This symposium will expand the defining attributes of Fluxus film by addressing the problematic role of documentation within Fluxus practices, the documentation of performances as material film objects and the performativity of media, and the politics of presence in Fluxus film and performance. Includes screening of film and video works by Wolf Vostell, Eric Andersen, Nam June Paik, Ludwig Schönherr, Paul Sharits, and Carolee Schneemann, among others.
Presented by the Department of Art History, Department of Cinema and Media Studies, and the Film Studies Center. Additional funding and program support has been generously provided by the Goethe-Institut, and the University’s Humanities Division, Franke Institute for the Humanities, Neubauer Collegium for Culture and Society, and the Counter Cinema/Counter Media Project at the Center for the Study of Gender and Sexuality.
Schedule:
Day One: Friday, May 5th, 2017
Logan Center Penthouse, room 901
4:00-4:10 PM
Welcome: Christine Mehring, University of Chicago
4:10-4:30 PM
Fluxus | Film: An Introduction
Lisa Zaher, University of Chicago
Panel 1: FluxFilm – Grounded
4:30-5:00 PM
Fluxus Films? A Crypto-cine-logical Study
Jonathan Walley, Denison University
5:00-5:30 PM
Fluid Time in Fluxus Films
Hannah B Higgins, University of Illinois at Chicago
5:30-5:55 PM
Discussion
Respondent: Bruce Jenkins, School of the Art Institute of Chicago
6:00-7:00 PM
Reception
Gray Center Lab, University of Chicago
929 East 60th Street, Chicago, Illinois 60637
7:00-9:00 PM
Screening
Logan Center room 201
- George Maciunas, Artype, 1966
- Yoko Ono, Four, 1967
- Paul Sharits, Word Movie, 1966
- Paul Sharits, Sears Catalog 1-3, 1965
- Paul Sharits, Wrist Trick, 1965
- George Brecht, Entrance to Exit, 1965
- Mieko (Chieko) Shiomi, Disappearing Music for Face, 1966
- Yoko Ono, Eye Blink, 1966
- Eric Andersen, Opus 74 ver. 2, 1966
- George Maciunas, 10 Feet, 1966
- Robert Watts, Trace, 1965
- Albert Fine, Readymade, 1966
- John Cale, Police Car, 1966
- Joe Jones, Smoking, 1966
(intermission)
- Carolee Schneemann, Meat Joy, 1964-2010 (10:35 min)
- Jerry Aronson and Howard Sturges, Options, 1969, (7 min)
- Ludwig Schönherr, Zoom Dokumentation, 1967-69 (18:00 min)
- Eric Andersen, The Sunlawn, 1982/2013 (7:00 min)
- Eric Andersen, Marianne, 1986/2013 (4:00 min)
- Wolf Vostell, Sun In Your Head, 1963 (5:26 min)
- Wolf Vostell, Starfighter, 1967 (4:30 min)
- Wolf Vostell, 20 Juli, 1967 (7:00 min)
Day Two: Saturday, May 6th, 2017
Logan Center, room 201
9:00 AM
Welcome: Lisa Zaher, University of Chicago
Panel 1: Mediation and Documentation
9:05-9:35 AM
Material Memory, Captured Experience: David H. Katzive’s Documentation of the MCA, 1968-70
Michelle Puetz, Chicago Film Archives
9:35-10:05 AM
Meat Joy, Mediated
Elise Archias, University of Illinois at Chicago
10:05-10:15 AM
BREAK
10:15-10:45 AM
Stupid Structures, Happy Structures: Documenting Ludwig Schönherr
Marc Siegel, Goethe University
10:45-11:15 AM
TV Buddhas: Video, Vietnam, and the Ultimate Protest
Soyoung Yoon, The New School
11:15-11:45 AM
Discussion
Respondent: Mechtild Widrich, School of the Art Institute of Chicago
11:45 AM-12:45 PM
LUNCH BREAK
Panel 2: Performing Scores
12:45-1:15 PM
Flux Pour: Non-Language in the works of Paul Sharits
Melissa Ragona, Carnegie Mellon University
1:15-1:45 PM
Precious Error: Nam June Paik’s Computational Imaginary
Zabet Patterson, Stony Brook University
1:45-2:15 PM
Nam June Paik: Computer Filmmaker
Gregory Zinman, Georgia Tech
2:15-2:40 PM
Discussion
Respondent: Seth Brodsky, University of Chicago
2:40-3:00 PM
Refreshment Break
Panel 3: Intermedia and Abstraction
3:00-3:30 PM
Mechanical Labyrinths Ring Us: Carolee Schneemann’s Studies for Testing Energy
Kenneth White, Sarah Lawrence College
3:30-4:00 PM
Draw a Straight Line: Fluxus, Film and Infrastructural Sensibilities
Ina Blom, University of Oslo
4:00-4:25 PM
Discussion
Respondent: Jennifer Wild, University of Chicago
4:30-5:30 PM
Keynote
Eric Andersen (Artist) in Conversation with Simon Anderson (School of the Art Institute of Chicago) and Lisa Zaher (University of Chicago)
5:30-6:00 PM
Concluding Discussion
About Concrete Happenings
This film symposium is part of Concrete Happenings, a year-long series of events, happenings, and performances presented by UChicago Arts. Concrete Happenings invites art-lovers and car-lovers, artists and scholars, drivers and pedestrians to confront the power of public art—the strange power of a massive sculpture produced by Fluxus artist Wolf Vostell in 1970. The product of that “happening,” a 1957 Cadillac covered in concrete, Concrete Traffic, was installed in the University of Chicago Campus North Parking Garage in September 2016.
