The PASEO 2016 Education Program

STEMarts @ PASEO 2016:
YOUTH PROGRAMS POWERED BY STEMARTS LAB

The STEMarts LAB@The PASEO youth program is a series of educational youth workshops that allow students to collaborate with the PASEO artists exploring STEM (Science, technology, engineering, math) in their art.  An artist is placed into every middle and high school in Taos. Teacher and students work with the artist up to one week prior and then perform/install their work live at The PASEO event along with their host artist. Students learn valuable STEM skills through creative expression, social practice and collaboration, and are empowered as their creations become part of a real world event.

The STEM + Art programming is delivered in an experimental LAB format by interdisciplinary new media artists engaged in creative hybridization of cutting-edge technologies, art and science. Our design approach is guided by 21st century thinking and the development of essential STEM, creativity and innovation skills needed to prepare students for future careers in today’s global economy.

  • Making and breaking video systems

    Artist: James Connolly
    School: Taos High School
    Teacher: Tracy Galligan

    Workshop description: This 2-day hands-on workshop introduce experimental analog and digital video systems and techniques used in contemporary video and new media work. Students will create, control, and manipulate analog and digital video systems on a code, data, and waveform-based level using artist-made devices and tools. The workshop will touch upon concepts of critical new media, media art histories and media archaeology.

    STEM skills: DIY electronics, circuit bending, hardware hacking, databending, glitch, and real-time performance

  • Wearable Light with El Wire

    Artist: Jonathan Sparks
    School: Taos Middle School
    Topic: Making LED apparel for festival participation

    Workshop description: In this one day workshop students will get an introduction to the basics of electronics and how some of these concepts and techniques can be used to create wearable electronics projects. The discussion will be followed by a project demonstration showing how to create a wearable el wire project step by step. Students will then be guided through the construction of their own projects to wear at the Paseo festival, lighting up the night with their own designs.

    STEM Skills: Introduction to electronics, principles of sound and light waves

  • Pinhole camera art/performance

    Artist: Dosshaus
    School: Taos Academy
    Teacher: Karin Moulton
    Topic: Photo documenting festival with self created pinhole cameras in the DOSSHAUS style.

    Workshop description: In this 2 day workshop students will create a pinhole camera from a cardboard matchbox and other recycled items. Students learn the basic scientific process of photography and engineering principles that will help students turn discarded “trash” into a working tool for self-expression. Students will be inspired to participate in the world around them by photo documenting the Paseo festival with their newly created pin hole cameras.

    STEM Skills: Scientific principles of photography, engineering design and mathematics

  • Radio Confessional LED

    Artist: Parker Jennings
    School: Taos International School
    Teacher: Roe Ziccarelli

    Topic: Making lo-tec illuminated signage to bring awareness to the broadcast frequency and producing scheduled programming for the radio booth.

    Workshop description: Students will learn the difference between amplitude, voltage, wattage and current, along with how to complete a basic electronic circuit and calculate resistance. LEDs are taped to batteries with a magnet on the back. This little “light bug” can be attached by itself or in a swarm to any ferromagnetic surface. This technique has many practical, functional and expandable possibilities. The most basic form is a method of activating the nighttime landscape in a whimsical and nondestructive way. This technology can be used to make small flashlights, nightlights or illuminated signs. Students will build several of these LED “light bugs” and assemble them to create illuminated signs. These signs will be used specifically to draw attention to the radio station that will be broadcasting from inside the Radio Confessional. For example, signs could read, “tune in to 93.7FM.

    STEM Skills: Understand and complete a basic electrical circuit. Electricity principles; voltage, wattage, amplitude and current.

  • Raspao Sound/video cart

    Artist: Alexandra Gelis
    School: VISTA High School
    Teacher: Nicole Miceli

    Topic: Hacking and creating video and sound for a hybrid audio-visual vehicle/Raspao cart. This moving sculpture serves up snow cones, capturing and playing back sounds and videos while moving through the streets of Taos.

    Workshop Description: In this three day workshop students will learn about the science and technology behind the hybrid audio-visual vehicle/Raspao cart. They will explore plants in the area to produce “raw” material for the Raspao cart. The visual and aural result will be use as prerecorded loops to mix within the cart. In that way, memories of the history of the plants and some of the environmental history of the area will be part of the route in the Festival. In the workshop the youth will learn basics of sound and video recording and editing. The sound component will include the making of a contact mic, techniques of recording and mixing. For the video, we will be recording with DSLR, point-and-shoot, and GoPro cameras. Editing in Final Cut Pro will introduce participants to the basics of creative video editing.

    STEM Skills: Basic Electronics, video and sound production

  • Protest with Light

    Artist: The Illuminator
    School: TISA
    Teacher: Megan Bowers Avina

    Topic: Using light projections as a means of political expression, environmental transformation, and public discourse.

    Workshop Description: This two-day workshop will introduce students to the art of large-scale projection mapping in public space. They will learn about the Occupy Wall Street movement from which The Illuminator emerged, analyze several projection interventions that The Illuminator has executed over the years, and ultimately craft a small, grassroots political campaign strategy about an issue that matters to them. Students will create images relating to their campaigns that will be projected on the walls of Taos for all to see.

    STEM Skills: Projection mapping, photoshop, symbology, rapid-response meme generation, video, real-time performance with the public.

  • Audio-Reactive Visual Performance

    Artist: Ana Herruzo
    School: Taos Charter School
    Teachers: Katie Woodall and Nat Evans
    Topic: Performance of a live audio-visual show, displaying generative, real-time and audio-reactive animations, created during the workshop.

    Workshop description: This 4 hour workshop serves as an introduction to real- time generative animations and audio-reactive visuals. During the workshop

    the students will be provided with an interface created in TouchDesigner where they will load clips, choose 3D geometries, colors, and animation effects. They will learn the basics of analyzing audio and how to use frequency data and beats to drive visual effects. At the Taos-Paseo event the students will perform a live audio-visual show, using midi-controllers to drive the animations created during the workshop.

    STEM skills: Audio Analysis (Beats, Frequencies). Introduction to 3D geometry, motion graphics, show control and VJing.

  • Attic Windows

    Artist: Leah Beuchley
    School: Anansi Charter School
    Teacher: Kaila Dickey

    Topic: Collaboratively constructed quilt of light. Electronic art on paper.

    Workshop Description: In this one day workshop students from Anansi Charter School will design and build a collaboratively constructed quilt of light. Each colorful paper square will glow in response to touch. Left alone, the piece’s illumination will gradually evolve, each square responding to how bright or dim its neighbors are in a pattern inspired by complex natural systems like bee hives and ant hills. Participants will first learn how to create a simple circuit, using paper, LEDs, batteries and copper tape. They will be introduced to the basics of circuit design and electronic theory. Participants will then each create their own square, crafting its circuit as well as decoration. The workshop will conclude with a discussion of embedded computing and a demonstration of how students' individual creations can be controlled with an Arduino (a small stand-alone computer). Students install the final piece at Paseo and guiding festival participants to interact with the piece.

    STEM Skills: Circuit design, electronic theory, generative design, systems thinking

  • Light Up!

    School: Dreamtree Project and Roots and Wings
    Teachers: Catherine Hummel and Peg Bartlet

    Topic: LED Innovative light decor for bike performance.

    Workshop Description: In this three hours workshop students will learn about the technology behind the helmets used for the performance BLINK. Those helmets integrate a system of LEDs connected to a microcontroller that has a been programmed with a sequence that represents a particular sound composition. We will create all together a new piece for the system and perform it in the workshop. We will also spend some time customizing our clothes and bikes with different reflective technologies and stencils for the final performance at night.

    STEM Skills: Electronic arts, engineering design

  • Sand Rays

    Artist: Bert Benally
    School: Taos Pueblo Day School
    Teacher: Claireen Espinoza

    Topic: A light interactive traditional sand painting by the artist who collaborated with Ai Weiwei, on an artwork titled Pull of the Moon, located in the desert of Arizona. Students assist with the design and installation of the sand painting.

    Workshop Description: In this one day workshop students will create an interactive sand painting with motion-sensored LED light patterns using an Arduino. Project will be based on Diné sand paintings using the concept of harmony as the foundation for students who will generate contemporary images to use in the painting. The sand painting will cover LED rope lights, which will be programmed to make different patterns through the use of a sensor and an arduino unit. The light patterns will be triggered when it detects peoples walking via the motion sensor. The LED light patterns will shine thru the sand and give a unique effect to the contemporary images painted on the sand. They will learn to use Arduino circuits to incorporate interactive LED lights which will respond to movement. Students will assist to install the sand painting for the festival. There will be an option for audience participants to sand paint their own images on the sand as it complies with the concept of harmony.

    STEM Skills: Engineering design, circuits, computers, and software coding.

  • ROAM

    Artist: Julie Liberstat
    School: Taos Cyber Magnet School
    Teacher: Alexsis Blake

    Topic: Interactive urban exploration and mapping game for smart phones. Students create critical and creative investigations of walking, mapping, and play within the interactive urban landscape of PASEO Taos.

    Workshop description: In this 4-hour workshop students use ROAM, an artist created interactive mobile exploration game that helps players get lost and prompts them to creatively document their journey. Students are introduced to walking and mapping as a research methodology, art practice and curricular structure. They discuss the work of artists who use walking and mapping to observe, locate, notate, and respond to sites, mapping meaning across disciplines and media. Students will explore the use of game structure[s] to promote wandering as a form of artistic methodology and pedagogy, and to create opportunities for critical and creative engagements with both our built and natural environments. We will look at the work of the Situationist International, contemporary walking artists, and participatory game structures in the context of ROAM. Students will use ROAM to explore the PASEO festival, using the game to wander through the festival and capture their experience. Students’ photos and text will be available for view in ROAM’s online gallery.

    STEM Skills: GPS technologies, communication systems, information technologies and Instrumentation applied

  • The Matter of Memory

    Artist: Hector Leiva
    School: Questa Junior/Senior High School
    Teacher: Erica Zito/ Claire Coté, LEAP, coordinator

    Topic: Interactive urban exploration and place-based, public memory archive app for smart phones. Students use the app to create and listen to GPS-tethered memories within the interactive urban landscape of the PASEO and the downtown Taos area.

    Workshop description: In this multi-phase workshop, students learn about the creation of and use “The Matter of Memory,” an artist created iPhone Application that explores the relationship between memory and place. The app allows users to make an audio recording tied to a specific location. When the user is about to record, they are presented with the question, “Why is this place important to you?” Once the recording is uploaded, users within 100 feet of the place where it was recorded are able to listen to it. In the workshop, students learn about GPS and App technology and explore questions of how memories are created and affected by time and space. They will first use the app in and around their own community. Then students will use “The Matter of Memory” as they explore the PASEO festival, using the app to record their own memories and experiences and perhaps even guide others through the festival and the downtown Taos area via “Memory Footprints.” Students’ audio recorded memories will be available to the public via the parameters of the app.

    STEM Skills: GPS technologies, communication systems, memory, information technologies and instrumentation applied

Festival Maker Activities@The Toolbox

LED Throwie Painting

Sponsored by FUSE Makerspace and STEAM NM
Artist: Matthew Barbato, Americorps VISTA
Site: The Toolbox
Ages: 6 and up

Description: Kids assemble LED Throwies with a colored LED, magnet, battery and some tape, and have fun throwing them at a large scale metal canvas. 

The collaborative performative process with 500 LEDS Throwies occurs over the 2-night festival.

Watch the light painting reveal itself and come alive with random colors and patterns.

 

SHINE ON!

Sponsored by MAKE Santa Fe
Artists: Leah Buechley and Patricia Michaels
Site: The Toolbox
Ages: 10 and up

Description: This 10-minute Maker activity, designed by Leah Buechley and Patricia Michaels, combines Native American design and electronic paper jewelry.

Create your own sparkling interactive wearable--make a bracelet, pin, or barrette and decorate it with native-inspired patterns and LED lights. Combine motifs such as clouds, lightning, and feathers,created byPatricia, with playful paper-based circuits, designed by Leah, to make yourself shine for The Paseo Festival.