Under the general theme of “Present spaces, future spaces,” I’ll be exploring creative uses of underutilized  public and vacant spaces. These photos are actually not at all representative of the landscape here in Buffalo… There is quite a diversity of architecture, green spaces, vacant spaces, commercial areas, waterfront, etc…  Last night, for example, I attended a presentation on Pop Up parks. One will be happening on June 9th and I look forward to documenting this creative use of recycled materials and vacant parcels.  Lots of great energy and activity in the city, and I look forward to getting to know the people and their places!

This is a series of 5 videos that was produced by adults at Casa Monarca. This group worked together over 5 weeks to  write a script, storyboard, film and edit their videos.

This series of workshops culminated in a community screening on April 28th. We had a nice audience, and even filmmed a few more video messages on the spot!

They are currently all in Spanish…

Yesterday was a very full and productive day with 8  students at the Emerging Artists Creativity Hub, a project of Young Audiences at the College of New Jersey.

EACH says:  “Our goal is to provide young artists, ages 13-17, with study and work experience in the arts far beyond the typical high school curriculum. So far, students have had the opportunity to use a wide range of arts media and have worked with a number of professional artists. These bright and dedicated young artists, from locations throughout New Jersey, including Trenton, Princeton and Elizabeth, come each week with a desire to explore other art forms, to go beyond their comfort zone, to create and to collaborate with their peers.”

We decided the theme for this workshop would be ‘Personal PSA’s” Each student came up with an idea or message that was important to them and created a storyboard and worked in pairs to shoot their videos. I sat with each student for 15 mins to assemble and put the final touches on their videos, and then we watched them all by the end of the day! Themes included: Peer pressure, racism, animal rights, health and identity.

Here are the videos that we produced:

Lying

 
Take Care:

 
Family:

 
Peer Pressure:

 
Respect Our Animals

 
Be Your Own Person:

I selected a few videos to loop based on the theme… It was a fun process to curate such diverse material, but I think it’s actually a great representation of the MIM archive. I also had the opportunity to work with 2 students from Tyler School of Art, who are taking a community art class, to create 2 new videos based on this theme… I think they both took distinct approaches and brought some new visual ideas and reflections to the theme.

There will be a second ‘opening’ on May 4th and the show closed in early June.

Hope you can make it out, and send someone a postcard to let them know you are thinking about them! Read the full show details here.

InterROWaction by Stephanie:

Homebound Exchange by Jay:

This video was produced by Tyler Community Art student, Stephanie Pennypacker for the Reciprocity show at the Painted Bride April 6-June 6, 2012.

I started out by sharing a few videos to give a sense of different approaches and visual strategies. We watched a few clips from the Habla Ya series, which I highly recommend (although most are in Spanish)

(this one talks about the confusion around the ‘double’ last name. In Mexico, you take 2 last names, one from your mother and one from your father. This causes a lot of confusion when trying to translate that practice into our custom of ‘middle name’ and ‘last name.’

This video talks about the difficulty/contradictions of pronouncing English words and  Spanish words with an English accent.

We discussed the simplicity of these shots, the directness of the stories, the way humor was used to draw people in and allow them to identify with the situation.

Next, I was excited to show ‘Tocate’ the PSA I helped produce with a group of women in Camden last year.

They enjoyed the ‘doble sentido’ double meaning of this video, and we used it to start to talk about shot types and composition. From there we divided into 3 groups and each one produced a short in camera sequence. We watched and reviewed the videos and reflected on the session, which everyone really seemed to enjoy.

Next week,  we will start developing our ideas and making it happen!

Starting Monday March 26, MIM will lead a series of workshop at Casa Monarca with a group of adults who recently completed a computer training course. After learning the basics of web searches and applications, photo and social networking sites, they are ready to start making videos!  With 8 participants signed up, this will be the first Spanish Language MIM workshop, which I’m very excited about. The videos will premiere during the ‘De Pueblo a Pueblo Festival‘ in May.

Here is more info about the Award from the SXSW website. Click here to read about all 10 honorees!

“Dewey Winburne served as one of the original co-founders of the SXSW Interactive Festival. A teacher who spent much of his energy training at-risk youth to make use of digital technology, Dewey believed that the new media revolution could help level the playing field between the haves and the have-nots in our society.

Although Dewey passed away in 1999, his legacy continues via the lives of the many digital creatives he touched. Each spring, SXSW Interactive honors his vision with the Dewey Winburne Community Service Award. This award celebrates the spirit of community in Austin that we think is unique to SXSW.

An important change for the 2012 Dewey Winburne Community Service Award is that honorees are no longer restricted to the Central Texas region. To this end, the list of 10 honorees for this year include one international representative (Mexico).”

Also, check out this article from Chronicle of Philanthropy  which profiles the winners and their ‘technology for good’ projects.