CFA Media Mixer 2016: Meet this Year’s Artists

Our annual video remix benefit is BACK this year with yet another amazing lineup of artists working together to create new video works out of digitized items in our vault. Right now, three extraordinary filmmakers are loading up with massive amounts of footage culled from the deepest corners of our collections – including some rare, little-seen gems and a few staff favorites – which they’ll edit, re-interpret, transform, and kick over to three of Chicago’s most imaginative musicians to score. Then, come June 9, you’re all invited to the Hideout to celebrate the world premiere of their collaborations, along with raffle prizes, auctions, and more. It’s CFA’s Media Mixer 2016!

This year’s artists (filmmakers listed first, followed by musician(s)) include:

Melika Bass + Coppice
jonCates + Jeff Kolar
Andrew Mausert-Mooney + Bobby Conn

More on this year’s artists…

THE FILMMAKERS:

Melika Bass is a filmmaker and installation artist currently living in Chicago. Bass is the recipient of an Artadia Award, two Media Arts Fellowships from the Illinois Arts Council, the Kodak/Filmcraft Imaging Award from the Ann Arbor Film Festival, and an Experimental Film Prize from the Athens International Film Festival. In 2013, Bass was appointed the Pick-Laudati Artist in Residence at the Alice Kaplan Institute for the Humanities, at Northwestern University. Screenings and exhibitions include the Film Society of Lincoln Center, New York; Kino der Kunst, Munich; Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago (solo exhibition, February 2011); Torino Film Festival, Italy; Anthology Film Archives, New York; Ann Arbor Film Festival; Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit; BFI London Film Festival; Athens International Film Festival; Segal Center for the Performing Arts, Montreal; Hamburg International Film Festival, Germany; and the Split Festival of New Film, Croatia. Her work has been profiled and reviewed in Filmmaker Magazine, Time Out Chicago, Bad at Sports, Art Daily, Rolling Stone Italy, Chicago Tribune, Chicago Reader, Pitchfork, and the Chicago Sun-Times. http://tenderarchive.com/

jonCates works at the intersections of Noise and New Media. His projects are presented internationally in cities such as Aix-en-Provence, Austin, Berlin, Beijing, Boston, Cairo, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Linz, Los Angeles, Madrid, Mexico City, New York, Singapore, Vienna, Warsaw, Zagreb and widely available online via the Internet. His research and writings appear online in digital forms and physically in print publications from MIT Press, Gestalten, The Penn State University Press, Intellect and Unsorted Books. In 2005 he created the concept of Dirty New Media and is widely recognized as developing concepts, communities and discourses of the unstable arts now known as Glitch Art. http://systemsapproach.net

Andrew Mausert-Mooney is a Chicago-based artist working with 16mm film, video, performance and television. Andrew’s work has showed in festivals, galleries and exhibition series around the world including the American Film Institute, CineVegas, Chicago Underground, Gallery 400, Pleasure Dome and Other Cinema. He received his MFA from the University of Illinois-Chicago in the Spring of 2012. Currently Andrew is a co-director and station manager of ACRE TV, an artist-run livestream tele-vision network. https://vimeo.com/amm

THE MUSICIANS:

Coppice is nexus. Since its foundation in 2009, Coppice has departed from bellows and electronics to create compositions, installations, discography, instruments, arrangements for performance, software, and sculptural objects. Drawing from its expanding glossary of study, they’re currently focused on expansions and emulations of their sonic foundations (in bellows and electronics) using a newly designed musical infrastructure that departs from physical modeled instruments and modular synthesis. Coppice is currently transitioning onto a new world of finer sonic illusions of digitally-seeded air, binary clocks, and impossible musical objects. Recordings of Coppice music have been made available by the following artist-run labels: Agxivatein (GR), caduc. (CA), Category of manifestation: (US), Close/Far (US), Consumer Waste (UK), Hideous Replica (UK), Notice Recordings (US), Pilgrim Talk (US), Quakebasket (US), Rhizome•s (FR), Senufo Editions (IT), and Triple Bath (GR). http://www.futurevessel.com/coppice

Jeff Kolar is a sound artist, radio producer, and curator working in Chicago, USA. His work, described as “speaker-shredding” (Half Letter Press), “wonderfully strange” (John Corbett), and “characteristically curious” (Marc Weidenbaum), includes cross-platform collaboration, low-powered radio, and live performance. His work activates sound in unconventional, temporary, and ephemeral ways using appropriation and remix as a critical practice. His solo and collaborative projects, installations, and public performances often investigate the mundane sonic nuances of everyday electronic devices. Jeff is a free103point9 Transmission Artist and the Founder and Artistic Director of Radius, an experimental radio broadcast platform. His work has been comissioned by the Propeller Fund, a re-granting agency of the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts and free103point9, a re-granting agency of the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs and the New York State Arts Council. He has given lectures, performed, and exhibited widely across the United States, and at international venues and festivals. http://jeffkolar.us

Bobby Conn is an avant-garde, pop-rock musician and longtime staple of the Chicago scene. Since beginning his career in the late 1980s, Bobby has a developed a reputation for outlandish and exciting performances that emphasize the theatricality of musical art. Not content to work alone, he is also known for his extensive collaborations on stage and record that draw in musicians across all genres and stylings. (Another fun fact: Bobby played live at our second Media Mixer event in 2013, though this is the first time he’s created a piece for us!) https://facebook.com/thebobbyconn

More on Bobby Conn via AllMusic:

The once self-proclaimed antichrist Bobby Conn is in a league all his own when it comes to performing live as well as creating his tongue-in-cheek chameleon-like pop that genre-hops with a decadent flair. Conn got his start playing guitar in the Chicago prog rock trio Conducent in 1989; by 1994 the group called it quits and Conn went solo. Conn received attention quickly in the Windy City’s live circuit for his outlandish live shows that verged on performance art and theater. Whether dressed as a priest, wearing mud on his face, or just dishing out hugs and kisses to unsuspecting fans, Conn defiantly didn’t go unnoticed. His first lineup consisted of ex-Conducent member DJ Le Deuce on turntables, as well as Julie Pomerleau (aka Monica BouBou) on electric violin.

In 1995 and 1996 Conn released two EPs, then in 1997 he released his self-titled debut album on the Truck Stop label, but it was 1998’s Rise Up! LP that extended Conn’s musical palette and got music fans outside of Chicago to take notice. Then in 1999, Conn released the Llovessonngs EP (on Chicago independent label Thrill Jockey), which showcased the hilarious French disco tune “Virginia.” Into the millennium, Conn released The Golden Age and toured with the support of the Glass Gypsies, featuring Pomerleau/BouBou on organ as well as guitarist Sledd, keyboardist Pearly Sweets, bassist Nick Macri, and drummer Colby Starck. Released in 2004, Homeland cast a satirical gaze at America and the war in Iraq, while 2007’s King for a Day tackled fantasy, celebrity, and the media. Rise Up! was reissued just in time for Conn’s 2011 tour playing the album in its entirety. For his 2012 full length Macaroni, Conn formed backing band The Burglars from some of Chicago’s leading players. The Burglars included long time drummer Josh Johannpeter (also active in Lazer Crystal and Mahjongg) as well as keyboardist Jon Steinmeier and bassist Jim Cooper of The Detholz. 

Again, we hope to see you on Thursday, June 9 at the Hideout! Head on over to the event page for more information! http://www.chicagofilmarchives.org/current-events/5th-annual-cfa-media-mixer