The experience I’ve gained as an artist in the American Arts Incubator (AAI) program both abroad in Moscow, Russia and locally in the States has been a journey, to say the least. I’ve made many acquaintances and seen how different and similar it is to live in Moscow for a time. Great insights from the participants were generated throughout the four weeks of AAI workshops and project development.

The participants gained the most when we used the workshop time to interview people at areas of interest — whether at Garage Museum of Contemporary Art or Preodolynie Rehabilitation Center, each had their unique perspectives into the local issues surrounding social inclusion for people with disabilities. Collaboration across cultures and institutions were made as participants of AAI got a first-hand look into those they were creating their projects for, and an in-depth understanding of the topic.

It was exciting to see the projects take off, despite intense deliberations in the choosing of projects, as there were many good ideas among the participants. The projects are headed off to a good start…

The Art to be Open app is progressing into the implementation phase as roles are being reassigned. They want to move forward with their prototype as well as get the message out about their project, reach out for funding, and get help with development.

If you're looking for a meaningful project and a great team — join them! Marina needs a developer to create a platform prototype and mobile app for people with disabilities on the search for affordable recreation.

Also, check out a recent article written by fellow team member Nika Parkhomovskaya published in the journal Такие Дела (“Such Cases”), a media outlet for articles on social projects and a source of funding for innovative charities and community projects.

The Traveller on a Wheelchair team is also continuing with their project. Recently, they began promoting it through various channels and created a fan page which you can like and follow to stay updated.

Still to come is the US Embassy’s video about the projects and what went on in the AAI program in Russia. Stay tuned!

Our four teams have been working diligently on their community projects. I asked each one to submit a progress report and got different types of responses. Here they are in raw form with just a bit of editing on my part. Each one is headlined by a nickname for their team, followed by the project name. You can reference my most recent blog post, Community Projects Underway, for short descriptions of each project.

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Team Hydra — The Cleansing of a Canal

When we first arrived at Ruamjaipiboon 2 community along Ladprao canal, we were instantly hit by the smell of its polluted water. How could someone live like this? It’s right on dark water with all sorts of garbage? Does this affect their health at all? It certainly gave us a headache after spending a few hours there. We couldn't stand the smell.

We met up with members from the community — Auntie Tuk, who talked cheerfully of her granddaughters and her terrible health. She took us to see Auntie Noo who runs a small food stall, feeding the community with her delicious meals. They talked candidly about the housing situation. Where do we go? What can we do? We chatted about life, we ate, we laughed. What is it with this place? It might not be the ideal place to live, but it certainly felt like home.

Team Hma Ngoy — Reflection

Today we went to a stationery store nearby and bought some materials and tools such as cutters, glass paint, and couple of acrylic sheets which we decided to use instead of stained glass. We also began to design how we are going to transform our hard data into each acrylic sheet. Last but not least, some of us volunteered to clean up the box which will be the standing base for our final work.

Team Sansab — River Voices

Our project's name is "River Voices" and our main idea is to work with the Ladprao community and to create collaborative art. So in this sense we are very dependent on the community people. On Thursday, we had the first site visit and it was a very strong impression! The community is living in very poor conditions and people living there are vulnerable with lack of education and suitable jobs. But they are a very curious and hospitable people. There are community leaders who are doing a lot of good and right things for these people and trying to create links between this community and the outside world.

So here we were! Our activity consisted of two workshops. The morning "t-shirts workshop" idea was to collect around 30 t-shirts from the community people of different ages and to dip these items in the canal water on different levels. Then we collected all the data needed (t-shirt owner’s information and their house coordinates). In the second, after-lunch “children's collaborative art" workshop we discussed the present canal condition and asked children to draw their ideal canal/water life. We will extract the healthy water "ingredients" from the children's drawings and create a logo which we are going to print on the new t-shirts and gift to all the community people who were participating in the workshops.

The great, hot, very intense and amazing experience of Saturday workshops has taught us so many new things — to be flexible working with the community people, to be ready that what you have planned would not necessarily work exactly that way (which is fine as well), to always keep in mind that this is not only you who is sharing something with the community, but this community is sharing a lot with you too! Amazing!

Team Tum Raud — Make it Clear

We were planning to collect data from Ladprao community 45's canal. Then we found more than 50 sewage pipes, which we measured and mapped. These are waste disposal drainage for stormwater before going out to the Chao Phraya. After this, we will transfer our data target into artwork.

How do you figure out who will be in the four (and only four) groups to develop collaborative artworks — what we call community projects? With 20 workshop participants, I was hoping to get five in each group, and this was a challenge for me to tackle.

On a sheet of A4 paper, I asked everyone to write down at least three types of water data they were interested in on the left side, their skills on the right side, and of course, their name. 

I put them all on a wall and we did a mix-and-match of physical data-visualizing for each group. This was highly effective as within 30 minutes we had our four community projects defined.

And here they are —

Reflection

They will use stained glass as sculptural material to present hard data measurements of pH, electrical conductivity, and dissolved oxygen along five khlongs (canals) as a group sample. Their piece can be seen from any angle and it will reflect colors up to the ceiling.

The River Voices

The community project descriptions below were written by participants in American Arts Incubator — Cambodia and focus on environmental health in the country. These projects were initiated during Michael Kuetemeyer's Incubator workshop and will continue to develop after the Incubator is complete. They were presented at the New Media Exhibition at Bophana Center from May-June 2017.

Trash is Not Bad

Artist team: Chum Mab, Chhit Vannat, Mok Sina, James Speck, Soin Vanda, Hul Hunsopheary

The Plastic Commune team is building statues of the god Hanuman and the mermaid princess Suvannamaccha out of recycled plastic bottles and newspaper. Images on these sculptures trigger augmented reality 3D models of these miraculous modern materials we are able to create but then treat without respect. Hanuman saved the world once upon a time. Can we all join him in this current epic quest to rescue the earth?

They are also producing the documentary, Our Health Our City, asking the residents of Phnom Penh about how trash impacts their lives.

We Destroy Our Own Planet

Artist team: Sanuch Svay, AN Sopheaktra

The Global Warming team is developing infographic posters that trigger 19 separate overlay video segments via augmented reality. The challenge of global warming is investigated in three phases: 1. the human activity that is causing global warming 2. the risks we all experience as a result and 3. the solutions we can employ to avoid the on-coming collision of wasteful prosperity with environmental destruction.

They have started a new project of personal community outreach and education using AR and VR new media.

Along the Water

Artist team: Tum Yuryphal, Seng Mengbunrong, Heng Lida, Bun Sreymom

The Along the Water team is producing an immersive 360° documentary about how our water became polluted and how it affects the living surrounding it. The video explores the life of a family living on a floating house and the close strings that tie water and life. A sculpture of a huge blue water drop covered by the waste it holds connects us to this precious resource and shows how “what goes around comes back around.”

Bring the Forest to the City

Artist team: Prum Bandiddh, Khim Darath, Mech Sereyrath

The Bring the Forest to the City team is traveling to three separate Cambodian forests to document them with 360° images and sounds. They are building these into web-based interactive VR experiences of the Areng Forest as well as the Chom Bok Forest in Kirirom National Park in Kom Pong Spuer. The goal is to connect the residents of Phnom Penh, particularly the younger, with the diverse biosphere that is at risk of consumption.

My month-long American Arts Incubator workshop in Cambodia focused on new media and global challenges. The question posed to participants was, “How can environmental health be supported by new media art projects?” Throughout the workshop we experimented with 360 virtual reality and augmented reality as storytelling tools. We talked about using art to engage communities and promote innovations that could lead us on a path to an environmentally sustainable future.

The culmination of the workshop was a new media exhibition at Bophana Center in Phnom Penh from May 17 to June 16, 2017. We had an enormously successful opening reception with guests and panelists from the U.S. Embassy at Phnom Penh and organizations like Development Innovations and Eco Life Cambodia.

The four community artist teams worked hard to put together this fantastic new media art exhibition, which was the first of its kind in Phnom Penh (according to folks who attended the opening reception!). Audiences were enthralled by the inventive uses of new media — from a VR documentary bringing you right into a family's living space on a floating house to augmented reality triggers on a mythical mermaid goddess that made objects in the frame disappear. It was exciting to watch people interact with all the VR/AR projects and engage in discussions about the environmental issues that the projects tackled. We couldn't have hoped for a better opening night.

In keeping with the theme of environmental sustainability, the project installations were powered by a 260-watt solar panel that we installed at Bophana Center at the start of the workshop. Low power devices such as 13-watt fans, 11-watt HDTV monitors, and LED projectors were in play during the exhibit – and they all used the power of the sun!

As lead artist for American Arts Incubator — Cambodia, I also premiered a new augmented reality installation “Circle Time” in collaboration with artist Anula Shetty. This installation uses hand gestures from classical Cambodian dance as triggers for a series of documentary videos exploring the new environmental/recycling-focused "Coconut School" being built in the Kirirom Forest. The participants were excited to see that there was a fifth artist team and were helpful as we all worked together in the mounting and installation.

All in all, the technology and internet cooperated throughout exhibition which created a real sense of accomplishment for all artist participants.

The community project descriptions below were written by participants in American Arts Incubator — Colombia and focus on social inclusion and peace in the country. These projects were initiated during Nathan Ober's Incubator workshop and will continue to develop after the Incubator is complete.

Bordes

Discrimination by race, prejudice, or stereotypes are boundaries that generate loneliness and exclusion. The bus is a public space where people are solitary — they sleep, they stare at the sky, or look at their cell phones. We want to intervene in this experience by creating an interactive map of these stereotypes in which the bus's regular route crosses these boundaries.

Ciudad Sensible

We will set up our project at different bridges in the city, which are symbols of transit but also symbols for the possibility to advance to different states of consciousness in which we do not seek to define the word "peace," but to investigate the different experiences and sensations tied to it. By sensations, we mean the ways in which we understand our existence and the existence of others.

We're proposing a modular installation which would combine different inputs such as ambient noises and vital sounds from the body: heart rate, breathing, swallowing, etc. to create new sounds and environments. These transmissions would pass through an interface which the user can manipulate according to their choice because we believe that "peace" is a personal decision. We want to create an opportunity that takes people out of their regular routine and allows them to reflect on the presence of and connection with others in their daily lives.

Reloj de paz

Reloj de paz, or "clock of peace," is a wooden clock in the typical style of Salvador Dalí. The clock uses hour markings to represent the history of conflict in Colombia from the 1950s until the time peace negotiations started in the country. These milestones are expressed by images and archival sounds around the clock, which eventually enters a time zone for peace with sounds that are generated by the community.

Tómate libre

We're forming a group of people from different campuses of the University of Antioquia to activate a creative space in the Niquitao neighborhood of Medellín. We want to connect with communities that are usually out of reach of established programs and help them access an interactive space where young people can experiment with different technologies and gain artistic skills.

Last week, I took a small group on a field recording expedition. We hiked up a short mountain peak close to where I've been staying. As we traveled further up the side of the mountain, the city sounds began to dissipate and blur into a sea of fragmented voices and passing cars. Here we could hear the birds, and the wind blowing through the grass and trees. Here we could see from a tall vantage point all that lies below. Our mission was to record these sounds and plot their locations for an upcoming exhibit mapping the sounds of peace.

We were looking for some good spots to create multichannel audio recordings. We recorded with the Zoom H6 using its X/Y stereo imaging capsule along with two shure sm57 microphones and two custom built piezo-electric contact microphones.

At our first spot, we sat tethered together with headphones, silently listening to the world in contemplative meditation. We recorded for ten minutes and then moved along to our next destination. As we climbed to the top, we found a large metal tube and decided to attach our contact mics here and create a short performance of banging on the metal structure.

In our last spot, we sat beneath a tree and I attached the contact mics directly to the tree. We were all mesmerized by the sounds that were presented to us by this strange juxtaposition. The tree actually sounded like running water, and each time the wind blew across its branches we were able to hear the branches gently nudging and colliding with each other. The sounds were quite amazing and a pleasant surprise to us all. This was actually the first time I had ever performed such a task. I think from now on, I’ll be listening to trees more often.

This experience gave us all some new ideas and perhaps even a few epiphanies. For the next week I’ll be collaborating with Monika Marquez for the upcoming exhibition. We'll set out to record the sounds of city of Medellín, including nature, urban environments, and the stories of the people of this great city—all within the context of listening to the sounds of peace.

Wow, this exchange has gone fast! I can't believe how quickly things have moved along. Below are videos from days three, four, and five of the workshop series.

On day three, we worked on prototyping and idea conceptualizations while day four was focused on video. Each participant was put into a group and given the task of creating a short video. The videos were meant to convey each member's interests and goals for the upcoming weeks. They turned out great, and each short video was truly unique and creative.

On day five, the participants were challenged to brainstorm and list out every project idea they wanted to pursue. This led to many long discussions on how to act as a community, and whether to vote for their favorites or choose more organically how each group would be formed. In the end, we had to table the decision for the weekend and come back on Monday morning for final picks.

DAY 3

DAY 4

DAY 5

I arrived in Bangkok a couple days ago. Here, you cannot escape the physical effects of the place. It is humid and muggy outside, and once you're inside, your sweat dries from the blasts of AC and you become very cold.

This is the dialogue I quickly experienced: man-made versus nature. Traffic is omnipresent and there are air-conditioned shopping malls everywhere. However, nature still looms large with adverse weather, flooding, and of course, the Chao Phraya river.

On my first day, as I wandered, I also wondered. How many people actually have a relationship with the river that runs through Bangkok? How often do they think about the lifeblood of this city, which provides drinking water, transportation, and in the past, food?

The next morning, I visited the Huay Kwang community. This group of people has lived on the banks of the Chao Phraya for many decades and are low-income, often forgotten by the business and shopping districts. When it rains, the sewer infrastructure backs up and floods the river. Like many cities, the pavement and cement prevents water from flowing naturally into the ground.

The community is currently developing a master plan to relocate their residences to higher shores. It isn’t easy. After all, no one wants to lose their home. Their plan also details widening the canal, dredging it, and establishing a transportation lane for tourism and commerce.

I listened to community leaders and their hopes for the workshop. I made several points, but one of the most important ones was to set expectations for what I can really do here. Since I’m only here for a month, we decided to focus on how to create sustainable projects and make public art with water data.

I also met my assistant, Ekarat, who is super helpful and will be assisting me throughout this experience. I can’t imagine how I would make this project a success without him.

Yesterday, we spent an entire day procuring items. The best find was these small containers. They are often used for hot sauces, but we will use them for water samples on the Chao Phraya. They were a bargain at 10 baht (30 cents USD) each!

The days between the development building phase and prototype presentations on April 22nd were absolutely crazy. The four project teams had a mere two weeks to design, build, and prototype their initial project ideas around themes of inclusion that could be incorporated into their local communities. All of the teams worked hard to solidify their ideas and used rapid prototyping to mock up something tangible for their presentation pitches.

The pitch structure took inspiration from Silicon Valley, and gave each group a chance to show off their work using art as a tool to engage users in thinking about ways their prototype could make a difference in their community. It also motivated them to move their ideas forward while making the right connections along the way.

The day started with Marina introducing Garage’s partnership with ZERO1 and their focus on the topic of inclusion for their spring programming. I introduced the American Arts Incubator workshop and gave an overview of the topics around inclusion we had discussed as a group, the field trips we went on, and our interviews with people with disabilities over the past three weeks. After congratulating the teams on all the hard work spent on their initial prototypes, we kicked off the event with a series of pitches by the teams which included time for feedback, discussions, and Q&A from the audience.

It was important for teams to present a tangible prototype along with their pitches to help the audience connect to their ideas and messages. It helped bring them into the reality that each team was trying to create: a vision of a future world where inclusion is tackled by technology, second-nature apps, customizability, and unique fashion tastes. At the heart of each project was a message for the general public to start actively addressing inclusion in the community — through education, breaking stereotypes, instilling healthy public perceptions, and co-creating opportunities of inclusive collaborative play. As each team worked to solidify these themes, they had to find opportunities in design, whether their message was a call for more inclusive museums or normalizing communication through emotions. It was important to emphasize the prototyping process in the weeks leading up to the exhibition.

The day ended with a round table, trade show-style setup. I was inspired by my experience at SXSW where finalists had their prototypes out by their booths for demos and conversations. In the space we had at Garage’s Educational Center, we set each of the prototypes along the walls. As the presentations ended, the audience was invited to move around the room to each table and interact with the prototypes and ask the group any further questions. This allowed for more casual and candid conversations among well-connected artists in the theater scene, the art and gallery spaces, and those from the disabled communities working between art and inclusion.It was great to see the excitement that ran through the whole room and the genuine curiosity everyone had for how technology could be integrated with both art and social inclusion. It advanced the topic of inclusion into the realms of designing services, apps, and products that could one day inspire ways to address inclusion all over the world.

Sensory Light Spaces Installation

by Elaine Cheung

In addition to the four community projects, I created a project that I did research for on the ground in Moscow and in America before I left in April. Garage MCA’s Department of Inclusion had been interested in adding future sensory rooms and universal playgrounds to their future expansion efforts at the museum. Sensory rooms are generally used in hospitals or schools where kids on the autism spectrum can explore their tactile senses in a safe setting, as opposed to the often overly stimulating environments of our cities which can lead them to sensory overload. Sensory rooms are meant to be mentally calming spaces to help facilitate learning and play. In approaching the concept of a sensory room as a designer and artist, I questioned how this kind of room could be designed in our smart technology era.

Technology enables people with disabilities more freedom and independence due to the adaptability and computing power of smaller devices like phones and microcontrollers. The next step would be to think beyond adaptive technology and consider the design of experiences and environments for those with disabilities. What if our environments were able to pick up emotions and calm us down in ways that delight and move our senses? With the therapeutic aspects of sensory rooms, I created my own version that aims to visualize ways in which environments can be more friendly and responsive to the needs of someone with a disability — allowing for interaction in an environment where they can play and learn simultaneously. The installation broaches ways of creating alternative healing experiences with technology and attempts to view disability through the lens of play, access, and sensory creativity.

When people sat on the pillows, low and relaxed chords would play as the other pillows joined in unison. The LED lights on the wall mimicked the effect of water bubbles in the Sensorium room. But instead of using water and light, the animation of the LED strips flowing up and down at a slow and steady pulse created a calming effect with purely digital outputs. To further encourage social play, proximity sensors were installed so that when viewers moved around, they could change the hues of the light. The installation was placed alongside the other four community projects and it was exciting to watch as participants engaged with the work.

I was really excited by all the enthusiasm participants had for the subject of inclusion in art and for speculative design thinking, even at the level of looking at how sensor and DIY electronics technology can impact the lives of people living with disabilities. The Incubator brought people from different backgrounds that have the same commitment to creating inclusive experiences. It would be inspiring to see American museums consider disability and inclusion in their future programming and exhibitions. Here in Russia, participating artists displayed grace, commitment, and passion to building communities and creative experiences accessible to truly anyone.

Exhibition on April 22, 2017
Official Event Postings:

Garage Museum of Contemporary Art’s Website

AAI Russia’s Official Facebook Page 

Garage’s Official Facebook Page 

We’ve just wrapped up days 1 and 2 of the workshop series! This group is eager to learn and I can't wait to see what they create together in following weeks. Here are two videos from our first two workshops:

Day 1: Listen / Escucha 

We came together for the first time as a group. Kate Spacek and I led discussions around sounds and how they influence our day to day lives while informing and shaping the world around us. We then sent the participants on a field recording scavenger hunt. They were arranged into four groups and had 30 minutes to find the following list of sounds:

☐ Sonido feliz (Happy Sound)
☐ Sonido triste  (Sad Sound)
☐ Sonido enojado (Angry Sound)
☐ Sonido tranquilo (Peaceful sound)
☐ Melodía (Melody)
☐ Ruido (Noise)
☐ Sonido de la naturaleza (Sound of nature)
☐ Sonido de la tecnología (Sound of technology)
☐ Un eco (an echo)
☐ Agua (water)
☐ Aire (air)
☐ Ritmo (rhythm)
☐ Movimiento (motion)
☐ Silencio (silence)
☐ Empatía (empathy)

Day 2: Perceiving Vibrations / Building Custom Contact Microphones

A continuation of day 1 working with sound. We learned how to solder our own contact microphones and experimented with recording the vibrations of various objects, surfaces and resonant spaces. It was a hands on day and everyone made some sound!

Stay tuned for days 3-5!

I am just getting used to the busy sounds of the city here in Medellín, Colombia. As I approach the final hour before the American Arts Incubator program officially takes off, I am completely inspired and spellbound by what I have seen so far. During my first week, I was able to take in a bit of the culture and walk the streets with locals in search of the necessities (food, water and HDMI cables). I’ve also learned how to make delicious arepas and I’m currently learning to play the Tiple (the national instrument of Colombia).

Medellín, Colombia! It's as if the buildings and skyscrapers popped out from the jungle canopy — self propagating amongst the natural world. The sky is composed of a blanket of cool grey clouds that cover the mountain tops surrounding all that the eye can see. At night the mountains fade into obscurity but remain outlined and illuminated by the profusion of households and buildings inhabited by the citizens of this city.

One of the most inspiring moments thus far was the graffiti tour that led me and a few others through the transformed streets of what was once regarded as the most violent and dangerous area of Medellín. Through art, an entire neighborhood was able to overcome the awful atrocities of war and conflict. The artists here took back the streets from the paramilitary and FARC and in the process gave life back to the community. Comuna 13 serves a perfect example of where art can (and has) changed the world. Ask anyone who lives there.

Today I was able to get a tour of the new Exploratorio at Parque Explora where I will be holding the workshop series on digital storytelling. The Exploratorio has graciously invited us to use their space for the entire month for our projects. The space is new and full of all the right equipment — from hammers and drills, to laser cutters and CNC machines! It’s a playground for making and harboring a new community of artists collaborating on the themes of social inclusion and peace. This Saturday we launch the program with our partner Colombo Americano at their space in downtown Medellín.

Find out more about our partners here:

• Parque Explora
• Colombo Americano de Medellín

With just 15 days left to go, I’m both nervous and excited about the upcoming American Arts Incubator experience in Thailand. Life is getting busy here.

After some back-and-forth brainstorming with Bangkok Art and Culture Center American Arts, we came up with the name for this workshop intensive: “American Arts Incubator on River Health: Using data sculpture to explore social and environmental issues in Bangkok.”

We will be focusing on collecting physical water samples and using water sensors to data-map the Chao Phraya River, within a dialogue around DIY science. I’m looking forward to facilitating conversation about how artists, activists and others can use citizen science to help inform themselves, tell stories, and perhaps, activate some physical change. The community projects will all involve building some sort of physical installation or sculpture around river water quality.

I’ve been furiously ordering supplies, testing electronics and filling in spreadsheets. My aim is to plan as much as possible for the fundamentals, but still be open to improvisation. I’m sure things will shift once I’m in Bangkok and meet the workshop participants.

I’m most excited about what I cannot anticipate. What will the workshop participants really be like? What insights will they bring to the workshop? My role will be to facilitate rather than to lead, to assist rather than teach, and to be curious rather than anxious.

My personal intentions at this point are to prepare myself for the inevitable disorientation that comes with visiting a unfamiliar place. I will arrive in a country that I know little about (I’ve only been to Thailand for a short amount of time, a number of years ago). I will need to be organized and agile.

For the workshop, my primary goal is to activate the potential for physical data-visualizations around water. I will guide people away from the screen and into the real world. Although the workshop title includes “data sculpture,” the stories about river health might include sound or performance, as long as the participants are being creatively involved in a way that is relevant to the topic.

Let this intention guide my way: I will be organized, packed, and ready.

The community project descriptions below were written by participants in American Arts Incubator — Russia. All four projects explore aspects of inclusion through design prototypes that speculate what future inclusive programs could look like in local Moscow communities. These projects were initiated during Elaine Cheung's Incubator workshop and will continue to develop after the Incubator.

Community Project: E-Clothes

We are the E-Clothes team. Our goal is to create unique transformational clothing that is accessible by everyone, with a focus on universal design in fashion.We started with the abstract and lovely idea of creating emotional language. Emotion is the universal language that we all share. But in our modern society, it is hidden and something we often don’t pay attention to. With the E-Clothes concept, we have come up with a wearable prototype for a jacket that displays your mood by changing colors in gradients! This prototype has inspired us a lot. However, when we started to develop our project, we faced a problem, which was universality. We started to wonder how to make such an item that would suit anybody. The question stuck with us as we quickly produced our first prototype - a transforming wearable that could be interchanged between persons with a wheelchair and those without. This is awesome source of inspiration because our coat is not only useful for people with different bodies, but could potentially be suitable for various activities like extreme sports, or simply while while canoeing or fishing.

We found many people gave positive feedback encouraging us to continue the E-Clothes project. For the future of this project, we want to develop a fashion collection consisting of 5 pieces and 3 copies of each item.  We are going to develop our idea with “emotions” and collaborate with a local company which works with neuro-interfaces.  Our future coat will be not only be transformable but also embedded with some sensors that can help people with different needs. In addition, we want to develop a e-stickers that would transmit mood by changing colors or pictures.We are happy to hear feedback and get support! Thank you!

Community Project: Art To Be Open

In our increasingly social society, everyone should have the right to access public cultural institutions. The Russian state obliges such premises to have “access” certificates and make corresponding reports. However, most institutions do not have their facilities accessible and points towards an underlying problem of symbolic inclusion. Some problematic examples that commonly occur are:

• Inaccessible wheelchair ramps that are made too narrow.

• Staff at institutions can be unintentionally rude or critical when encountering customers who might have disabilities or sensitivities, without even realizing it.

• Poor translation or no translation for those with various disabilities.

Many cultural institutions claim to be “accessible” but few truly provide access to everyone. It is quite an art to be accessible-for-all. One needs to overcome lots of physical and organizational hurdles through creative research and development that improve management of institutional inclusiveness. But first and foremost, one has to leave all stereotypes and prejudices behind and take up an honest way instead of a formal one.

This became our focus for our Arts Incubator project. So moving forward we asked, "how could we present information on the current situation in institutions to people with different abilities to reveal the adaptation level of cultural locations?" The idea to create an “accessible” map has been out there for some time, but unfortunately most of the time the data being taken from institutional certificates turns out to be far from reality. What’s more, they often only show architectural access to where an existing lift or ramp can be out of order.We’ve designed both a platform and an application, where the main tool is user-generated content. It is a single database showing information on institutions and the services they provide to the disabled, along with the schedule of events and classes they can attend. Every user may add new places and describe them in a short questionnaire. We’ve also added rating and quick comment option. The first draft of the application prototype can viewed here: https://marvelapp.com/21e01j2

During the workshops, the patients of the Spinal Rehab Centre Predolynie (translation “Overcome”) helped us see that the problem of symbolic inclusion really existed and thus inspired our project. During project development, we decided to collect data and look into the matter ourselves. We chose 30 most-visited Moscow museums and asked their staff about inclusiveness.Our team had connections that helped a lot, and in a couple of days our questionnaires reached all of the museums except one – The Kremlin Chambers. That was the only museum that was not able to submit their data, saying it was impossible without an official request. Others were surprisingly cooperative and honest.We visualized the data we got in the installation called “Let’s Visit A Museum!” where one can see the number of cultural institutional services that are available for various groups of people. You simply press the button of a particular mode on the map of Moscow and see which buildings light up. We also made the installation touch-sensitive and recorded an audio description to make it comprehensible to visitors with poor eyesight.

These interesting results can be used by anyone interested in further research: It turns out that just 10% (3 out of 30) are fully accessible museums that can be visited by all persons. We plan to keep developing the project and will eventually launch it formally.Our next step is to create a better, more deeply researched prototype. To do this we are going to study the target audience and the specifics of various groups by contacting funds and carrying out sociological surveys. After that, we will create the prototype, as well as try to find some sponsorships. The project is extensive, engaging a large chain of stakeholders so we hope someone will see the potential of the social impact and will want to support it.

Community Project: The Traveller on a Wheelchair

Our project, “The Traveler in a Wheelchair,” is united by a common concept of giving freedom to people who use wheelchairs to travel, both out of necessity and for leisure, and equip them with modern and online services. The project has two main objectives:

1. To create and adapt existing mechanical, electronic and digital (including Internet) tools to provide wheelchair users with more comfortable conditions.

2. To create awareness by publishing photo reports of travelers, drawing the attention of different sections of society to the problem of perception of people with disabilities.

Society in mass considers these problems to be medical, insufficiently informed about the social needs of people. Therefore, there is a need to develop communication between different groups in society, to promote modern views on the social perception of people, for various reasons not included in public everyday life. To realize these goals within the limited time frame of the AAI Project Development, we discussed and developed wheelchair devices that allow people who use them not only to move more easily, but also designing ways to achieve their goals in the field of leisure, education, self-development, and sports. We hope to continue this aspect of the project through the photo reports of the travelers.

In our development, the wishes of people on wheelchairs with specific needs were taken into account, lightweight devices were purchased, allowing photographs to be taken by moving in a stroller, after which test specimens of fastenings were made for them. Also, a bag and a backpack were developed, taking into account the arrangement of folding carriages, and also taking into account other needs: illumination inside bags, using solar panels for power generation, and special colored pockets that facilitate navigating the bag for the owner or assistants. Caps designed for strollers are not just decorative elements, but they serve to protect hands from knocks, as well as to protect the spokes from dirt on the street.When a traveller on a wheelchair is equipped and allowed to live autonomously, that traveller really has many more opportunities. Not just in navigating the terrain, but to do so through art, as a photographer. Participation in the photo project promotes socialization and communication, regardless of the presence or absence of physical characteristics, which can already be considered in inclusion. Added to the fact that the devices help the traveler on the wheelchair to be autonomous, the assistance of other people and their effective involvement in the project is also part of the working towards inclusion in the wider society.In addition, we have ideas around developing a “Museum Guide” which consists of creating a database of museums, or the existing one is used, and people who like and could talk about exhibits and about these museums are registered there as future guides. The museum can conduct initial behavioral training and confirm cooperation. Each of the guides creates his profile with a description of his personality, interests and level of preparedness for this museum. Thus, a database of guides is created. When a visitor comes to the museum, he goes to the application and finds online guides active at that time. Using the description, he chooses his companion guide and communicates with him via the internet using audio or video communication that guides an excursion. Analogues of applications for finding a companion for a trip to the museum have already appeared in the world, they simply do not yet offer video communication services.A service like this can attract people whose mobility is limited: they can get remote work, socialization, additional impressions, raise their level of erudition and education, get or develop professional skills in museum activities. Users of this service can choose their own companion at any level, receive help, an individual approach, new acquaintances.

Community Project: Everydayness (Sensor Quests)

The team members, Victor Kudryashov (Виктор Кудряшов), Maria Malkova (Мария Малкова), Andronik Khachiyan (Андроник Хачикян) and Mila Machalkina (Мила Мачалкина), explored their idea of "Everydayness" — sensor quests that lets people experience disabilities in an experiential way. A visitor would experience various disabilities across 3 rooms. In the last room, we will unite all the participants where they can use an interactive sensory glove that can change the surroundings in the room itself and socially together. We first introduce guests to the lives of people with disabilities and then create an inclusive experience for people with disabilities and without to join in a fun contemporary technological experience.

We hope to make the quest in a way that can be easily transported or reconstructed in any city. We want to raise awareness about disabilities, let people experience them, start to talk about this important topic and integrate people with disabilities into it.

I grew up in Guatemala. However, the last time that I visited downtown Guatemala City was over a decade ago. Every time I've gone back, I've avoided downtown. I've had some bad experiences in that city. So when the ZERO1 staff behind American Arts Incubator told me that I would be working in the city for a month, I got the chills. I took this as a challenge to face my fear of Guatemala City and this challenge gave me the opportunity to see Guatemala urban culture from a new perspective. I was able to connect easily with the project participants and understand their experiences. Several of them told me their city life stories; unfortunately, they had scary moments in them too. Perhaps that’s why someone always offered to walk with me every time that I had to leave the building. They know too how bad Guatemala City can be.

This kind of human gesture showed me a side of the culture that I had never seen before; an appreciation for life and the desire to share that with others and help keep them safe. My experience had always been “everyone for themselves.”

Another impactful experience happened during the workshop week while I was explaining the theme of the project — economic equity. Some participants, in a very respectful and kind way, said, "We know our problems. We don’t need to promote them." Then one person said, "We need to think of new ways to create and to act and that’s what you are bringing to us. We need to do things differently, and if we fail, at least we will fail differently. Then we can try again with other new ideas." This showed me that Guatemalans are craving innovation and positive changes. Nietzsche wrote, “Who has a Why to live for can bear almost any How.” My experiences in Guatemala seem to align with that saying.

During one of my trips to the rural areas outside the Capitol, I noticed a good number of charity projects that I think are impacting these communities negatively in the long run. Don’t take this the wrong way, I know they have good intentions and are doing great work in the short run. But I also realize that these projects bring ready-made solutions and are creating dependency on the charities in these communities. They also affect local small businesses negatively. For example, free shoes are great and humanistic, but can cause the local shoemaker to go out of business.

My personal conclusion is that if you want to help individuals, the best way is to share new knowledge. I hope that I did this in Guatemala.