Act One | Season Two: Weaving Our Story

Introduction

Act One and Meteor Studio partnered together to create Season Two of Act One’s VR field trips, focusing on highlighting Native American artists from Arizona. Act One is a non-profit organization seeking to bring field trips to students in the classroom through the use of Virtual Reality headsets and experiences. Students are able to learn about subjects they would otherwise find inaccessible.

Key Goals

• Visual engagement: Improve on visual effects from last season and encourage students to look around the artists' studios and spaces.
• Engaging audio: Design audio that matches the stories, culture, and mood of each Native American artist.
• Made for everyone: Make the story short, fun, easy, and interesting to make the experience enjoyable regardless of age.

Impact

With Meteor Studio’s assistance, Act One has been able to provide VR field trips at no cost to Title I schools in Arizona to help students learn more about the arts. Act One is helping provide these schools with an art education by bringing the experience directly to their classrooms. The organization listened to local educators, who had asked for more education on local indigenous artists. In this way, students receive exposure to the local artists and have a better understanding of the impact of indigenous artists on Arizona culture and history.

Contribution

Meteor Studio helped interview and document the art and process of three indigenous artists: Tyrell Tapaha, The Duncan Family, and Janelle Stanley. Students at Meteor Studio helped undertake the filmmaking, audio recording, scripting, editing, VFX, and delivery of the documentaries. Each documentary was delivered in a few different formats with English and Spanish subtitles to make the films accessible to those with hearing impairments or those who do not speak English.