EMPATHY^TM
Based in the Netherlands, EMPATHY^TM is an international art and research project that investigates "the market surrounding empathy."

EMPATHY^TM is:
Katinka Simonse: www.tinkebell.com
Vincent W.J. van Gerven Oei: www.vincentwj.nl
Jonas Staal: www.jonasstaal.nl

www.empathy-research.com

Proposal

For the month of April, the three members of EMPATHY^TM - Katinka Simonse, Vincent W.J. van Gerven Oei, and Jonas Staal - will continue their work developing transparent public analyses of how empathy works: both as a fundamental characteristic of human nature and a commodified product. Their investigation will concentrate on the category of empathy in the context of Chicago. EMPATHY(TM) will also participate in Version Festival's NFO XPO.

Michael Bauer
Coming from Los Angeles, CA, Michael Bauer is the recipient of Josh Greene's "Not So Hostile Takeover" Residency Award. Michael's projects deal with idea of "the gift" and the possibilities of giving things for free. This appraoch is reflected in his recent projects such as New New School, a free, no-budget educational experiment in Los Angeles. New New School hosts two events a year that often take the form of lectures, teach-ins, group conversations and performance. The goal of the project is to, "provide an alternative to conventional art training and pedagogy and to promote a hands-on kinesthetic educational experience."

For more information visit his website.

Proposal

Los Cago Open House Bridge of Artistic Goodwill LCOHBAG will be a meeting of artistic minds with the intention of bridging the geographic gap between Los Angeles and Chicago. This project will consist of opening the doors to InCUBATE, in the form of an open house 7-10pm Wednesdays and Thursdays during the month of March 2008. This project will operate somewhere between a sales-pitch, motivational speaking engagement, performance, think tank, salon, and a series of discussions regarding dreaming, mind expansion, art production, the role of the artist and the prospects of forging unconventional alliances. Hopefully this gathering can help us challenge conventions of artistic time and space. The ultimate goal is to materialize one specific project which with take place in Los Angeles at the Confederacy of Creative Ephemera, featuring Chicago and Los Angeles based artists.

Adam Bobbette
Adam Bobbette is one half of the working group Forays, a low profile artist group strung somewhere between New York and Montreal whose work focuses on the research and creation of open-source minor architectures and low-tech modifications of everyday life. Forays is Adam Bobbette and Geraldine Juarez.

For the OTHER OPTIONS exhibition in Grand Rapids, MI - Bobbette created an oven powered by steam created by the city which escapes at certain points through manhole covers.

For more information: http://www.forays.org and http://bentasunder.org/

Proposal

While working in Chicago, Bobbette will continue to observe urban landscapes and its surpluses in order to continue to create forays into new infrastructures. Throughout his residency, collaborators and friends will be visiting InCUBATE for shorter periods of time.

Visitors included:
Francesca Manning: For more information http://venas.wikidot.com/

Geraldine Juarez: For more information forays.org and chocolaterobot.com. While in Chicago, Geraldine also began working on the Tanda Foundation and made an episode of InCUBATE TV

Beatriz Albuquerque
Beatriz Albuquerque was born in Portugal. She joined and is a member of the Independent Performance Group founded by Marina Abramovic in 2004 and in 2005 she won the Distinction Prize from the Ambient Series in the PAC/edge Performance Festival in Chicago.

For more information visit: www.beatrizalbuquerque.web.pt

The performance will be presented on the following days: Nov. 1, 2,3,4,8,9,10,11,15,16,17,18,23,24,25,28, 30 between 11 am to 7 PM. Beatriz will be at InCUBATE from Nov. 1 to Nov. 30

Proposal

The Work for Free Project by Beatriz Albuquerque in which she will develop works of art designed by any individual explores and researches the creation of a language that questions the concepts of working for free. Over a four-hour period the work is offered as a social gift in which a work of art is fashioned especially for the person that interacts with the performance. The active public can interact directly with the performer and accept the offer by the artist of working for four hours creating an artwork that they desire for free. After both parties sign a contract the participant may choose from a list of mediums in which the work can be done and a schedule will be set to determine when the work will be completed. This will lead to the discussion of the boundaries, differences and relations of the artwork versus the commercial value.

Maggie Haas
September 1, 2007 - October 7, 2007
Maggie Haas installs video, photographs, drawing and sculpture in domestic environments -- spaces with their own smells, acoustics, uses and inhabitants. These spaces are richer and more specific than the pleasant, warm blankness of a white-box art space. Haas interest is in how these inherent textures can underscore, emphasize and even overpower an installation. "In particular I am interested in spaces that exist on a very personal scale, spaces that a person might experience alone, and come to know with an intimacy that we associate with knowing our own bodies: living rooms, bathrooms, bedrooms.

Haas will be at InCUBATE from Sept. 1 to Oct. 1
For more info: http://maggie.haas.googlepages.com/home

Proposal

While in Chicago, Maggie had access to new spaces and the time to consider them; the opportunity to meet new people and get into their lives and living spaces; and the time to fabricate detailed installation components. At InCUBATE, she conceptualized and fabricated a multiple room installation in the live/work/exhibit space at InCUBATE.

Veronica Jay Clay
June 1, 2007 - August 31, 2007

Veronica is interested in contemplative spaces that exist in post-industrial urban environments. Past projects document how these spaces help to maintain physical and psychological health for the community and society in general. Her projects lend themselves to being worked out within all sorts of communities and communal situations.

To learn more about her project in Chicago: http://serenadingarchitecture.wordpress.com

To learn more about Veronica Jay Clay's past work: http://www.veronicajayclay.com

Project

The Serenading Architecture project in Chicago focused on the serenade as tribute/ homage to public spaces such as parks, libraries, and temporary meeting structures . Contributors composed and/ or performed a "love song" for the space. With each serenade, there is a possibility to enhance the architecture - determining what the space needs to be maintained and improved for the public.

It is a combination of participatory performance, drawings, observations and discussions evaluating how we own architecture - gauging our dependence on social and physical spaces. It highlights how our daily interactions expand the physical structure of architecture and its intended social activities.

To read the entire proposal go here.