Amplifying young voices, addressing their concerns
Pasts, presents and futures; researched and/or imagined; tactical urbanism, place making and activism
Those who don’t usually get to control the narrative will now do so: students will focus on current events, history, and issues important for thriving future societies. They will explore cultural/historical/media literacy, technology and society, and how technology can be used to discover/express/amplify. Participants will research and create their own ‘historical’ marker mockup commemorating important issues of their choosing. Each workshop will culminate with an AR(t) installation and exhibition of these mockups, inclusion in our database, and for some, the creation of one actual physical cast aluminum or bronze sculpture.
Workshops will focus on:
- Public Art - art of social conscience, art and place-making, subversive art, site specific art, social disruptions like the “On This Site Stood” series, art and tactical urbanism, i.e. what are the issues that are especially resonant in this particular place?
- Futures Thinking - the radical imaginary, science fiction, etc.: what could happen, what’s likely to happen and what would you want to happen. What issues are especially resonant to you at this particular point in time? What will they be in a year? Ten years? A hundred years?
- History As It’s Told - Who gets to make history? Who gets to tell history? How do we find/trust the truth? How should it be expressed to instill trust?
AR Technology can give people a public realm in which to express their hopes and dreams for themselves and their communities, and recognition for the cultures they inhabit. Learning to understand, think critically about, and use AR and other technologies is a “translatable skill” that will be useful in many realms beyond art.
Marker mockups shown:
"Polluted Air" (POV of the present)
"Future Summit" (POV from the future)
More than just a once-off event, the project intends to connect youth with pathways for further opportunities for skill development, community building and artistic expression, and to build the capacities of partner organizations to continue to use technology in a meaningful way. In the future, it will also work with youth participants to create and place additional forms of AR public art and advocate for their manifestation in the real world.
Jennifer Breslin brings decades of experience to this project. Her work with the U.N. has ranged from the development of global normative frameworks, to organizational and national strategies, to partnerships, to programmatic work around the world. In the different UN agencies she traveled through, she focused on links between Science, Technology, Innovation (STI) and youth, girls and women, education, governance, and economic development. Her non-profit and consultancy work has delved deeper into youth educational programs which involve futures thinking, science and society, use of extended reality and AI, simulations, biomimcry, and design challenges including through social collaboration.
Norm Magnusson has taught art to all grades. For high school, he created a 12-class curriculum entitled “Art that’s Changed the Way I See the World Around Me” in which artists and gallerists and rock stars and filmmakers and authors and academics spoke on that topic with visual and audio aids. He is a regular speaker to older students with his slideshow and talk: "Inspiration and Theft". Most recently, he launched a new curriculum for appreciating and creating land-based art for 5th grade students. He’s on the board of the non-profit CultureConnect, where he leads their arts programming for middle school students.
Markers shown:
Mockup: "Global Youth Movement" (POV from the future)
Sculpture" "Karen DeWitt" (POV of the present)