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  • Quinn Keck: Irrational Symbolic Thinking 

    Irrational Symbolic Thinking 

    On Display in June

    An irrational number is a never ending, never repeating decimal.  An imaginary number exists1 and creates a complex system that explains observed phenomena.1, 2   Equations are symbolic representations of concepts, abiding metaphors,2 ideas, dreams,3 and thoughts.   

     

    It can be tempting to imagine our skulls to be like the walls of the gallery – blank canvases to house our autonomous creations.  Like the gallery wall and Plato’s cave, our minds and bodies4 have contexts that determine possible interpretations of shadows on the wall, obscuring which questions are “unreasonable” to ask.5

     

    But let’s peel back a few layers?  After all, knowledge is a collective pursuit.*

     

    A detailed full proof here:

    “Answers and Explanations — Do “Imaginary Numbers” Really Exist?” by Philip Spencer www.math.toronto.edu/mathnet/answers/imaginary.html. 

    And for some other helpful explanations: 

    https://www.reddit.com/r/askmath/comments/z4qxsk/can_anyone_explain_what_imaginary_number_are_what/

    2 See Chanda Prescod-Weinstein’s discussion of abiding metaphors and science in her book The Edge of Space-Time: Particles, Poetry and the Cosmic Dream Boogie.

    3 Srinivasa Ramanujan is regarded as one of the greatest mathematicians of all time and the“the man who knew infinity,” as the film with the same title tells. He figured out the equations in his notebooks through mysticism, his faith and dreams.

    4 The mind/body split that may seem natural or common sense to people in the Western philosophical traditions is not so universal and has been pushed back upon by many.   One place to start is Julian Frazier, PhD’s article “Indigenous Wisdom Reveals the Truth about the Mind-Body Connection”: https://medium.com/@julian.frazier.phd/indigenous-wisdom-reveals-the-truth-about-the-mind-body-connection-c8c5ec1b0451

    5 For more on what questions are reasonable and unreasonable to ask, see the paper: Cognitive Sociology: between the personal and the universal mind by Eviatar Zerubavel, published by The Oxford Handbook of Cognitive Sociology.

    6 Nataille Wynn, ContaPoints, in her video essay “Conspiracy” makes this excellent point.

    Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=teqkK0RLNkI 

    More on her work: https://www.contrapoints.com/

     

    Artist Bio

     

    Quinn Keck (they/them) is a multidisciplinary artist who investigates concepts in sociology, physics, technology and philosophy.   Working across printmaking,  artists books, creative coding, and installation, their work discusses memory, perception and grief through questioning the manifestation of systems.   They have been an instructor and  printmaker in residence at Women’s Studio Workshop, Kala Art Institute, and Zea Mays Printmaking and their work has been shown at Gray Area, Root Division, the Richmond Art Center, Highpoint Center for Printmaking, and Woolwich Contemporary Print Fair.  Their process is one of constantly iterating on new and old images, just as we all are a series of imperfect versions of ourselves improving each iteration but never fully finished. 

     

  • Rewards Program: “an army of lovers cannot fail”; revolution, rivalry, and queer existence

    A three-projector celluloid meditation live-scored by improvisational trio Rewards Program: “an army of lovers cannot fail”: revolution, rivalry, and queer existence. Visuals in special collaboration with musician and artist Kati Mashikian.

    Bios:

    MILES LASSI is an interdisciplinary artist based out of Oakland, CA. As a musician, he has performed in over 150 cities throughout North America, Europe and Asia with many different ensembles ranging from the Vietnam National Symphony Orchestra at Carnegie Hall to national broadway tours like Ain’t Too Proud, Dirty Dancing, and Tina: The Tina Turner Musical. Miles is dedicated to creating new media and has done so at the New York Film Festival, Lincoln Center, Apollo Theater, deYoung Museum, Joyce Theater, Fort Mason Center for Arts & Culture, A.C.T., SXSW and Snap Studios/KQED.

    SKYWAY MAN is the alias of keyboardist, songwriter, and producer James Wallace. Based in Oakland via Richmond, VA, and Nashville, TN, he has released seven albums and composed music for Film/TV, including Joe Pera Talks With You (HBO). Over the past 15 years, he has toured extensively across the U.S., Europe, and Asia, performing at festivals like Bonnaroo, Pickathon, SXSW, Hardly Strictly Bluegrass, and Wilco’s Solid Sound. He has collaborated with Abigail Washburn, Langhorne Slim, Erin Rae, and Maya Hawke, among others. Brittany Howard once named his band a favorite local act in Rolling Stone, and his work has been featured in NPR, The Wall Street Journal, and Stereogum. He’s produced 20 full-length albums for other artists, including Bay Area musicians Mikayla McVey, Milk for the Angry, and Pancho Morris. Over the past few years he’s developed a practice of live instrumental film scoring using keyboards and sequencers.

    ELLIE VANDERLIP is a San Francisco-based experimental filmmaker, performer, and educator. She received her MFA in Cinema from San Francisco State University in 2022. She is a co-director at Oakland’s Shapeshifters Cinema, on the board of directors at San Francisco’s Cinematheque, and maintains a studio at Artists’ Television Access. She has hosted filmmaking workshops with the Exploratorium, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, and the University of San Francisco, and lectures at St. Mary’s College and San Francisco State University. Her primary focuses are found footage experimental documentary, material cinema, and expanded cinema performance. Her work has screened nationally and internationally, including at San Francisco DocFest and Belgrade’s Kinoscope Festival, and has upcoming writings about alternative archives in Found Footage Magazine.

  • Possibly Puppets

    8 Fables, Shadow Puppet, Orchestra


    With:
    Rohini Moradi:
    Rohini Moradi is an author, storyteller, and musician whose work explores the space where memory, myth, and imagination converge. Born in Tehran and shaped by a life lived between cultures, she creates songs and stories that weave together themes of wonder, grief, transformation, and the search for meaning. Whether through music, books, film, or immersive narrative experiences, her work invites audiences into worlds that feel both deeply personal and universally resonant. Through intimate songwriting and evocative storytelling, she seeks to illuminate the unseen threads that connect us to one another and to ourselves.
    Risa Lenore of Possibly Puppets:

    Risa Lenore Anderson Dye is known for her creative energy in teaching and for her engaging puppet shows for family audiences. She is the founder and artistic director of Possibly Puppets (www.possiblypuppets.com), a handmade visual theater company that received a Jim Henson Foundation grant in 2024.  Risa attended Jacques LeCoq’s school of international Theatre in Paris, France; the physical theater school and the laboratory of movement studies.

    Risa creates all of her work by hand and has performed in museums, schools, libraries, theaters, music venues and parks  For over 20 years, she has been teaching theater, storytelling, creative movement, puppetry and visual arts at elementary schools, preschools and beyond in the San Francisco Bay Area. Her students inspire and shape her work and she loves sharing her passions with learners of all ages. 

    Puppeteers of the 8 Fables Shadow Puppet Orchestra:

    Emory Lewman:

    Emory is a multimedia artist focusing in film and puppetry performance arts. She has been working teaching to children and adults art for over 10 years, and performing as a puppeteer since 2024. She first was drawn to work with puppetry as a form of expanded cinema performance. Emory is the creator of 8 Fables Shadow Puppet Orchestra and has written all the stories and built all of the puppets for their current performances and shows. She is inspired by collaborations with fellow artists and whimsical creative processes. She is currently looking forward to studying puppets with Peter Schumann at Bread and Puppet Theatre this summer!

    Milo:

    Milo is a performance artist in San Francisco.

    Elisha Aflalo:

    Elisha Aflalo is a multidisciplinary artist currently based in San Francisco. She attended Bennington College and received a BFA in 2022. Elisha’s work is driven by her relationship to the human body and nature with a focus on exploring the effects of the sexualization and commodification of the body. Her practice consists of writing, printmaking, textiles and wearable sculpture, photography, painting, and performance.

     

    Sophia Grimani:

    Sophia Grimani is a Bay Area based artist working in the mediums of dance, photography, and filmmaking. She obtained her BA from Bennington College in 2022 and is now freelancing in San Francisco. Within her multidisciplinary practice, the majority of her work orbits around the “feminine.” As a performer, she is used to being in the place of viewing, of being seen; this experience of the gaze becomes a throughline in her artistic work. In photography, this manifests as self-portraiture and portraits of careful observation that explore the relationship of nature and the body. Her work plays with forms found in nature, connecting those to forms within ourselves, and placing the cycles of nature in conversation with the cycles of femininity.

    She works both as a solo and collaborative artist and is especially interested in interdisciplinary making. Her photographic work has been displayed at Harvey Milk photo center, KnK Gallery, and featured in publications of Pamplemousse magazine. As a choreographer and dancer, Sophia has shown work at Dance Mission Theater and SAFEhouse Arts and works as a collaborator with site- specific dance company Moving Ground.