EMILY SIEFKEN  ::  Curriculum vitae

contact

Emily Siefken
5154 N. Clark #306
Chicago, Illinois, 60640
630 710 3819  phone    email emberzee@yahoo.com

S H O R T B I O

Emily Siefken is a 10 year military veteran of two wars in the Middle East (U.S. Navy) where she performed diverse duties such as CCTV operator, documentary filmmaker, electronics engineer and boot-camp instructor. Siefken questions, through performance art and emerging technologies, what it means to be an American. Her work primarily deals with ritual as it applies to military and religious practice and women’s experience in wartime environments. Siefken uses the philosophies of Simone Weil to structure her thesis on force and it's effect on the human body. She challenges notions of the "hero" as he has been represented through present day women's actions in battle or as recipients of force. Siefken has performed at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago, Sarah Lawrence College in New York, The School of the Art Instutute of Chicago and has had work displayed in Chicago area galleries. She is sought after as a lecturer on topics regarding women in military combat roles. She is a graduate of Performance and Art and Technology studies from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago where she teaches SAIC WIRED computer literacy courses .

EDUCATION

The School of the Art Institute of Chicago
MFA, Performance and Art and Technology Studies 2008

Lake Forest College
Dual BFA, Electronic Media Arts, History-2005

Central Texas College
shipboard courses U.S. NAVY (1997)

Interior Communications Electrician, U.S. NAVY
view military experience summary below

MILITARY TRANSCRIPTS/INTERIOR COMMUNICATIONS SPECIALIST

experience

Public Affairs Assistant and Ship’s Official Photographer U.S.S. SacramentO

Teaching Experience ,SAIC Chicago, Lake Forest College Chicago, U.S. Naval Training Center   

SEPTEMBER 2000-DECEMBER 2007 

2007                        Teaching FYS WIRED course in computer literacy and basic web design.
2007-present          Graduate Admissions tour guide
2007-present          Teaching Assistant Fundamentals of Art with Technology
2007                        Teaching Assistant, Early College Program (figure drawing). 

.                             View student work view more work here and here

2007                       Teaching Assistant TICA (Teacher Institute for Contemporary Art).  Taught web design principles to High School Teachers brought to SAIC to upgrade their skills
2007                        Teaching Assistant Electronics, SAIC.   Taught electronics theory, building OP-Amps,   oscillators, inverters, and other wave propagating or power generating circuitry.
2006                        Teaching Assistant SAIC Wired First year studies program. 
Assist students with fundamentals of MAC use and website development.
2006                      Teaching Assistant Robotics and Kinetics Laboratory SAIC Chicago. Assist students with fabricating and testing electro-mechanical projects.
2003-2005               Assistant to Art Department Chair, Slide Librarian, Gallery Curator Lake Forest College.
2002                       Assistant softball coach Concordia University Chicago. 
2000-2003                U.S. Navy Boot Camp Instructor. Proven leader of more than two thousand men   and women: basic military training (highest honors).       

1997-2000            

.                            Photographed and wrote articles for all major events pertaining to shipboard  .                            evolutions. Worked with local and National news media including Seattle .                            SunTimes,CNN. Photographed and wrote articles on all ship’s ceremonies and . .                              publications. Photographed and filmed burials at sea for family records.

1996-2000             

.                            Filmed and edited all major shipboard evolutions, ceremonies and burials .                            at sea.   Circulated popular and instructional video collections. Maintained .                            ships surveillance  cameras, stabilized platforms

.                            Maintained and operated HF, LF satellite communications systems.

EXHIBITS

SOLO
2007                       MCA Chicago “Here/Not There Performance Series” performed “Tomb of the                                Known”
                               http://www.mcachicago.org/exhibitions/exh_detail.php?id=176#_self
GROUP
2007                       “VOID” GARDENfresh Gallery Exhibited “Assume The Watch”
2007                       “Women at War, Soldiers, Sisters, Survivors” Sarah Lawrence College. First                                performance of  “Tomb of the Known”
2006                        “Convergence 2” Mr. Elegant Gallery, Chicago Il.
2006                       “Focus”  Performance symposium SAIC Columbus Building.
2006                       “Project Projection” Juxtaposition Arena.
2005                        Performance “Project Projection” McCormick Auditorium

COLLABORATIONS  

         
2008                       Panelist following Victoria Marks Performance “Not About Iraq”
                               http://www.linkshall.org/08-pp-mar2.shtml
2008                       Consultant  for Red Tape Theater “The Pugilist Specialist”.Adrian Shaplin.                                 Panelist to discuss Chris Hedges book War is a Force that Gives Us Meaning
2008                       Online collaboration with female military service members(in progress)
2008                       Collaboration with Little Brothers and Friends of the Elderly
2008                        Collaboration with Artway of Thiinking, and Curator Mary Jane Jacob           
2007                       Collaboration with Artist Collective Haha and Kara Hall.
2006                        Collaboration with Erin O’brien Hurricane Katrina piece (in progress)
2006                       Collaboration with Tiffany Holmes “Fresh Tap” tap water experiment, Chicago.

                        *     PERSONAL SITE                                                                                                                     http://www.emilysiefken.com

                        *     ART ON LOCATION                                                           http://www.saic.edu/webspaces/art_on_location/

                        *    Link to SAIC Student Sites                                                                                                          http://www.emilysiefken.com/WIRED_STUDENTIMG/index.html#

1994- 2003      *     engineer, shipboard communications/phone systems.
.                             Closed Circuit Television shop supervisor, managed 1,000,000 dollar budgets                                submitted reports. Recommended digital versus analog equipment from .                             1996- 2000saving over $300,000 in 2 years.
.                             Television /VCR Repair video technology, documentary filmmaker, editing all    .                             major shipboard evolutions, ceremonies and burials at sea. Updated .                             and  circulated   popular and instructional video collections.
.                              Maintained ships surveillance cameras, stabilized platforms  Maintained and .                             operated HF, LF satellite communications systems.
.                             Maintained and operated HF, LF satellite communications  systems.Electronics .                             engineer, power distribution, AC/DC circuits, digital systems.   All shipboard                              navigation, gyrocompass, dead reckoning systems,motor controls. Manpower,                              resource manager, Q A equipment tester                          

portfolio

references

                            http://www.emilysiefken.com/welcome.html

                            References available upon request