“Hello, World!” exhibit up at VCUarts Qatar

(MENAFN- The Peninsula) The Peninsula

Doha: technology and design formulated into one interactive exhibit dubbed as“Hello, World!: Exploring Computational Potential,” is now running at Virginia Commonwealth University School of the Arts in Qatar (VCUarts Qatar), a Qatar Foundation (QF) partner university. 

The tech-based educational exhibition is organized by xLab, one of VCUarts Qatar's research initiatives, and includes both static and 'live' exhibits. The 'live' exhibits are programmed to create or behave in a specific manner based on algorithms and data input, giving visitors a chance to explore and experience areas where art and design intersect technology and computation resulting in non-linear processes for thinking and making. 

xLab team explained:“Creative practices in art and design play a critical role in exploring the various dimensions, potentials, and layers of our lives that have become impacted by emerging technologies and computational processes. Hence, awareness of and engagement with such technologies are the first steps to exploring a future where questions such as“Can technology possess personality?,” or“Can we develop craft in the realm of the post-digital?” will be discussed.”

“In addition to enhancing the creative capacity for technologies such as literacy in coding and algorithmic thinking within the VCUarts Qatar community, xLab is keen to engage with the public. This inaugural exhibition is our first step to launch xLab within and outside the University, and we've already started engaging with the public regarding collaborations, possible workshops, and future projects,” the team added.

The exhibition comes at a time when day-to-day human activities have become intrinsically intertwined with technology, and more importantly, data. One way to raise awareness of the current and potential applications of such emerging technologies is through hands-on engagement in creative practices, like this.

All the exhibits on display were created and programmed by xLab team consisting of Levi Hammett, Associate Professor, Graphic Design; Haithem A. El-Hammali and Mohammed Nabil Suleiman, Assistant Professors, Interior Design; and VCUarts Qatar students Hind Al Saad, Fatima Abbas, Shaina Dane Juras, and Abdul Rahman Alkhatib Alhosani.

xLab started as a research studio at VCUarts Qatar two years ago, to support research, teaching, and learning related to the creative potential of computation and technology such but not limited to robotics, artificial intelligence, coding, new materials, among others. Beyond the lab's core purpose of conducting research and supporting academia, it is poised to be a resource, a channel, and a network, for the wider community.

The name of the exhibition itself holds a reference to the phrase“Hello World” in computation. A“Hello, World!” program is popularly recognized as a computer program that outputs or displays the message“Hello, World!,” and is often used to illustrate the basic syntax of a programming language. 

The exhibition will run until February 17, 2022 and open to the public during the University's working hours.

MENAFN09122021000063011010ID1103330953