At the PlatteForum Foundation in Denver, Colorado, in 2008, I worked with a diverse group of underserved at-risk teenagers on a performance installation about the recent development and restoration of lower-downtown Denver: “Simultaneous Visions: The City Rises.”
The conceptual and aesthetic inspiration for this workshop was the Italian avant-garde artistic movement known as Futurism, its enthusiastic vision for urban growth, its energetic message, and its compelling way of combining simultaneous images and emotions in the visual and performing arts.
Under my guidance, the teens explored the surrounding of the site while they were acquiring the rudiments of filmmaking, photography, and animation. Using a combination of animation techniques (drawing, stop-motion, pixillation), video, and performance, students successfully displayed their vision into multiple pieces, arranged by me in an immersive and choral installation.
A short video of the exhibition can be seen here