FRIDAY MAY 1, 2009
King Ludd's Analog Arcade - Version Fest 09 at the Experimental Station
The Experimental Station, 6100 S Blackstone Ave
Saturday April 25th, 2pm - 8pm (Families Welcome) $5 for adults. $3 for children.
The Midway Plaissance in Hyde Park was the site of the World's Fair of 1893, an international celebration of the landing of Columbus in North America 401 years earlier. Chicago intended to out-Eiffel the French and to prove that the U.S was where things were happening. The fair was at once a stunning achievement, and an instance of urban breakdown akin to boom-and-bust cycles the world over. It was a display of human endeavor, and its social costs.
All fairs since have a Midway, the place where games are played. The games are called "attractions,"as if like moths humans move toward them in spite of themselves, and they leave as winners, losers, or something in between. Games possess rules of engagement within a limited arena. Games allow us to submit to a given set of rules and to find our limits within them. They allow us to act out social taboos within the safety of that mutual agreement. They encourage us to strategize, fight, share, dominate, cooperate, even kill (for pretend).
King Ludd's Midway Arcade began with a call for proposals seeking home-made video games, parlor games, and carnival games that would, in some way, challenge or offer and alternative to the forward march of high technology. Games could be analog, low-tech, or hacker. Artists were encouraged to think about the games as a site to investigate metaphors for social engagement or the production of social spaces. The results have been spectacular!
Come and play!! Test your skill!!
Compete! Cooperate! Collaborate! Dominate!
9 artist-made, family-friendly arcade and carnival games.
Kids Welcome!!!
Music and Food available!
http://www.experimentalstation.org
Official Unofficial After Art Fair May Day Party
Co-Prosperity Sphere 3219 S Morgan St
9pm • $7
Performances by:
Blue Ribbon Glee Club
Salem
Love Connection
and DJ Shoulders!
The Audacity of Art Exhibition will be open for viewing.
Art fair badge holders have complementary entry.
Also reccomended:
Our Literal Speed: An Exhibition Accompanying a Conference
May 1 - July 4, 2009
Opening Reception: May 1, 2009, 8pm to 11pm
Featuring work by Academy Records, Gregg Bordowitz, TJ Clark, Collective Actions, Rainer Ganahl, Sharon Hayes, Jackson Pollock Bar, Hila Peleg, Project for a New American Century, Size Queens, and Hamza Walker
Opening reception features:
A live theory installation by Jackson Pollock Bar at 8 pm
A lecture by Alexander Dumbadze at 9:15 pm
A new film by Art & Language at 10 pm
Our Literal Speed is presented as part of "Our Literal Speed: events in the vicinty of art and history" a conference / event produced by the University of Chicago in association with Art Chicago, the Art Institute of Chicago, the University of Illinois at Chicago, the Renaissance Society, and the Smart Museum and presented April 30 - May 2, 2009
For more information on the conference, schedule, images and music, go to: http://www.ourliteralspeed.com