Radical Pedagogies: CodeCreate and the Industrial Galaxy

Sunday, September 22nd (3-5 p.m.)

Compound Yellow
244 Lake St. 
Oak Park, IL  60302

free and open to the public, all ages

You are invited to come to "CodeCreate and the Industrial Galaxy" at Compound Yellow, led by Jeff Sweeton. CodeCreate and the Industrial Galaxy is the September 2019 edition of the Radical Pedagogies series. 

CodeCreate has worked with nearly eighty partners following the visions of founders, and husband and wife, Jeff Sweeton and Susan Zielinski. CodeCreate engages learners through personal design experiences with fundamental materials, integrating technology, art and diversity. Through workshops for youth and educators, exhibitions and cultural exchanges, CodeCreate shapes creative opportunities for audiences and participants to imagine, reflect, play and innovate.

During "CodeCreate and the Industrial Galaxy," evoking feelings by controlling light from both LEDs and incandescent sources, we'll consider constructionist engagement in technology and art as well as historic divisions and integrations. Hands-on building will be followed by discussions of famous and infamous pioneers like Edouard Manet, Bill Schockly, Steve Jobs, Maria Mitchell, Yayoi Kusama, Caine Monroy, William Kamkwamba, Julie Taymor and Leah Buechley, as well as stories "from the trenches" of CodeCreate making and coding with students across the world as well as in-progress peeks of the Industrial Galaxy, commissioned from CodeCreate by Art of the Cosmos, an international celebration of the 30th anniversary of the Hubble Telescope.

Jeff Sweeton's love for expression started early in life, tinkering aside his family and exploring journalism, social sciences, theater and freelance video in middle and high school.  He has produced work with learners young and old in groups such as Adobe Youth Voices, MIT's Media Lab, National Science Foundation, National Association of Art Educators, Off Hollywood Film Festival, Lawndale Christian Development Corporation, Jewish Family Services, Intel, Chicago Park District and many more groups locally and around the world. He has also taught at Northwestern University's Center for Talent Development for about ten years. He earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Film and Video from the Savannah College of Art and Design and a Certificate in Youth Work from the Chicago Area Project.

above: CodeCreate Night Out in the Parks program (2018)

Susan Zielinski has been making and recognizing beautiful forms since her childhood in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.  She served the National Veterans Art Museum in roles including office management, curating and traveling to Saint Petersburg, Russia to the Museum of Political History where she presented on the difference between and benefits of therapeutic art and art therapy. Much of her work focuses on growing up in rural surroundings and/or medical ailments that have made her think differently about the world and the stigma that goes along with being part of any marginalized community.  She earned her Bachelor of Fine Arts in Ceramics and Sculpture with a minor in Philosophy from Western Michigan University.  Susan also studied Batik and Ceramics at Student Art Centers International in Florence, Italy, Psychology at the University of Illinois at Chicago and Art Therapy at the Adler School of Professional Psychology.

CodeCreate and the Industrial Galaxy is part of the Radical Pedagogies series, which happens at Compound Yellow on the fourth Sunday of the month. This series is co-presented by Borderbend and Compound Yellow.