Sabahat Nawaz

To view more images click on i.wall

MA Final Project

Title:

i.Wall: a concept that I have developed suggesting interaction among people of different cultural backgrounds. Interaction does not necessarily have to be on verbal or physical basis. The idea is to acknowledge and cause awareness of multiculturalism among people.

Research Question

Key Words

Experience design, Cross-Cultural interaction, Places and Non-places, Hybridity, Cultural Sustainability, Supermodernity, Ambient design, Interactive technologies

Rationale

“Culture is also one of the most powerful and constructive ways to provide mankind with the tools to respect socio-cultural differences and to unite on what it has in common”, António Conceição Júnior

My project will engage itself in exploring the importance of identity and cross cultural interaction, a place like London that comprises of multicultural ethnicities and where people from all kinds of backgrounds endeavour to communicate. It will attempt to focus on spaces that are not used for any social interactivity and how these spaces can be transformed into places of cultural contact.

i.Wall is a smart and sustainable system; smart being in its response to diverse nationalities and creating a delightful ambience; sustainable in containing knowledge of various cultural crafts, providing a sense of comfort and unity in these chaotic times of social injustices.

The idea of a single identity sprouting into a multicultural notion is intentional, suggesting the uniqueness of craft of one country and the creation of hybridised patterns resulting from the merging of two different crafts.

Having a political content, airport maybe the best suited example for i.Wall at present, however, there are other potential spaces that maybe considered for i.Wall in the future. I see i.Wall developing into a more complex project that could end up in an International Space station by 2050. According to Futures Market article, Nick Webster says, by 2036-2040 we will have Space Elevators, “A SEATTLE Company is already planning to connect the earth to space via a cable running between a floating ocean platform and a satellite. Passenger pods and cargo could travel up and down the cable” . Since technology is developing so rapidly perhaps the future materials will be more supportive to virtual realities where every individual will own a virtual home with a concept similar to i.Wall.

Material & Technology

Digital projection/ OLED screen, Animation, Digital printing, RFID tags (Electronic Passports)

Expected Outcome

Develop a collection of patterns (traditional/cultural) for the selected countries (that I chose from Asia, Europe, and Africa), creating animation of these patterns. Doing a video that explains how i.Wall works in T5

The following link shows a short clip from the collection of pattern animations. (note: the picture quality is not great as the size has been reduced for uploading)

• Click here
• Or here

Other Projects

• 'I'
• Innovative textiles
• Habitat
• Wall Paper for Graham & Brown
• Epigentics
• Summer project. Bremen, Germany '07
• Previous works

Links

http://www.sabahatnawaz.com

http://www.vaslart.org/artists%20pages/folder.2006-06-22.3891032242/index_html

Contact

sabahatt.nawaz@gmail.com

mobile: ++44(0)7737318775