The PASEO outdoor art festival brings projection, installation, and performance art to the streets of Taos, New Mexico every fall. This free, community centered event features local, regional, national, and international artists with work that is site-specific, context responsive and participatory. For two nights, sunset to 11pm, the PASEO brings the community together with a creative and inspiring shared experience.

This year, several ITP alum will be featured. Mary Mark (’24), Xiaotian Zhang (’24), Jess Shen (’24) and John Luo (’25) will present the work below:

“Metamorphosis” | Interactive AI Installation by Mary Mark & John Luo

Metamorphosis is a performance and installation that blurs the boundary between the physical and digital, confronting questions of virtual identity, autonomy, and human connection. At the heart of the piece is Notame, an autonomous virtual dancer designed to explore new forms of motion-based interaction between humans and machines in shared physical space.

The work unfolds as a 15-minute duet between a live dancer and Notame, navigating themes of escapism, hopelessness, and the pursuit of liberation within a blended reality. Through this interaction, Metamorphosis invites audiences to reflect on how technology mediates identity, agency, and the search for meaning in a hybrid world.

Between live performances, Notame transitions into an installation mode, generating real-time choreography and existing independently as a digital performer. This ongoing presence allows visitors to engage with the work at their own pace, observing how the virtual dancer’s movements evolve and respond in real-time.

“here” | Interactive Installation by Xiaotian Zhang

here is an interactive LED bench that captures the subtle imprint of presence and transforms it into a fleeting visual memory. When a visitor sits on the bench, their movements are quietly recorded. It’s only after they rise and walk away that their silhouette is revealed, glowing softly as a ghostly afterimage. Over time, these silhouettes fade, underscoring the ephemeral nature of our moments in space.

By delaying the visual response until after a participant departs, here shifts attention to the quiet resonance we leave behind—those unnoticed marks of presence that linger, however briefly, in the spaces we inhabit. As silhouettes dissolve, the installation becomes a meditation on memory, absence, and the delicate threshold between now and then.

Through a minimal yet evocative interaction, here invites visitors to reflect on the transient beauty of existence, encouraging them to pause, be still, and witness how quickly the present transforms into the past.

“you are here” | Interactive Installation by Jessica Shen

you are here is an interactive LED installation that visualizes human presence in real-time. As visitors move through the space, their movements are translated into radiant waves of light that seem to emanate directly from their bodies. When two people approach one another, their colors blend and intermix, creating a shared moment of visual connection.