Come to The PASEO Festival on September 15, 16, 2023 to visit our curated Earth-Space Virtual Reality (VR) Lounge. This immersive VR experience explores our relationship to earth from space, as a way to contemplate our place in the universe and deepen our stewardship to planet earth. Sit back in glowing inflatable chairs under the night sky on the grassy field of Kit Carson park wearing VR headsets to discover the universe through the work of VR artists that will expand your mind and at the same time connect you more deeply to planet earth. Once inspired, head over to our live VR painting station to see a live VR painting performance by local artists and STEMarts Ambassadors. Enter the VR space to write your message or draw your vision for earth as an interplanetary citizen. Chill out to live ambient sounds by Synth Flavored Trees.

The Earth-Space VR Lounge was curated by Agnes Chavez with VR content advisor, Marie Alarcon. The installation will be run entirely by our STEMarts Ambassadors and Apprentices serving as your VR experience guides, led by STEMarts Alumni, Dania Loya, who is Production Director this year, with Josh Haggard, Tech Assistant and Melanie Redmond, VR Coordinator. The Earth-Space VR Lounge is part of the newly forming STEMarts Youth Space Program launching in the fall 2023.

STEMarts Ambassadors/VR Experience Guides

Asa Garcia-Toya, Claire Legate, Destiny Jaramillo, Feliciana Mitchell-Gonzales, Megan Odom, Rocio Aguilar, Serina Martinez, Sirena Quezada, Selena Pacheco, Sophia Bates, Shaylee Mirabal and Taylor Streit.

Spheres

Director/Creator: Eliza McNitt, from executive producers Darren Aronofsky & Ari Handel

Uncover the hidden songs of the cosmos through this powerful, immersive spectacle that fuses art with science. Using hand tracking and light interactivity, join with the universe and bring life to the veiled symphony of sound and light.

CHAPTER I: Chorus of the Cosmos. Narrated by Millie Bobby Brown. Planet Earth sings.

CHAPTER II: Songs of Spacetime. Narrated by Jessica Chastain. Dive into the heart of a black hole to uncover the breakthrough discovery of gravitational waves.

CHAPTER III: PALE BLUE DOT. Narrated by Patti Smith. The Big Bang was silent.

A GLOW CHAIR FOR EACH 12 MINUTE CHAPTER ALLOWS PARTICIPANTS TO FULLY EXPERIENCE EACH UNIQUE POETIC JOURNEY UNDER THE NIGHT SKY.

Spacenigmatic

Artist/Creator: SaRaN (Tokyo)

(cover image)

Created on the theme of “pulse,” “universe,” “life,” and “earth”. I myself thought that the common denominator of all life is “pulse”. The capillaries of animals and humans, the veins of flowers and leaves, and the shapes of lightning and nebulae also looked like veins. In this work, I composed the shape of the earth with veins and depicted the creatures living on the earth within the veins. When we look at the earth composed of these veins from the inside, we may feel that they are the universe as seen from the earth. And when you look at the work from the outside, you will feel it as the earth.

PARTICIPANTS WILL SIT IN A GLOW CHAIR TO ENTER THE IMMERSIVE PULSE PAINTING CREATED BY SARAN.

Live 3D Painting Station

Local artist, Izumi Yokoyama, will paint live in virtual reality, projecting from her headset. Viewers will be invited into an evolving world of cosmic creatures and magical happenings, with Yokoyama’s Tiltbrush vision manifesting in real-time.

5 MINUTE SESSIONS. PERFORMANCE SCHEDULE: 7:30PM, 8:30PM, 9:30PM, 10:30PM

Strap on a VR headset and enter into 3D space to write your message or draw your vision for earth as an interplanetary citizen. What future can you reimagine for planet earth?

About the Artists:

Eliza McNitt is an American writer and director who specializes in blending science with art. In 2018 she was an Emmy Awards finalist and Grand Prize winner for the VR category at the Venice Film Festival. Other festivals that have exhibited her work includes SXSW, AFI Fest, Cannes NEXT, Tribeca, Telluride, and Sundance, where McNitt secured the first seven figure deal in VR film festival history for her project, Spheres.

【Website】http://www.elizamcnitt.com/
【Instagram】https://www.instagram.com/elizamcnitt/
【Facebook】https://www.facebook.com/withoutfirefilm

SaRaN is a VR artist working for BAL Inc. She started VR art in August 2020. Based in Japan, she creates works based on the theme of “mysterious, strange, and beautiful world”.

【Instagram】 https://www.instagram.com/saran_vrart/
【X(Twitter)】https://twitter.com/saran_vrart
【Website】https://vr-artist-saran.webnode.jp/
【YouTube】https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC9IayztJMxydBPoV4KTNVjQ

Izumi Yokoyama is a multi-media artist who lives and works in Taos, New Mexico. Born in Niigata, Japan, in 1980, Yokoyama graduated with an MFA from San Francisco Art Institute. Yokoyama’s artworks are presented locally and nationally.

【Website】http://www.izumiyokoyama.com/
【 Instagram】 https://www.instagram.com/zu_taos/

STEMarts Lab, an artist-run non profit organization whose mission is to empower youth and communities through art, science and technology with a focus on raising awareness to humanitarian and ecological challenges on earth and in space. Artists, scientists, philosophers, educators, cultural specialists are brought together to explore the universe from diverse perspectives and share their experiences through year-long youth workshops and bootcamps culminating with sci-art installations presented at festivals in New Mexico and around the world.

Creative team: Agnes Chavez, Creative Director, Concept Artist; Digital Ant Media, VR Trainers; Dania Loya, Melanie Redmond & Josh Haggard, Destiny Jaramillo, Sophia Bates, Claire Legate, Serina Martinez, Sirena Quezada, STEMarts Ambassadors

Partners: Our youth ambassadors are recruited from local middle/high schools/UNM and trained at our STEMarts Bootcamps (virtual and in- person) throughout the year. *VR artists and additional STEMarts Ambassadors to be announced.