BFA+ MFA Thesis 2024

Hind Al Saad

Unfolding Remembrance: Folding Islamic Principles into Pondering Machines

MFA in Design

Principles of early Islamic art can be surveyed as a precursor to Western computational art. Though produced in separate eras, Islamic art and computational art are connected by underlying structures—arithmetic, harmony, and the concept of the Infinite.

Islamic developments in knowledge, like algebra, contributed to mathematics and mechanics—the building blocks of contemporary technology. Returning to Islam’s traditional harmony between religion and science, my creative practice constructs machines as an act of worship (ʿibadah), folding Islamic principles into the medium of computation.Selected verses from the Quran are used as the core of each automaton (self-operating machine). Their computational cycles are transformed into mechanical movements, unfolding the meanings of each verse. The body of work presents an alternative perspective on our world’s invisible elements—inspiring moments of intentional presence and ponderment.

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