In this performance, artist Mel Keiser becomes the fictional academic, Dr. Melga Blank.

Dr. Melga Blank is renowned for her discovery of self-evolutionary biology. Self-evolution is the ability of someone’s first-person consciousness (their who-I-am) to change so radically that we can deduce when who-I-am has died and a new who-I-am has been born. Blank’s first documented case of self-versions was found in a person known as “Mel Keiser.”

In this lecture, Dr. Blank explains how self-evolution is possible and how she discovered this phenomenon in “Mel Keiser.” She explains her methodology for identifying moments of self-death and self-birth in “Mel Keiser, “methodology which became the basis of self-evolutionary biology. She uses her case study of “Mel Keiser” from the age of 17 to 19 to prove how and when “Mel Keiser” experienced her first self-death and self-birth.

Using the structure of presenting an academic paper, attendees will be able to ask Dr. Blank questions after her talk. Audience members will be sure to leave the lecture better informed about this new (fictional) science with improved skills to identify instances of self-change that are the birth and death of a new self…but wait—was that really Dr. Blank sharing her research or…was Mel Keiser giving an obtuse artist talk?

The performance runs approximately 45 minutes followed by a Q&A.

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Accessible accommodations include a ramp entrance and elevator. If you need additional accessibility options or wheelchair seating please contact us at info@imss.org.

Parking and Directions can be found here: https://imss.org/plan-your-visit/

About the Artist:

Mel Keiser (b.1985, 2003, 2007, 2007, 2011, 2014, 2018, 2020) is an artist who uses installation, performance, object-making, writing, and social practice to study the intersections between non-linear identity, grief and ritual, and institutional epistemology. Her work is a form of autotheory, devised from a series of long-form, interrelated projects that feature frequent and diverse collaborations with fellow artists.

Keiser is the founder of the Death Studies Research Group at Northwestern University’s Kaplan Institute of Humanities with artist Jeanne Dunning, medical educator Catherine Belling, medical practitioner Joshua Hauser, and historian Sean Hanretta. She also co-founded the artist writing group, between the tongue and the taste with Matthew Goulish in 2017.

Keiser received grants from the Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events, Northwestern University’s Center for Interdisciplinary Research in the Arts, and the Judith Dawn Memorial Foundation. Her work has been exhibited at Wedge Projects, Filter Space, Martha Schneider Gallery, and Segal Design Institute at Northwestern University. Her written work has appeared in the peer-reviewed Performance Philosophy Journal and a special issue of ASAP/J about autotheory.

The International Museum of Surgical Science acknowledges support from the Illinois Arts Council Agency.

RSVP: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/melga-blank-presents-who-is-the-mels-an-introduction-to-self-evolution-tickets-633611287417

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Tags: Chicago, International Museum of Surgical Science, Mel Keiser, Mel Keiser: The Life and Deaths of The Mels--Here Lie the Bones, Melga Blank presents “Who is The Mels? An Introduction to Self-Evolution”, Near North Side