Exhibition
Design

Potential Energy

Chicago is home to a rich and growing ecology of puppetry, bridging mediums and communities of makers. This sampling of puppets by local artists challenges expectations about puppetry and inspires the public to tell their own stories. Puppets are made to tell stories. By taking puppets off stage, we can focus on how artists design specific stories into each object. How do artists invent new ways to mechanize materials in motion, build cohesive worlds, and create characters that expand our ability to understand and empathize with ourselves and others?

This is an exhibition of potentialities. How can the possibility for a particular story be built into a puppet? What are new and unexpected ways to use familiar materials? What stories could you imagine telling with these puppets? What stories do you want to tell and how can you start telling them?

Exhibiting Artists
Alonso Galue * Christopher Knowlton * Eda Yorulmazoglu * Jacky Kelsey + August Boyne * Jacqueline Wade * Jaerin Son * Jerrell Henderson + Caitlin McLeod * KT Shivak * Manual Cinema * Mike Oleon * Myra Su * Pablo Monterrubio * Tom Lee * Wonder Wagon *

Printed on Risograph SF5130: florescent pink, cornflower blue, black

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Potential Energy was originaly concieved at Co-Prosperity in 2024. It is currently on display at the Chicago Cultural Center through April 6^th

Exhibition
Design

In        Concert
with Jen
de los Reyes

The first mid-career retrospective of influential social practice artist, organizer, and educator Jen de los Reyes* Canadian-born, Ithaca, NY-based Reyes has made a concerted effort to live and make work in accordance with her principles, including pragmatic organizing practices informed by her early years in punk music communities and recent anti-corporate and anti-racist direct action.
 
On the occasion of this exhibition, Co-Prosperity has produced a four book risograph publication series contextualizing the artist’s career and impact. The publication includes essays by Sampada Aranke; René De Guzman; Tom Finkelpearl; Eliza Gregory, Mark Menjivar, and Lexa Walsh; Zoë Heyn-Jones; Lee Painter-Kim; Stephanie Parrish; Anthony Stepter, Astria Suparak, and Nick Wylie. Publication was designed and produced by Josh Cook and Oscar Solis.

Exhibition +
Art Fair 

MdW Fair

MdW (said like: “Midway”), is a regional arts coalition centered in Chicago and spanning across the Central Midwest. This iteration includes an artist-run art fair, performances, screenings, lectures, publications, and road trips. MDW is planned and presented by seven artist-led projects assembled initially by some of the artist organizers at Public Media Institute in Chicago.

The fair was located at Mana Contemporary, across 5 floors and 3 days. Organizers needed a functional map and wayfinding systems for patrons making their  way through schedulded programming and artist booths. We expanded on the existing identity to create a playful catalogue, capitalizing on the unique typographic elements and colors.  Bright pink vinly was used to create the enviornamental wayfinding system, directing patrons towards state pavilions, the MdW stage, screening rooms, print areas and food & drinks.

Exhibition
Design

How do we make design labor visible?

During this performative exhibition at Typeforce 12, we welcome our audience to participate in a series of typographic experiments that surface the various forms of labor that are often obscured or minimized in the design process, while speculating on the future of design labor. Through this series of technological mediations, this publication was created with one critical text from each of three sections engaging in the tradition of urgent publishing: feminist perspectives, radical pedagogy, and queer language.

The programmed typesetter utilizing basil.js, selects the texts, typesets the copy, and prints out the publication for you. Creative coding programs act as type designer with outputs executed via pen plotter.

With four possible texts per section and six different cover options, there are a total of 384 possible versions of this publication. As such, all copies are unique objects.

Printed thanks to funds provided by University of Illinois Chicago School of Design and CADA Deans Professional Development Fund Award.

Exhibition
Design / 
Public History

What history can we make when we combine stories?

The Chicago History Corp is a community based trainning initiative whose goal is to teach participants how to collect historical interviews. The program was lead by UIC faculty and historian Dr. Jennifer Brier, centering the insights and experiences of community members during the pandemic.

I began the workshop with a brief survey of historical posters designed through pivital moments in public health crisis (The Spanish flu, Polio, AIDS etc).  Community historians were then asked to begin iterating on their own public health posters, translating their historial interviews into visual objects. I lead a series of group critiques that refined lo-fidelity sketches. Final versions of the posters were illustrated by a community of designers reflection on the oral history interview, further iterating on the historians concept.

Exhibition
Archive /
Public History 

Past and Futures of South Side Chicago:

“South Side Speculations: Pasts and Futures of Black Chicago” asks what’s possible when young people investigate their neighborhoods histories in one of the United States’ most segregated cities and imagine how to build healthier and freer futures. Resisting progress narratives that promise things will always get better and nostalgic accounts of carefree pasts, this online exhibition explores how economic, political and cultural structures evolve over time.

Redirecting our scale of imagination, we seek to challenge the idea that all problems have solutions. Speculation about pasts and futures, as a way of thinking, offers mechanisms to find and address problems more effectively.

The projects archived on this site speculate about pasts and futures of infrastructure, healthcare, and policing. The work you will see and hear should provoke questions about how we want the future of Chicago’s South Side to look, as it resists easy answers based on dominant representations of the city today.

South Side Speculations was produced by History Moves (University of Illinois at Chicago) and Transmedia Story Lab (University of Chicago). We received generous support from the Humanities Without Walls consortium, based at the Illinois Program for Research in the Humanities at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The Humanities Without Walls consortium is funded by a grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
website > South Side Speculation

Photography + Public History

How might we design an effective assesment tool to connect (opportunity) youth to work?

During my graduate residency at UIC Innovation Center I had the opportunity to work with THRIVE, a data-based non-profit that “envisions a Chicago where Black and Brown youth are equipped and empowered to define their own purpose and path, and where systems support positive and equitable youth outcomes at scale.” They approached our design research team with the intention of developing a digital literacy program for opportunity youth_[1] in the south and west sides of Chicago. We conducted several interviews with THRIVE’s youth advisory board, where there was near universal consensus that a household sustainable wage was the primary concern among young people and their families. Many felt alienated by entry level job postings with educational requirements, unable to access reliable transportation, and expressed difficulty translating unconventional experiences (baby-sitting, peer tutoring) into work requirements. We reframed the project scope to better reflect the need of the community, “How might we design an effective tool to assess skills in order to connect (opportunity) youth to work?”

_[1] Opportunity youth are young people who are between the ages of 16 to 24 years old and are disconnected from school and work; https://youth.gov/youth-topics/opportunity-youth

Research Interviews
We shared our initial findings with THRIVE and their employment partners; Verizon, NW Medicine, After School Matters, Ferrero Rocher, One Summer Chicago, and McDonalds. After a series of interviews, we found employers had similar challenges when actively recruiting opportunity youth. Hiring managers and directors stated they were looking for soft skills apart from conventional entry level requirements. Erin Cohan from NW Medicine stated “I'm looking for things that I can't teach... do they fit with the team? Do they align with our values? They should be able to tell their story…” With these youth and employer insights, we began looking for a “match-fit” assessment tool that could identify latent skills to fit entry level requirements of employment partners. Employers would define key words and traits needed to fulfill entry level positions, while youth would take an assessment to define skillsets that the employer would need. Community based non-profits (THRIVE’s regional employment HUB) would facilitate the introduction of candidates best suited for available job openings.



Insights

• Youth need opportunity investment.
  
• Employers need diverse candidate investment.
  
• Employer needs and youth needs are more similar than they are different.
  
• Simplify the process of connecting youth to jobs through an assessment tool: questions that identifies key words that enable a "match fit" between jobs and candidates.

Assesment Tool

Our initial approach was to build upon existing assessments for work-readiness that many community-based nonprofits currently use. MHA Labs Skill Building Blocks “comprise 35 core social, emotional and cognitive skills deemed critical for college, career and life success.” After School Matters program director Eboni Sloan currently uses the assessment tool to help place many Chicago area high school students with seasonal, and temporary employment. We would present the assessments to opportunity youth around Chicago and ask employers to identify traits necessary for specific entry level jobs (administrative clerk, forklift operator, point of sales etc). I created a working digital prototype in D3.JS_[2] that visualizes what the assessment would look like; it provides a data visualization of opportunity youth strength and areas of improvement, along with a standardized assessment tool that employers could use to reliably identify successful candidates for entry level positions.

During the yearlong research project (which would become my master thesis), I became interested in community-based interventions through technology. The opportunity youth advisory board was extremely engaged with the digital assessment tool and named several applications of this kind of project beyond employment.  Additionally, community-based organizations were familiar with this approach and could easily incorporate the assessment along with their other skill training programs. The standardized nature of the assessment could also be a tool for accountability for employers; defined skills needed for an entry level position could minimize bias and allow for non-profits to successfully advocate for community members that meet the criteria. We proposed a tool that would be based on transparency, advocates for vulnerable communities, and is mutually beneficial for all stakeholders.

Visual      
Communication 

How can design clarify BUDDYs mission, attract new patrons, and support the local art ecosystem?

BUDDY is a store in the Chicago Cultural Center in downtown Chicago with the mission of supporting and showcasing local artists, makers, and small businesses.  The storefront boost a number of programming initiatives: exhibitions, talks, workshops, performances, readings, and an art retail space.

Our goal was to guide visitors to the shop to create moments of discovery. The simplified geometry can be seen from Michigan ave and the L, guiding pedestrians to points of interest. By positioning BUDDY as hyperlocal, it becomes a site specific art hub where patrons can find unqiue work not available anywhere else.

 Identity   Systems 

How can an identity system clarify the partnerships between institutions, while emerging as a unique organization?

The Institute for Healthcare Delivery Design advises healthcare organizations, departments of public health, payers, and policymakers to improve the quality, safety, and value of care. Grounded in design methodology, IHDD approaches problem solving using a combination of a inter-disciplinary approaches to innovate in the healthcare space.

IHDD was contracted to design an identity system for the new Medicaid Technical Assistance Center. MTAC is a unique partnership between the Illinois department of Healthcare and Family Serivces, and the University of Illinois Systems. 

How can an identity system clarify the partnerships between institutions, while emerging as a unique organization? 

Working within the framework of the newly launched identity system for the Illinois department of Healthcare and Family Serivices, I created a number of unique geometric forms that could position MTAC as an innovative, trustworthy organisation that can help stakeholders navigate the complex medicaid system. The identity will be rolled out in tandem with HFS programming innitiatives.  MTAC can currently be found at >HFS

How can the OMI wordmark signify academia and innovation, while remaining independent of the Medicaid system?

The Institute for Healthcare Delivery Design advises healthcare organizations, departments of public health, payers, and policymakers to improve the quality, safety, and value of care. Grounded in design methodology, IHDD approaches problem solving using a combination of a inter-disciplinary approaches to innovate in the healthcare space.

IHDD was contracted to design an identity system for the Office of Medicaid Innovation in tandem with the Medicaid Technical Assistance Center. OMI is a specialty unit within the University of Illinois System that seeks to provide administrative, clinical, and operational services to the Illlinois department of Health and Family Services in support of its administration of Illinois’ Medicaid Program. 

Creating visual relationships between the University system was important, as it broadcast OMI insitutional position to academics, providers, and the Medicad system at large. The University of Illinois Systems “piping” was utilised as a point of reference thats recognizable with institional weight. OMI is currently rolling out it’s identity and can be found at
> University of Illinois System 

Identity Systems 

Anthropocene Lab 

is a new research program at UIC, lead by CADA faculty Beate Geissler. With support from the Humanities Innovation Grant Beate commisioned: Logomark, Poster and Web Mockup. 

The academic field of the Anthropocene argues the world has entered a new geological epoch. Humans have altered the world fundamentally, “stratifying” natural and urban spaces. The logomark references the flattening of geological time, constrained to human grids and forms of understanding.