Lecture by Sara Black of the artist collective "Material Exchange," visiting artist in Intermedia

-as a celebration of the human and biological labor embedded in materials,  -as a means of investigating the complex relationships between humans and things, objects and images, representations and their referents,  -as an inquiry into the various forms of being, -as an elaboration of the western interest in found materials from Duchamp's experiments with ready-mades to driftwood figurines, from Rauschenberg's combines to ethnographic artifacts and religious reliquaries, -as a symbolic or tactical intervention, -as an antidote to expansionist economics, -as alternately apocalyptic and utopian"

The projects of Material Exchange have been exhibited at the Smart Museum of Art, The Experimental Station, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago, The Betty Rymer Gallery, Gallery 400, The Hyde Park Art Center, Threewalls, Eyebeam, The Park Avenue Armory, The DeVos Art Museum and others. Other projects include collaborative workshops or courses with art and design students at the Northern Michigan University, Illinois Institute of Technology, Harrington College of Design, Braddock Active Arts, The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and Street Level Youth Media. Material Exchange is Sara Black, Alta Buden, John Preus, and David Wolf. More information available at www.material-exchange.com