Illinois Institute of Technology Announces Summer 2006 art @ IIT Series
Just a quick jog from downtown Chicago, Illinois Institute of Technology is offering visitors access to a series of rare exhibits including never-before-seen images from the first electronic art, ceramic forms suspended on the brink of collapse, iconic Marimekko fabrics, and before and after images of the restoration of one of Prague’s most notable pre-war villas. The Summer 2006 art @ IIT exhibit series includes works by Carlos Farrater, Ben Laposky, Tom Lauerman, and Adolf Loos. A new walking tour of the campus’ unrivaled “collection” of Mies van de Rohe architecture is also available to complete a day’s visit.
“Technology and art have always been siblings,” notes Robert Krawczyk, professor of architecture and director of art @ IIT. “Technology has enabled and inspired artistic expression from the very first pigments and sculpture tools to today’s computer graphics. Innovation is art. We celebrate that intimate relationship here.”
About the Exhibits
Carlos Ferrater
“Synchronizing Geometry,” shows the investigation and experimental work of the architecture office of Barcelona-based Carlos Ferrater Partnership since 1989. Several geometrical mechanisms, such as nets, ribbons, meshes, or folds, are applied in projects of different scales, structuring the first sketches and adapting to the specific programs and construction processes.
Ben Laposky
In a recreation of his 1953 exhibit, look through the lense of a World War II veteran draftsman who captured electric wave forms produced by a cathode-ray oscilliscope in his spare time. Predecessors to the era of digital art, his ethereal images were featured in articles and advertisements in national magazines and mesmerized museum goers nationwide. Illinois Institute of Technology’s Krawczyk has printed never-before-seen photos from the collection.
Tom Lauerman
Inspired by the phenomenon of clouds, mass suspended in air, Chicago artist Tom Lauerman searched for lightness and buoyancy in ceramic material in “Captured Dissipations.” He created forms to the edge of collapse and then arrested their disintegration into cloud form.
Adolf Loos
Include a jaunt to Prague in your summer without ever leaving Chicago. Step inside the restoration of the Miller Villa (Prague,1928-30), considered the chef-d’oeuvre of the international architectural avant-garde, an embodiment of the surprising harmony between modern Functionalism and the classic English style. The panels highlight materials, architectural details, and furnishings. Dozens of panels, along with models and materials, show the pre- and post-restoration conditions of the Villa.
Marimekko
For those who enjoy the exuberant colors, bold patterns, and accessible cuts of clothing of the post-war 1950’s era, visitors can virtually bathe in them as S.R. Crown Hall is literally draped in more than 150 examples of fabrics, fashions, accessories, and architecture representing the creation and rise of the Finnish Marimekko brand and philosophy.
Mies van de Rohe
The new architectural tours showcase several of the Mies buildings on campus, including S. R. Crown Hall and several of Mies’ famed designed details, such as floating staircases and exposed exterior corners. The tours also explore IIT’s newest award-winning architectural treasures: the Rem Koolhaas-designed student center and the new student residence hall by Helmut Jahn.
About art @ IIT
In the Spring of 2004, IIT President Lew Collens expressed an interest in a unique Entrepreneurial Project (EnPRO) 359: A Gallery for Exhibiting the Art of Technology and during the following summer agreed to sponsor the establishment of an art gallery on the IIT Main Campus. The EnPRO project, an interdisciplinary course, was charged with creating a business plan and proposing the concept for art @ IIT.
IIT has had a continued interest in art over its long history. Exhibits have been periodically conducted in a number of places on campus and acquisition of artwork for the campus has progressed for years. But not until student Mindy Sherman approached Jay Fisher, Entrepreneurial Studies, and Tom Jacobius, Interprofessional Studies, was the concept of using an EnPRO to develop a comprehensive plan for art @ IIT suggested. The Spring EnPRO recruited Robert J. Krawczyk, College of Architecture, to be its advisor and Jennifer Pierce as its leader.
Founded in 1890, IIT is a Ph.D.-granting technological university awarding degrees in the sciences, mathematics and engineering, as well as architecture, psychology, design, business and law. IIT’s interprofessional, technology-focused curriculum prepares the university’s 6,200 students for leadership roles in an increasingly complex and culturally diverse global workplace.
