Adrienne Ciskey (2015 alumna) and Juliana Piscitiello (2014 alumna) will be presenting work in the September 3-6 in the O+ Festival, a celebration of art and music in Pilsen that creates a bridge to access health care for artists. The O+ festival’s mission is to foster complete physical, mental and social well-being by connecting artists directly with a coalition of health care providers and health resources, in a shared vision to nurture the individual and the community.
Ciskey will be demoing her game she developed as her InterArts thesis, Bitter Pills, on Friday September 4. Ciskey’s current body of work involves creating experiences that embrace the interactive storytelling nature of games to speak about the issues surrounding living with a chronic invisible illness. She gave a talk in June at Northwestern University to masters students in Healthcare Communication. Ciskey presented Bitter Pills, and then answered questions about using games as communication tools in healthcare environments. The conversation became the basis for her new podcast, “Gaming for Good,” which will debut in January and tackle the notion that gaming can position itself as a medium of communication for a wide variety subjects outside of the “game room.” Furthermore, she also is participating in Chicago Artists Month in the exhibition CYCLE P15 in collaboration with artist and recently retired InterArts professor Annette Barbier. Ciskey and Barbier will be exhibiting an augmented reality artwork inspired by an innovative solution to remove phosphorus from the city water supply. As part of the exhibition, Cycle P15 will hold a special even Game On!, which includes board-game artwork by local teens.
For the O+ festival, Piscitiello will be revisiting a solo work Variation on Aurora during the main festival on Friday September 4, as well performing as a new untitled experimental work with collaborator Sara Broussard during a special kick off party for the artists, musicians, healthcare providers, and volunteers. Piscitiello recently has started taking classes in stand-up comedy and performing at open mics, saying “in the last few years, my work has drawn heavily on my own experience living with an invisible disability. I’ve recently begun to explore the conversation around ableism through stand-up comedy.”
For more details on the performance times at the O+ festival for both artists as the O+ schedule is finalized, click here. For the Facebook event link, click here.
