Die Computer was a project with Eric Pellegrino that began in Jon Satrom's Realtime and Jon Cates' Critical Artware/Radical Software classes at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2009. The project used media archaeological practices and was heavily informed by the Chicago noise scene (including acts such as Magic Missile with Jon Satrom and Jason Soliday) and the artistic practices of Mark Beasley and Tamas Kemenczy in Arcanebolt.
The project sonified and visualized readymade found signals deriving from TRS-80 Microcomputer casette tape data disks and electromagnetic currents appropriated from computer hardware in realtime via pickup mics, all sent through systems of feedback loops manipulated to generate synchronized sonic and visual compositions.
Die Computer did a set for Southbridge Slow Electronics (Jon Cates and Jake Elliot's last.fm radioshow) and performed at Transistor Chicago, the Nightingale, NOTACON Critical Glitch Artware Category, and at the GLI.TC/H 2010 festival, where I premiered my VGA Audio/Video Synthesizer.
I am a Chicago-based artist, educator, museum worker, and archivist. My videos, open-source tools, and real-time audio/video performances undermine the interfaces and break through the algorithms of digital and analog systems, examining hidden power structures and liberating latent aesthetic materialities in cathartic and captivating compositions.
September 10, 2022, 8:30 pmCRT Flux Phaser/RGB.VGA.VOLT performance at The Latent Space for the "Control Signals" exhibition performance series, Chicago, IL
August 13, 2022, 8:30 pmCRT Flux Phaser/RGB.VGA.VOLT and Cracked Ray Tube performance at The Latent Space for the "Control Signals" exhibition performance series, Chicago, IL
August 6, 2022, 7:00 pm opening for "Control Signals" solo exhibition at The Latent Space, Chicago, IL
August 6 - September 10, 2022 "Control Signals" solo exhibition at The Latent Space, Chicago, IL
October 13, 2020Phasing the electromagnetic flux of another shit moment, February 4, 2020 screened at BIDEODROMO International Experimental Film and Video Festival, Bilbao, Spain
August 15 - September 26, 2020 installation at "New Media 10101" at the Peninsula School of Art
April 2017Universal Codec Error Aborting Video and Ball Skills/Waveforms/White Bro Riots screened at "VIGOROUS—a series of shorts" at Mini Microcinema, Cincinnati, OH.
1.23.2014-3.7.2014: Cracked Ray Tube performance for Discarded: The Afterlife of Everyday Electronics at Columbia College's Arcade Gallery, Chicago, IL.
11.23.2013: VGA Audio/Video Synthesizer performance for DINCA VISION QUEST at Mana Contemporary, Chicago, IL
9.30.2013: Jon Cates and James Connolly at Elastic Arts, Chicago, IL.
6.21.2013: VGA Audio/Video Synthesizer performance for mACREs & brACREs at Landscape, Chicago, IL.
5.30.2013: Articular Facet collaborative performance at the Empty Bottle, Chicago, IL.
4.30.2013: VGA Audio/Video Synthesizer performance with Dither Doom at the Empty Bottle, Chicago.
4.28.2013: VGA Audio/Video Synthesizer performance for Expanded Cinematic at Tritriangle, Chicago, IL
2.15.2013: Universal Codec Error Aborting Video screened for the Floating World Animation Festival at the Synchronicity Space, Los Angeles, CA.
1.12.2013: Collaborative John Cage-influenced performance with Julia Miller and Enid Smith at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, IL.
12.8.2012: Cracked Ray Tube performance at the GLI.TC/H DeFunct/ReFunct thread, Chicago, IL.
12.7.2012: VGA Audio/Video Synthesizer performance at GLI.TC/H Open Robin at Tritriangle, Chicago, IL
12.5.2012: VGA Audio/Video Synthesizer performance of John Cage's Variations VI, organized by Julia Miller at the Leroy Neiman Center of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
10.19.2012: Cracked Ray Tube performance at the Vancouver New Music Festival, Vancouver, British Columbia.
9.14.2012: Essay on Spectralina published, the catalog for the exhibition Afterimage at the DePaul Art Museum, Chicago, IL.
10.14.2012: Cracked Ray Tube performance at Bernadette's, Austin, TX.
4.14.2012: Cracked Ray Tube performance of Jon Cage's Variations V score organized by Julia Miller at Room 300, Chicago, IL.
3.6.2012: VGA Audio/Video Synthesizer performance at the Burlington bar, Chicago, IL.
2.19.2012: Cracked Ray Tube performance at the Pilot Light, Knoxville, TN.
2.16.2012: Cracked Ray Tube wins 2nd place at the Guthman Musical Instrument Competition at Georgia Tech, Atlanta, GA.
2.16.2012: Cracked Ray Tube performance at the Guthman Musical Instrument Competition at Georgia Tech, Atlanta, GA.
