Emma Sodie, SN02, 2010, Studio Neptune, 20” x 16”, acrylic on canvas

>> You may have seen these guys around town sporting giant silver, uh, tube things on their backs and had no idea what was going on. Well, tonight is your chance to find out what they’re all about. George Mason University’s School of Art is presenting an exhibition titled “Expeditions in Usonia” by the Floating Lab Collective (FLC). The exhibition features work from the group’s four-year project, “43.5 Actions in Usonia,” a name that is derived from the 435 members of the U.S. House of Representatives, and “Usonia,” a term used by American architect Frank Lloyd Wright to describe his utopian vision for the American landscape. The exhibition will feature work from “Scream at the Economy,” a participatory piece in which people were invited to call a number and leave a recording of themselves screaming at the economy; “The American Landscape of Dreams,” in which Hispanic day laborers from the Baltimore area constructed miniature houses to represent their own aspirations and engage with the community, which were then displayed in public locations around Baltimore; and “Mapping the Route of the Ordinary,” a commentary on the daily displacement of individuals living in the constantly mobile Northern Virginia community, in which a video camera was suspended by balloons attached to a person’s jacket in order to film a visual geographical description of a person’s journey. Opening reception from 6 to 8 p.m. Free.