Inferno is the Chicago Park District’s Mobile Media Arts program. We create community-relevant and participant-centered digital media with people throughout the city.
In summer, Inferno facilitates a mobile sound/media arts residency. Our teaching artists work with Chicago Park District day camps, Special Recreation participants, and the TRACE program to engage participants. Through creative writing and digital media making, participants explore collaboration and document their own ideas to share at home and with the world.
In addition to inferno's work during the summer, we facilitate a wide variety of community Media Art projects and events year-round.
To learn more, Check out the Inferno Cookbook where you can learn, not only why we do what we do, but how to do many of the activities our artists facilitate in the parks!
2021 Programming
In the Spring and Fall of 2021, Inferno will be launching the Inferno Sound Lab at Columbus Park.
The Inferno Sound Lab at Columbus park meets to foster and celebrate sonic creativity. It is a space to dream, prototype, and refine your music and/or sound related creations. Participants will have the opportunity to engage in relevant workshops, create new music and sound related art, and connect with their peers. Examples of workshop titles include lyric writing, music production in the browser, composition strategies, etc.
From July 5th - August 13th our artists will work with young people in the Chicago Park District's day camps, and special recreation groups to create and record digital media. Through creative writing and digital music making, participants will explore collaboration and document their own ideas to share at home and with the world.
2020 Programming
Summer/Fall 2020
This summer our teaching artists, equipped with PPE, provided mobile music making drop-in programs for youth ages 7-12 years old, as well as virtual engagements for summer camp and Special Recreation participants.
As Inferno considered the health and safety of staff and participants, we decided to develop a hybrid of in-person and virtual content. That manifested in a series of 47 drop-in park visits and a variety of virtual engagements: 10 video tutorials, 13 sonic collaborations between teaching artists and park participants, 3 episodes of “Social Distance Radio,” and 4 videos made specifically for adults with special needs. We engaged 257 youth through our summer drop-ins and participated in 22 Special Recreation virtual summer camps with a total of 116 total contact hours.
This fall, we will deepen our partnerships with organizations like the Midwest Society for Acoustic Ecology and the Experimental Sound Studio, as well as continue to engage youth through a 7 week program at Columbus Park led by AJ McClennon. Looking to 2021, we are working on developing year-round engagement with Special Recreation participants, modeled after our summer virtual visits developed by teaching artists Rob Frye and Ben Lamar Gay.
Watch Inferno & Special Recreation Videos:
Listen to Social Distance Radio: