SLIPPAGE: 2025 3D Humanities Series
The Slippage: 3D Humanities Series aims to nurture the formation of an interdisciplinary learning community that critically engages the connections between performance, history, theater, and emerging technologies. The 3-part performance and workshop series is designed to expose Northwestern University audiences to professional artists with technology-enhanced practices, and to provide participants with the skills and on-campus resources that enable innovative humanities research. Each event will pair a performance and discussion led by a technology-focused professional performance artist, with a hands-on skills-based workshop led by Northwestern University faculty or staff. The workshops will allow participants to engage technologies such as: motion capture, 3D digitization and printing, artificial intelligence and mechatronics – merging technological skill sets with critical discussions around artistry, humanity, and social possibilities.
Series Convenors: Thomas DeFrantz (SLIPPAGE Lab/Performance Studies), Craig Stevens (Northwestern IT: Media & Technology Innovation/Anthropology), Ted Quiballo (Northwestern Libraries)
Workshop Leaders: Thomas DeFrantz, Ted Quiballo, Craig Stevens Michael A. Peshkin, Nick Marchuk, Darren Gergle
Sponsors: The Alice Kaplan Institute for the Humanities; The Alumnae of Northwestern University; Northwestern Libraries; Northwestern Depts. of IT and Performance Studies; and SLIPPAGE Lab.
Want to hear more from these researchers? Join them earlier at 3PM in the SLIPPAGE Lab for Prof DeFrantz’s Performance + Technology class, open to the public!
April 16, 2025
Ben Baker
Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Colby College
Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Colby College, working at the intersection of Philosophy of Mind, Neuroscience, Cognitive Science, and AI. Previously I was a postdoctoral fellow in computational neuroscience at UPenn, where I also completed a PhD in Philosophy. My research concerns the concepts and methodologies that philosophers and scientists use to understand cognitive capacities and artificial intelligence. I am especially interested in the cognition involved in complex and expressive movement, as in dance. I also received a JD from Yale, and am interested in legal and ethical questions about the integration of AI in society. I strive to empower my students to let their curiosity and passion drive them forward. Outside of my academic career I am a also parent, dancer, basketballer (knee permitting), reader, continual learner and erstwhile videogamer.
April 30, 2025
Eto Otitigbe
Assistant Professor of Art at Brooklyn College
Eto Otitigbe is interested in recovering buried narratives and giving form to the unseen. He is a polymedia artist whose interdisciplinary practice includes sculpture, performance, installation, and public art. His public art intersects history, community, and biophilic design by using parametric modeling and generative design to transform historical and cultural references into biomorphic forms and patterns that reference nature. Otitigbe’s public works includes temporary installations in Socrates Sculpture Park (Queens, NY) and Randall’s Island Park (New York, NY). His current large-scale public commissions include: Peaceful Journey (Mt. Vernon, NY, 2022); Cascode (Philadelphia, PA, 2024); Emanativ (Harlem, NY, 2023); Passing Point (Alexandria, VA, 2023). He was a member of the Design Team for the Memorial to Enslaved Laborers at UVA (Charlottesville, VA, 2019) where he contributed to the creative expression on the memorial’s exterior surface.
Otitigbe’s work has been in solo and group exhibitions that include 2013 Bronx Calling: The Second AIM Biennial, organized by the Bronx Museum and Wave Hill; Abandoned Orchestra, Sound Sculpture installation and performance with Zane Rodulfo, Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY; The Golden Hour, Oakland Cemetery, Atlanta, GA, curated by Oshun D. Layne; and Bronx: Africa, Longwood Gallery, Bronx, NY, curated by Atim Oton and Leronn P. Brooks.
Otitigbe’s fellowships and awards include the Creative Capital Award (2023), the CEC Artslink Project Award for travel and cultural projects in Egypt, and the Smithsonian Artist Research Fellowship at the National Museum of African Art where he explored the intersection of Urhobo language and historical objects.
His curatorial projects include directing the es ORO Gallery in Jersey City, NJ (2007-09) and co-curating, alongside Amanda Kerdahi, the Topophilia Exhibition in Nees, Denmark (2017) as part of the ET4U Meetings Festival in Denmark.
He is an Assistant Professor of Sculpture in the Art Department at Brooklyn College. He received a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from MIT, an M.S. in Product Design from Stanford University (M.S.) and an MFA in Creative Practice from the University of Plymouth.
MAY 14, 2025
LaJuné McMillian
Multidisciplinary Artist and Educator
LaJuné is a Multidisciplinary Artist, and Educator creating art that integrates performance, extended reality, and physical computing to question our current forms of communication. They are passionate about discovering, learning, manifesting, and stewarding spaces for liberated Black Realities and the Black Imagination. LaJune believes in making by diving into, navigating, critiquing, and breaking systems and technologies that uphold systemic injustices to decommodify our bodies, undo our indoctrination, and make room for different ways of being.
LaJuné has had the opportunity to show and speak about their work at Pioneer Works, National Sawdust, Leaders in Software and Art, Creative Tech Week, and Art & Code’s Weird Reality. LaJuné was previously the Director of Skating at Figure Skating in Harlem, where they integrated STEAM and Figure Skating to teach girls of color about movement and technology. They have continued their research on Blackness, movement, and technology during residencies and fellowships at the Jerome Hill Artist Fellowship, Eyebeam, Pioneer Works, Barbarian Group, and Barnard College. .
