This festival will be held from February 29 to March 1 at the University of Chicago’s Media Arts, Data, and Design Center. All events are free and open to the public, unless otherwise noted.

Through an exhibition, workshops, and talks, the Commiserate Chicago media arts festival invites artists and researchers to reflect on the state of media art alongside the life and survival of the field in a city remote of any major art market. The festival will begin with a keynote by Assistant Professor Sophia Brueckner, University of Michigan, on critical optimism on Saturday; continue with a keynote by Desiree Foerster, PhD, University of Potsdam, on Sunday; and close with a public Tea Time.

The exhibition will debut Spectrum Services by Michael Workman and feature works by Yo-yo Lin, Keer Yang, James J.A. Mercer, Yifan Jiang, Heather Kelley, Molle Industria, Caren Ye, Roi Ye, Chun Song, Sean Capone, Locument, Marco Harnam Kaisth, Scarlett Kim, Jean-Michel Rolland, Igor Furtado, Delfina Liderjover, Tongqi Wang, the FRAME SWITCH team (Eric Espig, Chaz Evans, Derrick Fields, Jonathan Kinkley, Julia Leeb, Brice Puls), David Sanchez Burr, localStyle (Marlena Novak + Jay Alan Yim) with Joslyn Willauer, Jamie Brew, Cristyn Magnus, Ben Grosser, Yuemin Huang, WeiYi Feng, Rosella Nisio, Martha Poggioli, Nayda Collazo-Llorens, Jason Zhao, Douglas Rosman, Alan Perry, Amira Hanafi, Allan Pichardo, Andy Campbell, and Jakyung Lee.
In collaboration with CHIMEfest 2020: CIRCULATIONS, the exhibition will co-feature works by Jason Charney, Sean Russell, and Pétur Eggerts.

Talks from Channel TWo, Maryam Faridani, Nick Briz, Patrick Jagoda, Martha Poggioli & Nicki Ni, and John Anderson & Tammy Burnstock.

Workshops from Jenna Boyles, Netizen, Chris Coleman, Yuzhu Chai, Divergent Design Lab, and Douglas Rosman & Amay Kataria.
In collaboration with the MADD Center’s Local Produce series, the program will co-feature a workshop from Bea Malsky.