About Us
Val Tien-Shin Chang & Jay A. Baker constitute a unique artsci collaboration. Chang’s path covers work in the fields of civil engineering in California, hydrology in Washington, and now geography in Oregon. Chang was awarded the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry Science Communication Fellowship in 2022. They have been a guest scientist, facilitator, and STEM panelist in many contexts. Baker studied music in Colorado, film and sound in New Mexico, and now environmental arts and humanities in Oregon. Baker is an interdisciplinary artist, film/video creator, composer, producer, projectionist, and multimedia editor. These different paths led Chang and Baker to a shared mission: to meaningfully investigate senses of place for building more just and equitable futures.
This collaboration LUXREN CREATIVE formed in a small graduate class. Shared interests in soundscapes, projection art, music, and climate work quickly led to powerful collaborative work. Chang was instrumental in Baker’s short film Ayethowe and Baker assisted Chang in projecting waterfall footage over climbing structures in a local climbing gym. Deeper collaborations led to MAPPA, a project illuminating the Lower McDowell Creek waterfall with images of dance, animals, and landscapes. Projecting inwardly/outwardly, highlighting lifelines of the world. The name LUXREN is built from the mandarin word for people “ren” and the latin root for light “lux”, a nod to the use of projected light and play in their collaborative work. |
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LUXREN Creative is based in so-called Corvallis, OR which is located within the traditional homelands of the Mary's River or Ampinefu Band of Kalapuya. Following the Willamette Valley Treaty of 1855, Kalapuya people were forcibly removed to reservations in Western Oregon. Today, living descendants of these people are part of the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde Community of Oregon and the Confederated Tribes of the Siletz Indians.
We acknowledge how our role as settlers on this land actively contributes to the ongoing displacement of Indigenous peoples and disposession of Native land. We use our role as place-based environmental artists to highlight senses of place in this changing climate in support of the work of Indigenous climate activists and scholars, such as Kyle Whyte who calls for restoring relationships that are part of longstanding Indigenous heritages and supporting the ability of Indigenous peoples to address climate change.
We recognize, in solidarity and action with Indigenous peoples globally, that the root cause of climate change is colonialism, and its many arms - industrialization, militarization, and extractive industries. Our climate futures need to be Indigenous-led and involve solutions that operate outside colonial constructs instead of capitalist market-based techno-fixes.
As Audre Lorde so eloquently states, “The master’s tools will never dismantle the master’s house”.
We acknowledge how our role as settlers on this land actively contributes to the ongoing displacement of Indigenous peoples and disposession of Native land. We use our role as place-based environmental artists to highlight senses of place in this changing climate in support of the work of Indigenous climate activists and scholars, such as Kyle Whyte who calls for restoring relationships that are part of longstanding Indigenous heritages and supporting the ability of Indigenous peoples to address climate change.
We recognize, in solidarity and action with Indigenous peoples globally, that the root cause of climate change is colonialism, and its many arms - industrialization, militarization, and extractive industries. Our climate futures need to be Indigenous-led and involve solutions that operate outside colonial constructs instead of capitalist market-based techno-fixes.
As Audre Lorde so eloquently states, “The master’s tools will never dismantle the master’s house”.
