered through case studies will include: self-publishing and organization; touring and DIY exhibition; remaining and reinventing forms; and connecting production to political empowerment, support and action. Case studies will include grass-roots movements like riot grrrl/queercore (1990's) and amateur cinema (1920's), alongside presentations by contemporary visiting artists. Projects will include producing and tabling for Chicago Zine Fest; collaborative motion picture production; and an end-of-semester exhibition.

Class Number

1641

Credits

3