Much ink has been spilled on how art intersects with the experiences of everyday life. But what about art grappling with how to live differently? Artists occupy an exceptional space where their livelihood permeates all aspects of life, eroding boundaries between the personal, the professional, and the political. This raises a little-analyzed question: Beyond making a living, how are artists making life?

Immersive Life Practices talks to Chicago-based artists and authors about life as an art practice and art as a life practice. The contributors explore a range of concerns, from how to be holistic, ethical, or practical; to how to balance life and work; to formal questions of how to represent a never-ending project.  Some speak fondly of long-term collaborative relationships that sustain their work, while others place emphasis on the physical space in and outside the city as necessary to keep them grounded. Engaging and honest, the essays and interviews in this collection will resonate with anyone working to create a life—and an art—worth living.

Immersive Life Practices is part of the new Chicago Social Practice History series, edited by Mary Jane Jacob and Kate Zeller in the Department of Exhibitions and Exhibition Studies at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC).

"An ambitious and intense series. . . However we define our relationship to art, social practice discovers meaningful alternatives to the dominant notions of what is possible in life."

Daniel Tucker is a Chicago-based artist and writer as well as coorganizer of the online oral history project and archive Never the Same: Conversations About Art Transforming Politics & Community in Chicago & Beyond. His recent edited collections include the catalogs Notes for a People’s Atlas and Visions for Chicago, and he is coauthor of Farm Together Now.