Space Messengers is an immersive mixed reality (MR) installation with VR experiences and an international youth exchange program created in partnership with the U.S Embassy of Portugal and the U.S. Consulate General of Guadalajara. A virtual workshop connects middle/high school classrooms in New Mexico, USA with classrooms in Lisbon, Portugal and Guadalajara, Mexico (more embassies/countries to be added) via an interdisciplinary space-themed curriculum. Students contribute their ‘space messages’ which become part of the final Space Messengers installation. The Space Messengers mission is to develop our artistic, scientific and humanistic literacy and expand our identity as planetary citizens. Space Messengers is a multi-artist collaboration created in 2020/21 during the pandemic and is now touring to festivals around the world, evolving with new interactive experiences as it travels. Youth leaders can join the Space Messengers project through the STEMarts Ambassadors program. To bring Space Messengers to your city and country contact us at: stemartslab@gmail.com
Space Messengers is made possible in part by the Citizen Diplomacy Action Fund for U.S. Alumni; an opportunity sponsored by the U.S. Department of State with funding provided by the U.S. Government and administered by Partners of the Americas. This project is supported in part by New Mexico Arts, a division of the Department of Cultural Affairs, and by the National Endowment for the Arts. Thanks to our sponsors: U.S. Embassy of Portugal, Taos Community Foundation, LANL Foundation, LANL CPO, FIC.A, MAE Foundation, NM Trade Alliance, Q Station and the U.S.General Consulate of Guadalajara.
STEMarts is a 501(c)3 based in Taos, New Mexico
Space Messengers creative team
Creative Director: Agnes Chavez
Lead Artist/Projection team: OMAi
Sound design: David Novack with Joao Espada
Creative Coding/Artist: Roy MacDonald
VR Platform design: Mathieu Castel
Interdisciplinary speakers/facilitators: CERN Physicists; Dr. Steven Goldfarb, University of Melbourne on the ATLAS Experiment, Dr. Johan Sebastian Bonilla, Postdoctoral Scholar for the University of California, Davis; Dr. Nicole Lloyd-Ronning, LANL astrophysicist; Steve Tamayo, Lakota Cultural Specialist; Dr. Catarina Pombo Nabais, Philosophy of Science/University of Lisbon; Frank Tavares, NASA Communication Specialist; Michelle Hanlon, Founder/Director, For all Moonkind
Videography: Malu Tavares; Photography: Julia Novack, Frank Dosu; Curriculum Advisors: Shane Wood, Quarknet staff; Dr. Greg Cajete, Native-American Author/cultural specialist. Visual Program Designer: Estacia Huddleston. Multi-media/Tech development and support: OMAi/Tagtool team/Josef Dorninger and Matthias Fritz; Enrico Trujillo, University of New Mexico (VR Youth Day). STEAM Ambassadors: Dania Loya, New Mexico; Joana D’Arc Moreira, Brazil; Amina Abdrazakova, Canada; Amelia Martinez, Feliciana Mitchel-Gonzales, Megan Odom, Svetlana Backhaus, Dominique Vigil,Taos New Mexico.
Participating schools: Escola Secundária Sebastião e Silva: Profesora Ana Carvalho, Profesora, Cristina Pinho. Taos Integrated School of the Arts: Sally Greywolf, Alison Haney