Screening followed by discussion with filmmaker Andy Slater. Tickets are free for SAIC and University of Illinois - Chicago students with a valid ID.

Slater’s work is “an invitation to take note of how everyday sounds can become art.” Gaylor Hall, WGNTV

Andy Slater’s rich and evocative works combine distorted field recordings, alternative texts, and the singular rhythms and sonic colors of vintage accessible technologies. In a program designed especially for the Gene Siskel Film Center’s acoustic capabilities, Slater will present a selection of recent sound-based works inspired by research into Crypto Acoustic Auditory Non-Hallucination, a midcentury scientific theory hypothesizing that some blind people have the capacity to hear trans-dimensionally. Casting audiences into deep sonic drifts and waves of echoing repetitions, his compositions create the perception of ever morphing space, continually shifting between the sensual and psychic. Each work will be accompanied by a poetic set of alt texts, expansively building on ideas of access and accessibility. Slater will also discuss his recent work in virtual and augmented reality. This event will have ASL, real-time captions (CART), and Alt texts. 

Presented in partnership with Disability Culture Activism Lab (DCAL) in SAIC's Department of Art Therapy and Counseling, Access Living, and Gallery 400 at the University of Illinois at Chicago, in conjunction with the exhibition Crip*, on view from January 14 to March 12.  This program is partially supported by a grant from the Illinois Arts Council Agency.


Festivals, Awards, & Nominations

Awardee, 2022–23 Leonardo CripTech Incubator Fellowship
Awardee,  2022 United States Artists Fellowship
transmediale, Berlin
Walker Art Center, Minneapolis


About the artist

Andy Slater is a Chicago-based media artist, sound designer, and disability advocate. He is the founder of the Society of Visually Impaired Sound Artists and a teaching artist with the Atlantic Center for the Arts’ Young Sound Seekers program. Slater’s current work focuses on advocacy for accessible art and technology, alt text for sound and image, science fiction, spatial audio for extended reality, and sound design for film and video games. He has exhibited and performed at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago; Contemporary Jewish Museum, San Francisco; transmediale, Berlin; Ian Potter Museum of Art, Melbourne; Critical Distance, Toronto; Gallery 400, Chicago; Experimental Sound Studio, Chicago; Art Institute of Chicago; Flux Factory, New York; Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; and MOMENTA, Chicago. He is a 2022 United States Artists fellow,  a 2022–23 Leonardo CripTech Incubator fellow, and was a 2018 3Arts/Bodies of Work fellow at the University of Illinois Chicago. In 2020, the New York Times acknowledged his work in the article “28 Ways to Learn About Disability Culture.” Slater holds a master of arts in sound arts and industries from Northwestern University and a bachelor of fine arts from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.


We require proof of full vaccination for all screenings and events at the Film Center. See our full COVID-19 policy and details below. 

COVID-19 SAFETY PROTOCOLS