Step into an immersive universe where data, light, motion, sound, and artificial intelligence converge. Space Messengers AI invites you to explore a living constellation of messages from youth and communities in Taos and around the world. As your silhouette interacts with the cosmic display, and your reflections spark poetic responses from the AI Messenger, you become part of an evolving conversation about the universe and our shared future. Add your voice, and be guided by STEMarts Youth Ambassadors through this participatory experience at The PASEO Festival.

Thanks to our sponsors: Patrick J. McGovern Foundation, Google Code Next, Space Valley Foundation, Encantado Foundation, Taos Community Foundation, Lor Foundation

Space Messengers AI is an immersive SciArt installation that merges light, sound, motion, and responsive artificial intelligence technology to create a dynamic multisensory display with audience input.

Since 2020, Space Messengers has been traveling around the world collecting messages from youth, scientists, artists, and cultural leaders through workshops, expert exchanges, and public events. This year’s installation is the culmination of these workshops—highlighting the voices of our future leaders through creative expression and public engagement to serve as a living conversation with the universe.

At the heart of the project is a guiding question:

What is our place in the universe—and how can reflecting on cosmic phenomena, scientific discovery, and the intersection of technology, ethics, and society inspire greater care for each other, our planet, and our shared future?

STEMarts Youth Ambassadors from Northern New Mexico will be on site to guide visitors through the Space Messengers experience and share insights from their own STEAM journeys. Through year-round STEMarts programming, participating students engage with science, ethics, and emerging technologies, contributing their reflections on space, society, and the future to the exhibit.

How It Works

Space Messengers AI uses large format digital media projections and data visualizations to facilitate festivalgoers’ reflections on humanity’s place in the universe.

The installation merges responsive AI technology, science, art, and collective inquiry with two interactive stations:

At the message submission station, participants are asked to think about a question, a brief insight, or a message they can leave behind for the young leaders of our future. Participants’ contributions form part of an evolving dataset that powers a growing global knowledge base. Their reflections are fed directly to the AI Messenger, powered by a science-informed and ethically guided Large Language Model (LLM), so they can see their queries appear in real time on the projection wall.

At the gesture-based silhouette station, visitors step in front of the projection wall where a sensing camera mirrors their movement in a glowing digital silhouette and allows them to interact with the ‘space messages’ by using their body gestures to zoom in and out, selecting text and video messages from the dataset. The experience transforms participant reflections into a poetic, expressive landscape of light and motion.

The AI Messenger draws on the expertise of an interdisciplinary team to categorize, cluster, and reconfigure the information near instantly, revealing patterns in the data through a visual display inspired by the cosmic web—the vast structure that connects galaxies across the universe. Through this immersive and participatory experience, every festivalgoer becomes part of a living conversation—helping to shape how we imagine the universe and our role within it.

The multisensory experience is further enriched by a responsive soundscape that blends space sounds from NASA, environmental recordings, voice samples, and synthesized audio. As participants move through the space, their gestures trigger ambient tones and layered voices creating a stimulating environment where sound, motion, and meaning converge.

Inspiration

Inspired by physicist John Archibald Wheeler’s concept of a “participatory universe”—suggesting that the universe is not a static entity but rather one that is actively shaped and brought into being by conscious observers—the installation invites participants to consider their role in shaping reality through inquiry, reflection, and observation.  In alignment with this year’s festival theme, "Thresholds," the interactive SciArt production invites audiences to explore the evolving boundary between human consciousness and artificial intelligence. In 2025, with support from the Patrick J. McGovern Foundation, STEMarts Lab deepened the experience through the integration of artificial intelligence, and more specifically, AI for good.

 “This iteration deepens the participatory and poetic dimensions of the work while exploring how AI can serve as a tool for reimagining humanity through inquiry, reflection, and creativity,” says Agnes Chavez, Creative Director.

The Team:

Creative Director: Agnes Chavez
 Artists: Markus Dorninger / OMAi
 Creative Coders: Remy Dumas, Roy Macdonald
 Sound Design: David Novack
 LLM Developer: Bethany Rivera
 Installation Director: Ian Harrison
 Video Editing: Malu Tavares, Ivan Rodriguez Holguin
 Tech Director: Chris Conard
 Social Media: Julia Doke

Scientific and Cultural Advisors / Content Contributors:

Dr. Steven Goldfarb, Dr. Nicole Lloyd-Ronning, Dr. Julia Blue Bird, Steve Tamayo, Michelle Hanlon, Frank Tavares, Dr. Greg Cajete, Catarina Pombo Nabais, Dr. Andrea Albert, Sophia Dagnello, Arwen Hubbard, Manuel Montoya

STEMarts Youth Ambassadors:

Shaylee Mirabal, Taylor Streit, HattieRose Briddell, Tulasi LoPriore, Flora Mack, Samara Elliot, Juliana Lucero, Feliciana Mitchell-Gonzales, Sirena Quezada, Victor Quezada, Wyatt Wade, Kenn Dumas, Captain Kireev, Sophia Bates, Una Maitre