VOTE 4 VEGA 2124

Join us for a sneak preview from AJ McClenon’s film VEGA's Crossing and an accompanying listening session as a part of their current 3Arts Campaign.

VOTE 4 VEGA 2124 is a sociopolitical campaign set 100 years from now. VEGA’s 2124 Campaign fights for the freedom of imprisoned people forced into wormholes by a universal government Pr*son system called the Universal Relocation Program (URP). VEGA is traveling to our present-day earth to request donations to release a multi-genre album and music video for Earth Day to communicate escape routes for the imprisoned and other revolutionary travelers and construct travel suits using found materials.

About This Project

VOTE 4 VEGA 2124 is a performative component of , an experimental film that began as a short story draft written about ten years ago to help move through the grief of the sudden passing of Bill, my mom’s long-term boyfriend. What if instead of traveling to the past to warn him, I could travel to the future to meet another version of him that survived in another world and at another time? Then, I began to think of alternative escape routes, not just from collective grief but from our systems of oppression. I began to ask: what if physical prisons were abolished but and the rooted carceral systems remained? What would that look like? What if government-made wormholes were created to replace the physical architectural structures of prisons and those who can’t afford bail are sent into these portals to report a better earth in an alternative universe? What if the imprisoned found a loophole in these wormholes by reflecting on a joyful memory (joy hopping) at the exact time mark that memory took place? What if joy hopping led the imprisoned and other revolutionaries who opened their wormholes to lands not yet canvassed by the government?

With these questions, I started to collect videos and sounds (from both nature and machines) related to missions of escape in VEGA’s Crossing, imagining VEGA working with revolutionaries from the Future Freedom Party (FFP) and the imprisoned to organize a collective escape as our Earth becomes uninhabitable; our systems of capitalism and colonization have become less and less sustainable. These video and sound collections have been built into performances over the years, focusing on historical escape routes connected to the Underground Railroad and racially charged sites, mainly in Chicago, Washington, D.C., and St. Louis. With a collection of moving images, sounds and interviews I will create a film that will be screened outdoors at the portal sites featured in VEGA’s Crossing.

Through your support of this campaign, I would be able to purchase geophones (used to get an audio seismic response to the Earth) which will be incorporated both in the soundtrack and as sonic guides to support wormhole traveling. I would also be able to pay my costume design team, Kristin Abhalter and Aliyah Isaacs to design repurposed wearable objects such as masks and sustainable travel suits for VEGA and other participants in the film.

About AJ McClenon

Originally from Washington D.C, AJ grew up in "D.C. proper," Baltimore and New York during the Reagan, Clinton and the Bush administrations. A.J's work sets personal narratives alongside empirical data, leveling the hierarchies of truth. AJ holds a Masters in Fine Arts from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and received a Bachelor of Arts with a minor in creative writing from the University of Maryland College Park. AJ has performed and shown work throughout the US, at locations like Steppenwolf, The Promontory, Woman Made Gallery, Echo Park Film Center, Chicago Filmmakers, Terrain Exhibitions, Gallery 400, and more.

AJ will be welcoming donations at the event to support this campaign, or you can donate directly via 3Arts.

Event Venue & Nearby Stays

Mana Contemporary Chicago, 2233 South Throop Street, Chicago, United States