"Åbäke is only the most important collective reduced to a midday musing in chicago EVER." -unattributed
Sorry for the short notice, but Åbäke (!!!) is delivering two talks at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago this week: at 4pm today (11/10) in Visual Critical Studies and again tomorrow (11/11) in the Architecture, Interior Architecture and Designed Objects department. These are only quasi-open to the public. If you're faculty, alum or a student of SAIC you'll have no problem, but if you're not, the AIADO talk on Friday will be the easier one to get into. If you're dying to go and are not SAIC affiliated, email us.
The design collective was formed by Patrick Lacey, Benjamin Reichen, Kajsa Stahl and Maki Suzuki, who graduated from the Royal College of Art in 2000. Åbäke is a Swedish word meaning, in their words, "'something in between', 'a hulky rusty car which still functions but is not pretty', 'something clumsy', 'very large thing', 'monstrosity.'" (from click opera). They design books for Martino Gamper and Francis Upritchard, run a record and fashion label, Kitsune, and direct a magazine, Sexy Machinery.
TODAY they'll present "Seriously Forks XII, a talk about talks."
Thursday November 10, 4:00 p.m.‐5:45 p.m.
MacLean 707, 112 S. Michigan Ave.
Note to self: Never fall into entertainment and be aware of digressions. Avoid starting sentences by "so...". Keep hydrated; Water is good but do not manipulate the bottle during the talk. Thank the hosts, look at the audience, focus on the ones who smile but don't forget the others. Never assume they knows. Never assume they don't. Answer questions clearly. Don't worry if some people leave, it might be for another reason than the quality of the talk. Dress well. Disguise being nervous by cracking a few jokes. Find new jokes. Find contextually sound jokes. Improvise new things to say on a few slides, check reactions. Pace yourself. Enjoy.
TOMORROW, attend "A Midday Musing with åbäke"
Noon, Sullivan 1226, 33 S State St., 12th floor
åbäke is a graphic design collaboration, international in membership and eclectic in interests. Two of the members, Kajsa Ståhl and Maki Suzuki, present The Knife. The Knife is a guided tour of an exhibition which travels permanently in the wallet of members of åbäke. If we consider that a museum show is successful from its 10000th visitor, why can't we just travel the whole exhibition to go and meet 10000 people? The collection is in constant flux but gathers stories of objects which usually are present in people's pockets.
A spread from Francis Upritchard In die Höhle .