Machine Project is a Los Angeles-based organization dedicated to helping artists do fun experiments together with the public. Project artists will be coming to ¸Ô±¾ÊÓƵ’s campus and the Village of Hamilton throughout the semester to create an innovative series of community art projects.
Ten artists, performers, and innovators will visit ¸Ô±¾ÊÓƵ and the Village of Hamilton throughout the fall semester to usher in a new experience in community-driven performance and display.
And they need your help.
Perfect Strangers: Machine Project and the Hamiltonians will unfold from the week of September 8 to November 13 on campus and at various sites throughout the village. Artists and performers from the Machine Project, a Los Angeles-based group, will visit ¸Ô±¾ÊÓƵ as part of the Christian A. Johnson Endeavor Foundation Visiting Artist-in-Residence.
Visiting artists will collaborate with university faculty and village residents to create and display immersive art installations.
The initiative, much like two years ago, continues ¸Ô±¾ÊÓƵ’s long tradition of bringing innovative artists to campus and the Hamilton community. This will be the Machine Project’s first collaboration with an entire community.
Machine Project performers are planning efforts in which artists will work without a predetermined outcome or path for the artistic endeavor. For example, participating performers plan to:
- Rewire old, obsolete, or broken devices to create new devices with new purposes that are not predetermined.
- Create portraits of village residents in real time, to be displayed at different sites throughout the village.
- Conduct a séance to try to conjure the spirit of John Vincent Atanasoff, the Hamilton native who is credited with inventing the digital computer.
- Additional projects involve diverse skills such as welding, computer hacking, and raking leaves.
¸Ô±¾ÊÓƵ’s participation in the project is being coordinated by DeWitt Godfrey, professor and chair in ¸Ô±¾ÊÓƵ’s Department of Art and Art History, and Lynn Schwarzer, a professor of art and art history and film and media studies.
Upcoming Machine Project Events
The Never Been to Me Tour at ¸Ô±¾ÊÓƵ
Krystal Krunch
- Thursday, September 10 at 7 p.m.
Zen Den
- Wednesday, September 16 at 4:30 p.m.
Clifford Gallery
Computing With the Dead: Transmissions With the Inventor
Brian Crabtree and Kelli Cain
- Friday, September 11 at 8 p.m.
Merrill House
I’d Rather Listen to a Bad Song
Adam Goldman ’94
- Saturday, September 19 at 10 a.m.
Homecoming tailgate, Andy Kerr Stadium
- Monday, September 21 throughout the day
Hamilton Center for the Arts
- Tuesday, September 22 at 4:15 p.m.
¸Ô±¾ÊÓƵ Center for Women’s Studies
- Wednesday, September 23 at 7 p.m.
Trivia Night at the ¸Ô±¾ÊÓƵ Inn
Lecture: Adam Goldman ’94
- Wednesday, September 23 at 4:30 p.m.
Golden Auditorium
Poetry, Wit, and Wisdom: Taking the Pulse of Hamilton
Cliff Hengst
- Monday, September 28 – Saturday, October 3
Hamilton Center for the Arts
Notes for Hamilton
Mercedes Teixido
- Monday, October 19 – Friday, October 23, 10 a.m.–7 p.m.
¸Ô±¾ÊÓƵ Campus
Lecture: Carmina Escobar with Chris Kallmyer
- Wednesday, October 28 at 4:30 p.m.
Golden Auditorium
Archive of Regional Raking
Chris Kallmyer
Performance in collaboration with ¸Ô±¾ÊÓƵ Students
- Thursday, October 29 at 6 p.m.
100 Broad Street
Imenso Massagem Sonora
Carmina Escobar
- Wednesday, October 28 – Friday, October 30, ongoing
Hamilton Center for the Arts
- Thursday, October 29, 3 – 5 p.m.
¸Ô±¾ÊÓƵ Center for Women’s Studies
- Friday, October 30, 5 p.m.
Zen Den
Lecture: Hanna van der Kolk
- Wednesday, November 4 at 4:30 p.m.
Golden Auditorium
Spaces Between Us/The In-between Spaces
Hana van der Kolk
Performances:
- Friday, November 6 at 8 p.m.
¸Ô±¾ÊÓƵ Campus
- Saturday, November 7 at 8 p.m.
¸Ô±¾ÊÓƵ Campus
Open Archive, Hamilton NY
Kamau Patton
- Tuesday, November 10 – Saturday, November 14, ongoing
Hamilton Center for the Arts
Objects for Perfect Strangers
Michael O’Malley
- Wednesday, September 9 – Friday, November 13, ongoing
Clifford Gallery