Andy Slater, An Evening of Soundbased Works

2019–22, USA, 60 minutes plus discussion
Multiple formats
In English
Live captions

Free for University of Illinois students and $12 for the general public. Free UIC student tickets at the door.
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Andy Slater’s rich and evocative works combine distorted field recordings, alternative texts, and the singular rhythms and sonic colors of vintage accessible technologies. In a program designed especially for the Gene Siskel Film Center’s acoustic capabilities, Slater will present a selection of recent sound-based works inspired by research into Crypto Acoustic Auditory Non-Hallucination, a midcentury scientific theory hypothesizing that some blind people have the capacity to hear trans-dimensionally. Casting audiences into deep sonic drifts and waves of echoing repetitions, his compositions create the perception of ever morphing space, continually shifting between the sensual and psychic. Each work will be accompanied by an evocative set of alt texts, expansively building on ideas of access and accessibility. Slater will also discuss his recent work in virtual and augmented reality.

Slater is a Chicago-based media artist, sound designer, and disability advocate. He is the founder of the Society of Visually Impaired Sound Artists and a teaching artist with the Atlantic Center for the Arts’ Young Sound Seekers program. Slater’s current work focuses on advocacy for accessible art and technology, alt text for sound and image, science fiction, spatial audio for extended reality, and sound design for film and video games. He has exhibited and performed at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago; Contemporary Jewish Museum, San Francisco; transmediale, Berlin; Ian Potter Museum of Art, Melbourne; Critical Distance, Toronto; Gallery 400, Chicago; Experimental Sound Studio, Chicago; Art Institute of Chicago; Flux Factory, New York; Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; and MOMENTA, Chicago. He is a 2022–23 Leonardo CripTech Incubator fellow and a 2018 3Arts/Bodies of Work fellow at the University of Illinois Chicago. In 2020, the New York Times acknowledged his work in the article “28 Ways to Learn About Disability Culture.” Slater holds a master of arts in sound arts and industries from Northwestern University and a bachelor of fine arts from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

Presented in partnership with Conversations at the Edge and the Gene Siskel Film Center.

Visitors must provide proof of vaccination (or negative PCR test) and wear a mask at all times. For more information, please visit the Gene Siskel Film Center’s COVID-19 page.

This event will have ASL, live captions, and alternative texts. Hearing loops, mobility device accessibility, and companion seating are also available. For other accessibility requests, please visit saic.edu/access.