Goethe-Institut Boston Announces Studio 170 Artist-In- Residence and Events for Spring 2023

Goethe-Institut Boston has announced spring events by its Studio 170 Artist-In-Residence program. An initiative to feature and support New England-area artists, Studio 170 provides artists and audiences with an open, lively place for inspiration, experimentation, and open discourse in the heart of Boston.

Taking place in the Institut's beautifully renovated space in Back Bay, this spring's Studio 170 events feature an installation by artists/architects Stratton Coffman and Aaron Powers. The project, titled "Poly Pockets," runs May 13-19 and seeks to broaden the kinds of public life a street tent can host beyond commercial use through a series of modifications made to generic tent materials. The opening on May 13, 6-8 PM encourages visitors to interact with the pocket assemblages while listening to sounds of a dj set, munching hot pockets and empanadas, and watching the debut of the pocket video performance "poly won't you won't you" by performer, digital artist, and clown Carlos Sanchez. Additional events give the public a chance to experience the architectural experiment in action - these include a game night with pocket-sized games and a listening session featuring guest sound artists. Another option is to book a personalized tour with the artists.

A second artist residency is planned for Fall 2023, details TBA soon. The next call for artists for 2024 will open in September 2023 with November submission deadline and invites artists based in New England from all fields of artistic practice to submit proposals. The Goethe-Institut Boston plans to build the program to include opportunities for New England artists to connect with, work in and dialogue with artists from Germany and its international art scene.

Studio 170 director Annette Klein explains "Studio 170 was created to offer artists and creatives in New England a space to experiment and develop new ideas, inspired by the realisation that this kind of space has become rare and unaffordable in greater Boston. But it's more than just a creative space: Studio 170 is connected with the Goethe-Institut, which offers its artists-in-residence a well-known platform with interested audience, an international network of cultural partners, and an open door to Germany and beyond. We are working to expand the program to include funding for artist residencies in Germany, international mentorship programs and opportunities to dialogue and cooperate with visiting artists from Germany."

Stratton Coffman and Aaron Powers, "Poly Pockets" Architectural Installation

May 13-19, 2023

https://www.goethe.de/ins/us/en/sta/bos/ver.cfm?event_id=24667076

170 Beacon St, Boston, MA 02116

Events:

Opening Reception with DJ and Food: Saturday, May 13, 6-8 PM

Listening Session with local sound artists: Tuesday, May 16, 7-9 PM

Film screening with DEFA film "The Airshop": Wednesday, May 17, 6:30 PM

Pocket Game Night: Friday, May 19, 6-8 PM

Book a rendezvous to view installation May 15-17: https://calendar.google.com/calendar/u/0/appointments/schedules/AcZssZ2Zp5o1buSgoSzBIG-wVgb5JJbnQqPxY8-ef92ZZtFcwsZ5OX-QAdpuWu_Q5YzHJ2aM-3WWifoe?pli=1

Free admission to all events

Detailed Description:

Inspired by the new street uses that emerged during the pandemic, Poly Pockets is a public art installation in the form of a series of reconfigurable tent structures.

During the pandemic, buildings turned inside out. Things that used to happen inside moved into the street. The tent became the enclosure of choice for this new zone, but it has been used almost exclusively for dining. Poly Pockets is a set of modifications made to generic tent materials to expand what the street tent can host and what is legally permitted and culturally desired within the street. A roll of poly sheeting is subdivided and sewn into pockets that take on versatile roles when stuffed with whatever is on hand. Sand or crushed aggregate to make weighted pockets. Insulation to make thermal mass bodies. Soft stuffing to make comfy pads for resting. Sheet material to make rigid planes. Or mostly anything else. Through cutting, stitching, attaching, and filling, the building enclosure is deconstructed into pockets with special talents that can be recombined and linked together into different formats, from piles to lean-to's to columns to [ ].

The final installation will not only set the backdrop/stage for two events conceived by the artists, but for regular Goethe-Institut offerings, to be part of the fabric of the institute for a week. This will give curious visitors and the institut's regular clientele the opportunity to interact with the interactive installation via film screenings, opening reception with food, music performances, game night, and a teacher-training workshop.

This project was made possible with funding from the Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning at the University of Michigan.

Team:

Aaron Powers

Strat Coffman

Ellie Ervin (fabrication)

Sabrina Ramsay (fabrication)

Aaron Powers (he/him, @aaeon_poeer) and Stratton Coffman (they/them, @bagstrat) are friends who collaborate on design projects. They both received Masters of Architecture from MIT in 2020. Individually and jointly their work has appeared at the MIT List Visual Arts Center, the Multimedia Anthropology Lab at UCL, and the Serpentine Pavilion in London.

Strat Coffman uses the multi-facing tools of architecture to explore how capital, institutions, and design discourses conspire to produce material, social, and epistemic bodies. They are an Architecture Fellow at University of Michigan and co-instigator of the architecture research and design working group Proof of Concept with Isadora Dannin. They hold a BA from Wesleyan University and M.Arch from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where they received the Imre Halasz Thesis Prize and the AIA Henry Adams Medal. Their work has appeared in Log, the MIT List Visual Arts Center, and the Multimedia Anthropology Lab at University College London. They were previously an editor of Thresholds 48: Kin and a fellow at the MIT Transmedia Storytelling Initiative and are currently a 2023 artist-in-residence at the Goethe Institut.

Aaron Powers is a designer based in Los Angeles where he is currently working with creative director Willo Perron. He has worked internationally at design firms such as BIG - Bjarke Ingels Group and Buro Ole Scheeren, where he has been involved in prominent projects including the 2016 Serpentine Pavilion at the Serpentine Galleries in London and the Guardian Art Center in Beijing. Aaron has been a lecturer at the Ohio State University where he taught undergraduate and graduate design studios. He holds a master's degree from MIT.

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