STEMarts Lab has partnered with the KERNEL X- Light Art Festival in Monza, Italy, to connect students there with students in New Mexico, to participate in an audiovisual 3D mapping onto the architecture of Residenza Ponte dei Leoni in the city of Monza.

KERNEL X is the first Italian light festival of international interest to take place in Monza. Between June and November 2021, audiovisual 3D mapping shows and interactive, light and sound installations will transform and enhance the historical and cultural context of the city center through an emotional experience capable of involving the interest and participation of a transversal audience.                   

The light festival will also host audiovisual mapping projections developed with the involvement of emerging artists, students of Italian and international academies and elementary and middle school children. Marcello Arosio, Art Director of AreaOden and the Kernel X Festival says, “We’re very excited to connect students from Italy and New Mexico by giving them the opportunity to become the protagonists of a collaborative video mapping show, where they’ll share their own vision of the future through fantasy, color and the freest interpretation of architectural shapes.”

What’s the Challenge?

For this design challenge the teachers from Raiberti plexus of Monza and the teachers of New Mexico schools are invited to engage their students in a simple and fun drawing activity onto a printed diagram of the building’s facade that captures their vision for a sustainable future. The student drawings from both regions are submitted to the video mapping artists in Monza who will produce a creative reinterpretation of Residenza Ponte dei Leoni on July 2 – 11, from 9:30 p.m on a rotating schedule.     

To make this easy for teachers, STEMarts Lab has created an Activity Guide that provides links and resources on how to engage students in “Futures Thinking” to inspire their drawings. Futures Thinking tells us that the future is not something that will happen to you tomorrow but is being created by everyone today. It is a literacy skill like reading and writing that allows people to better understand the role of the future in what they see and do. Futures Thinking is a mindset and we are all Future Imaginers!

Stay tuned for documentation of the final video mapping of student work at the KERNEL X Festival July 2-11, 2021.