Specimen

 Ian Schneller began using Specimen Products as a name for his sculptures in 1981 while an undergraduate at the Memphis Academy of Art. It was the anonymity of the words “Specimen” and “Products” that appealed to him. It also seemed a funny little ruse — pretending to be a company instead of himself. After he became a graduate student at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 1984, Specimen Products expanded into a music and instrument-making endeavor — first to fulfill Ian’s own persona...