Theory: The Simulationists The Simulationists Exhibition co-curated by Claudia Hart, Mark Jeffrey and Judd Morrisey Sullivan Galleries, School of the Art Institute of Chicago, September 2010 The Simulationists is an interdisciplinary exhibition exploring the performative expression of presence in our digitally mediated and networked culture. Through gallery performances, physical artifacts, and installed digital media, this interdisciplinary exhibition will examine the concept of embodiment and the question of what constitutes “liveness” in contemporary performance and digital arts practice. The exhibition, co-curated by Claudia Hart, Mark Jeffery and Judd Morrissey, all professors at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, will consist of selected contributions from students and alums of two of their SAIC studio courses, Live Presence, Technology, Virtual Spaces, and Digital Bodies. The student projects will be shown alongside work by contemporary artists whose interventions address the impact of digital technology, networks, computer code, avatars, and virtual environments on our understanding and expression of body-based performance and whose works were studied in the classes and therefore influenced student production. The purpose of The Simulationists is to draw attention to emerging practices in Digital Performance, a critically important contemporary field unrepresented both at SAIC and in Chicago, addressing the necessary mutation of theater, dance, and movement work into forms more appropriate to our contemporary experience. The exhibition also represents an urgent investigation by young artists who are increasingly seeking a vocabulary to express themselves in works that speak from the experience of being a “native” of digital, networked culture. Live Presence, Technology, Virtual Spaces, and Digital Bodies are both courses concerned with re-thinking historical live art and body-based practices within contemporary media but do so in very different ways. Students in Live Presence, co-taught by Mark Jeffery and Judd Morrissey, investigate the doubleness of physical and virtual presence in contemporary practice. In this course, students might perform with a projection of their recorded double or before a digital landscape. In the past, students have interpreted computer code as a dance score, performed as avatars in SecondLife or through a web cam from a remote location. In Digital Bodies, taught by Claudia Hart, students work with 3-d animation and choreographic techniques to create works that reference and transform avantgarde dance and movement histories. In combination, the courses have deep roots in live art practices and digital technologies and present a rich range of contemporary approaches to embodied expression. The courses also offer a compelling mix of output suited for a gallery, including live performance, projected and installed media, audio, and digital prints. Participating Artists Alan Sondheim, http://www.alansondheim.org with Foofwa D'immobilite, http://www.foofwa.com Cris Cheek, http://www.thingsnotworthkeeping.com/index.html Kurt Hentschlager, http://www.kurthentschlager.com Ursula Endlicher, http://www.ursenal.net Charles Atlas, http://www.eai.org/eai/artistBio.htm?id=281 http://www.vdb.org