Please visit the Ars Electronica website for more information and on-demand online programs.
In-person exhibition will be held on the 1st floor Sharp Building, 36 S. Wabash Ave. Chicago, IL
The Art & Technology Studies Department (ATS) at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) is proud to present the Chicago Garden for this year's edition of Ars Electronica Festival for Art, Technology & Society. The festival will be home delivered, and exhibitions and events will take place both online and in person in each participant city.
This year’s theme, The New Digital Deal, is an invitation to reflect on the close relationship we have developed with the digital world and how we deal with it, while questioning its benefits and shortfalls. It is an invitation to think about our faculty to take action and claim our right to participate in shaping the world we want for our future.
In this edition, the ATS Chicago Garden will present the work of its community through a series of online and in-person events. The ATS Chicago Garden seeks to engage in a multidisciplinary dialogue and become a physical and virtual space where the SAIC and Chicago communities can reflect on our roles and our shared experiences emerging in this new digital world.
September 8–12, 2021
In-Person Programming:
Pop-up Exhibition: Where we emerge
School of the Art Institute of Chicago
Sharp Building, 1st Floor
36 South Wabash Avenue, Chicago
Pop-up exhibition in which students in the Art & Technology Studies department at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago reflect on how the digital world has shaped our society. Through installations, media work and 3D sculptures, the exhibition responds to the close relationship that has emerged with the digital world and how we deal with it, while questioning its benefits and shortfalls
Available on September 8, 2021.
[Photo at left: Kelly Xi, "Allien criticality", multimedia (Photo by Kelly Xi)]
Online Programming On-demand:
experiments in free drumming I
By Sal Moreno (MFA 2021)
Performance of improvisational drumming motivated by digital sounds and visuals which are generated in real-time via a motion-capture suit. The performance engages the body as a sonic mediator between the physical and virtual spaces. The performer engages digital sound through hand motions and gestures, amplifying and softening frequencies while experimenting with various rhythmic sequences. The visual generated consists of an ethereal substance that expands, contracts, and modifies its color based on these same hand movements.
Project presentation: Start a reaction
By artists and curators Robert Pierce (MFA 2023), Elise Butterfield (MFA 2022), Taylor Shuck (MFA 2021) and Maysam Al-Ani (MFA 2022).
This presentation will feature documentation of the performance and AR works made as part of the Start a Reaction project, an anti-nukes art and technology campaign. Additionally, an overview of the project’s intentions, significance, and history of the threat of nuclear weapons.
My Shoes, Your Walk: A Soundwalk Near Montrose Beach, Chicago, I
By Jonas Sun (MFA 2022)
This video depicts a revisit of a soundwalk that provided the artists countless inspiration and solace during the past year. Recorded with contact microphones chiseled and wired in soles of his shoes, the soundtrack brings us back to last autumn, whereas his camera dangles in the summer heat, while his mind wanders across time.
Where we emerge Online Exhibition
Virtual experience of the exhibition where students in the Art & Technology Studies department at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago reflect on how the digital world has shaped our society. Through installations, media work and 3D sculptures, the exhibition responds to the close relationship that has emerged with the digital world and how we deal with it, while questioning its benefits and shortfalls
Photo above left: Jungwoo, Lee, "Am I a flower," 2020, multimedia sculpture (Photo by Jungwoo Lee)
Photo below left: Sydney Gush, "Low Fidelity," 2020, multimedia sculpture, 6" x 3 7/8" (Photo by Sydney Gush)
