What made Chicago a center of speculative culture—a culture which so rapidly emerged as the “non-place” where cybernetic logic bears it strangest and perhaps most powerful fruits?

On December 10, artists Beate Geissler and Oliver Sann, art critic Brian Holmes, and curator Karen Irvine will discuss their new Graham-funded book Volatile Smile, which investigates the impact of technology on systems of global commerce. An elucidating collage of text and images, Geissler and Sann’s latest project provides fundamental and unprecedented insights into the mutual impact of real and cybernetic architecture, with Chicago as its archetype. Published by Moderne Kunst Nurnberg, Volatile Smile includes images, otherwise unseen, from the operating centers of Chicago's financial industry and features essays by Brian Holmes, sociologist Karin Knorr Cetina, and eco-sociologist Dirk Baecker.

Following the event, please join us for a holiday reception in the Graham Foundation’s galleries and bookshop, which will be offering a special discounts of up to 40% off. Copies of Volatile Smile will be available for purchase at the Graham's Bookshop.

Beate Geissler and Oliver Sann were born in Germany and live and work in Chicago. Geissler received an MFA from the Hochschule für Gestaltung in Karlsruhe, while Sann received his MFA from the Academy of Media Arts in Cologne. Their work has been exhibited nationally and internationally in museums, galleries, and alternative spaces, including the Renaissance Society at the University of Chicago; the Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago; the Fotomuseum Antwerp; the NGBK (New Society for Visual Arts) in Berlin; the National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts; the Fotomuseum Winthertur in Switzerland; and the Museum Ludwig in Cologne. They have received numerous grants and awards, including the Videonale Award from the Museum of Art, Bonn, Germany; the Herman-Claasen-Award (Cologne, Germany); and the Dean's Research Prize, from the School of Art and Design, University of Illinois at Chicago. They have published two monographs Return to Veste Rosenberg (2006) and Personal Kill (2010). Currently, Geissler is associate professor of art at the University of Illinois at Chicago and Sann is assistant professor at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

Brian Holmes is an art critic, activist and translator, living in Chicago. He is interested primarily in the intersections of artistic and political practice. He holds a doctorate in Romance Languages and Literatures from the University of California at Berkeley. Brian Homes was the English editor of publications for Documenta X, Kassel, Germany since 1997. Brian was a member of the graphic arts group 'Ne pas plier' from 1999 to 2001, and has recently worked with the French conceptual art group 'Bureau d'Études'. He is currently professor of philosophy at the European Graduate School in Saas-Fee, Switzerland.

Karen Irvine is Curator and Associate Director of the Museum of Contemporary Photography at Columbia College Chicago. She has organized over forty exhibitions of contemporary photography, at the MoCP and other venues including the Hyde Park Art Center; Rockford Art Museum; Lishui International Photography Festival, China; Daegu Photography Biennale, South Korea, and the New York Photo Festival.

Image: Beate Geissler and Oliver Sann, Chicago Board of Trade, a, 2013. Courtesy of the artists.

Related Grant: Beate Geissler and Oliver Sann, Volatile Smile (Verlag für moderne Kunst, 2013).