Higher Learning

Elevating Education at the Intersection of Art & Technology

Photography by YANNI DE MELO

The power of language has sustained and preserved our way of communication, dating back from the age of the Neanderthal to the present time. Through our civilization’s early years, visual and spatial learning has provided us with an existential map of knowledge that pushes us forward beyond the boundless mindset of our imaginations. Can we truly harness the power of our creativity to obliterate prevailing and deep-rooted social infirmities? Founder of G-Star School of the Arts, Greg Hauptner, believes that the root of higher learning begins with empathetic education.

G-Star High School of the Arts’ vision and mission were built out of an act of love and passion. Today, it has evolved into global dissemination of a multi-disciplinary curriculum that utilizes animation, artificial intelligence, film production, gaming, and graphic artistry as a unique teaching approach to build self-esteem and social skills. Classified as one of the most extraordinary schools in the country, the immersion of strategic partnerships with influential forward-thinking intelligentsia of academia, directors, filmmakers, gamers, and musicians, to name a few, ensures the student body to a hands-on experience that lays the groundwork to the importance of life lessons in learning how to excel in today’s world.

Wanting to give his son a chance for a great future, Hauptner built a 10,000 square foot sound stage and motion picture complex that’s rented out and equipped to handle productions from local commercials, music videos, documentaries, feature films and multi-million dollar productions which serves as operational funding for the school.  Under the Studios insurance, the only prerequisite to renting out the stages on the property is that the student body works on set as active volunteer crew members conferring the children an opportunity to feed their artistic expression while learning techniques of critical thinking, leadership, and team building.

“Our children need a vision of a compelling future, or they will be lost. Their brains are wired for the future of technology. When relevancy in what they are learning combines with a vision of a compelling future, there is nothing they cannot accomplish”, says Hauptner.

Surrealism is the concept car of the future.  It will never look like that, but it pushes our imaginations forward.”

– Greg Hauptner

 

Greg adds, “The antiquated system of teaching doesn’t apply in the augmented age. We’re getting further and further away from what our children need to survive in a world of critical chaos. They’re all alone, out in the Wild, Wild, West, so to speak, in an untrained advanced civilization that’s rapidly feeding their brains with information at warp speed manipulating the system. Who’s taking the time to teach them how to use the information? Are they using it to serve the greater good or their own agenda? How can we help guide them? At G-Star, we curve traditional methods of teaching wrapped around constructive field participation that ultimately teaches morality in societal advancement and at the core human decency.” Instead of lecturing and telling children what to do, we ask them questions to drive them towards the answers to complete their courses. Known as the Socratic Dialectic Method, it uses a cooperative argumentative dialogue to challenge perception and work cohesively among their peers.

Looking at the ages of our evolution, people will always be the force behind creation and expression.

In the advent of the Agricultural Age, humans cultivated plants, bred livestock, and formed permanent settlements to improve well-being.  Rockefeller, Andrew Carnegie, and Henry Ford revolutionized society in the Industrial Age. The Information Age introduced a generation to the practice of personal computing, and The Augmented Era will bring computation closer to our bodies, ingratiating the interaction between people and devices.

“As a student that attends G-Star, I love the fact that it lets us express our creative fields and helps us understand our own creativity. It’s unlike any other high school and is quite different and unique. Having been able to attend this school is amazing and it shocks me that I get to work with other students like me that can express themselves”, shares Vashti Estrada.

Coding is an eminent part of the program at G-Star, and what rules the world today. It’s as important as studying a foreign language. It not only expands exponential learning and mathematics, but brings the entire planet together. Under college course prerequisites, the partnerships the school makes with gaming companies are beneficial to the network.

Elevating culture at the intersection of art and technology Fashion Tech Innovator, Anouk Wipprecht collaborated on an original screenplay, SAKURA with G-Star and Fushu Daiko.

“I think the school is kind of cool and its very much interlinked with a new way of thinking about education as a whole: in places using new technologies both in software but also through the use of robotics, a top notch soundstage and out of the box projects, you get steamed to be part of real world examples, instead of text books.”, adds Anouk.

“It was really fun to work with G-Star and the G-Star students on this production, we merged technological novelties together with dance, Taiko drumming, and projection mapping- it was a very hybrid kind of project with a lot of amazing minds. And (will be…) definitely one of the coolest screenplays created so far.” ☐

For additional information about the school and studios, contact:

gstarschool.orggstarstudios.com

SAKURA came about when Ben Miller, Director of the Fushu Daiko Taiko Drummers, approached G-Star High School with the idea of giving Taiko drumming lessons and performances for free in the interest of teaching students about this ancient Japanese art form. The story was written by G-Star Founder, Greg Hauptner. The screenplay will be released during the coming weeks at Cherry Blossom Festival, along with a 20-minute film for showings at leading film festivals with the continuing goal to educate the importance of the arts and culture and allow history to be included in innovation and technology. The film is produced by Afflux Studios, a motion picture/multimedia company.

fushudaiko.orgaffluxstudios.comanoukwipprecht.nlnationalcherryblossomfestival.org

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