Making Home Saturday Series: Is Home Where the Body Is? (Session 2) Live Musical Performance of “Correspondence Song” (Session 2)
Join Cooper Hewitt for the next Making Home Saturday Series where we consider the hidden homes of our DNA with artist and biohacker Dr. Heather Dewey-Hagborg.
Dewey-Hagborg’s installation and soundtrack for Making Home—Smithsonian Design Triennial explores the architectural and cultural footprint of so-called “biobanks.” Filled with biological samples routinely collected at hospitals and medical centers, biobanks house and preserve our medical specimens for public and private research, often conducted with minimal informed consent.
For Session 2, enjoy a live performance of “Correspondence Song,” a musical version of Dewey-Hagborg’s exchanges with medical institutions and third parties as she attempts to track down her blood samples. The performance, will include voice and acoustic instruments performed by composer Niki Main, Danielle Buonaiuto, Jules Biber, and Jessica Tsang.
Please note: The performance will take place on the second floor of the museum after a presentation by Dewey-Hagborg in Session 1. It is standing room only and first come first served.
About the Making Home Saturday Series
The Making Home Saturday Series is a quarterly program that pairs special guests with participants from Making Home—Smithsonian Design Triennial. The program’s two-part sessions include conversations on exhibition-related themes, including systems, belonging, memory, care, and building, as well as the contemporary concepts of home related to race, class, migration, climate, and technology.
SPEAKERS
Dr. Heather Dewey-Hagborg is a New York-based artist and biohacker who is interested in art as research and technological critique. Dewey-Hagborg has shown work internationally at events and venues including the World Economic Forum, the Daejeon Biennale, the Guangzhou Triennial, the Shenzhen Urbanism and Architecture Biennale, Transmediale, the Walker Center for Contemporary Art, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and PS1 MoMA. Her work is held in public collections of the Centre Pompidou, the Victoria and Albert Museum, and SFMOMA, among others, and has been widely discussed in the media, from the New York Times and the BBC to Artforum and Wired. Dewey-Hagborg has a PhD in Electronic Arts from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. She is an Artist-in-Residence at the Exploratorium and is an affiliate of Data & Society. She is a founding board member of Digital DNA, a European Research Council funded project investigating the changing relationships between digital technologies, DNA, and evidence.
Niki Main is a countertenor, composer, and poet based in Finland, the Netherlands, and the US. They are artistically at home in numerous contexts whether it be singing in front of an orchestra, behind the audio for an installation art exhibit, or acting in a performance art piece. Niki’s repertoire spans from the early baroque to romantic lieder and modern works, including premiering works by living composers. Recent projects include composing two chamber operas, It Takes a Child’s Imagination and 1994 San Marino Grand Prix, and collaborations with the Ostrobothnian, Avanti!, and Lapish Chamber Orchestras, EMO Ensemble, Musaics of the Bay, Koekeittiö, and Katarina Barruk and work for festivals and exhibitions including in Making Home–Smithsonian Design Triennial at the Cooper Hewitt, UrbanApa Miniresidency at Tekstintalo, Musica Nova Helsinki, and FRONT International Triennial. Other recent performances include the premiere of Riikka Talvitie’s Queen of the Cold Land Prologue for countertenor and orchestra, John Cage’s Songbooks directed by Joan La Barbara, and the roles of Honour in Purcell’s King Arthur, Liberto, Lucano, and Littore in Monteverdi’s L’incoronazione di Poppea, and Vistole in F. Caccini’s La liberazione di Ruggiero.
AccessibiliTy & What to Expect
- Format: The program will begin with a brief welcome, then the speakers will engage in a presentation and conversation.
- About the space: Session 1 will take place in Cooper Hewitt’s Lecture Room on the ground floor of the museum. It is fully wheelchair accessible. Theater-style seating is available. Session 2 will take place on the second floor of the museum, accessible by wheelchair. The performance is standing room only. There is an accessible restroom on the ground floor. Read more about accessibility at Cooper Hewitt.
- Accommodations: Session 1 will have live CART captioning. If we can provide additional services to support your participation, email us at CHEducation@si.edu or let us know when you register. Please make your request as far in advance as possible—preferably at least ten days before the program date.
- Recording: The program will be recorded and posted on Cooper Hewitt’s YouTube channel within two weeks.
Support
Making Home—Smithsonian Design Triennial is presented in collaboration with Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture. This project received federal support from the Smithsonian American Women’s History Initiative Pool, administered by the Smithsonian American Women’s History Museum; the Latino Initiatives Pool, administered by the National Museum of the American Latino; the Asian Pacific American Initiatives Pool, administered by the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center; and the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture.
Generous support is provided by the Henry Luce Foundation and the Terra Foundation for American Art.
Support is also provided by the Lily Auchincloss Foundation; Edward and Helen Hintz; re:arc institute; the Keith Haring Foundation; the Lemberg Foundation; Maharam; and the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts.
