Hokay, so I drive by this place a few times a week, and I’ve always wondered what it was. Some strange converted warehouse/garage looking place, with a rather nice sign across the front: DEADTECH. After fleeting dreams of genetically-enhanced embalming fluid and zombie training grounds, I stumbled across their website whilst idly searching (as I am wont to do).

“Hey!” sez I, “that’s the place up the street!” Hoping against hope for a paintball arena only with real zombies a la House of the Dead, I found out that it’s actually a gallery of sorts for “technology-enabled art.” Alternately very, er, informal (the neighbors complain when show openings get too rowdy) and well-organized, it seems to be above all a typical hands-on creative-geek lair, a place to make stuff and have other people over to make stuff, too. And occasionally have a party.

It’s been around and hosting shows since 1999, and they seem to be nice enough to UIC students that they’ve got the spring ’08 MFA thesis show listing posted on their blog. They claim to host bi-monthly Chicago_pd meetings, but the most recent web searches only turn up years-old info (unless I’m completely looking in the wrong places…). Some links to the dorkbot project are dead or lead back to Deadtech pages, although if you find the good link you’ll get some info about just what they do. (Everyone get together and we’ll present something cool! Or obnoxious! Or obnoxiously cool!) Regardless, if they’re having a show anytime soon, I’m going. Maybe I’ll just knock on the door sometime.

(In keeping with my apparent theme of animals in my posts, be sure to check out the saga of when Willy the Cat fell out a window between two buildings and Rob had to figure out how to get the critter out and still try to make it to work. Also, SquirrelFight.)