June 10 11 12 Empty Bottle Chicago
10
Lucky Dragons
White Rainbow
Rene Hell
Mountains
James Plotkin
Zerang | Colligan | Baker Trio
Spiral Joy Band
CVLTS
11 Pelt
Oneohtrix Point Never
Bill Orcutt
Sickness
Outer Space
Sword Heaven
Dylan Ettinger
Leslie Keffer
12
Morton Subotnick
The Rita
Pulse Emitter
Telecult Powers
Mike Shiflet
Sick Llama
Beau Wanzer
Tiger Hatchery
Film by
Experimental 1/2 Hour
Alice Cohen
Amy Ruhl
DJ sets
Beau Wanzer
John McEntire
Dave Quam
Visuals by
Loo Tapes
Theodore Darst
Aaron Zarzutzki
12 Sonic Celluloid
Sam Prekop
Lichens
David Daniell
Lucky Dragons (Official Site | Acid Marshmallow Video) means any recorded or performed or installed or packaged or shared or suggested or imagined pieces made by Luke Fischbeck, Sarah Rara, and/or any sometimes collaborators who claim the name. The name "Lucky Dragons" is borrowed from a japanese fishing boat caught in the fallout of hydrogen bomb test at bikini atoll in the 1950's. The crew stricken ill, and the boat itself contaminated, the "lucky dragon" became a crystalizing symbol for the previously diffuse worldwide anti-nuclear sentiment. Eventually the boat was painted black, renamed the "dark falcon", and put into reuse as a fishing vessel, until it was retired and disposed of on the man-made trash island "dream island", where it remains today.
Lucky Dragons are about the birthing of new and temporary creatures–equal-power situations in which audience members cooperate amongst themselves, building up fragile networks held together by such light things as skin contact, unfamiliar language, temporary logic, the spirit of celebration, and things that work but you don't know why. There have been hundreds of these simple yet shifting and unpredictable instances–with audiences ranging from the intense intimacy of one person to the public spectacle of thousands of people. At the heart of it all is playing together–building up social collectivities, re-engaging the wonder and impossibility of technological presence. It sounds–and looks–like simple and ancient patterns coming together and falling apart in a sincere attempt to let wires and screens and words become clear and crystal.
They keep a busy schedule of performances and visits and festivals and workshops and things, in the present, and in the past: The Institute for Contemporary Arts London, the 2008 Whitney Biennial, NY's PS1, the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris, the Philadelphia Institute for Contemporary Art, the Portland Institute for Contemporary Art, the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, Frankfurt's Schirn Kunsthalle, Los Angeles' The Smell, NY's The Kitchen, The Smithsonian Institute's Hirshorn Museum, Cooper Union, the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, etc. Lucky dragons live in Los Angeles California and have recorded 19 albums which are all available for downloading.