Cranes and Cube
From 2017-2019 I served as an Artist’s Assistant for Asma Kazmi, developing a VR experience on the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive. She describes the project on her website:
“Cranes and Cube is a multifaceted new media art project that aims to map the architectural, material, and cultural history of the radically changing sites and topographies of Saudi Arabia. The project locates discernible overlaps between religiosity and the market economy by representing the visual culture of ostentatious buildings and excesses in construction practices. These modes of the built environment stand in a mismatched juxtaposition with the lived experiences of South Asian and African pilgrims and migrant laborers who construct, service, and inhabit these cities.”
https://asmakazmi.com/section/471748-Cranes-and-Cube.html
We also collaborated on two follow-up VR projects: “Building the City of Exiles” for the San Francisco Arts Commission (2018) and “Pollinated City,” which exhibited at the Bi-City Biennale of Ubanism/Architecture, Shenzhen, China (2019). These works used photogrammetry to capture environments from the Bay Area and Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
Two small furnishings populate the space, one housing the computer that runs the VR environment, and the other acting as a small seat. They have been laser-engraved with textures drawn from prayer mats.