An ART ON SCREEN Film
Leah Kolb in conversation with Michel Solway of the Solway Gallery
Intro by Hannah Dewhirst, UK College of Design / Inaugural Director, Gray Design Building Gallery
Experiments in Art and Technology (E.A.T.) was founded in 1966 to foster collaborations between artists, engineers, and scientists, and to explore how emerging technologies could open new possibilities for creative practice. Its landmark project, 9 Evenings: Theatre & Engineering, brought ten artists—including John Cage, Lucinda Childs, Öyvind Fahlström, Alex Hay, Deborah Hay, Steve Paxton, Yvonne Rainer, Robert Rauschenberg, David Tudor, and Robert Whitman—together with more than thirty engineers and scientists from Bell Telephone Laboratories for a series of experimental performances at the Armory in New York.
This program features a 30-minute documentary about 9 Evenings, with a focus on John Cage’s performance Variations VII, during which he drew sounds from telephone lines, radio signals, household appliances, generators, brainwaves, and other sources to create a constantly changing composition.
The screening will be followed by a conversation with Michael Solway of Cincinnati’s Solway Gallery, whose family had deep relationships with pioneering artists such as John Cage, Nam June Paik, Buckminster Fuller, and others working at the intersection of art and technology. Together, the film and conversation offer a glimpse into a pivotal moment of collaboration when artists, engineers, and scientists began imagining new ways of using technology to challenge expectations for what art could be.
Presented in conjunction with 2nd Story’s exhibition Camila Galaz: Diskette // Rosette, this special program is a collaboration between 2nd Story, the University of Kentucky College of Design, and The Kentucky Theatre.