The Machine Project Field Guide to L.A. Architecture
May 1st – August 15th, 2013
Los Angeles, CA
This summer, Machine has invited 30 artists to create 30 new projects that respond to 30 notable architectural sites around the city of Los Angeles. The events range in size and scope and include a tract home light show, a lecture on ninetheenth-century aquaria inside a $3 million Frank Gehry-designed aquarium, a cave concert, an experimental theater piece performed in the only Schindler spec home ever built, a movement piece for pregnant performers in a domed church, collaborative walking tours, a theatrical performance of The Odyssey set in a Honda Odyssey circling the freeways, and a Miracle Mile memorial Starline bus tour guided by the spirit of Whitney Houston.
Field Guide will culminate with a final screening of short films made in conjunction with each project.
Keep an eye on this page as events will be added as they are confirmed.
The Machine Project Field Guide to L.A. Architecture is part of Pacific Standard Time Presents: Modern Architecture in L.A. This collaboration, initiated by the Getty, brings together several local arts institutions for a wide-ranging look at the postwar built environment of the city as a whole, from its famous residential architecture to its vast freeway network, revealing the city’s development and ongoing impact in new ways. http://www.pacificstandardtimepresents.org/
Major support for The Machine Project Field Guide to L.A. Architecture has been provided by the Getty Foundation.
Projects
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Emily Mast & Hana van der Kolk – Six Twelve One By One
Saturday, March 16th 2013 // 6:30pm
at ‘The Onion’ UU Church // 9550 Haskell Ave, North Hills, CA 91343
Free
Emily Mast and Hana van der Kolk present Six Twelve One By One, a performance of six soon-to-be-first-time moms that examines the pregnant body through a series of task-like actions, movements, and dances. The performance is staged in the round at The Onion, a womb-like wooden dome that has been the home of the Sepulveda Unitarian Universalist Society since 1961.
Click Here for more information on this project.
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Anna Petrisko – Jeepneys’ Bowling With Aliens
Saturday, May 11th 2013 // 8-10pm
at All Star Lanes Bowling Center // 4459 Eagle Rock Blvd., Los Angeles CA 90041
Free
Jeepneys and alien friends host a celestial bowling party, followed by a parking lot performance of interstellar sounds and movements in The Popwagon, a mobile venue transformed into a vibrant tropical spaceship just for the occasion.
Click here for more information on this project.
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Carmina Escobar – Massagem Sonora
Sunday, May 12th 2013 // 4-6pm
at The Korean Bell of Friendship, Angel’s Gate Park // 3601 Gaffey St, San Pedro, CA 90731
Free
An experiment on intimacy, personal space and bodily resonance by Carmina Escobar. Massagem Sonora establishes a relationship of discovery between individuals, usually strangers, that allow themselves to be improvised onto their bodies via the voice to discover their own unique resonant geographies. Also makes for a great Mother’s day gift.
Click Here for more information on this project.
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Sara Roberts – Clump and Whistle
Sunday, May 19th 2013 // 1pm
at Glendale Civic Center Plaza // Broadway and Glendale Ave, Glendale, CA.
Civic Center parking on Wilson Ave.
Free
Clump and Whistle: an emergent performance for up to 100 participants based on principles extrapolated from Elias Canetti’s book Crowds and Power.
The public is invited to join with Machine Project and artist Sara Roberts for two participatory performances. Clump is an experiment in group/crowd behavior, based on a simple rule set but without fixed outcome or direction. In Whistle the crowd, equipped with multi-pitched whistles, configures to play compositions based on what the person next to you has just done, making propagating sound waves.
Click Here for more information on this project.
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Kamau Patton – The Sky Above
Sunday, May 26th 2013 // 6-7pm
at Machine Project
Free
Kamau Patton will engage with a series of buildings in L.A. via a chartered helicopter, while performing a sound work composed for the flight. Accompanied by a cameraman and sound engineer, the entire flight will be streamed live to Machine Project’s storefront space and the web.
Click Here for more information on this project.
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Anne Hars – Architectural Drafting for Hackers, Makers and Visionary Dilettantes
May 21, 22, 28, 29 and June 4, 5th 2013 // 7-10pm
A 3-week architectural drafting class taught by Anne Hars at Machine Project, with assignments ranging from the practical to the fantastical.
Click Here for more information about this project and to buy tickets.
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Ken Ehrlich – Walking Places: Four Walks in Los Angeles
Sundays, June 9 – June 30th 2013
Free
A series of playful, absurd, critical and activity-based Sunday-afternoon walks that will reveal Los Angeles as a space of ghosts, projections, limits and possibilities.
Click Here for more information on this project.
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Asher Hartman – Glass Bang
June 7, 8, 15th 2013
A site-specific, interactive play about a man’s mid-life crisis and his transformation into a god. Performed in a house designed by R.M. Schindler.
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David Eng – The Dawning of the Age of Aquariums
Saturday, June 8th 2013 // 2:30-5pm
at Cabrillo Marine Aquarium // 3720 Stephen M. White Drive, San Pedro, CA 90731
David Eng will lead the group on a guided tide pool visit, accompanied by a live string and wind ensemble. The event concludes in the Cabrillo Marine Aquarium’s auditorium with a brief lecture on the origin story of 19th-century aquaria, after which visitors are free to explore the rest of the Frank Ghery-designed aquarium.
Click Here for more information about this project.
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Cliff Hengst – It’s Not Right, But It’s OK
Saturday, June 29th 2013
Outside the Beverly Hilton 9876 Wilshire Blvd, Beverly Hills, CA 90210
Free
A Starline bus tour of The Miracle Mile guided by the soul of Whitney Houston.
Click Here for more information about this project.
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Johanna Kozma
”The Odyssey” performed inside a Honda Odyssey minivan circling the freeways of L.A.
Click Here for more information about this project.
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Torreya Cummings
A living tableau performed in an bank of elevators.
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Nate Page
A one night drive-by tract home light show.
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Paul Fraser
A new, participatory composition for 100 stylophone players and one public plaza.
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Jacqueline Gordon
Explorations of corporate spaces through pure tones and binural headphone recordings.
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Joshua Beckman
A letter-by-letter poem created from rubbings of plaques and signage at notable LA architectural landmarks.
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Liz Glynn
A ritualistic performance exploring the ruins of the pergola & fountain at Barnsdall Park.
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Joe Seely & Matt Au
A 9-foot Victor Gruen puppet delivers a lecture on Gruen’s failed utopian visions in the parking lot of a dead mall.
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Todd Lerew – Concert for Household Objects
A concert of household objects with pieces for fans, vacuum and drums, smoke detectors and a bowed milk carton, performed once in a house, then again in the woods. Participating artists include Todd Lerew, Liam Mooney, James Klopfleisch, and Marcus Rubio.
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Bennett Williamson
Two projects based on the legend of the Sunset Boulevard’s Happy Foot/Sad Foot Sign’s ability to predict your good or bad day. A street-side chorus conducted by the sign’s rotation, and website with a faithful 3-D rendering for remote fate prediction.
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Poster Series
A series of ten commissioned posters directly advertising notable architectural sites in Los Angeles.
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Cayetano Ferrer
A outdoor lecture at Barnsdall Art Park with accompanying visuals projection-mapped onto the Hollyhock House.
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- More Participating Artists:
- Fiona Conner, Dawn Kasper, ING, Jibade-Khalil Huffman, Cole Akers