The Exponential vs. Emergence
In March of 2009, The Exponential performed an improvisational set as part of a collaboration with sculptor Eric W. Stephenson during his open studio and metal pour at Central Park Arts in Chicago. The set was performed on and around Eric’s piece entitled Emergence #17. We set up all of our equipment on and around it, and attached PZM microphones to it, converting the metal giant into a giant resonator and drum. Professional videographer Mike Dunne was brought in to document the event. This is a video composite pulled together from over 90 minutes of footage.
Performed by The Exponential. Filmed by Mike Dunne.
Reacting to one’s surroundings is no longer merely a method for one’s own personal expression. It’s now simultaneously a nervous addiction, and a vital therapeutic act both beckoned and facilitated by the exponential growth of networked social communication tools, and the further encroachment of special interests into all realms of society that were once thought to be personal. One is forced to react, in an attempt to stay humane and sane, in a post industrial whiplash culture where even the most intimate communications are routinely transmitted across vast networks via screens and keys of varying sizes—brought to you by your benevolent sponsor. This reaction is often involuntary and destructive—The Exponential makes its reaction intentional and productive. We’re responding to the loss of control over our absorption of this environment littered with the sounds, smells, and waste of a hyper-stressed population; where glass and steel monuments to monetary deities rise high above the compromised dreams of it’s inhabitants; where ghettos are fed with synthesized fast foods and hyper-capitalist pop music expounds executive values of thug success. Our visceral response to this storm of clutter, however, can be designed, and it is humane and authentic. We indulge in our reaction, harnessing its revolt and exposing its complexity and timber, allowing our observer to step into this new space: a creative ethos of imaginative possibility. To do this we reach backwards, clutching onto ancient acoustic instruments—some almost entirely forgotten—and project them forward through the means of modern technology. We build a primal, human response to over-stimulation, and push it up through the cracks in this cluttered outer shell of our contemporary existence.
The Tube Series is a monthly video installation, curated by CAD and supported by the Chicago Arts District. Each month beginning on the second Friday to coincide with the Pilsen Artwalk, CAD brings a new time-based artist to install their work in the storefront window located at 1833 South Halsted. With this series, CAD aims to promote new and emerging artists while raising awareness for Chicago video art.
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