On Thursday, May 4th at 6:30 pm, students from the School of the Art Institute present Warm Data, an original program of talks and performances. In their words: “Warm Data is the display of quantitative data in a qualitative dialogue. Warm Data acts as an attempt to make what we currently perceive as cold analytical fact into something more emotionally obtainable. Cold data (numbers, statistics, generalized trends, etc.) is sometimes viewed as too objective to the point that we have lost the intimacy behind what we are trying to comprehend and why. We have become alienated from what we are looking at and subsequently lack the fundamental humanistic quality that allows us to truly connect with the space we inhabit on a more complex level. Warm Data acts as a point of accessibility for self-reflection based on the way information is presented to us to allow for a more tangible and immediate experience – a method of presenting, accepting, and archiving information that will begin to set a platform for a new type of understanding.”

Sophie Cymone Bolla (BFAAE, SAIC) is a multi-media artist, curator, and educator. Her practice embeds itself in the context of technology, math, and social science. She is interested in challenging the way in which affective data is presented in academic systems of knowledge and attempts to expose its unsustainability.

Elizabeth Judd is a filmmaker and future United States senator. I’m working on a feature length film that began as ethnography of the self that follows a traditional three act screenplay structure and is evolving into that allow the audience to draw connections between disparate lives, events, and images. I’m currently in research mode for a vingette following a conversation between members of a white, male dominated family debating the origin of wars in the ” Middle East.” I’m looking at the relationship between causes of climate change and the growing refugee “crisis,” inspired by a friend’s move from Tehran to Chicago.

Ohm Phanphiroj is an international filmmaker and photographer. Ohm has participated in more than 100 exhibitions worldwide with recent residencies and fellowships including Lightwork, Columbia College, Newspace Center for Photography, Documentary Arts Asia, Society for Photographic Art and Society, and the Art Institute of Chicago. His current book Underage (Bruno Gmunder, 2017) deals with underage male prostitutes in Thailand. He is adjunct professor in Film and Photography at Edna Manley School of Media and Visual Arts and on a two-year fellowship at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

Maya Gendusa is a multifaceted human. From gardener to artist, writer to performer, she believes in ideas and dreams. She is interested in the things that cannot be explained by facts. More than the answers, she is interested in the questions. She believes in looking to history as a means of understanding the future as well as the current reality. She is now looking at history through sound & technology and questioning: “What is the importance of that which is dying?” “What do we lose when always searching for the next?” “What is to be gained from looking back?” “Why do some things change more than others?”

Megan May Erwin is an artist and filmmaker based in Chicago by way of Louisiana. Her recent work traces the simulacra of the “American Dream” and its inevitable self-destruction. She is currently planning a move back down south to research and document cancerous air pollution along the Mississippi River.

Claire Barnes is a writer and sculptor with a background in photography. She’s focused primarily on narrative poetry and combinations of object and text. Her practice is largely queer and environmental and operates under the belief that quietness allows air into a work, making it more accessible.

Navi Schiff is a 20-year-old student at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Sharing her ideas of social change and conveying themthrough artistic purposes have always been her passion. Heavily influenced by photography and gifted at nine years of age with a small Fisher-Price camera, she has since explored a variety of mediums including writing, painting, drawing, videography, installation, sculpture, print design and sound art. She aims to educate and highlight the ways in which each of us can improve for the betterment of the earth.

Hosu Lee is a sculptor who investigates religion, science, and philosophy through the work of art as a practical experiment for developing his concepts. Recently, he began to explore the topic Anthropocene in relation to his previous major, engineering and environmental studies.

Lisa D. Zhang is an artist and researcher currently based in Chicago, originally from California’s Bay Area. Her body of work explores multiple media including illustration, sculpture, video, and installation. She employs an interdisciplinary view to examine biology, history, and linguistics in an effort to understand these topics in a multi-faceted approach.

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Tags: Chicago, Claire Barnes, Elizabeth Judd, Hosu Lee, Lisa D. Zhang, Maya Gendusa, Megan May Erwin, Navi Schiff, Ohm Phanphiroj, Sector 2337, Sophie Cymone Bolla, Warm Data, West Town