Miller Gallery
at Carnegie Mellon University
Purnell Center for the Arts
5000 Forbes Ave.
Pittsburgh, PA 15213
412.268.3618
miller-gallery@andrew.cmu.edu
www.cmu.edu/millergallery

Hours:
Tues.-Sun., 12-6pm
Admission: Free

Free parking in E. Campus Garage
on weekends + after 5pm Mon.-Fri.

WATCH + READ

Video profile: Artist Trevor Paglen

The Nation: Interview with Experimental Geography Curator Nato Thompson

ART 21: "International Geographic"

The Christian Science Monitor: "Experimental geography as art: Traditional geography meets politics – plus multimedia and performance art."

GET INVOLVED


EXPERIMENTAL GEOGRAPHY
- Map out sites that are significant to you in Pittsburgh. Return to the Miller Gallery for inclusion in our exhibition.

29 CHAINS TO THE MOON
- Share items, info, resources, communal experiences in the Commons(Commune) kiosk in the Miller Gallery

- Start communing + build community at WeCommune.com

MILLER GALLERY
Join our Facebook group
Add our Google Calendar
Follow us on Twitter
Add us as a contact on Flickr
Become a Member, starting at just $20
Volunteer: Shifts available Tues.-Sun., 11:45am-6:15pm

UPCOMING EVENTS

Oct. 16, Fri. 6-8pm:
A Continental Reception for Experimental Geography @ Miller Gallery

Oct. 22, Thurs. 7:30-9pm:
Dorkbot: Lenka Clayton ("A Piece of the Moon"), Eric Singer (from LEMUR)
@ Brillobox Upstairs, 4104 Penn Ave.

Nov. 14, Sat. 9pm:
The Body Double Explorers Club, organized by Dawn Weleski + Jon Rubin
@ The Waffle Shop, 124 S. Highland Ave.

Nov. 17, Tues. 5-6:30pm:
School of Art Lecture Series: Claire Bishop
@ McConomy Auditorium, Carnegie Mellon University Center

Jan. 28-30, 2010 Thurs.-Sat.:
Contestational Cartographies Symposium
@ Carnegie Mellon University + Brillobox Upstairs, organized by the STUDIO for Creative Inquiry + Miller Gallery

Jan. 28, 2010 Thurs. 5pm:
School of Art Lecture Series: Trevor Paglen @ McConomy Auditorium, Carnegie Mellon University Center, 5000 Forbes Ave. at Morewood

ABOUT US

THE MILLER GALLERY AT CARNEGIE MELLON UNIVERSITY supports the creation, understanding and growth of contemporary art through exhibitions, projects, lectures, events and publications. The gallery aspires to engage diverse audiences and to create and strengthen communities through art and ideas. The Miller Gallery was founded in 2000 by Regina Gouger Miller, artist, educator, businesswoman, arts patron and alumna of Carnegie Mellon's School of Art. A unit of the College of Fine Arts, the three-story, 9,000 square foot space is free and open to the public and located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Images:
The Cargo Chain (detail), The Center for Urban Pedagogy (CUP), 2008; Experimental Geography poster; Cul-de-sac Commune, Stephanie Smith, 2008-09; Keep It Slick at Art & Design Academy, Liverpool John Moores University; Miller Gallery Store

THIS FRIDAY 6-8pm

A CONTINENTAL RECEPTION for

EXPERIMENTAL GEOGRAPHY
Guest curated by Nato Thompson
Organized by iCI (Independent Curators International)

ARTISTS:
Francis Alÿs, AREA Chicago, The Center for Land Use Interpretation (CLUI), The Center for Urban Pedagogy (CUP), e-Xplo, Ilana Halperin, kanarinka (Catherine D'lgnazio), Julia Meltzer and David Thorne, Lize Mogel, Multiplicity, Trevor Paglen, Raqs Media Collective, Ellen Rothenberg, Spurse, Deborah Stratman, Daniel Tucker, Alex Villar, Yin Xiuzhen

CONTRIBUTE
Map out sites that are significant to you as someone who lives, works and plays in Pittsburgh. Return to the Miller Gallery for inclusion in this exhibition. Project by AREA Chicago.
- Download blank map of Pittsburgh


ABOUT THE EXHIBITION
Experimental Geography is an exhibition that explores the distinctions between geographical study and artistic experience of the earth, as well as the juncture where the two realms collide (and possibly make a new field altogether). The exhibition presents a panoptic view of this new practice through a wide range of mediums including sound and video installations, photography, sculpture, and experimental cartography created by 19 artists or artist teams from six countries.

Geography benefits from the study of specific histories, sites, and memories. Every estuary, landfill, and cul-de-sac has a story to tell. The task of the geographer is to alert us to what is directly in front of us, while the task of the experimental geographer—an amalgam of scientist, artist, and explorer—is to do so in a manner that deploys aesthetics, ambiguity, poetry, and a dash of empiricism.

The manifestations of “experimental geography” run the gamut of contemporary art practice today: sewn cloth cities that spill out of suitcases, bus tours through water treatment centers, performers climbing up the sides of buildings, and sound works capturing the buzz of electric waves on the power grid. In the hands of contemporary artists, the study of humanity’s engagement with the earth’s surface becomes a riddle best solved in experimental fashion. The approaches used by the artists featured in Experimental Geography range from a poetic conflation of humanity and the earth to more empirical studies of our planet. 


NATO THOMPSON is a curator at Creative Time, New York, as well as a writer and activist. Among his public projects for Creative Time are Waiting for Godot in New Orleans, a project by Paul Chan in collaboration with The Classical Theatre of Harlem, and Democracy in America: The National Campaign. Thompson was formerly a curator at MASS MoCA, where his exhibitions included The Interventionists: Art in the Social Sphere and Ahistoric Occasion: Artists Making History.

Experimental Geography is a traveling exhibition organized and circulated by iCI (Independent Curators International), New York. The exhibition, tour, and catalogue are made possible, in part, by the Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation, the iCI Advocates, the iCI Partners, Gerrit L. and Sydie Lansing, and Barbara and John Robinson.

More information >>>

ALSO ON VIEW

29 CHAINS TO THE MOON:
Artists' Schemes for a Fantastic Future
Guest curated by Andrea Grover
Through Dec. 6, 2009

ARTISTS:
Open_Sailing, Stephanie Smith, Mitchell Joachim/Terreform ONE
IN THE READING ROOM:
The Buckminster Fuller Institute, Lowry Burgess, International Space University, The Seasteading Institute

"I was not interested in doing an exhibit on sustainable design or self-sufficiency, which is abundantly covered in the media, film, and in other exhibitions," Andrea Grover says. "I wanted to examine bigger, more radical approaches to 'making the world work for everyone,' as Buckminster Fuller was known to say. Like the Millennium Development Goals of the U.N., I was looking for cooperative solutions to the distribution of food, shelter, transportation and energy to a global population of 9 billion people by 2050... I truly believe, like Fuller, that the first step to progress is letting go of assumptions and preconceptions about the world, and becoming open to discovery in the same manner that a child might investigate something it encounters for the first time."
- Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, "Miller Gallery's 'Moon' exhibit opens minds"

- Lab A6 Podcast with Curator Andrea Grover

More information >>>

KEEP IT SLICK
Infiltrating Capitalism with The Yes Men
Curated by Astria Suparak
Organized by Miller Gallery at Carnegie Mellon University + Feldman Gallery at Pacific Northwest College of Art
Through Oct. 25, 2009

@ Abandon Normal Devices, organized by FACT (Foundation for Art and Creative Technology) at the new Art & Design Academy, Liverpool John Moores University, UK

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MEMBERSHIP

Do you like what’s going on at the Miller Gallery?

Help support these exhibitions + encourage our programs with a tax-deductible donation, or by becoming a Member.

For exhibition underwriting opportunities, contact the gallery.

Miller Membership details >>>