Space Messengers at PASEO
THE PROJECTION pulsates with saturated colors. Its haunting soundtrack is a mixtape of ambient space noise and the sounds of nature. Guided by an invisible hand, lines trace the architectural features of the site and create drawings that reflect the mood of the evening.
Images of our solar system fade in and out replaced by Richard Feynman diagrams of particle interactions or by digital space-themed drawings. Floating upwards, text messages ask questions or make statements about science, sustainability and our interplanetary future. Arcing lines represent the pathways those texts took to arrive at their destination. Suddenly a silhouette appears. It moves across the projection, at times twirling and dancing. It grows larger revealing that it is made up of hundreds of circles. One of the circles jumps in size. Inhabiting it is a scientist who speaks about the building blocks of the universe.
This is Space Messengers (SM), a multi-artist projection installation with Mixed Reality (real and virtual) immersive and interactive experiences that is the brainchild of Agnes Chavez, artist, educator and founder of STEMarts Lab.
The installation is the culmination of STEMarts Lab’s international youth sciart exchange program in partnership with U.S Embassies and Consulates that connects students in New Mexico with students in Portugal and Mexico.
During a seven-week workshop, students meet every week via a Zoom call to learn about the universe and our relationship to the Earth and space from scientists in the fields of particle physics, astrophysics and space policy. Guided by artists, indigenous cultural specialists and philosophers of science they explore how science, art, humanities and philosophy can expand our understanding and then how to communicate what they’ve learned through creative expression.
The hope, says Chavez, is that the experience encourages young people to become informed caretakers of the interplanetary universe that is our home.
An integral part of the workshop is the Space Board, a custom interactive digital platform where the students share what they’ve learned, make art and write down their questions and ideas. It includes a chat room, gallery and customizable boards to share messages and images in real time.
All the content that is created on the Space Board becomes part of the SM installation that was launched at the Festival Internacional de Ciência in Portugal in the fall of 2021 and is now traveling around the world.
It was Chavez’s desire to compensate for a loss that led to Space Messengers. In 2017, she brought her particle physics projection art workshop, Projecting Particles, to the fourth grade class at Taos Integrative School of the
Arts (TISA) and continued to work with those same students in the years that followed. When COVID hit, a much anticipated trip to Europe planned for the spring of 2021 was cancelled, a trip that would have included a visit to CERN, the largest particle physics lab in the world. “It would have been a wonderful finish of our four years together,” says Chavez. The cancellation started Chavez thinking, “What could I do for the kids that would be as exciting as a trip to Europe? Why don’t I do a virtual international exchange.” And SM was born. The first workshop took place in February 2021 with the students from TISA and from Escola Secundária Sebastião e Silva in Oeiras, Portugal. Since then three more schools have signed up for workshops and three schools have accessed the curriculum that is available on the STEMart Lab website. The goal is to add at least one new school in New Mexico every year.