Hey ho – this week we’re only open on Thursday. Hol and I are in NYC. Our good friend Teresa Albor is going to be sitting the space Thursday – please pop in and say hi, and check out Paul’s show while it’s still up.
Best T + H.

What It Is
23 East Madison
Chicago, IL, 60602
http://wot-it-is.com
info@wot-it-is.com
773 – 837 – 9809

Blue Noise, Trees and Boids: Algorithmic images by Paul Hertz

Opening reception, Thursday May 3rd, 5:00 – 8:00pm
Exhibition continues through June 1st, 2012
Gallery hours Weds – Sat, noon to 5pm or by appointment

What It Is, is pleased to present new work by Chicago-based artist Paul Hertz who has worked at the forefront of digital based art making since the mid 1980’s. This exhibition provides a glimpse into Hertz’s working practice with a series of new digital prints produced over the last twelve months with various image-generating algorithms.

Hertz’s Sampling Patterns series is based on regular random distributions known as “blue noise,” seen in natural phenomena such as a flock of birds adjusting their mutual distances in flight. Blue noise dot patterns have interesting visual and cognitive effects: Their regularity seems to imply an order just about to emerge, which their randomness negates.

The Tree Jive series has a different algorithmic theme. Hertz created it from an “L-System,” short for Lindenmayer System. L-systems were introduced in the late 1980s by Prusinkiewicz and Lindenmayer as a technique for modeling plant growth. They have since found many applications, notably for creating trees in 3D applications. The “tree” Hertz is modeling in this series consists of subdivided rectangles. All of the compositions use a branching pattern based on the Fibonacci series, but they have been “pruned” in different ways, with different proportions and colors.

The Boids Life series uses Craig Reynolds’ flocking and steering behaviors, developed in the early 1990s. Reynolds’ simple principles of separation, alignment, and cohesion elicit complex interactions among his “boids.” Hertz’s implementation of the steering behaviors turns the boids into graphic brushes, tracing complex figures as they gather and scatter, follow or avoid one another, while veering in the wind and weaving around obstacles.

Works from the Sampling Patterns series are snapshots from interactive real time animations where geometric points are used to sample functions that control color, scale, shape, and other visual attributes. The Tree Jive and Boids Life series are similarly generated from software that allows Hertz to probe different generative strategies in real time.

All the prints in this show were produced by the artist with a 10-color digital printer on archival paper, at Ignotus Editions in Chicago.

Paul Hertz is an independent artist, digital printmaker, and curator. He currently teaches in the Art History and Art and Technology Studies departments at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. He received a BA in Fine Arts from Brown University in 1971 and an MFA in Time Arts in 1985 from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, where he was a Fellow of the Center for Art and Technology. Hertz lived in Spain from 1971 to 1983, where he collaborated with musicians and theatrical groups. From 1995 to 2009 he taught and worked at Northwestern University, where he was Co-Director of the Center for Art and Technology from 2003 to 2004. Hertz’s curatorial work includes the critically acclaimed exhibition Imaging by Numbers: A Historical View of the Computer Print, at the Block Museum, Northwestern University, 2008. Hertz has exhibited his digital prints and interactive installations at numerous international media festivals, conferences, and symposia.

W: http://paulhertz.net

Paul Hertz, Postcard, 2011

Blue Noise, Trees and Boids: Algorithmic images by Paul Hertz
Opening reception, Thursday May 3^rd, 5:00 – 8:00pm
Exhibition continues through June 1^st, 2012
Gallery hours Weds – Sat, noon to 5pm or by appointment

What It Is
23 East Madison
Chicago, IL, 60602
http://wot-it-is.com
info@wot-it-is.com
773 – 837 – 9809

What It Is, is pleased to present new work by Chicago-based artist Paul Hertz who has worked at the forefront of digital based art making since the mid 1980’s. This exhibition provides a glimpse into Hertz’s working practice with a series of new digital prints derived from Algorithms produced over the last twelve months.

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  Micah Ganske, "James Tiberius Kirk," 2011, ABS Plastic, Ed. of 5, 4x4x4 inches. Courtesy of the artist and RH Gallery

• 

  Marius Watz, "Form Studies - Makerbot," 2011, ABS plastic, dims var. Courtesy of the artist

• 

  Claudia Hart, "The Brides, 2010, variant edition of 3," ABS plastic and cast resin, 2 units each 2" h x 12" w. x 3.25" d

• 

  Bronwyn Holloway-Smith, "Cicada," 2012, ABS plastic, 7 x 3 x 1.5 inches

• 

  Scott Carter, renderings for "Canova," 2011, produced in ABS plastic.

• 

  Patrick Lichty, "Survivaball" - from original computer model used in: The Yes Men Fix the World.

   
• 

  Samuel Bernier, "Tin Can Dumbbell," 2012

• 

  Jihoon Yoo, "Rehearsal-#1-3," 2012, ABS plastic.

• 

  Sophie Kahn. "Laura RGB," 2012

EX NIHILO - Improbable Objects

Patrick Lichty
EX NIHILO:
A Digital Journal Made Manifest

Opening reception: Thursday March 29^th, 5:00 – 8:00pm
Exhibition dates: March 29^th – April 28^th, 2012

Gallery hours:
Weds: noon – 3.30pm
Thurs – Sat: noon – 5pm

What It Is
23 E. Madison,
Chicago, IL, 60602

• 

  Patrick Lichty, "Your Day/My Night: Discomprehension" Jacquard tapestry, 60 x 80 inches, 2012

   
• 

  Patrick Lichty, "Ceci Nes pas une Wikipedie" Jacquard tapestry, 60 x 80 inches, 2012

   
• 

  Patrick Lichty, "Orange Alert" Jacquard tapestry, 80 x 60 inches, 2012

   
• 

  Patrick Lichty, "Glitch 2" Jacquard tapestry, 60 x 80 inches, 2012

   
• 

  Patrick Lichty, "8 Bits or Less: Never Quit," Jacquard tapestry, 60 x 80 inches, 2012

• 

  Patrick Lichty, "One: Yellow," Jacquard tapestry, 80 x 60 inches, 2012

• 

  Patrick Lichty, "8 Bits or Less: Pray for Pills," Jacquard tapestry, 60 x 80 inches, 2012

• 

  Patrick Lichty, "Glitch 1," Jacquard tapestry, 60 x 80 inches, 2012

• 

  Patrick Lichty, "8 Bits or Less: Milo S. Fisher," Jacquard tapestry, 60 x 80 inches, 2012

Patrick Lichty
EX NIHILO:
A Digital Journal Made Manifest

What It Is, is pleased to announce “EX NIHILO: A Digital Journal Made Manifest” a solo exhibition of works by Chicago-based new media artist Patrick Lichty. Ex Nihilo, “out of nothing” in Latin, is an outgrowth from Patrick Lichty’s obsession of the porous boundaries between the physical and the virtual. This fascination stems from Lichty working almost entirely with digital media since 1989, and after working in the online virtual world, Second Life, for nearly 30-40 hours a week for the last three years. From this prolonged immersion Lichty felt an intense need for being in-person, and translating media works into physical manifestations such laser fabrication, commissioned Chinese oil paintings, 3D printing, and now Jacquard loom tapestry fabrication. The latter of these being derived from the first programmed machine looms of the 1750’s. Although Lichty wants to express his virtual/mediated experience in the physical, it is still entirely framed within technological culture, of which he has been accustomed to since an early age.

The images in this exhibition are considered as a journal or travelogue of significant moments and projects from the past ten years. These include images taken with a low resolution Casio Wristcam for his series 8 Bits or Less. Others used for the Jacquard tapestries were selected from various projects including My Day/Your Night, One, and Wikipedia Art and chosen as experiments in the translation from the virtual to the physical.

Patrick Lichty (b.1962) is a technologically-based conceptual artist, writer, independent curator, animator for the activist group, The Yes Men, and Executive Editor of Intelligent Agent Magazine. He began showing technological media art in 1989, and deals with works and writing that explore the social relations between people and media. Venues in which Lichty has been involved with solo and collaborative works include the Whitney & Turin Biennials, Maribor Triennial, Performa Performance Biennial, Ars Electronica, and the International Symposium on the Electronic Arts (ISEA).

He also works extensively with virtual worlds, including Second Life, and his work, both solo and with his performance art group, Second Front, has been featured in Flash Art, Eikon Milan, and ArtNews.

He is also an Assistant Professor of Interactive Arts & Media at Columbia College Chicago

http://www.voyd.com/

Ex Nihilo - Improbable Objects

Patrick Lichty
EX NIHILO:
A Digital Journal Made Manifest

Project Area: Improbable Objects
Selected 3-d printed artworks and other items.
Participants include: Samuel Bernier, Scott Carter, Theodore Darst, Mike Dorries, Micah Ganske, Claudia Hart, Taylor Hokanson, Bronwyn Holloway-Smith, Sophie Kahn, Patrick Lichty, Mike Moceri, Christian Oiticica, Dan Price, Rob Ray, Emily Schulert, Marius Watz, Jihoon Yoo

Opening reception: Thursday March 29^th, 5:00 – 8:00pm
Exhibition dates: March 29^th  – April 28^th, 2012

Gallery hours:
Weds: noon – 3.30pm
Thurs – Sat: noon – 5pm

What It Is
23 E. Madison,
Chicago, IL, 60602

ph. 773-837-9809
http://wot-it-is.com
info@wot-it-is.com

Patrick Lichty
EX NIHILO:
A Digital Journal Made Manifest

What It Is, is pleased to announce “EX NIHILO: A Digital Journal Made Manifest” a solo exhibition of works by Chicago-based new media artist Patrick Lichty. Ex Nihilo, “out of nothing” in Latin, is an outgrowth from Patrick Lichty’s obsession of the porous boundaries between the physical and the virtual.  This fascination stems from Lichty working almost entirely with digital media since 1989, and after working in the online virtual world, Second Life, for nearly 30-40 hours a week for the last three years. From this prolonged immersion Lichty felt an intense need for being in-person, and translating media works into physical manifestations such laser fabrication, commissioned Chinese oil paintings, 3D printing, and now Jacquard loom tapestry fabrication. The latter of these being derived from the first programmed machine looms of the 1750’s.  Although Lichty wants to express his virtual/mediated experience in the physical, it is still entirely framed within technological culture, of which he has been accustomed to since an early age.

The images in this exhibition are considered as a journal or travelogue of significant moments and projects from the past ten years.  These include images taken with a low resolution Casio Wristcam for his series 8 Bits or Less. Others used for the Jacquard tapestries were selected from various projects including My Day/Your Night, One, and Wikipedia Art and chosen as experiments in the translation from the virtual to the physical.

Patrick Lichty (b.1962) is a technologically-based conceptual artist, writer, independent curator, animator for the activist group, The Yes Men, and Executive Editor of Intelligent Agent Magazine. He began showing technological media art in 1989, and deals with works and writing that explore the social relations between people and media. Venues in which Lichty has been involved with solo and collaborative works include the Whitney & Turin Biennials, Maribor Triennial, Performa Performance Biennial, Ars Electronica, and the International Symposium on the Electronic Arts (ISEA).

He also works extensively with virtual worlds, including Second Life, and his work, both solo and with his performance art group, Second Front, has been featured in Flash Art, Eikon Milan, and ArtNews.

He is also an Assistant Professor of Interactive Arts & Media at Columbia College Chicago

http://www.voyd.com/

Micah Ganske

Improbable Objects
In our project area we will be exhibiting selected artworks and objects produced by artists and makers utilizing 3-d printing as their medium. Rapid Prototyping or 3d printing is a process whereby a three dimensional object is created from a digital file using a materials based printer and laid down similar to printing images on paper. 3d printing is about thirty years old but was restricted to heavy industry and prototyping communities. In the last six or seven years as the patents for the technologies expired a whole new class of open source printers such as the RepRap and Makerbot have opened this category of manufacturing up to artists, makers, designers and the public. The result of this democratization has been a massive explosion of creative activity and problem solving as the open source community seeks to perfect better printers, easier to use applications, affordable 3d scanners and ways to share 3d models such as websites like Thingiverse. “Improbable Objects” features a number of artists and makers who are currently working with 3d printing as their medium including objects from: Samuel Bernier, Scott Carter, Theodore Darst, Mike Dorries, Micah Ganske, Claudia Hart, Taylor Hokanson, Bronwyn Holloway Smith, Sophie Kahn, Patrick Lichty, Mike Moceri, Christian Oiticica, Dan Price, Rob Ray,   Emily Schulert, Marius Watz,  Jihoon Yoo

What It Is /  Improbable Objects seek examples of 3-d printed items to exhibit later this month at our gallery space in downtown Chicago. We are inviting Makers / Artists / Engineers + Futurists to share with us and the public objects that they have produced on a 3-d printer. We are setting aside a portion of the gallery as a “project space” to display these items. The 3-d printed section will be titled “Improbable Objects” and will coincide with a solo exhibition in the main gallery space with Chicago-based artist Patrick Lichty.

While What It Is, is an art gallery (of sorts) – we are not specifically seeking sculptures to display, per se.. all 3-d printed objects are welcome and sought after. Objects lent for the exhibition can be available for sale or not. We will endeavor to produce some kind of printed catalogue or web based archive of the works. If you are interested in participating or know someone who should be invited to take part please email me at tom@wot-it-is.com.

Info:
Title: Improbable Objects
Dates of exhibition March 22nd – April 21st.
Opening reception: Thurs March 22nd, 5pm – 8pm

Location:
What It Is
23 E. Madison,
Chicago
IL, 60603

http://wot-it-is.com

http://improbableobjects.com

Please email me at tom@wot-it-is.com to arrange for drop off of objects, if you are outside Chicagoland area and want to discuss shipping or printing options email me and we’ll try to work something out. During the opening we will have a number of 3-d printers in operation printing objects and sculptures for people to see the process first hand, if anyone wants to bring their own printer to make prints on the opening night – please let me know.

Thank you!

Is It What?

Hinge Gallery, Chicago, IL

March 3^rd – May 5^th,  2012
Opening reception Saturday March 3^rd 6pm – 9pm

Curated by What It Is

What It Is, is a project space and gallery based in Chicago, IL founded by artists Tom Burtonwood and Holly Holmes at their residence in Oak Park, IL. For two and a half years artists were invited to interact with their domestic space and encouraged to literally play with the fabric of the house. Resulting projects over this period of time include site-specific installations in the kitchen, bedrooms, living room, bathroom and backyard. “Is It What?” is a group exhibition featuring sixteen artists who have worked with What It Is over this period of time.

“Is It What?” includes the work of the following artists: Lise Haller Baggesen, Man Bartlett (Brooklyn), Bradley Bullock (Carterville), Jacob Crose, Theodore Darst, Jonathan Franklin, Troy Hagenbart (Brooklyn), Selena Jones, Sabina Ott, Rob Ray (Los Angeles), Andrew Rigsby, Sara Schnadt (Los Angeles), Stoic Swine (Seattle), Channel Two: Jessica Westbrook and Adam Trowbridge, Anthony R. Vizzari, Michelle Wasson.

What It Is, is moving!

*NEW LOCATION*
23 East Madison, Chicago, IL, 60602
Madison & Wabash
http://g.co/maps/cg692

Starting with our next show “Quad Core” opening on Thursday February 9th, 2012, we will be producing exhibitions and events from our new location in the Loop. We’re working with the Chicago Loop Alliance through the Pop Up Art Loop to host exhibitions at the new space through 2012. We have invited Book Club organized by Kimberly Kim to collaborate with What It Is at our new location. Book Club features artist books, zines and other multiples. Contextual texts, art books, critical writing and other works will be available. Kimberly Kim recently had a hippie revelation that everything is connected and influences each other while studying for her Quantum Mechanics exam. Kim makes artist books, photography and video installations. She was raised in South Korea, currently lives and studies in Chicago.

*NEW EXHIBITION*
“QUAD CORE”
Theodore Darst, Paul Hertz, Selena Jones and Sabina Ott

Opening reception Thursday, February 9th, 2012. 5 – 8pm
Exhibition continues through March 10th, 2012.
Gallery hours Weds – Saturday noon – 5pm

Our first exhibition at the new space will be “Quad Core” a group show featuring Theodore Darst, Paul Hertz, Selena Jones and Sabina Ott. It opens on Thursday February 9th and runs through March 10th, 2012. “Quad Core” exhibits four different artists whose core processes connect aesthetically and conceptually in interesting and surprising ways.

Theodore Darst’s art works are an attempt to fight nostalgia by giving it some notion of physicality. He uses video gaming platforms to make interactive environments that serve as snap shots to his formative years. These cyberspaces are a time machine to a lost mindset that he is trying to recover. Drawing from remembered experiences such as church, playing basketball, video games and robotripping Darst creates fictive spaces that are at once mysterious and engaging. By appropriating 3d models from the Internet as “ready-mades” he taps into a collective unconscious melding his memories with our own interpretations of what these virtual objects mean and refer to. Paul Hertz works in digital and traditional media, with particular interest in intermedia, algorithmic composition, and performance. For “Quad Core” Hertz will exhibit “Tree Jive” a series of thirteen digital images created by algorithms he has written and implemented. The resulting images are printed on Hahnemühle Rag Bright paper. For Hertz his process is part scientist creating an experiment – establishing parameters and letting it go; and part editor, sifting through the outcomes, and culling a body of work from the many permutations the algorithms create. For Selena Jones the process of construction is vital to the character of her creature-like forms and totems. Often choosing to create pieces with materials that physically challenge her both in terms of scale or method. Jones intentionally selects materials that are ubiquitous and readily available in order to create a feeling of familiarity with these strange forms. Sabina Ott challenges the viewer with objects that are at once all things and none. Her sculptures, paintings, mixed media works and video installations draw upon many reference points and perspectives. Are they plants or paintings? Landscapes or topographical surveys? Ott is a neo cubist – using the Internet to synthesize many different viewpoints and perspectives into a single cohesive body of work.

Theodore Darst, "Still from Farnham", interactive PC environment. 2011

Theodore Darst graduated from the School of the Art Institute (BFA 2011). Recent projects and exhibitions include “gli.tc/h-Birmingham” @ vivid, birmingham-uk, “notes on a new nature” @ 319 scholes, brooklyn-ny, “byob chi 2″ @ byobworldwide + museum of contemporary art, chicago-il. Darst is the curatorial assistant for Two Hundred and Fifty Six Colors a 16mm film that traces the arc of increased complexity and pointed use of the animated gif organized and produced by Eric Fleischauer and Jason Lazarus.

Paul Hertz, "Sparks", Archival Inkjet Print on Hahnemühle Rag Bright paper, 18 x 7 inches, 2011

Paul Hertz has exhibited his interactive installations, performances, and digital prints have been exhibited at many international media conferences and festivals. He currently teaches in the Department of Art History, Theory and Criticism at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. A master digital printmaker, Hertz has recently started his own print studio, Ignotus Editions. He currently resides in Chicago, his home for over 25 years.

Selena Jones, "Coyote and Two" installation view, 2011

Selena Jones is interested in the relationships humans can have with art objects, and how objects can provoke thoughts and new experiences. She incorporates animal forms to help evoke a sensation based on generalizations or mythologies associated with that form. Selena Jones graduated from the School of the Art Institute (MFA 2011) recent exhibitions includes MDW Fair (with What It Is), “Weddings/Proms/Corporate Events/Beauty Pageants/Bar Mitzvahs/Quinceaneras” at Zhou B Center, Chicago. She currently teaches at SAIC and Westwood College.

Sabina Ott, "beautiful beautiful beautiful beautiful" 2011 polystyrene, ink jet print on paper mounted on sintra, spray enamel, flashe, mirror and spider plant 49"H x 48" W x 14" D

Sabina Ott deploys a fundamental strategy of jettisoning logic by messing with scale, perspective and hierarchies of knowledge. She creates a fantastical landscape made from debased craft materials. The resulting pieces move between two, three and four dimensions, becoming plateaus and tables, cliffs and chairs, light, lamps and video projections. Exhibiting since 1985, Ott has participated in over 100 solo and group exhibitions. Her paintings and prints are in museum collections nation- wide while her installation work has been included in international exhibitions such as the first Auckland Triennial in Auckland New Zealand, the Australian Contemporary Arts Center in Melbourne, Australia as well as the Contemporary Arts Center in Cincinnati, Ohio, the Contemporary Art Museum in St. Louis, Missouri and the Cleveland Center for Contemporary Art, Cleveland Ohio. She has received a National Endowment for the Arts Individual Artists Grant and a Howard Foundation Grant from Brown University, Her work is in the collection of the Corcoran Museum of American Art, Washington DC; the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, California; the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, New York; The Saint Louis Art Museum, St. Louis, Missouri; the University Art Museum, University of California, Berkeley, California, and the Orange County Museum of Art, Newport, California among others. She is Professor of Art at Columbia College Chicago, Chicago, IL