This spring, Chicago Industrial Arts & Design Center is offering new instruction in our Integrated Technology & Design Department for the final five-week run of spring term: Intro to SketchUp for the Object Maker and Intro to Electronics and Microcontrollers For The Built Object. The latter course will be led by Alejandro Acierto, a local artist, musician and educator. This month, Alejandro has a solo exhibit in Rogers Park utilizing some of the techniques he will be teaching at CIADC.
In the small storefront exhibit space at 1224 West Loyola Avenue, Alejandro as created an installation with a responsive, inflatable sculpture. The work Corporeal displacement (Roman Susan) is composed of an Arduino, custom software, a CO2 sensor, a silo breather bag, and an air pump. The sensor reads the oxygen level of the room, and based on the amount of CO2 present in the environment, the sculpture receives varying inputs of new air to animate the body of the work. When the CO2 levels are low, the work is expansive and large, like the image below.
The exhibit includes two other works by Alejandro, all with a focus on breath – the exhibit Breathing Room is on exhibit through April 27 at Roman Susan Art Foundation – a little less than a mile northeast of CIADC.
Check out this active application of tech in our neighborhood, and consider joining Alejandro to learn more about these techniques on Wednesday nights beginning May 3rd.
