_Christopher Furman_

People see art everywhere.  Especially in the city of Chicago, where expressing yourself is prevalent, one can find art on walls, museums, and even bathroom stalls!  However, a lesser-known form of art, electronic visualization, is what Christopher Furman teaches here at UIC.
As a child, he received encouragement from his parents and teachers that he had talent in art.  He cared more about making art than how much money he would earn in his career. 
 
Since then, he has been involved in the Chicago Cultural Center.  He developed a piece that incorporated many disciplines which he explained, “I loved how they wrapped up into a poetic story.” 
He sees it as an “extension of the moving image, i.e. film and video, but in the context of experimental, electronically generated image. The name for the department came from an era when video was a new medium, and its frontiers were being explored and expanded. Drew Browning, a professor who was one of the pioneers and began the department, would be a better source of where the term ‘electronic visualization’ comes from. From this medium, however, came the interactive video games that are now ubiquitous.”  He especially enjoys interactive sculpture and interactive object making.
 
His goal is to fund The Chicago Robotic Theater.  He would like to teach a class in the business of art and how to make a living in art after one leaves school.  Furthermore, he wants to make an impact on his 16 year old daughter and be the best father he can be.  Another one of his objectives is to finish the walking machine so that some day his daughter can ride it.  His ultimate goal he explains “is to live a full life so that when it is time to die I look back and feel that I lived the best life I could. A life full of integrity.”
 
Although Christopher’s career choice is not one of the popular ones at schools such as UIC, Chris shows students that if they work hard and have a passion for a certain field, they can achieve it!
 
http://www.christopherfurman.com/video/video1/video1.html
(The Janus Machine)
 
A video of his “walking machine”:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yncRF4Y4_54