This is the ending of the two-hour videotape “Turn the Hog Loose” made in Allen Riley’s domain. Made with Dan Barker and Ayun Halliday.

Silent movie about a lonely and confused Blob. One group of campers wrote it, another group of junior campers filmed it. From a domain led by Allen Riley.

They made it up as they went along. Made with Allen Riley and Tom Bubul.

Videos performed and edited live by campers at Beam Camp 2011 from a domain led by Allen Riley and Andrew Francis.

This summer’s first session culminated in a spectacular aerial installation. Project Masters James Wignall and Bradley Moore spent three long, hard days climbing tree, risking life and limb to install six zip lines. Like most anything worth doing, we didn’t know if our non-flying Flying Machines would make it through. See for yourself that they came through with flying colors.

Performed by campers of BEAM Camp (www.beamcamp.com), helmed by counselor Alec Duffy.

Re-live it right here, right now.

Right now in a basement architecture studio at Germany’s University of Kassel a class of 17 undergrads and masters students are working on “The Habitats of Parker Mountain,” the August 2011 Beam Project.

Wait, let me re-read that sentence. Wow.

I suppose this reality should astound me no more or less than the fact that every summer for the last six years a group of kids and counselors have collaborated on a solar powered movie or a Jungletopia or giant virus protein shells or the other mind-bending stuff that goes on at Beam. But, wow.

Danny and I just had our first Skype conference with the class that is led by the architects of pragmatopia, our August Project Masters. Marc, Antje and Kai of pragmatopia have constructed the syllabus for the Spring-Summer course called “Exploring Habitat” entirely around the process of designing the human-scale animal dwellings that Beam campers and staff will be building in August.

The first course assignment had each student choosing to research two animals native to southern New Hampshire out of a list of forty. On today’s conference call each student presented the results of their research in the form of how they would propose introducing their chosen animals to viewers of the finished Beam Project. They showed us what they built: puzzles, board games, elaborate habitat models, Advent calendar-like box constructions, among many other ideas to inform and engage.

We are humbled by the inventiveness and effort that these students are investing in this Project.

In the coming weeks we’ll share more updates on their progress. We’ll also tell you about how Wignall & Moore’s “The Story of Machines that Never Flew” for July gets off the ground (or at least is supposed to).

For 2010’s Beam Project, Visual Artist Daniela Kostova and Filmmaker Mike DeSeve proposed a solar-powered, blue-screen based movie production that reimagined George Melies’s 1902 silent classic, A Trip To The Moon. In Beam’s A Trip To The Sun, Industrialist Moretrust Wellman needs the help of Kristin, a twelve year-old blind girl, to achieve his monopolistic vision for harnessing the sun’s power. But Wellman soon finds out that Kristin has a vision all her own.

A Trip To The Sun was made by Beam Camp’s 95 campers and 25 staff, who shot the film on a 40-foot blue screen stage of their construction, using only the sun for lighting and solar energy to power the cameras.

One of our 2010 Mega-Domains. Please write for recipes.

An incredible video made by cabin Heliocentrics and their friends.

The opportunity to play with an enormous circular blue screen stage in the middle of the woods doesn’t come along very often. We’re happy to report that the Staff and Campers of Beam took advantage of the opportunity. While the 2010 Beam Project, A Trip To The Sun, was in its final stages of production (or the crunch phase as we called it at camp), The Shadow Movie was created. Take a look.

“…an urban Woodstock for budding young scientists, engineers, artists and dreamers ” -.

The facts:
On February 20 & 21 2010,  , called a “haven for makers” by , and a crew of hearty volunteers (thanks guys!) welcomed 450+ kids and their parents to the marvelous  for a weekend of collaboration and craft.

What Kids Made Happen:

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Check out the first photos from Beam 2008 right here.

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Lensman Isaac takes you from Curtido to Neoprene on a typical Beam afternoon.

—Nash, 12, Neutrino