Interactive Lecture Series

OJO Presents Interactive Lecture Series
An Engagement Party Event at MOCA
THURSDAY, AUGUST 6, 7-10pm

MOCA Grand Avenue,
Ahmanson Auditorium
250 South Grand Avenue
Los Angeles, CA 90012

moca.org/party

For the final event of their three-month Engagement Party residency, OJO, along with special guests as well as members of the audience, will create an abnormal lecture experience. Interactive Lecture Series will take place at MOCA Grand Avenue in the Ahmanson Auditorium on Thursday, August 6, 2009, from 7 to 10pm. This performance will consist of a series of lectures, each of which will act as a musical score, with the speaker, audience, space, and environment functioning as compositional elements. As talks are presented on various topics, members of OJO will take up position beside the lectern as the house band, using audio trickery to affect the audience’s reception of live speech. Focusing on specific words and phrases in order to induce listeners to react in all sorts of ways, their interventions should lead to chaotic and memorable lectures. Cash bar. This event is FREE and open to the public. No reservations are required.

OJO
Founded in 2005 by visual artists Joshua Aster, Justin Cole, Eamon Ore-Giron, Chris Avitabile, Moises Medina, and Brenna Youngblood, OJO is formed around a mutual interest in experimenting with acoustic guitars, electronics, musical spontaneity, freeform improvisation, and the boundaries between audience and performer. The group uses a wide range of instruments—drum machines, basses, guitars, synthesizers, salt, cars—as well as their own bodies and those of their audience, clapping, chanting, stomping, and singing to generate sprawling improvisations. OJO has created projects for Queen’s Nails Annex in San Francisco, Esthetics as a Second Language (available as a CD produced by James Welling), LAXART (available as an LP from laxart.org), BANK, Lizabeth Oliveria Gallery, and A+D Museum in Los Angeles. The group has also performed at the Hammer Museum, TRUDI, and Track 16, Los Angeles, and on KXLU 88.9FM.

Engagement Party
MOCA’s Engagement Party presents new artworks in the form of dynamic social events and performances by LA–based artist collectives. Engagement Party is made possible by a grant from The James Irvine Foundation.

Parking for MOCA Grand Avenue
Parking is recommended at the Walt Disney Concert Hall garage; flat rate after 4pm. Parking is also available in surrounding lots.

MEDIA CONTACTS:

Lyn Winter
Tel 213/633-5390
lwinter@moca.org

Jessica Youn
Tel 213/633-5322
jyoun@moca.org