Minneapolis, July 8, 2011—The Walker Art Center presents an artistic residency on Open Field with Echo Park-based Machine Project July 20–29. This non-profit confederacy of artists makes its home in an unassuming storefront in the Los Angeles neighborhood, but the group also produces shows at locations ranging from beaches to museums to parking lots. Last January, three of the collective’s members, Emily Lacy, Chris Kallmyer, and Joshua Beckman, visited the Walker to meet with potential local collaborators and prepare for this summer’s residency. On the coldest weekend of the year, donning borrowed down and wool, the trio hosted readings and concerts in an igloo built to accommodate two performers, plus an audience of two to four. They also tested out the parking garage, several stairwells, and other spaces as potential performance sites, even going so far as to wedge themselves in between the huge glass window panels in the Hennepin Lounge.
Six months later, Lacy, Kallmyer, and a crew of 10 other artists present Summer Jubilee at Open Field: two weeks of Machine Project activities, experiments, and oddities. Part of the fun of this group is expecting the unexpected, as serendipity and spontaneity are two of their chief operating principles. Highlighting Machine Project’s visit are two Field Days (July 21 and 28), special day-into-evening schedules of public happenings throughout the Walker, indoors and out, and in the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden.
Whether they’re investigating art, technology, natural history, science, music, literature, food, or any other topic in a wide array of interests, Machine Project approaches everything they do with a curiosity and enthusiasm that’s infectious. A complete description of Machine Project’s Summer Jubilee residency follows.
Machine Project: Summer Jubilee
July 20–29
Walker Open Field/Building/Minneapolis Sculpture Garden
_Machine Project Summer Jubilee Field Days
Thursdays, July 21 & 28, 11 am–10 pm, Free_
Partake in a series of Machine Project happenings throughout the Walker, indoors and out, and in the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden.
Thursday, July 21, 11 am–10 pm, Free
Poetry Phone
Different locations daily, 11 am–5 pm
Look around the Walker for the black rotary dial phone on a fake rock. When the phone rings, pick up! There is probably a poet on the line waiting to read to you. The poetry phone offers mobile personal poetry performances, given via telephone by a variety of poets. Readings take place throughout the day in a variety of locations across the Walker campus. The poetry is curated by Joshua Beckman, who is a poet himself and enjoys the occasional phone call.
Ins and Outs of Cars for Kids
Walker Open Field, 1 pm–3 pm and 4 pm–6 pm
(Also offered Wednesday, July 20, 1–3 pm)
For kids ages 8–14 with an adult
Join us for a hands-on workshop for parents and children.
For most kids (and adults), modern cars are simply these gleaming, aggressive-faced jellybeans that house air-conditioning units and MP3 players while they idle in traffic. But underneath their shiny surface lurks all manner of exciting machinery that needs some demystification. This class focuses on a few key aspects of cars while teaching a bit about the physics and mechanics behind how it all works. This is a hands-on workshop, with an actual car to practice on (including emergency break-ins and escapes). Taught by car historian and inventor Jason Torchinsky. Pre-registration required; call 612.375.5812.
Cowboys and Angels
Occurs daily at different locations, 2 pm
Join musician Emily Lacy for a 12-day world tour of the Walker Art Center. Starting every day from a different location on the Walker campus, she’ll be creating improvised music in reaction to each different space, with an ear towards wistful country songs and vocal electronica. The length of each performance will vary.
Music for Parking Garages
City of Minneapolis Parking Garage at the Walker, 3–8 pm
Los Angeles and Minneapolis musicians partner to create site-specific sound works for the Walker’s parking garage. These pieces will create a warm ambiance for visitors as they park their cars, stop in to listen, or even nap to the music. Come pull up a bean bag chair or backseat, and experience the acoustical charm of the parking structure.
Team LA
Casey Anderson
Chris Kallmyer
Team Minneapolis
Jonathan Zorn
Jon Davis and Adam Patterson
Members of Cantus
Curated by Chris Kallmyer
Tragedy on the Sea Nymph: An Operetta in Three Acts Starring an All-Dog Cast
Thursday, July 21, 9:15 and 9:45 pm
Screening on the Walker Open Field
Tragedy on the Sea Nymph is a filmed 10-minute operetta depicting the romance and tragedy of clandestine lovers shipwrecked at sea. Starring an all-dog cast accompanied by live human singers and the Cedar String Quartet, this piece explores the remarkable connections between the affectations of operas and the lives of dogs. This performance is marked by focused, myopic attentions, yearning, love, and loss. Dogs and humans welcome to attend. BYO water bowls and hankies. Written by Elizabeth Cline with music by Lewis Pesacov.
Thursday, July 28, 11 am–10 pm, Free
Poetry Phone
Roaming Locations, 11 am–5 pm
Look around the Walker for the black rotary dial phone on a fake rock. When the phone rings, pick up! There is probably a poet on the line waiting to read to you. The poetry phone offers mobile personal poetry performances, given via telephone by a variety of poets. Readings take place throughout the day in a variety of locations across the Walker campus. Poetry curated by Joshua Beckman, who is a poet himself, and enjoys the occasional phone call.
Meet the Earbees or Games for Ears
Walker Open Field, 11:30 am–12:30 pm, 2–3 pm, 4:30–5:30 pm,
7–8 pm
Join artist Sara Roberts for sound-based group participatory activities using Earbees.
What are Earbees?
Earbees look a lot like transistor radios, but instead of playing Top 40 they record whatever you like and play it back looped. They can be placed somewhere particular, hidden, stacked, gambled with, buried, and thrown—and there are lots of possibilities. The inventor of Earbees, Sara Roberts, will lead some favorite activities and we’ll see if you come up with some more. Make noise, make more noise, make better noise!
Composition for Photoelectric Array and Ambient Light
Walker Open Field, 12:30 pm
Sound artist Kamau performs live on the Open Field using the sun’s rays. Via solar panels and a light-to-frequency converter, you’ll be able to listen to sounds composed by measuring the rays of the sun as the light changes throughout the day. As a favor to Kamau, please refrain from doing any raindances until at least Friday, July 29.
Cowboys and Angels
Occurs daily at different locations, 2 pm
Join musician Emily Lacy for a twelve-day world tour of the Walker Art Center. Starting every day from a different location on the Walker campus, she’ll be creating improvised music in reaction to each different space, with an ear towards wistful country songs and vocal electronica. The length of each performance will vary.
Electric Melon Workshop
Walker Open Field, 2–4 pm
Make your own amplified melon! All you need are simple soldering skills we will teach you, and one small melon, which we can provide while supplies last. In one afternoon you will:
1) Build your own contact microphone
2) Combine your mic with a melon to make an amplified melon
3) Join our amplified electric melon drum circle
4) Eat your melon when you’re done and/or take your melon rinds to the World of Pickling at the Walker Open Field and pickle your rinds.
All participants will be able to borrow soldering materials. No advanced registration required. Drum circle or previous electric melon experience also not required.
The Fol Chen Verbal Algorithm Composer-Free Song Generator
Art Lab, 2–7 pm
Samuel Bing of the band Fol Chen (Asthmatic Kitty) will produce a customized, one-of-a-kind song for each person who participates in the Fol Chen Verbal Algorithm Composer-Free Song Generator. This is a one-day-only event.
Come fill out a survey about your experience at the Walker, turn your survey in to Bing, and receive a CD of your very own custom song minutes later. He will also host a field recording workshop the day before, on Wednesday, July 27 from 1–5 pm. Stop by and borrow a field recorder to tape your own sounds from around the museum and then give them back to Bing for use in future song-making. At the end of Summer Jubilee, he will release the songs as a digital download Open Field EP.
Echo Park Film Center: Filmmobile Screening (at night) and Workshop (during the day)
Workshop: FlatPak House, 3–6 pm
Film Pickling Workshop: FlatPak House, 6–7 pm
Screening: FlatPak House, 9 pm
Join Los Angeles’ Echo Park Film Center at the FlatPak House for hands-on workshops in filmmaking and stay for a screening of the workshop films in the evening. Between the workshop and the screening Walker curator Dean Otto leads a film pickling workshop. Creating equal and affordable community access to film and video resources since 2001, the EPFC are taking their show on the road this summer in a big blue bus that has been transformed into the EPFC Filmmobile: a full-service, eco-friendly screening and educational facility on wheels. They are stopping at the Walker for this one night only event.
www.echoparkfilmcenter.org/www.filmmobile.org
World of Pickling
Walker Open Field, 4–7 pm
What’s summer without pickles? Come and partake in the wonderful world of pickling on the Walker’s Open Field. Watch in awe with a growling stomach as local chefs and brothers Chris and Rhett Roberts demo the art of melon rind pickling and surprise the crowd with pickling some unexpected objects. Taunt your palate further as chef-farmer Nick Schneider makes sauerkraut and introduces you to the world of lacto-fermentation. Draw a pickle still life at Drawing Club and look for a larger-than-life pickle on the Field ready to pose with you for a portrait. To round out the pickling panoply there will be a pickling film workshop with the Walker’s own Associate Curator of Film/Video Dean Otto and a guest appearance by a local pickling celebrity.
the american lawn, and ways to cut it
Walker Open Field, 6–8 pm
Interactive Grand Finale Featuring Bells and Push Mowers, 7–8 pm
Join us for Machine Project’s grand finale event: a three-part exploration of the American lawn and ways to cut it, via sheep, choreographed gasoline-powered ride-on-mowers with mounted oscillators tuned to the drone of their engines, and push mowers. Come help us examine the sonic nature of the Walker’s Open Field, while giving the lawn a much-needed trim.
Composed by Chris Kallmyer.
Machine Project Ongoing Events
Cowboys and Angels
July 19–29, 2 pm
Occurs daily at different locations
Join musician Emily Lacy for a 12-day world tour of the Walker Art Center. Starting every day from a different location on the Walker campus, she’ll be creating improvised music in reaction to each different space, with an ear towards wistful country songs and vocal electronica. Length of each performance will vary.
Invisible Performances Pamphlets
July 19–29
Available for pick-up at Visitor Services during open hours
Adam Overton suggests private actions you can perform yourself, should you choose to do so. The pamphlets were written specifically for the Walker Art Center.
Poetry Phone
July 19–29, 11 am–5 pm
Various Walker locations daily
Look around the Walker for the black rotary dial phone on a fake rock. When the phone rings, pick up! There is probably a poet on the line waiting to read to you. The poetry phone offers mobile personal poetry performances, given via telephone by a variety of poets. Readings take place throughout the day in a variety of locations across the Walker campus. The poetry is curated by Joshua Beckman, who is a poet himself and enjoys the occasional phone call.
Chris may or may not play trumpet at some time and some place possibly…
July 22–27 and July 29, sometime between 11 am–5 pm, maybe.
Throughout the Walker
Chris Kallmyer, experimental musician, may or may not be playing a trumpet for some duration of time as an exploration of the spaces inside the Walker. Spaces could also be outside the Walker. Spaces may not be involved. (Trumpet optional.)
Who: Chris Kallmyer
What: maybe trumpet
When: unknown
Where: unknown
Machine Project Summer Jubilee Special events
Opera Listens to You
Friday, July 22, 11 am–1 pm and 2–4 pm
After some 400 years of one-sided communication, and an endless series of heartbreaks, tragedies and injustices wailed into any available ear…finally Opera is ready to listen to you. Joined by small chorus of singers, Juliana Snapper, a longtime mouthpiece for opera, will act as Opera’s ear. They will employ a three-step “active listening” process developed through clinical research to (re-)establish a healthy connection in partners who have—like Opera and her audience—become gradually estranged. We invite you to join us in a journey into operatic reconnection. Come and sit for a bit, share your feelings, tell Opera what happened—and have the experience of truly being heard.
Apple II Beeptacular Spectacular
Friday, July 22, 1–5 pm
FlatPak House
We are gathering as many Apple II computers as possible together in the FlatPak House for a “Beeptacular Spectacular” concert using vintage computers as an orchestra.
As a grand “musical” experiment, Jason Torchinsky has written a crude 16-tone sequencer for the Apple II, and will try and gather up as many Apple IIs as possible to perform a live, dynamic sort-of concert/musical event. Machine Project’s resident music guru, Chris Kallmyer, will be on hand to discuss the nature of music, and generally help make things somewhat listenable. Who knows what the end result will sound like? A chorus of angels, poking at touch-tone phones? All the computers from the background of every sci-fi movie from the 1950-80’s going off at once? A serenade by a truckload of R2-D2s? You’ll have to come and listen for yourselves. Please bring your own Apple II if you’ve got one.
The Fol Chen Verbal Algorithm Composer-Free Song Generator Workshop
Wednesday, July 27, 1–5 pm
Walker Open Field
Samuel Bing of the band Fol Chen (Asthmatic Kitty) will host a field recording workshop in preparation for the following day’s Verbal Algorithm Composer-Free Song Generator. Stop by and borrow a field recorder to tape your own sounds from around the museum, and then give them back to Bing for use in future song-making.
Machine Project
Mark Allen
Mark Allen is the founder and executive director of Machine Project. Under his direction, Machine has produced over 500 events, workshops and performances. Prior to opening Machine, he was involved with several alternative arts groups as a curator, board member and director and co-founded the Los Angeles new media collective c-level. He has taught at the California Institute of the Arts and the University of California San Diego, and is currently an associate professor of art at Pomona College.
Joshua Beckman
Joshua Beckman was born in New Haven, Connecticut. He is the author of seven books, including Take It (Wave Books, 2009), Shake, and two collaborations with Matthew Rohrer: Nice Hat. Thanks. and Adventures While Preaching the Gospel of Beauty. He is an editor at Wave Books and has translated numerous works of poetry and prose, including 5 Meters of Poems by Carlos Oquendo de Amat and Poker by Toma alamun, which was a finalist for the PEN America Poetry in Translation Award. He is also the recipient of numerous other awards including a NYFA fellowship and a Pushcart Prize. He lives in Seattle and New York.
Samuel Bing
Samuel Bing is a songwriter and co-producer for Fol Chen (Asthmatic Kitty) whose two albums of danceable, art-pop have garnered praise from the likes of The New York Times, NME and Pitchfork. They have remixed and/or been remixed by David Bowie, Liars, Baths, and legendary club producer Junior Vasquez. They also covered Prince for SPIN’s “Purplish Rain” compilation. Their song In Ruins was featured on Showtime’s Weeds and an episode of CSI: NY in which a victim is murdered over Chat Roulette.
Elizabeth Cline
Elizabeth Cline is an artist and curator living in Los Angeles. During the day, she works as a curatorial associate at the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles where she produces artists projects in the Public Engagement Artist in Residence program. At night, she dreams and writes of the lives of dogs, roses and romance. Her next projects include a follow-up dog operetta set during the Gold Rush era.
Jimmy Fusil
Jimmy Fusil is an amateur cinematographer, documentary filmmaker, and musician living in Los Angeles. Much of his work focuses on recording performances through a subjective, experiential, and sometimes impressionistic approach.
Chris Kallmyer
Chris Kallmyer is a performer, composer and sound artist living in Los Angeles, who works in sound installation, composition, trumpet, and electronic music. He has presented work at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), The Walker Art Center, The Museum of Contemporary Art Denver, The Hammer Museum, REDCAT, Machine Project, The Goldwell Open Air Museum and other spaces in America and Europe. His work is influenced by a sense of place, architecture, field recordings, and outdoor listening.
Kallmyer is the Curator of Sound Programming for Machine Project. He earned his MFA in music from the California Institute of the Arts where he studied with Thomas Stevens, Vinny Golia, Wadada Leo Smith and Aashish Khan. He holds a BA in trumpet performance from St. Mary’s College of Maryland.
Emily Lacy
Emily Lacy is a folk and electronic sound artist generating works in music, film and other media. She has performed in exhibitions at MoMA PS1, The Whitney Museum of American Art, The Hammer Museum, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and various DIY spaces throughout America. She works very closely with Machine Project.
Michael O’Malley
Through strategies of play, pleasure and interaction, Michael O’Malley’s work focuses on the shifting dimensions of the built environment, kinesthetic experience, and social relations. He builds sculptures and installations that frame the body in a particular way. In so doing, viewers become implicated in the psychological contradictions of detachment and intimacy, power and futility, comfort and control. He is also a professor of art at Pomona College, and makes incredible wood, oven-fired pizza from scratch.
Adam Overton
Adam Overton is a living artist, composer and performer of experimental action and music, a teacher of various subjects, and massage therapist based in Los Angeles.
Kamau Patton
Kamau Patton is a visual artist and art educator. He graduated from The University of Pennsylvania with a degree in sociology. He received his MFA from Stanford University in the spring of 2007. Patton has exhibited his work in solo shows at Machine Project in Los Angeles, Queens Nails Annex in San Francisco, and at Tilton Gallery in New York. Patton has worked on numerous community based art projects for organizations such as The San Francisco Art Institute, The School House, The Museum of Children’s Art, Southern Exposure, and The Richmond Art Center. He has worked on public art projects commissioned by The San Francisco Arts Commission, The City of Walnut Creek, The City of San Jose, and Creative Time. He has also worked collaboratively on artists’ projects at the MoMA in New York and LACMA. Patton recently presented an intermedia performance project at The Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco and is currently an artist-in-residence at the Studio Museum in Harlem. He is also a recipient of the 2010 SFMOMA SECA award and will present work in the award exhibition at the museum in December of 2011.
Sara Roberts
For many years Sara Roberts made simulations of human behavior with computers. Now she’s collecting games and making simple devices for exploring human behavior with people. She teaches in the Experimental Sound Practices Program at CalArts.
Juliana Snapper
Interdisciplinary artist and soprano vocalist Juliana Snapper works at the physical and expressive limits of the operatic voice. Recent projects “prepare” the vocal instrument, altering its functionality and sonic palette by positioning her body in stressful states such as hanging upside down or submerging herself in water. Snapper received her bachelor’s degree in vocal performance from the Oberlin Conservatory before returning to her native California to pursue a doctorate in Critical Studies/Experimental Practices in Music from the University of California at San Diego. Her concert works, sound installations, and large-scale theatrical performances have been presented by the Los Angeles REDCAT, the Armand Hammer Museum, Machine Project, Human Resources, Participant Inc., X-Initiative, MoMA PS1, The Guggenheim Museum, and in international music and performance festivals in Europe, Asia and The Americas. Snapper’s projects have received support from The British Arts Council, The Metropolitan Opera Council, The University of California Center for the Humanities, and The Durfee Foundation. Her writing on voice appears in the Journal of European Studies, Encyclopedia A-M, Open Space, and in a forthcoming book on Cathy Berberian.
Jason Torchinsky
Jason Torchinsky is an artist and writer based in Los Angeles. He has built a functional, 15x-scale, Atari joystick, a hoax Kyrgyz arcade machine, and several kinetic sculptures that have been exhibited at LACMA and The Hammer Museum. Jason writes ideas for the Onion News Network and is the author of Ad Nauseam: A Survivor’s Guide to American Consumer Culture. Jason has worked with Machine Project for years, giving talks and teaching classes, usually about odd mechanical things and the loons that made them. To fund his lavish, decadent lifestyle, he teaches design at the School for Visual Arts and Humanities to sullen, apathetic teens.
Echo Park Film Center
The Echo Park Film Center is a non-profit media arts organization committed to providing equal and affordable community access to film/video resources via five channels: a neighborhood microcinema, free and nominal cost education programs, a comprehensive film equipment and service retail department, a green-energy mobile cinema and film school, and a touring film festival showcasing local established and emerging filmmakers. They have been operating since 2001. This year marks their 10th anniversary – hence they are going on tour to celebrate.
[www.echoparkfilmcenter.org // www.filmmobile.org // www.filmmobile.org/about.html]