title: Chinet
duration: variable

description:
Chinet is a semi-biographical work depicting the various influences that China and the United States have upon each other. Sometimes culturally seeing each other as invasive species other times mutual benefactors, it can be debated that one is overpowering the other. In Chinet the image of a star is used as the central motif i.e. the flag of China and as the logo for "America's team" the Dallas Cowboys.

"If you ordered lasagna at a Chinese restaurant, it would look like this." Such is Jim Phelps' description of "Chinet", a multimedia program presented by Shotguns To Daylight, an art duo comprised of Jim Phelps and Bart Woodstrup, Music and Art Professors, respectively, at Northern Illinois University.

"There are multiple, thick layers of Sino-American metaphor advanced by somewhat 'uncomfortable bed-fellows' of chosen subjects and objects", continues Phelps. Chinet offers its materials with 3 projection screens, two computers, electric guitars and non-traditional sound controllers. Sound and visual components were composed by Phelps and Woodstrup, sometimes working independently and at other times in close collaboration with one another. Phelps performs Chinet using guitar and computer controlled samples while Bart Woodstrup performs using a "Wii shotgun" that controls custom software - the interface to which is itself part of the art and, as such, is projected into the performance space.

Prof. Woodstrup sees this audio/visual performance as a "big character poster" designed to "inspire people to do what they do not want to do in order to achieve what they want to achieve." On working with Dr. Phelps he states "Chinet is a great leap forward in our collaborative process and represents a very productive force of technological and social concerns."


collaborators:
James Phelps
price: N/A
format: Live Performance

exhibitions:
2010 Recital Hall, NIU School of Music, DeKalb, IL