and a route — ROMAN SUSAN

One’s Position (and a route)
Experimental Sound Studio
5925 N Ravenswood Ave, Chicago IL
April 17, 2026 - June 6, 2026

Opening Friday, April 17 from 6-9 PM
Activations Saturdays from 1-4 PM

If you were going to guide someone around where you live, where would you take them? This exhibition is a showcase of projects in and about public space. Each week, a different artist is featured on the Audible Gallery sound system, amplifying work that is taking place across the City. One’s Position (and a route) includes elements of:

Dear Human by Christa Donner
at West Ridge Nature Park

What is a Tree? by John-Michael Korpal
at Warren Park

1-833-NATR-XXX by Eliza Fernand
via Toll-free Hotline

Shore Land by JeeYeun Lee
on Lakefill into ᒥᓯᑲᒥ

mille tendresse-mille fleurs by J. Kent
as Worn Garments

Umwelt by Mark Alcazar Diaz
through Uptown Alleyways

A Girly Show by Jared Brown and AJ McClenon
at Berger Park Cultural Center

Experimental Sound Studio is a Chicago-based nonprofit organization dedicated to artistic evolution and the creative exploration of sound. As an international hub for sonic experimentation, ESS nurtures artists, cultivates new works, and builds a broad, supportive community of makers, enthusiasts, and creative partners through production, presentation, education, and preservation. Collaboration and resource sharing propel ESS’s activities. Our Edgewater facility is home to a full-service recording, mixing, and mastering studio; Audible Gallery, a small public space for exhibitions, meetings, workshops, performances, and artists’ projects; a beautiful garden for performances and gathering; and the Creative Audio Archive—an invaluable collection of recordings and ephemera related to avant-garde and exploratory sound and music of the last seven decades. For more information, please visit ess.org.

Mark Alcazar Diaz, born in Manila and lives and works in Chicago, Illinois, is an artist, educator, and arts administrator. He works in a variety of media, including video, drawing, and object making, to examine issues around migration, memory of place, and natureculture. As an extension of his artistic practice, Diaz has facilitated youth art collaborations through several community arts organizations in Chicago. He also develops and leads interactive workshops for teachers and artists to form dynamic collaborations to explore the intersection of aesthetics and pedagogy. He received a Master of Fine Arts from the University of Illinois Chicago. For more information and work, please visit markalcazardiaz.com.

Jared Brown is an interdisciplinary artist born in Chicago. In past work, Jared broadcasted audio and text-based work through the radio (CENTRAL AIR RADIO, 88.5 FM), in live DJ sets, and on social media. They consider themselves a data thief, understanding this role from John Akomfrah's description of the data thief as a figure that does not belong to the past or present. As a data thief, Jared Brown makes archeological digs for fragments of Black American subculture, history, and technology. Jared repurposes these fragments in audio, text, and video to investigate the relationship between history and digital, immaterial space. Follow @jsbxse.

Christa Donner is an artist and organizer whose practice combines material exploration and social exchange to move between the emotional architecture of our own bodies and the layered histories of the world we inhabit. As a volunteer at West Ridge Nature Park she helped to redesign its nature play area in 2018. Donner's work is exhibited widely, including projects for the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science (Berlin, Germany), The NTU Centre for Contemporary Art (Singapore), Chiaki Kamikawa Contemporary Art (Paphos, Cyprus), and throughout the United States. For more information, please visit christadonner.com.

Eliza Fernand is an artist and educator who works primarily with video, sound, fabric, and clay. With a BFA in Sculpture from Pacific Northwest College of Art, and an MFA in Interdisciplinary Arts from Sierra Nevada University, they have led a cross-country career, attending over a dozen artist residencies and exhibiting internationally. A new citizen of Chicago, she continues to pursue artmaking and teaching opportunities, with the aim of provoking acceptance of loving practices outside of the norm, and promoting experimentation on all levels. For more information, please visit elizafernand.com.

J. Kent is an artist Roman Susan has had the pleasure of working with since 2013. For additional artist information, visit compostroses.com.

John-Michael Korpal creates inter-sensory works exploring the visceral shared space between art and the viewer. Korpal has exhibited throughout the Midwest, with work featured at the Grunwald Gallery of Art at the Kinsey Institute, Governor’s State University, Hyde Park Art Center, and elsewhere. Korpal has completed the Visual Art Certificate Program from Graham School-University of Chicago, and participated in the Center Program at Hyde Park Art Center. Korpal is a member of the Rogers Park Art Alliance, Chicago Calligraphy Collective, West Ridge Artists and Third Estate Art. For more info, please visit johnmichaelkorpal.com.

JeeYeun Lee is an interdisciplinary artist, writer, and activist based in occupied Potawatomi territory now known as Chicago. Through performance, objects, and socially engaged art, her work explores dynamics of connection, power, violence and resistance. Her work has been shown in Chicago, Detroit, Santa Fe, Ohio, Missouri, and France. She has worked with social justice and community-based organizations for over thirty years in immigrant rights, economic justice, LGBTQ issues, and domestic violence. She holds an M.F.A. in Fiber from Cranbrook Academy of Art, M.A. in Ethnic Studies from the University of California at Berkeley, and B.A. in Linguistics from Stanford University. For additional information, please visit jeeyeunlee.com.

AJ McClenon is a multi-disciplinary artist born and raised in Washington, DC, currently residing in Chicago. Alongside artistic experiences, A.J. is passionate about teaching and community collaborations with the goal that all the memories and histories that are said to have “too many Black people,” are told and retold again. To uphold these stories, AJ creates performances, installations, objects, sounds, visuals, and writings. These creations often revolve around an interest in water and aquatic life, escapism, Blackness, science, grief, US history, and the global future. More info at ajmcclenon.com.

One’s Position (and a route) is supported by grants from the Illinois Arts Council Agency; Gaylord and Dorothy Donnelley Foundation; Reva and David Logan Foundation; Teiger Foundation; with in-kind support from Chicago Park District. The individual projects featured in this exhibition are a part of Navigations. Roman Susan launched Navigations during the pandemic to support artists creating expansive works in Chicago neighborhoods. Navigations are designed to be open-ended, multisensory, and widely accessible. New projects for the Navigations program are selected through open proposals. If you have an idea for a project, tell us who you are, what you do, and the experience you want to share.