Gil and Daniel have attended Quinceañera and Wedding workshops at Project Luz and were interested in the interaction of place, technology, and portraiture from an immigrant point of view. They learned about the work of the Family Reunion Project (FRP) and were inspired to use virtual reality as the mediator between them and the participants, with the question of where do you feel safe? In the workshop, we explore the many jobs immigrant have as soon as they arrive at the country. We also gave recommendations on places new immigrants should know, tips that could help them. Gil and Daniel did a research before asking immigrant what they wish they would know before coming to NY. With that information, they created a series of pages and ask the participants to curate their own Cross-Cultural Survival Guide Book to help other immigrants. Later they explore Virtual reality and took portraits with green screen exchanging the background. You can see more in the this Instagram Account.
This workshop is part of the partnership that NNY has with Columbia GSAAP and artist Sol Aramendi to create work inspired in the immigrant community of Queens. We will have our end of the project celebration on December 16.

Sol Aramendi