Current and Upcoming Projects
Being Machine Project projects.
Hammer Museum Residency
Machine Project has been invited to produce a year of programming which proposes new, alternative, and experimental ways of presenting work at the Hammer museum. We are looking at using non-traditional spaces like hallways, lobbies, elevators, and stairwells. We are also investigating different ideas of audiences from intimate, focused performances for one or two audience members, to dispersed, ambient spacial pieces without formal audiences at all. More information about Machine Project at the Hammer here.
Glow 2010
Machine Project is returning to the Glow Festival at Santa Monica Pier this year for more melodic adventures. Possibilities include serenading stragglers at the festival’s edge with pirate lullabies and sea shanties, turning the carousel into a giant music box with live musicians, and a marching band with a shifting cast of musicians, trackable by a GPS unit embedded in the uniform of the band leader. Check out more information about Machine’s projects at Glow 2010.
Storefront Engineering Activities
Over the years we’ve built some unique features into our store front. These include a pneumatic cash machine, a tree stump watering hole, a vertical garden of succulents blooming from our storefront facade, and elevator bookshelves installed in the gallery floor. More information about our storefront engineering activities here.
Machine Transformations
More often than not, during the daytime Machine Project looks half-empty, and not yet cleaned up: more like a workshop than your typical gallery. Almost every day we do something different in the space. Occasionally the transformation lasts a little longer. More information about our grander transformations here.
Machine Project Benefits
Machine Project hosts scores of free public events every year. This is made possible in part by our annual Benefit, which packs months worth of Machine events into a single spectacular and intimate evening. Past activities have included gold panning, fake museum ID card making, and action movie style art theft from a laser-protected perimeter. Discounted tickets available to members – not a member? You can become one here. More information about Machine Project Benefits, past and future, here.
PAST PROJECTS
Front Room: Contemporary Museum of Art St Louis
Machine Project was invited to be in residence for three weeks at the Contemporary Art Museum St Louis. Projects included a three week residency by Emily Lacy, a silkscreen pattern wall paper designed by Paul Morgan, Kimchi and Sauerkraut workshops, and a special musical trip to the dentist. More information about Machine Project at the Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis here.
The Machine Project Field Guide to LACMA
Machine Project was invited to take over the Los Angeles County Museum of Art for a day to explore other ways of occupying the space and interacting with the art. We orchestrated over 60 performances and activities that responded to LACMA’s collection and institutional structure. These escapades are chronicled in Machine Project: A Field Guide to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, available for purchase or free download. More information about Machine Project at LACMA here.
Glow 2008
Machine Project participated in the dawn-to-dusk arts festival at the Santa Monica Pier. We marked the passage of day into night into day with live orchestra compositions on the Ferris Wheel, sent three poets out on a boat to read to festival-goers via telephone, had a live musical video projection from inside a greenhouse on the beach, and lulled the public with sea shanties and pirate songs at the south end of the pier. More information about Machine Project at Glow 2008 here.
Pomona College Museum of Art
For our first museum collaboration, Machine Project assembled four installations exploring Cultural History and the Natural Sciences at the Pomona College Museum of Art. These included a floral volcano with hot chocolate lava, a roomful of eggs being tapped by robotic metal arms, a sculpture that explored the history of mapping as it morphed from raft to cartouche to printing press, and a technology tumbler that transformed discarded electronics into something like sea glass. More information about Machine Project at the Pomona College Museum of Art here.
