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ILSSA Co-Operator Local 917 Shop RC will be presenting about ILSSA at the 2010 College Art Association Conference in Chicago. The panel is entitled Hypo-technology: Artists Remix the Anachronistic and the Obsolete with the Present; fellow presenters include Walter Kitundu, Robrecht Vanderbeeken, Robert Mertens, and Victoria Bradbury. You can find us from 2:30-5 pm on Thursday February 11th, at the cryptically named Gold Coast, Bronze Level, West Tower of the Hyatt Regency Chicago.
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| We Can Go Beyond It, a 2009 title from Flatbed Splendor. |
Recent work of ILSSA Co-Operator Local 347 Shop FS, aka our dear Bridget Elmer, is the subject of an exhibition at Florida State University's Strozier Library Special Collections. The show includes recent books, ILSSA publications, as well as student work from her Book Structures course at FSU. Check it out if you're in town!
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| Art Work, the new publication from Temporary Services. |
ILSSA's essay Impractical Laborers: Unite! is published in the recent Temporary Services *free* newspaper Art Work. To quote the site, "Art Work is a newspaper that consists of writings and images from artists, activists, writers, critics, and others on the topic of working within depressed economies and how that impacts artistic process, compensation and artistic property. The newspaper is distributed for free at sites and from people throughout the United States and Puerto Rico." You may download a PDF of the paper from the Art Work site, or order a paper copy from the fine retail establishment Half Letter Press for the cost of postage.
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| The trusty Vandy at rest. |
ILSSA Co-Operator Local 917 Shop RC will be printing letterpress holiday cards on-demand for two days only. That's right, while-you-wait letterpress printing! December 5 & 6, from 10am-5pm, as part of the city-wide Artful Gifts Trail. Many other studios in the former American Fabrics factory will be open: AmFab Art & Design Center, 1069 Connecticut Ave, Bridgeport CT.
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| A sneak peak at the results of our members' skill practicing. |
The ILSSA Operators are hard at work producing the boxed sets to house the spoils of the first annual Festival to Plead for Skills. The Festival was a huge success; some mad skills are in evidence. Participating Impractical Laborers, expect your package to arrive before the end of 2009.
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| 16 July Update: See images of ILSSA Members observing the Festival! |
This summer, on the 7th day of the 7th month, ILSSA will celebrate its own version of The Festival to Plead for Skills. The festival is derived from the Chinese holiday of Qi Xi and the Japanese festival of Tanabata, in which celebrants wish for the betterment of their own craftsmanship. Instead of wishing, the ILSSA festival will be a holiday of practicing.
We hereby invite all ILSSA Members to observe this holiday by making 55 small objects as iterations of their practice. The 55 objects should be no larger than 2 inches in any dimension, and should be the natural result of practicing a skill: using a tool, trying a method, honing a technique. Conceive of this project as something you can complete entirely on July 7th. We imagine Impractical Laborers across the land, practicing together in observance of the holiday.
After the Festival, we ask that you mail your resulting 55 objects to ILSSA. We will then collate the objects into 55 custom-boxed sets which will house one object from each participant. Each participating ILSSA Member will receive a set as a commemorative archive of the holiday and a physical manifestation of our collective action.
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| Local 347 Shop FS workin' the ILSSA Table. |
ILSSA will be tabling at the Hybrid Book Conference in Philadelphia. See you there!
ILSSA Co-Operator Local 917 Shop RC speaks about ILSSA, DIY self-publishing, and the Letterpress Renaissance at the Center for Book Arts. She'll be in most excellent company: also on the panel is Vandercook-expert Paul Moxon and The (mighty) Arm's Daniel Morris, the latter of whom has since joined us as an ILSSA member!
ILSSA Co-Operator Local 347 Shop FS will be presenting at the Southeastern Women's Studies Assoication (SEWSA) 2009 Conference, Women & Environments, at Appalachian State University in Boone, NC. The panel is entitled Women in the Book Arts: Community Building, the Environment, and an Attempt To Transcend and the five panelists will address their work as it relates to feminism, capitalism, the body, and the environment.