Friday, Jan. 12, Farmlab will host a salon with Mark Allen of Machine Project, an unusual gallery/community space of art and science. As Gendy Alimuring of the LA Weekly called it in a recent excellent profile, "it’s Nikola Tesla by way of P.T. Barnum, with a dash of The Anarchist Cookbook."

Take a long lunch break and head over to the Farmlab at noon for discussion on
1. Machine's illustrious history, fantastical events, and mysterious collaborators,
2. Creating communities based on intellectual and social life, and
3. Informal and semi-formal pedagogy for artists and other interested parties.

Allen is an artist, technology geek, and as the Weekly put it, a collector of experiences. The people he brings together through Machine Project are "not artists necessarily, but rather people who have interesting ideas and ways of looking at the world — engineers, chemists, physicists, astronomers, computer geeks, historians, students, teachers, enthusiasts of all kinds." The alchemical outcome of these meetings is sometimes ridiculous and sometimes profound -- from growing giant reishi mushrooms and hosting a medieval battle scene, to building a floral planetarium and teaching people how to make an electric fan that plugs into your computer.

Farmlab is the home of the Not a Cornfield team, currently occupying a building in Chinatown, across the street from where Not a Cornfield once stood. The team is taking time to evaluate, reflect, brainstorm, tinker, and incubate some new projects. Hosting Mark Allen's salon is part of this gestation.

The salon is free. All ages are welcome and refreshments will be served. Farmlab is located at 1745 N. Spring Street #4, LA, CA 90012.