Nick and Nadine, performing I'm Not Trying to Change Anything, I'm Just Changing. Photo by Phil Parcellano.
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ID: A live multi-media performance by Sonnenzimmer is depicted. Two people are pictured, each engaged in different activities. Nadine is standing and speaking into a microphone. She is reading from large sheet of paper. In front of her are several props collected in a display rack, six small led screens, each emitting a different color light and two cassette tape players. Nick sits at a table to the right of the props. He is drawing . A tripod and camera are on the table capturing the drawing, which is projected behind them both. The abstract line work is superimposed over a video footage of a body of water.
About
Sonnenzimmer is the collaborative practice of artists Nick Butcher & Nadine Nakanishi. We began working together in the early 2000’s combining our love for visual art, typography, graphic design, printmaking, and music in the form of screen printed concert posters. Supported by Chicago’s thriving improvised music community, we developed an experimental approach to graphic expression that tested the limits of abstraction, legibility, communication, and the medium of print.
This approach soon gave way to deeper investigation of the nature of graphic expression at large. Having created thousands of graphic images, we began to ask ourselves “what is this stuff?” and “what role does it play in society?”.
We had a hunch that something lay just beneath the surface of human-made graphics that had yet to be formulated. This curiosity has led us to research graphics in the natural world, contemporary advances in imaging, indigenous cosmologies, experimental physics, and beyond.
Amidst this, our graphic practice has grown to include exhibitions, publishing, performance, commissioned graphic design, and even music. Through each of these respective outputs, our core concern remains. We’ve come to view graphics as a fluid social membrane that allows humanity to think together beyond the individual. Graphics are an augmented collective reality that each of us lay claim to. Our work seeks to illuminate and make sense of this space.
As the world grows increasingly graphic through the proliferation of digital interfaces and innovations in print and imaging technology, it’s important that we continue to question the nature of the medium. What we choose to contribute to this social membrane has the capacity to shape our collective reality, so the stakes are high.
To question the water is to swim in it.
Glossary
Through the course of our research, we’ve developed several key terms to better articulate our findings and philosophy. Below is a running list of terminology and their definitions.
Graphics – We use the term graphics as a catch all phrase for all human-induced visual output. While the term is often synonymous with “image”, it’s also used to encompass non-image visual material such as written or printed words as well as photographs, video, digital media, paintings, etc.
Graphic Arts Future - This term refers to the collection of all human-induced media into a homocentric sphere. The Graphic Arts Future is ground zero for understanding graphics anew.
Graphic Impulse - This term describes the human tendency towards graphic expression, whether that be mark-making, writing, or imaging by other means. All human graphic expression is triggered by the graphic impulse.
Graphic Magma – This term refers to the graphic flow from the collective subconscious to the exterior perceivable world.
Image Event – A central conceit of our philosophy is that naturally occurring images are an ephemeral result of the limitations of light. An Image Event refers to the images created by the interruption, reflection, and dispersion of light. Examples include shadows and reflections.
Primary Image Event – This term refers to the visual field of an individual. Image Events are experienced within the Primary Image Event.
Uhu Mau – Is the term for a positive affirmation of graphic participation.
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