Pacific Northwest College of Art students use their creativity and tech skills to make environmental and social change a reality at the Make+Think+Code research studio.
This lab brings together members of Portland’s vibrant creative, tech, civic and educational communities to develop impactful solutions to urgent problems — and offers students a chance to focus their ingenuity on improving the world around them.
CAT ROSS, BFA’18 AT WORK.
“The program provides workshops, connections to professionals, and emerging and creative technology skills for students — in addition to what’s currently embedded in the curriculum,” says Megan McKissack, assistant director of Make+Think+Code. “It has provided some quick upskilling to students, letting them experiment and try out skills, and explore topics that can help them in their art and design practice.”
The lab emphasizes fluency with emerging technologies and creative collaboration, emphasizing a 21st century model of education that centers on inclusion.
Alums Cat Ross BFA’18 and Marin Vesely BFA’18 participated in the program and received a Unity for Humanity Environment and Sustainability grant. With this funding, they designed a virtual reality program to help a Southern California community facing serious environmental problems.
“We developed our project during the pandemic to develop immersive experiences to highlight environmental and social injustices,” Ross told a Unity for Humanity panel.
The virtual reality storytelling project, called “Gone to Water” (Ido Al Aqua in Spanish), “takes urgent action against localized hydrocarbon pollution and its community health impacts,” she said.
The story represents District 64 in South Los Angeles, which faces health risks, generational health impacts, social health impacts, poor water quality, and environmental degradation, Ross added.
“We’re trying to use this new medium to bring awareness in a virtual space of protest alongside these folks who are most affected by environmental injustice,” she told the panel. “That community is largely low income, and 90% of the residents are Black and Latinx.”
Ross, a creative researcher in Portland, and Vesely, an interactive designer and activist in L.A., have created Love Death Design studio to pursue future design endeavors aimed at addressing environmental and health problems.
Original source can be found here.
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