ESS is extremely pleased to present the work produced during this year's installment of the Artist Residency Program, thanks once again to a generous grant from the National Endowment for the Arts Art Works Program.

 

ARP 2015 Showcase

This year's resident artists will present their work in an event at the studio on December 5th. Admission is free and refreshments will be served.

The four selected artists/groups work in a diverse array of disciplines, including experimental music, film, sound art, and radio, and are all extremely accomplished in their respective fields:


COPPICE

Bellows and electronics duo Coppice (Noé Cuéllar and Joseph Kramer) are expanding their palette in a new project, Newly Cemented Dedication to Freedom (NCDTF). The endeavor represents a shift 'from [their] previous work phase with century-old instruments and analogue technologies onto a wholly synthetic one,' using software instruments and amplification to create 'illusions of digital air, binary clocks, and impossible musical objects.' They will use the residency to develop their new technologies, as well as ways of publicly presenting the music created by them.


MARIA GASPAR

Named 2014 Chicagoan of the Year in Visual Arts by the Chicago Tribune, and named a 2015 Breakout Artist by NewCity, interdisciplinary artist Maria Gaspar is making waves with her community-focused work. She plans to use her residency to develop 'a series of 3-5 experimental sound pieces that explore the psycho-geographical aspects of the Cook County Jail and its proximity to the community of Little Village— [her] childhood neighborhood. She is interested in 'using sound as a medium to work against the oppressive space of the jail that has profoundly affected [her] community.'


JODIE MACK

Filmmaker Jodie Mack, currently Assistant Professor of Film and Media Studies at Dartmouth College, will use her residency time to work on audio elements for 'The Pleasure of the Textile' an Animated Travelogue. Drawing 'visual and thematic parallels between the technological development of textile production and consumption alongside systems of visual and spoken language, the piece will investigate recurring graphic symbols, how they come to represent culture, and how their dissemination functions within a global economy.' She plans to 'create rhythmic soundscapes featuring temporal pattern play with linguistic components alongside percussive use of diegetic sounds recorded on-location.'


CHRISTOPHER SALVETER
& JEFFEREY THOMAS

In 2015, Chicago artists Jeff Thomas and Christopher Salveter completed a 21-day home study course designed by David Morehouse, a veteran of the CIA’s Stargate program, wherein they learned how to transcend the physical world to document and interact with people, places, and things remote in time and space. They’re currently applying their new abilities to produce a version of Gustav Mahler’s Third Symphony using field recordings from remote space-time locations, which will present a case for African-American reparations, pop hits from a band called The Electric Breastpumps, and a multitude of other sonic discoveries.