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. |