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Students from the Strasburg School District

Last week we hosted an enthusiastic and inquisitive group of students from the Strasburg School District (Title 1). The students ranged from 2nd grade to 8th grade, and despite the variation in ages, they got along with each other so nicely. Strasburg is located about 40 miles east of Denver. Lumonics is a community partner with the Denver Public Schools Foundation.
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Last year on the PBS Newshour, there was a segment about “neuroarts”. Journalist Jeffrey Brown visited the Johns Hopkins Medical School in Baltimore for PBS’s  Arts and Culture series, CANVAS. One of the topics was the book, ‘Your Brain On Art: How The Arts Transform Us,’ about the growth and importance of this field that connects the arts and our health. The book was written by Susan Magsamen, the founder and executive director of the International Arts + Mind Lab (IAM Lab) at Johns Hopkins.

“The field of neuroarts is the study of how the arts and aesthetic experiences measurably change the brain, body, and behavior – and how this knowledge is translated into specific practices that advance health and wellbeing. The goal of the NeuroArts Blueprint initiative is to ensure that the arts and the use of the arts – in all of its many forms – become part of mainstream medicine and public health.”

I reached out to Susan, and she appreciates what we are doing at Lumonics where the intention of the light sculpture installations, the field trips, guided tours, and immersive performances is to promote well-being and stimulate creativity, and provide a. setting that can enable fresh insights. She invited us to be part of the community at the Neuroart Resource Center. We are happy to connect with other art projects, researchers, and educators from around the world.

 

 

 

 

Many attendees inquire how we create the performances at Lumonics. The source material for the projection comes from an archive of imagery that late artists Dorothy and Mel Tanner originated at the Lumonics Light and Sound Theatre in Miami in 1969, and continues to this day in our performances of Lumonics Immersed here in Denver. Much of the new material is derived from rides in the Colorado mountains and then abstracted to varying degrees. The music source is sampled sounds and keyboards, much of the music composed by the late Dorothy Tanner when she was in her 70s and 80s. You can read more about it and see more photos on our blog.