The PASEO 2017 Education Program
STEMarts @ PASEO 2017:
STEAM MONSTER DESIGN CHALLENGE
The Paseo Youth Program for 2017 is called the STEAM Monster Design Challenge and revolves around the work of our featured Paseo artist Motomichi Nakamura. This Taos county call for middle and high school student submissions is based on Motomichi’s Tiny People and Giant Monster series in which he incorporates the monster theme as a mythological character to explore environmental issues.
Through an online STEMarts Design Tool, workshops and school performances students had the opportunity to design a STEAM Monster which was then displayed publicly. Winners of the challenge had their monsters projected on to buildings around the plaza alongside the artist’s work.
Online STEAM Monster Design Challenge
School: All Taos County schools
Facilitators: Agnes Chavez and Shanti Duval
Based on Motomichi’s work with 2D animation and character design, the participants will create their own original monsters and the best entries will be projected for the Party on the Plaza event.
A STEAM monster can be one that embodies both an environmental challenge and/or innovative solution no matter how outrageous or silly. In addition to concerns about climate change and the environment, youth are invited to reflect and expand on the concept of monsters and consider its relevance to their own internal experience. They will be encouraged to explore various cultural expressions of monsters and to write about concerns ranging from personal to global. For example a STEAM Monster can emerge in response to the climate change crisis with an energy power never seen before, or it can come from a story told by their elders. STEAM stands for science, technology, engineering, art and mathematics so the STEAM Monster can be a design informed by any of these disciplines. Regardless of the roots of the exploration, the final entry must be an original image.
In this way, Paseo engages every school in Taos County and hundreds of students around one international artist culminating with a local/global immersive experience in our very own Taos Plaza.
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STEAM Monster VJ Mapping Workshop
School: UNM-Taos Digital Media Arts Program
Teachers: Peter Walker, Enrico Trujillo
This workshop was designed around the same Motomichi “monster” theme with a STEAM twist. Motomichi collaborated with UNM Digital Media Arts animation students via Skype leading up to the workshop. Students developed their animations and had them completed before he arrives. UNM students then use the 10-hour workshop to focus on learning how to video map and choreograph their characters onto a Taos plaza building. The students assisted the artist as he choreographed the VJ mapping experience for the final plaza performance. In this way our young leaders get to be part of a professional collaboration and build valuable work skills.
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Monster Hack Workshop
School: Taos Academy
Artist/teacher: Andrea Polli and students from UNM-Abq Computational Sustainability
The Monster Hack workshop was led by Andrea Polli and her students from the Computational Sustainability class at UNM. A group of ten UNM graduate students came to Taos to lead a full day hands-on workshop which complemented the Motomichi theme. Based on content from her book, Hack the Grid, students dove into the topic of energy, climate change and sustainability as inspiration for their STEAM Monsters. They visited a solar plant and transformer station to experience first hand the energy sources and as inspiration for their art. Students then used photoshop to design the energy-inspired monster characters.
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SOMOS Young Writers Program
Facilitators: Jan Smith SOMOS Executive Director. Branwyn Holroyd SOMOS Young Writers Curator. Robin Collier, Cultural Energy, KCEI, 90.1FM
Young writers wrote and recorded poems and short prose pieces inspired by Motomichi’s work and the theme of monsters. During the live event, DJs played selected young writers’ works together with music.
SOMOS Young Writers Program hosted workshops to introduce youth to Motomichi’s work and provide a spark for them to generate poetry and short prose. In addition to concerns about climate change, the young writers were invited to reflect on the concept of monsters and consider its relevance to their own experience. They were encouraged to explore various cultural expressions of monsters and to write about concerns ranging from personal to global.
Motomichi says, “I believe my imagination was influenced by the Japanese Shinto, the native animistic religion of Japan that’s based on the idea that all things in nature are inhabited by spirits that can sometimes become supernatural monsters. My idea for PASEO is that the various monsters will come visit Taos from various places just for the night and play around. Also, I always like the idea that the digital projection doesn’t leave any physical trace after the installation which kind of reminds me of ghosts, spirits or mythical creatures.”
MOTOMICHI IN THE SCHOOLS
Performance and Q&A
Artist: Motomichi
School: Taos High School and Taos Middle School
Paseo featured artist, Motomichi did a special performance for the entire student bodies of two public schools, the Taos Middle School and Taos High School. Over 1000 students experienced this exciting cutting edge art form that combines 2D animation, storytelling, sound design and choreography to engage the public in an immersive collective experience.
After the performance, students got to see behind the scenes how the artist makes the magic happen and ask questions. The workshop and design challenge are aligned with science standards and students see how STEM + art can come together to create a powerful new communication medium.