On a quiet street on Chicago’s South Side, a six-foot-by-seven-foot screen glows every night from sunset to sunrise. The glowing storefront window is known as The Night Gallery. In month-long installations, The Night Gallery projects architectural visualizations ranging from algorithmic generative drawings to looping coded animations.
The architecture office Future Firm hosts The Night Gallery on its storefront. The young practice launched the gallery in May to showcase the works of other young practices dabbling in video. The current show, opened last Friday, is entitled An Algorithm for Living in. Produced by Los Angeles–based speculative designer Lee Cody, the show explores the “space of your google search history.”
Past shows include When the Drawing is Moving by Carl Lostritto and Another Campo Marzio by Outpost Office. When the Drawing is Moving explored randomness in computational animated line drawings. Another Campo Marzio uses coding software to reexamine Piranesi’s classic Campo Marzio etchings, re-configuring urban fragments into a continuous streaming animation.
The next two installations will be The Enchanted Forest: Satellite Canopies and Digital Understories by Jenny Rodenhouse and (Another) Rear Window by BairBalliet. The final installation, which will run through November, has yet to be announced.
The Night Gallery launches a new installation on the third Friday of each month. Every new show starts with a gathering along the sidewalk in front of Future Firm to hear comments from the artist. The next opening will be on August 18th, but each ongoing exhibition can be seen every night. The Night Gallery and Future Firm are located at 3149 S. Morgan St. in Bridgeport, Chicago.