STEAMon Work of Art
Often the A in STEAM is made subsidiary to the STEM part. "A company develops a product using science, technology, engineering and mathematics in one or other form and finally they want to sell the product" That’s when the A is narrowed down to giving the product such a design that more people want to buy it.
This is not our view on Art in our STEAM lesson packages, and it is certainly not the case in our work of Art "Europe in Change".
Here we want to turn the tables completely so that Art becomes the ultimate goal with all STEM subjects being in its service. The Work of Art will consist of several integrated parts which express the original brain storm ideas of teachers, students and artist about topics to be expressed.
The basic and central concept is an architectural installation in the form of a dome, representing Europe united, steadfastly facing the world around and evolution.
It is realised by the Flemish artist Francesco Fransera (Frans De Medts) in participation with teachers and students of VTI Veurne.
Typical for this artists work is that in nature everything is linked with everything and that therefore also countries need to be linked and have to cooperate.
All around the dome carries a frieze designed by the Slovene teacher Petra Žirovnik Grudnik and created by the teacher Janko Brunček together with the students of Srednja gradbena, geodetska in okoljevarstvena sola Ljubljana The frieze is a metaphore for Europe evolving through time.
Circling this dome there is a double row of masks, representing the 28 nationalities of the European Union. Half of them face inward, toward ourselves. The other half face the world around. They are made by the Italian artist Monica Marcenaro with the students of IISNatta/Deambrosis in Sestri Levante.
Each mask will carry a QR code and will tell its story to the visitor. Students and teachers of all project partners under the leadership of Jämtlands Gymnasium Wargentin in Östersund collect the story of 28 “real” Europeans, being born in one country and having lived in another for many years, telling you about their European life in both the native tongue as the one of the country they chose to come and live in.
Since the topic “(studying the) kosmos” is one of the STEAM topics we deal with, the dome will be equipped with a telescope, which will allow us not only to study the world around, but also the kosmos, where the human race might one day need to move to, if it wants to survive.
Again through a QR code the visitors will see the telescope images on their own smartphone. It will show another perspective on Europe in Change with nature images of Swedish photographer Göran Strand and specially composed music by the Escola Artística do Conservatório de Música do Porto under the guidance of Fernando Valente. Students and teachers of 1 Geniko Lykeio Alexandroupolis will finally create the film itself.
Once finished this interactive Work of Art will be presented at the European Parliament in April 2019 and around that time will be opened to the public at Castle Batenborch near Brussels.