DORKBOT CHICAGO
Dorkbot Chicago will soon be riding high at a new location! As soon as the details get worked out I'll be posting the new info!
See some of the past Dorkbot Chicago events held at DEADTECH!
"DEADTECH: A Next-Door Neighbor's Perspective, But From the Top." at SEED:BIN
Howdy all!
Deadtech is quite pleased to have been chosen to participate in the SEED collective's BIN exhibition opening Jan 9th in Chattanooga, TN!
Here's the line-up of everybody in the exhibition:
Basekamp (Philadelphia), BLW, Common Places Project (Tampa), DeadTech (Chicago), Fugitive Projects (Nashville), Graffiti Research Lab (New York), Guerrilla Girls, InCUBATE-Chicago (Chicago), Mess Hall (Chicago), Paintallica (Washington), RTmark, TEAM LUMP (Raleigh), 6+ , and The Yes Men.
Heck Yeah! What a great lineup. We're quite pleased to be in a show with a pile of organizations that have inspired us for a long time.
The SEED folks sent each participating arts collective a box with their name on it. I got the DEADTECH box in Chicago, but I needed to complete the box in Troy, so I decided to use a box I had in Troy instead of checking an empty cardboard box on United for $35 bucks. The War on Luggage and all...
I just finished the DEADTECH box today! Here's roughly what the box looks like.
I made a little diorama out of the box that gives you a rough idea of what the DEADTECH space is like. The diorama is titled
DEADTECH: A Next-Door Neighbor's Perspective, But From the Top.
White Walls
You can see the white paper lining the box does not line the box perfectly and has a few scuffs on it. By the time this box gets to Chattanooga, TN - where it will be exhibited - it will be even more banged up. If you've ever been to DEADTECH you can see this beat-up little box is a fitting translation of what the real DEADTECH space looks like. DEADTECH is indeed a white box gallery, but it is not a pristine white box gallery. The walls have been patched hundreds, if not thousands, of times. There is a nickel stuck on the floor that has been painted over for at least 10 years. Screws aren't just poking out of the walls, they are also smashed into the ground and dangle from the ceiling.
In the bottom of the box will be little bits of what is commonly found on the DEADTECH floor and things you're likely to step on while visiting DEADTECH. Drywall anchors, a mercury switch, audio adapters, a steel plate, and some bolts.
The DEADTECH Soundsystem
What you can sort of see in the photo below is a set of computer speakers and sub-woofer that will be placed in the box (they won't be in their green packaging seen below.). These speakers will be playing audio from the first Seemen show we did back in 1999 and are meant to be a model of where our sound system was placed inside DEADTECH.
You might be thinking, "Wow! Those speakers are really big for that little diorama!" And you would be right! The speakers in the diorama are much too big in scale. We actually use very little Mackie speakers for installations and performances.
I decided it would be appropriate to honor my neighbors' unwitting but consistent curatorial role in this show about art collectives.
We received so many god-damned complaints from these neighbors we stopped doing performances and just stuck to doing installations for a few years. One time in the middle of a performance my neighbor stomped over, banged on the door and screamed "My baby's ears are bleeding!!!" thus putting an end to the show. I would like to think her statement was true... I'm sure it wasn't.
It seems necessary, then, to make the speakers appropriate to the amount of havoc they cause and also the size our neighbors envision them to be when crazy sounds emanate from the wall they share with us.
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I just shipped the DEADTECH box to the fine folks at SEED today. Whew! I was freaking out trying to get to FEDEX in the snow. I made it at
4:50PM (they close at 5PM.) Woo Hoo!
A very good day.
Thanks to Jessica and the fine folks at SEED! If you're in or near Chattanooga, get over to the AVA Center to check out the show!
- Rob
oh, also. For those who can't make it to the show, here is the text that appears on each side of the box and on the speakers.
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THE NORTH WALL
The NORTH WALL features a door to the DEADTECH shop. The DEADTECH shop is one of the space’s strongest assets. Here artists can work on their art, prep for their show, and privately weep when things stop working 1 hour before the opening. While you can’t see the shop in this diorama, envision a place where Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids would play, after getting their MFAs.
This is also the door to Rob’s Bedroom. For many artists it is difficult to differentiate between the shop and Rob’s Bedroom. A bed and a lot of records are the strongest visual clues.
THE DEADTECH SOUNDSYSTEM (NOT TO SCALE*)
The DEADTECH SOUNDSYSTEM has seen a lot of use over the years. In real life it is a pair of Mackie SRM450’s and a Mackie 1202 mixer.
*If you live at 3319 W. Fullerton (next door to DEADTECH) you probably do think the size of this system as compared to the room is to scale, if perhaps, a bit small.
THE EAST WALL
The EAST WALL features the entry/exit door. This is where patrons, installing artists, and performers enter the space. DEADTECH frequently becomes too loud and/or too hot. This is where relief can be found. Also, this door is of special significance to smokers and those looking to make a beer run.
The EAST WALL also features DEADTECH’s only true window to the outside. Beneath this window are the desk and refrigerator where refreshments are usually found. Many beers have been perched on the sill of this window and fallen to their demise.
THE WEST WALL
The WEST WALL is a point of conflict for DEADTECH. Our neighbors live on the other side of this wall.
These neighbors are often described as follows:
“Yeah, my neighbors... they suck now. They used to be really cool, and would come by. They do a lot of video editing, for like MTV and stuff. So you know… like… They sort of get what’s happening here. But they had two kids. And now they fucking call the cops even though I have more than once given them my number and said ‘Just call if we get too loud.' I have even brought them two nice bottles of wine and I shovel their sidewalk every time it snows.”
The WEST WALL also features DEADTECH’s most notorious window to the outside. Willy the Cat, the Chief Maintenance Engineer of DEADTECH, jumped out of this window one Monday morning around 2AM. This window opens only to a completely sealed alley. As DEADTECH is on the second floor, Willy the Cat took quite a fall and was irretrievable for a while. See “Email from Rob to Chris (Rob's Boss) Regarding Why He Won't Be At Work Today.”
THE SOUTH WALL
The SOUTH WALL features the door to the bathroom and kitchen. You can imagine this door is quite handy.