Space Messengers is a multi-artist immersive and interactive projection installation with MR experiences. We call it MR (Mixed Reality) because it bridges real and virtual experiences.

Space Messengers visualizes data. The installation is a culmination of an international youth exchange program. It generates messages collected from a custom platform we call the Space Board. Students co-write messages communicating the science they learned and sharing their thoughts and wishes for a sustainable interplanetary future. These messages are seen floating on the wall along with interactive body silhouettes. The live audience can also text space messages in real time at the event.

How it works. As people approach the projection, sensor cameras mimic their silhouette movements which are then seen projected onto the building/wall filled with a mosaic of circles. As they come closer the mosaic zooms into a video clip related to the Space Messengers workshop revealing a glimpse of our exploration of the universe through the lens of the students and the artists, scientists and cultural experts that guided the journey. An immersive soundscape has been created integrating NASA space sounds and nature sounds.

VR experiences: We created a 3D model of the Taos Administration building and imported it into our virtual world. On the site we will have Oculus headsets for participants to experience the projection with avatars joining from around the world. A webcam will create a visual bridge between the virtual and real world.

Global VR Youth Day

September 16 from 8-11am

Pop-up VR installations will be set up at Taos High School, Penasco Middle/HighSchool, Taos Day School, Santa Fe Indian School and the Escola Secundaria Sebastiao in Portugal. 150 students will join in the Space Messengers VR world to experience the installation through Oculus headsets. International exchange school participants: New Mexico School of the Arts, Taos Integrated School of the Arts, Universidad de Guadalajara Preparatoria #5.

Space Messengers Collective: 

Agnes Chavez (Creative Director) is the Director and designer of the traveling multi-artist Space Messengers installation and its correlating international youth exchange program.

Markus Dorninger/OMAi (Lead Artist) is the projection artist that creates the visuals using Touchdesigner and TagTool, integrating all the components on the projection wall.

Roy Macdonald (Creative Coder) is the coder of the Space Board that collects and generates all the messages from the workshops and the live audience, that are seen animated on the wall.

David Novack (Sound engineer/Lusofona University) designed the original interactive soundscape for the installation using sounds of space from NASA and nature sounds. He worked with his students from Lusofana University.

Mathieu Castel (VR design) creates the 3D models of the festival sites and design/builds the VR worlds.

Digital Ant Media (Interactive VR) is the VR design adviser, trainer and tech support for STEMarts VR stations.

Morgan Barnard designed the 3-panel VR Station for projecting the Space Messengers metaverse user experience.

Dania Loya is a STEMarts Ambassador and now part of the Tech Crew assisting with the projection installation.

STEMarts apprentices: Amelia Martinez, Dominique Vigil, Alyson Martinez, Feliciana Mitchel-Gonzales, Megan Odom, Svetlana Backhaus, Jade Rael

VR Coordinators: Ry Cox, Montse Oyadenel, Melanie Redmond, Britney King, Joel Larson, Josh Haggard (New Mexico), Diogo Duarte, Maria Matos (Portugal)

Meet the Avatar Ambassadors in VR: Joana D’Arc Moreira, Caroline Assuncao, Luara Dias, Arthur Alcantara (Brazil) Lorena Jasso, Elizabeth Arroyo, Lizbeth Spiller (Mexico),Tom Greenbaum, Andrea Albert, LANL astrophysicist, Shane Wood, physics teacher (USA)