Maquette Issue 4: Chaos + Control has arrived at CCAM!

Edited by CCAM writer-in-residence Alex Zafiris, it is designed by Julia Schäfer and features an exclusive cover contribution and interview with the artist Julie Curtiss.

Inside:

Cover artist Julie Curtiss discusses her love of riddles, rhythms, female archetypes, power dynamics, and how nature itself is chaotic.

Priyamvada Natarajan, theoretical astrophysicist and Time 100 honoree, has an instinct for the arts that illuminates her obsession with our cosmos. With a specially commissioned portrait by Balarama Heller.

Takashi Ikegami of the University of Tokyo created the android ALTER as part of his research into human behavior, artificial life, and complex systems. He discusses autonomy, individuality, and community, and whether machines have consciousness.

Jess Nash, an artist and neurobiologist, discusses the arbitrary notion of order in connection with the work of groundbreaking 19th-century neuroscientist Santiago Ramón y Cajal, and how this influences both their painting practice and scientific research.

Lauren Dubowski, DFA ’23, MFA ’14, a dramaturg and writer, dives into the mystery of Polish writer Bruno Schulz’s legendary missing novel, as part of her current project on AI and lost literature, Speculative Relics.

Artist Dana Karwas walks us through her latest exhibition, “Thirty Six Point Eight Hours,” a sculptural meditation on hidden lines, movement, and impossible imagery at Spill 180.

Science fiction writers Pamela Zoline and Ned Beauman discuss philosophy, JG Ballard, and dark humor, with artwork by Adam Amram, MFA ’24.

Photographer Patricia Voulgaris, MFA ’24, contributes a portfolio and discusses how her imagery is a complication of psychology, place, theme, and concept.

Tracy Xinran Li, BA ’25, BS ’25, presents her Ultra Space project, SEED, a compass for the space traveler built in the form of an acorn that will always point to Earth, wherever in the sky you may be.

Graphic designer Julia Schäfer, MFA ’20, discusses her practice and vision for the look of the print edition of Maquette 4, which was inspired by NASA’s Apollo 11 mission visual identity, including the Futura typeface.

Maquette editor Alex Zafiris introduces the issue with Gregory Crewdson’s 2025 photograph from the set of Ari Aster’s film Eddington. This atypical collaboration and resulting image is an example of how artists are grappling with absurdity, rage, and the unknown with great sensitivity, curiosity, and humor.