Astro Space Party Gets Real in May

Astro Space Party is taking a little break from posting virtually this May, because we'll be presenting LIVE in reality throughout the month at the Co-Prosperity Sphere in Bridgeport. Come see us!

CPS / SMALL
3219 S. Morgan Ave St.
Chicago, IL 60608

Join artist Frank Pollard on Thursday evenings as he hosts interviews and musical performances on the set of Space Station TV, installed at the Co-Prosperity Sphere / SMALL showroom. Musicians will perform inside The Pod of Absence, a heptagonal structure for sculpting sound by Conrad Freiburg.

"Magic with a K"
Thursday, May 10th
7:30 – 9:30pm
Frank Pollard interviews Wesley Groves on how the occult figures into artistic practices. Musical performance and interview with Lulu Callier of Gel Set.

"Hpnotiq"
Thursday, May 17th
7:30 – 9:30pm
Frank Pollard interviews Jacob C. Hammes, Michael Workman and Mr. Vibes on how the creative process intersects with trance states. Musical performances from Conrad Freiburg and Jeremiah Chiu of Deep Sleep.

"America Online Live"
Thursday, May 24th
7:30 – 9:30pm
Frank Pollard interviews Theodore Darst on the current state of new media presentation in virtual space. Musical performance and interview with Todd Mattei of Lightsalive. With reggae DJ Brian Chankin.

4.17.12 Predictions by Todd Mattei

This week at Astro Space Party - Todd Mattei! Todd is a veteran Astro Space Partier, who helped launch this site into space with his 9/20/11 prediction. Welcome back Todd!

An accomplished visual and sound artist, musician, and educator, Todd's pieces (in any medium) are always so richly textured, they seem to breathe with lives all their own. His body of work exposes a generous and inviting universe, seamlessly fusing alternate dimensions into palpable feelings to step inside.

Be sure to grab that free download of Lightsalive's first.



<3

4.10.12 Predictions by RobRoy Campbell

This week - musician, recordist, engineer, experimenter, and the object of countless man crushes - RobRoy! If you are a man who does not yet have a crush on RobRoy, watch this video of him building one of his M63 preamps in the lab. That's right, RobRoy designs and builds tube amps which he sells through his company Electronaut to dealers all over the world.

His video for this week is an exact visual manifestation of how one would imagine RobRoy shows up to solve any of your problems, audio or otherwise. Astro Space Party asked him to predict the future for this week, but instead he cracked the entire system and came up with a new methodology for "stereoscopic astrology". No surprises there.

This video is HD, so let it load before you watch it for uninterrupted enlightenment.



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4.3.12 Predictions by Dana Carter

This week - Dana Carter! Before I ever met Dana, I was told that she does amazing things with light, which turned out to be a profound understatement. Her work is stunning, exciting, and inherently revelatory. While countless artists try to manufacture epiphanies (with mixed results), Dana seems to pass them out from the ever elusive crossroads of "holy shit" and "how did you do that?". She's also made one of Astro Space Party's all time favorite works, Escape as in a shaft of light, 2011, which is on view for just a few more days in her current exhibition at COD's Gahlberg Gallery. Her website is currently under construction, so you'll have to await her 2013 show at the Hyde Park Art Center with mysterious anticipation ;)



<3

3.27.12 Predictions by Jeremiah Chiu and Shannon Benine

This week - a collaboration from Jeremiah Chiu and Shannon Benine, with soundtrack by Dan Jugle - yay! This video was shot on location in San Francisco while in town for a conference, and Astro Space Party is all about mixing business with pleasure (hey now).

You were warned about Jeremiah last year, when Newcity identified his creative design studio Plural (co-founded with Renata Graw) amongst the Breakout Artists 2011 (fancy). Take a look through the portfolio of work, and you'll see that Jeremiah is secretly responsible for making pretty much everything in your periphery look cool.

Shannon Benine teaches at Columbus College of Art and Design, and has done one of Astro Space Party's all time favorite projects - Crystal Visions, 2008 - a series of color photograms using crystal-based divination, "reconnecting the medium to its past relationship with mysticism and the occult" (right on Shannon!).

Dan Jugle is arguably the most prominent dogmatic über-guru of our time. He is the secret weapon of the Chicago synth scene, and leads a fleet of guards at the MCA, working day and night to protect our fine city's contemporary art from evildoings.



Right on.

3.20.12 Predictions by Kirsten Leenaars

It's an exciting week here at Astro Space Party, as we are proud to present a collaborative video by Kirsten Leenaars - hooray! Kirsten is a true impresario, transforming and synthesizing collected narratives into smart, pervasive works that transcend distinctions between media disciplines with such voracious abandon, we're left wondering what has ever kept us contained. Kirsten recently turned the MCA into a thirteen episode interactive soap opera (yes - really) for a project called On Our Way to Tomorrow, curated by Tricia Van Eck.

Kirsten made this week's video with her TA Kendall Babl and their Core, Spring 2012, SAIC students:

Aileen Ng, Ali Gutowski, Alejandra Ramirez, Camille Laut, Jae Oh, James Lee, Jemma Hyung, Kennedy Jones, Pil Jae Choi, Siyu Xu,
and Zaine Smart.



Many thanks to all the artists involved! I hear the making was a real astro space party ♥.

;)