-empyre- in October

October on -empyre-

This month on -empyre- the focus will be on a dialogue between Ryan
Griffis and De Geuzen, that will provide an opportunity to explore
themes underlying their participation in the Chicago chapter of Jordan
Crandall's "Under Fire" project.

Some of the potential areas of discussion may include "a research as
practice" approach to creative production, DIY tools, amateur vs
professional forms of activist practice, notions of 'commitment' and
issues of engagement.

Guest Biographies>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Ryan Griffis is an artist and sometimes-amateur writer, curator and tour
guide. He currently writes reviews regularly for ArtUS magazine and has
written for Rhizome.org, New Art Examiner and various other zines and
journals. Ryan's art practice centers around an interest in the critical
potential of tourism and a quasi-fictional travel agency called the
Temporary Travel Office. The Travel Office's recent projects include
research into the connection between parking lots and utopian capitalism
and an unofficial residency with the National Park Service in Florida to
visualize the neglected history of race relations there. His curatorial
projects include YOUGenics, an exhibition exploring the social
implications of genetic technologies and most recently, Under Fire an
exhibition based on artist Jordan Crandall's multidisciplinary and
collaborative discussions around organized violence. He currently
teaches Art & Design at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.
http://www.yougenics.net/griffis/
http://yougenics.net
http://temporarytraveloffice.net
http://www.art.uiuc.edu/projects/underfire

De Geuzen (a foundation for multi-visual research) is Riek Sijbring,
Femke Snelting and Renee Turner. Collaborating since 1996, they have
deployed a variety of strategies both on and offline to explore their
interests in female identity, critical resistance, representation, and
narrative archiving. Their research-oriented works and DIY activities
have been featured in Rhizome, Manifesta 3 (Slovenia) Mute and the
Kuenstlerhaus Bremen (Germany). Some of their most recent projects
include, a temporary conversion of a bridge-watcher's house into a news
kiosk, a workshop on future mobile media, a Global Anxiety Monitor
(http://www.geuzen.org/anxiety/ ) and a Critical Browser (http://www.
geuzen.org/browser/ ) While some of their projects are by commission,
many are self-initiated. For a general overview, see: http://www.geuzen.
org/


We are very pleased to welcome our guests and look forward to the
October discussion on -empyre-.

The mods,
http://subtle.net/empyre