P L E A S E R E A D
All registered conference attendees will receive 5 free, personalized codes via email to interact with the performance.
All further proceeds generated from the performance will go directly towards the Iron Futures Scholarship.
Find out more about the Scholarship HERE.
​
.
Click on the donate button below to get started!
​
You will be gifted 5 additional codes per donation.
Upon completion of the transaction, the codes will be sent to the email address that was used during payment.
​
Click here to donate to the Iron Futures Scholarship ➜
*In order to use your codes, you must have a twitch account set up.
Type something in the chatbox to get started! Please have your pop-up settings turned on.
About the Performance
During this streaming performance, the iron community will interact with a live crew at Shepherd University to direct the various stages and operations of an iron pour. Conference attendees can also remotely trigger the “Fine With This” pyrotechnic sculpture and watch the results online. Inspired by K.C. Green’s famous meme, this fun and interactive atmosphere directs the community to reflect on what we can accomplish when we come together to make amazing experiences and work.
​
Learn More about the Performance:
Comic Strip from 'On Fire' by K.C. Green, 2013
The Artists
Kay Dartt (She/Her)
​
Kay Dartt is a sculptor with an interdisciplinary practice that combines craft, design, engineering, and philosophy. Her work reflects social behavior in western cultures that force an imbalance between the natural, artificial and virtual environments we interact with. Her aesthetics synthesizes biomorphic forms, consumer language and computational design elements. Through this work she challenges cultural philosophies of living by creating functional sculptures that exaggerate issues of environmental imbalance. As the 3D Fabrication Manager for the FASTEnER Lab at Shepherd University, she uses her practice to foster socially minded innovators and collaborate on interdisciplinary endeavors.
Taylor Hokanson (He/Him)
​
Taylor Hokanson is an Associate Professor of Art at Columbia College Chicago. His work is informed, like so many areas of culture, by the dissolving boundary between actual and virtual. He sees the global move to the cloud as an inflection point, a transformation so pivotal that it demands reevaluation of societal values. When information, and even objects themselves, can be shared at low or no cost across the internet, concepts like tangibility, access, authorship, and ownership become as plastic as the data that give them shape. The culture has not kept pace with the implications of these technologies, even as we invite them into every aspect of our lives. Hokanson’s creative practice identifies and problematizes those systems we take for granted, by creating artwork that uses functionality and humor to explore an uncertain future.
J. Stephen Lee (He/Him)
​
Stephen Lee is a designer and educator with experience in brand, motion, and interactive design. Past clients include AT&T, Gatorade, Google, IBM, and Nike. He has taught at a number of institutions both within the United States and abroad in India, Mexico, Spain, and Peru. He is currently an Assistant Professor in Graphic Design at Portland State University. He received his MFA in Graphic Design and Integrated Media from CalArts.
The Iron Futures Scholarship Fund
Travel expenses can be a major economic factor in an artist's decision to participate in events, exhibitions, and workshops. Economic mobility is inherent for marginalized individuals creating a limiting factor to have funds for professional development activities. The Iron Futures Conference and Travel Scholarship will provide financial support for artists and students from marginalized populations to attend and participate in the National Conference on Contemporary Cast Iron Art and Practice (NCCCIAP). The scholarship will cover conference fees and provide travel assistance if needed. All funds generated from the Performance, 'Fine With This', will be donated to Sloss Metal Arts for the Iron Futures Scholarship. This funding will empower diversifying voices in the iron casting community through direct financial support.
Click here to donate to the Iron Futures Scholarship ➜
Special Thanks
This project was supported in part by a Faculty Development Grant from Columbia College Chicago.
Production Assistance
Jess Roberts - OBS operator
Trent Krugler - Sound Technician
Chase Molden - Drone Pilot
​
​
Organizational Support
Shepherd University
SLOSS Metal Arts
Keystone Iron Works
Columbia College
Rivers of Steel - Carrie Blast Furnaces
Pour Team
Esperanza Alzona - Artist
Cricket Baynes - Artist
Christian Benefiel - Artist
Paige Henry - Furnace Captain / Artist
Alyssa Imes - Artist
Maddy Jason - Artist
Kyla Johnson - Artist
Lauren G. Koch - Artist
Mike Mendez - Artist
Nikki Moser - Artist
Ed Parrish - Artist
Rhiannon Scheidt - Mold Captain / Artist