Buena Onda Collective Shares Art as a Tool to Bring ‘Good Vibes’
By Kami-Leigh Agard
In many South American counties, the greeting, “Buena Onda” in Spanish means, “good vibes,” or “good waves,” and since a chance encounter surfing Rockaway’s chilly waves in the winter of 2019, Camila Morales and Dominika Ksel, both with Chilean ties, bonded to do just that: Bring good vibes to Rockaway residents lusting for art with an environmental twist. From their first “Sonic Constellation” featuring a gigantic cloud-like chandelier of recycled bottles tricked out with LED lights during COVID under the El-train line on Beach 60th, teaching workshops on game design, stop motion, 2D and 3D animation, ways to use AI to create artwork, audio workshops, 3D modeling, beach cleanups and more—in a mere five years since their happenstance meeting—Morale and Ksel have made waves transforming Rockaway from a desert to an oasis of ecological art for curious enthusiasts.
Just this past Sunday, Morales and Ksel, led a free workshop on 3D printing at their Buena Onda Art Lab, located at Arverne View (Beach 56th Place). Attendees were treated to a two-hour-long class on how to create their own 3D object. Judging from reviews, participants were ecstatic for the knowledge, not to mention, to take the class for free. Far Rockaway resident, Dimitri King said, “I always wanted to take a class in 3D printing, but it’s expensive, and I couldn’t believe that I finally got to do it at no cost.”
Buena Onda co-founder, Morales, originally from Chile, but hailing from Canada, is an interdisciplinary designer, who graduated from Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) with a master’s in architecture and a Bachelor of Science in Architecture from the University of Maryland. Originally from Poland, lived stateside, and spent time in Chile, Ksel went to Hunter for both her undergraduate and master’s in documentary film and combined interactive media.
However, it’s not their pedigree degrees that sets these two ladies apart, but their steadfast passion to bring the arts to urban beach communities like Rockaway.
Ksel said, “We both consider ourselves educators, and it’s a really important component for us as a team to share whatever knowledge we’ve gained throughout our lifetime with others, and also work with the community to gain knowledge from them. It’s a knowledge exchange. We found that here in Rockaway, there was a desert of art and spaces for community to get together. So, what Camila and I have worked hard to do is find ways to get people excited about learning new things like 3D printing, which at first may seem intimidating.
“We work to help people get over their technophobia. So, they get comfortable using different types of technologies and tools, to create and build the worlds they want to see. With our workshops, we try to center classes around ecological or themes of social and environmental justice. With every workshop, we want people to feel empowered to utilize any of these different technologies.”
Morales added, “As educators, what gets us really excited is with RISE (Rockaway Initiative for Sustainability and Equity) and local urban surf collective, Laru Beya, is the youth. We discovered this pocket of kids and community that don’t have access to things that we teach at the universities.
“What really brought this all to a head was COVID. There was no place for community to really gather and have these outlets and areas for creativity. So, Dominika and I started brainstorming on what we could do to make a change by even helping expand someone’s profession. For example, maybe they don’t have access to a 3D printer. Then all of a sudden, they’re at this space, where they’re learning and demystifying 3D printing, and become these amazing 3D world industrial designers. We really care about this community and want residents to have access to knowledge.”
With their Sonic Constellation, which had to be redone as it was vandalized, the dynamic duo stayed the course, and put it back up again.
Morale shared, “We pair our work together with something that the community feels like they’re part of. So, for the Sonic Constellation, we captured collective sounds from the community in Rockaway, which was incorporated into the sculpture. So, when you walked underneath, not only did you see this big cloud of plastic bottles, but it also activated all these different sounds that were happening around the peninsula during COVID. And at night, it had polar LEDs that lit up. So, it had a day and night life.”
From doodling ideas on napkins back in 2019, Ksel and Morales are pressing on with their work to make Rockaway a game changer melding art with environmental justice.
Their upcoming events include: Saturday, August 24, 1 p.m. to 3 p.m., a youth stop motion animation workshop done in conjunction with Materials of the Arts at the Arverne Cinema (72-02 Gouverneur Ave.) as part of the 7th Annual Rockaway Film Festival. And on Sunday, September 1, with NYC Parks, Buena Onda will be staging the set design featuring cyanotype prints done with the community, including Laru Beya Collective, at the Beach 94th Street Amphitheater for the first-ever Afro-Diasporic Ocean Festival. Special after-party hosted by The Surf Lot on Beach 96th Street.
So, as Ksel and Morales shared, what began as a happenstance meet, followed by meeting for a beer and doodling ideas on napkins, birthed Buena Onda. “After we met, we decided to go out for a beer and learned that we were both applying for the same grant to create art in Rockaway,” the two ladies said.
And five years later, Buena Onda is breathing good vibes, art and vocational ambitions into Rockaway.
For more info about Buena Onda and upcoming events, visit: buenaondacollective on Instagram or email: buenaondacollective
