Client: The City of Oklahoma City Percent for Art Program with Additional Funding Secured from Federal Community Block Grants

Overview

Our project, Seeds of Change, uses a powder coated aluminum architectural feature wall as a canvas for laser projected motion graphics. The base of the installation features a backlit cityscape; envisioned from landmarks and homes throughout East Oklahoma City. A touchscreen allows visitors access to a historical database, offering anyone with a smart device or at the facility, an opportunity to learn more about the history of the people and places featured in the project. In proposing this project, Oklahoma City’s Seeds of Change, our creative team knew that there would be a limit to the number of persons who could be featured in projected animations. Our creative team proposed and established this database as a way to make sure that no story would have to go untold. Local residents can schedule at the host facility to contribute oral and video histories or can work with researchers at partnering academic institutions to inform long form histories to be added to the database. Developed through STQRY, the historical database component of Seeds of Change can be viewed at https://eastokcblacklegacy.stqry.app/.

Goals

This project is located in the lobby of Senior Health and Wellness Center III in Oklahoma City, OK and was installed in Dec. 2023. In this project, the commissioner shared their desire for a public artwork that would elevate local cultural heritage, incorporate new technologies and create opportunities for interactivity. In many ways, our project is like a book. You could think of the physical components, like those in the lobby, as a book cover and the digital components as the pages. Using animation and laser projection mapping, Seeds of Change take viewers on a journey of discovery in the historically Black and African American East side communities of Oklahoma City and features over ninety persons and locations from the late 1800’s through today. The intent of the animation, is to encourage people to crack the cover of the book, and appreciate its pages; which, at its launch, contained over 180,000 words of academic research on the history of these people and places. Some of these people are well known, but most are not known beyond our community. They are teachers, doctors, business people, social advocates and volunteers. They are people rooted in this community. This project aims to make sure that they are known and that their legacies are preserved.

Process

The efforts of our team reflect more than 3,000 hours of compassion for and dedication to this project. No aspect of this facility saw a greater return on investment. Each of our team members comes from a different background and operates their own independent practice and converged to make an idea into a reality. Under central oversight, our core team of five academic and creative professionals delegated development of illustration, video assets and motion graphics to a team of two and academic research and data coordination to another team of two. All other facets from physical and technical componentry to projection mapping, site sub installs and stakeholder coordination were the responsibility of central oversight. In this collaborative project, we worked with academic and cultural researchers, local citizen historians, two universities and the Oklahoma History Center, investing over 400 hours, to inform academically backed history. There’s no way a team of five could accomplish a project like this alone. We are beyond thankful for the many individuals, academic institutions, companies and organizations who assisted us in making this project come to life.

Additional Information

This project was designed to continue to grow. Its only limitation is desire. The community can add more histories and add to existing histories, new animations can be funded and updated and technology components can be added or replaced as equipment evolves. It is our desire that the community continue to grow what we started. We know that thousands of people have contributed to making this community and to helping their community members achieve success, break barriers, open doors to opportunity and make the world a better place in which to live. This project engages community members to tell their many stories. Seeds of Change was made possible by The City of Oklahoma City Percent for Art Program and has been recognized as an Education Resource by historic Langston University, The City of Oklahoma City Public Arts Commission and the Oklahoma History Research Center. The recognition of this project as an Educational Resource has helped to develop collaborative research and academic partnerships wherein contributed histories can be preserved through multiple institutions affording greater access to and preservation of these community legacies.