ayA Con 2024: Friday
For this con I was only able to cover Friday which was Youth & Educator's day. As I came up to the building there was a dance performance which was part of opening ceremonies. I had checked the schedule and there was nothing clearly marked as opening ceremonies and I nearly missed it. I was so happy that I get to things early.
After opening ceremonies the first thing I hit up was their artist alley/dealers room/vendor hall. Several tables were still empty and a few of the artists I had enjoyed last year, like Jorge Garza aka qetzaart, and were looking forward to seeing were missing. At the same time I found some new interesting artists.
Panels
All panel descriptions are from the ayA Con website.
The Art of Puppetry: Storytelling Across Cultures
Description:
"Join a few of our vendors in a panel all about marionettes and the art of storytelling."
Notes:
-People can form emotional connections to puppets due to their characteristics and personification.
-There is a lot of puppet to puppet violence. An example is Miss Piggy.
-They also talked about shadow and Japanese puppetry.
-One of the panelists is a puppet master for a local troop.
-One of the panelists was a little sad that puppetry in modern society focuses more on entertainment instead of being a message/story/educational.
-Puppetry is an artform where people can easily participate more so then other artforms.
-It is a form of acting and self expression.
-In Java they tell the lessons of their culture through puppetry.
Overall: This was an interesting panel. I had never really thought about violence and puppets. I know a lot of people grew up watching Miss Piggy and it did make me think about how we as a society decide what is ok for kids to watch and what isn't. I think most people would feel comfortable letting their kids watch the Muppets unsupervised, but now I'm wondering if many of the 'kids' shows are really ok for kids to watch without parent guidance. I also liked about how they brought information about the puppetry in other countries.
No More Secret Identities: EDI in Pop Culture
Description:
"Art can be a mirror to society, but only when it reflects ALL of its constituents for All to see. To this end, Pop Culture Classroom is on a mission to 'celebrate diversity and build community through the tools of popular culture and the power of self-expression.' Learn how we achieve this by teaching Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion through popular culture, and learn about PCC's free resources that highlight multicultural voices and history."
Notes:
-One of the slides focused on Sylvia Duckworth and the wheel of power/privilege. This specific model is only slightly better then the this or that model because it has 3 levels, but most identities are on a spectrum which shows how far behind a lot of DEI/EDI training is.
-"DEI allows people to be seen and feel validated." Not exactly. It does give the space for this to happen, but at the same time many people from minority groups actually feel additional pressure on them in these spaces.
-Learning about other cultures can build empathy.
-DREAMS is a video game creation tool that they use with kids.
-Graphic novels can support literacy and empathy in the classroom.
-Some of their book award winners are Bat Cat and JAJ. These could be good books for kids and I will try to find them and review them for Culture in Colorado.
Overall:
So I nearly didn't go to this panel. Local Geeks are aware of Pop Culture Classroom selling off Denver Comic Con/ Denver Pop Culture Con to Fan Expo and the bad things that Fan Expo has done, like supporting Gina Carano and not enforcing their anti-harassment policy. Pop Culture Classroom failed Colorado's geeky community with the weak stance they took against Fan Expo and their continued dealings with that organization. Before the panel I spoke with a lady at their table who I asked directly about their continued ties to Fan Expo. She said that they still had 1 more year on their contract with them and that they were starting to talk to other cons. At the same time she was not really that clear on if they would be cutting all ties to Fan Expo when the contract expires. So I was on the fence and decided to at least check out their panel. Listening to the panel the pitch that they were selling sounded great, but as a person that knows the full background around the organization and Fan Expo, previous volunteer with Denver Comic Con and I was Fan Expo's only active Fan Ambassador for a good chunk of time, their words were hallow. I want to see what PCC will do when their contract ends and if they can grow a large enough spine to actually practice what they preach and stand up for the community they say they serve.
Meow Wolf: Designing Immersive Spaces for Education
Description:
"Meow Wolf is known for creating immersive and interactive art experiences that transport visitors into fantastical realms. Recently, they have been exploring how these immersive spaces can be used for educational purposes."
Notes:
-Education is not always linear and if one plan or path doesn't work, it is ok to adjust.
-Try to meet each kid where they are at and take a moment to focus on each child to acknowledge their needs.
-One of the things they talked about was formless education and this is something that I think I need to do more research on since it sounded interesting.
Overall:
This panel was ok. At one point they gave out an activity hand out, but they didn't walk us through it. That would have been much cooler since we could have worked through one of the activities they give kids. Also the guide book to parts of the exhibit I think was cool and should be given to all guests. I'm still undecided on if I will go to Meow Wolf or not. I've heard a lot of bad things about them for ADA accessibility and yet when I asked them about how accessible their location is they said super accessible. They said they even had one group go through (a third party evaluation) that gave them feed back and they made improvements based off of that feedback. Still doesn't match the real life feedback I have gotten from trusted sources.
Cosplay
I only saw one person dressed up in 'true' cosplay, they were dressed up as Sailor Moon. Besides that I did see people either dressed up in Native clothing or just outlandish street fashion. In a way the street fashion made sense since a fashion show is part of the event and street fashion (like Japanese fashion) does fit under the geeky side of the event.
Other Activities
Right outside of the panel room there were some tables set up where you could make a keychain or button. Also on the bottom level there were a few more vendor tables, like Daku Con had a table there trying to advertise their con.
The Con Overall
I will say that it was great that the con was free this year, but at the same time it did shrink. They only had one panel room going and then the dealers room/artist alley. This means there really wasn't much to do if you had already done your shopping and you weren't interested in the panel they had running. They really needed a few more panel rooms going or some activities going on outside of the building. Even something as simple as someone doing some panels while people sat on the side of the building. I know down sizing allowed them not to charge, but they did sacrifice a lot of what people could do. I'm hoping that next year they can find a way to do more. I know a lot of local people that are willing to do programming for free...like myself (BTW I will be hosting panels at Rocky Mountain Con). I would still recommend this con if nothing else because it is the only Indigenous con in Colorado. I have hopes that it will be able to grow each year so that it can truly compete with the other geeky conventions. If nothing else this con does recognize Native creators in a way that other cons have not been able to do so yet.
Comments
Post a Comment