Operant Conditioning

August 29, 2019 in 2019

The project explores the colloquial connection between birds and psychiatric hospitals. Referencing the history of behaviorism, the project takes shape of the Skinner operant conditioning box* as a symbol of the dark age of psychiatry. In Skinner’s experiments, behavior was assumed to be a mere function of external stimuli without regard to the subjects’ will or agency. He famously conditioned pigeons to play ping-pong or develop superstitious behaviors —implying that with the appropriate […]

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T-Serai

January 01, 2019 in 2019

The T-Serai is a portable palace for transcultural futures. Inspired by textile histories of the MENA region, the project involves participatory creation of modular tapestries made of recycled clothes. The tapestries can be used to personalize the standardized refugee shelters (T-Shelters), facilitating mobile storage and vertical gardening. They can also be used to set up tents for storytelling and other social gatherings animated through multi-sensory experiences […]

Arteast 2000+ Pavilions

September 11, 2018 in 2018

Arteast 2000+ Pavilions is a large-scale installation of nine conceptual structures and graphic manifestos designed to spatially frame overlooked Eastern European artist groups within the exhibition Hello World: Revising a Collection at Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin, critically expanding the canon of contemporary art through a dialogue on national collections, institutional critique, and global art histories.

Digital Majlis

April 11, 2018 in 2018

Digital Majlis is a prototype for a future art and educational space developed by the Future Heritage Lab at the Al Azraq Refugee Camp in Jordan, reimagining the traditional majlis as a site for artistic creation, cultural preservation, and transcultural dialogue through collaborative projects between MIT and Syrian refugees.

Diaspora Scroll: Loom

January 01, 2018 in 2018

The Diaspora Scroll is a growing textile book that deconstructs myths of nationalism and local traditions through the embroidery patterns, which depict personal histories of migration, and the creation process, which facilitates transcultural exchange. The project takes the form through the sourcing, analysis of textile art, design, and techniques around the world, as well as through collaborative embroidery. Collaborating textile artists are invited to contribute to the project by […]

A Living Part of the World

September 16, 2017 in 2017

A Living Part of This World is a photo story and a poem documenting the creative ingenuity of Syrian refugees in Al Azraq Camp, Jordan—showcasing shelter adaptations, artistic inventions, and personal narratives produced through Future Heritage Lab workshops in photography and writing. The project highlights how art and design foster resilience, cultural preservation, and hope in humanitarian contexts.

Digesting Dayton

January 02, 2017 in 2012

Digesting Dayton is an interactive buffet installation mapping the internal political borders of Bosnia and Herzegovina onto a tablecloth, inviting participants—primarily from the Bosnian diaspora—to symbolically “eat away” the divisions imposed by the Dayton Peace Agreement, while sharing food and marking their places of origin in a collective act of remembrance and critique.

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Palimpsest of ’89

January 01, 2017 in 2017

Palimpsest of ’89 is an artistic installation exploring the role of Sarajevo’s cultural institutions in shaping the common heritage of Yugoslavia. The project was produced for The Heritage of 1989 exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art (Moderna galerija) Ljubljana, which reenacted the Second Yugoslav Documents, the largest retrospective of Yugoslav art before the 1990s Yugoslav breakup. Palimpsest of ’89 visualizes how the region’s history has been “written and rewritten” through the work […]

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Lightweaver

January 01, 2017 in 2017

The Lightweaver is a kinetic lighting sculpture that is also an educational and preservationist device, a cultural prosthetic for hope, and a visual critique of humanitarian design. The project was prototyped at MIT and developed as a co-creation with the artists, engineers, and inventors of the Al Azraq Refugee Camp in Jordan. The project represents both a poetic and utilitarian response to everyday life problems in the refugee camp: it addresses the visual impoverishment of shelters through the design of […]

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Code of Ethics

January 01, 2017 in 2017

Code of Ethics? explores the intersection of aesthetics, ethics, and poetics in the humanitarian context. The project includes critical artistic investigations through participatory action research and transcultural workshops, offering a shared platform for dissemination of questions and critical reflections across cultural and disciplinary borders.

Gathering over shared meals, coffee, and chocolate, participants are asked to share their own experiences […]

Memory Matrix: Jeepney

January 01, 2016 in 2016

The Memory Matrix – Jeepney is a temporary monument in the continuous process of building and dismantling. It is part of the ongoing Memory Matrix project series (see project description of the first iteration, Memory Matrix – Palmyra, 2016). The second iteration took place in Manila, within the London Biennale – Manila Pollination in Manila, Philippines. The Jeepney version was made of over 10,000 pixels. The larger matrix of pixels revealed an image of the jeepney, a relic […]

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Memory Matrix: Palmyra Arch

January 01, 2016 in 2016

Memory Matrix: Eiffel Tower

January 01, 2016 in 2016

The Memory Matrix – Eiffel Tower is a temporary monument in the continuous process of building and dismantling. It is part of the ongoing Memory Matrix project series (see project description of the first iteration, Memory Matrix – Palmyra, 2016). This iteration took place in Ramallah, part of the 3rd Qalandiya International Biennale. The Memory Matrix – Eiffel Tower references both Ramallah’s disappeared radio antenna and its […]

Memory Matrix: Fragment

January 01, 2016 in 2016

The Memory Matrix – Fragment is a temporary monument in the continuous process of building and dismantling. It is part of the ongoing Memory Matrix project series (see project description of the previous two iterations, Palmyra and Jeepney). The Fragment was produced during the Amman Design Week and included two workshops. Participants were given cut-outs from the Palmyra edition’s pixels to create jewelry. Participants designed jewelry both […]