YouTube update!

Our Trying to Figure Out What to Say to the Camera videos are a result of a morning's worth of interviews, some of which clearly didn't make it through the technological recording world smoothly. But now we have these cute "stop motion"clips!

Finally! The two projects from Jessica Castillo's Fall 2012 Visiting Artist workshop, Found Sound.

You can view all our videos here: http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCmHxjJRwWobdPXYSKgBtPlQ Check us out!

Spring 2013 Illustration/Zines class

The Illustration class carried over from Fall 2012 to create two more projects: Auto/Biographies Vol. 2 and Mythologies. Both projects were sold on consignment at Skylight Books and The Pop-Hop in Los Angeles. 

Auto/Biographies included stories of mothers, fathers, and grandfathers, as well as imagined futures of Nomad Lab authors. 

For Mythologies, students were asked to reimagine local histories and locations. Titles include "Werewolf vs. Vampire with William S. Hart," "The Sandwich," "My Pokemon Adventure," and "Springtime in the SCV."

4/20 and 5/4: Film/Video Visiting Artists: Misra Iltus & Leah Olbrich

Filmmaker Misra Iltus wrapped up our first ever Film/Video Visiting Artist class, guiding the students through creating a portrait of their community. The students directed and filmed "It's Time To Roll Out" with Misra and were joined by Leah Olbrich (a filmmaker and puppeteer) for the editing process.

Watch the whole film on our Youtube channel! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ev8eggwzjxY

4/6 and 4/13: Visiting Artists/Film Video: Jessica Castillo [[ & ]] 4/13 and 4/20: Visiting Artists/Visual Arts: Armando Martinez-Celis

4/6 and 4/13: Jessica Castillo

Photographer and sound artist Jessica Castillo joined us for the 2nd session of the pilot Film and Video class to introduce students to script treatments. Using Jamaica Kincaid texts (including "What I Have Been Doing Lately") as a starting point, students first learned how to adapt an existing text for film and then worked on crafting their own including the important points they learned from that process. Each student developed their own version of Kincaid's "What I Have Been Doing Lately" which will hopefully be adapted for film/video soon.


4/13 and 4/20: Armando Martinez-Celis

Graphic Designer Armando Martinez-Celis joined us as a Visual Arts visiting artist for a mapmaking workshop. Using large rolls of butcher paper, the students created maps of their own lives and each others' by mapping out daily locations as well as more special ones. This project stemmed from Armando's thesis project which was a self portrait in relation to his hometown of Ciudad Juarez, Mexico. Photos coming soon!

3/16 and 3/23: Visual Arts Visiting Artist: Christina Simons

Photographer Christina Simons joined the Visiting Artist/Visual Arts class for some very fun shadow puppet construction and filming! The students created incredible shadow puppets out of construction paper, bubble wrap, colored cellophane, Christmas lights and more. Christina provided a fantastic set up with an overhead projector and screen for the kids to experiment with their puppets as well as some fancy tricks with the overhead projector (including a tub of water, dye, and oil).

Watch the whole film on our YouTube channel complete with some fun shenanigans at the end and a guest appearance by Christina's cat!! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i7E3CzX3s2A

Here are some stills from their beautiful film:

3/2 and 3/9 VDO Visiting Artists: Film/Video: Colin Howard and Visual Arts: Taylor Giali and Mitch Cox

For the past two weeks, the Valle del Oro Nomad crew worked with visiting artists Colin Howard, Taylor Giali, and Mitch Cox to create animated loops and collages using images of the neighborhood they shot themselves.

Cartoon Network animator Colin Howard was the first visitor of our brand new Film/Video Visiting Artists lab and his class was such a success it extended for an extra hour both days. All participants of Film/Video are also in Alfredo's Beat Lab and created their own music tracks for their animations which you can watch here:

as well as this one, which refuses to upload properly: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C1AylnSg0pI

 Though we don't have any photos of Colin teaching, there is photographic evidence of him doing crunches with the kids in lieu of dance class since our poor dance teacher was out sick.

Taylor Giali and Mitch Cox returned for their 2nd visit after helping us kick off the Visual Artists Visiting Artists Lab in Fall 2012. This time around, they provided the participants with disposable cameras which they used to document the complex. The next week, the kids created some great collages out of their own material. Hopefully we'll have scans of the collages up soon but in the meantime, here are some photos Taylor and Mitch took of that process.