Playspace

Look & Feel is a radio show hosted monthly at Field Meridians new storefront at RodeoBk. I am obsessed with both design and music. This show is a way to explore the deeply intertwined relationship between the two. The show can be heard on Rodeo Radio and at 88.5 FM in Crown Heights, Brooklyn. In October, I will be further expanding on this concept by hosting a live event in partnership with Index Space. The event will invite active designers to come DJ in a b2b type setting on the Index Greenpoint rooftop.

My father passed away when I was 13 and left behind over 500 original works of art that he had created over the previous 20 years. I one day aspire to get these works in the MoMa but step one is having a way to organize and catalog them all. I built this archive from the ground up using claude code as a way to do exactly that. This archive allows me to easily be able to track the location and ownership history of each piece. It also has a contribution link where any owner of a BI painting can submit their piece to the records and I will verify it in the archive.

Most of my work has lived digitally, but I have always been obsessed with physical things. Therefore, as one of my side projects I have been DIY building a physical device for Atlas, the canvased based creative ops tool that I built. The image that you see is an AI rendering that I created in Flora. The final version may look a. little different. I vibe coded the UI of the tool so that it works on a 720x720 Raspberry pi touchscreen. I have also been teaching myself Shapr3d to design the hardware shell that I will have a friend 3d print for me. This is my first attempt at any kind of technical hardware so I am very excited to see how it progresses.

For years, I have gone to museums in my best tourist outfit and taken photos of paintings and artist placards for work that stops me as I wander through works of art. I never understood why people did it and I don't understand why I do. I've never in my life looked back at these photos, but it is a detailed archive of all of my favorite works of art from all over the world just sitting in my phone. I attended the Fuser workshop at Index Space I figured a great way to put these photos to work is creating this little flip card app to organize and unite these works. It still needs a lot of work, especially from a design perspective but it is getting there.

I come from a very proud Lebanese family and food is a way that we come together to connect with our heritage. Before my great grandmother passed away my grandfather worked with her to compile her recipes in to a cookbook which he distributed across the family. Initially, I want this to start as a local AI project and a means for digital archiving. The existing book is super rough but I have always been very excited to crack it open and give the recipes a whirl. Eventually, it should become a print material. One day I would like to create a 2nd edition of this cookbook that is a hard cover, with better formatted text, and professional food photography for each recipe.

I have a concept for a functional gallery exhibition where I would make functional hi-fi audio speakers out of different every day items (melted toy soldiers, aluminum cans, sand, etc) and have a series of different DJs come play on system that is built from all of these different materials. Takes a lot of work to make it happen, but maybe one day.

As a young black kid, I was often made fun of by other kids who looked like me for my love of indian food. There is a restaurant in Philly called New Delhi that my mom and I have been eating at for over 25 years, but I used to hate the look of disgust that I would get when I would share this passion of mine with my friends. My mother's side of the family is from Columbia, SC and another food tradition that I have is a deep love for gathering around southern style soul food. I believe soul food could be a really cool and innovative way to introduce indian food to people who look like me. I'm talking Mac and Cheese Simosas, Collard Green Saag Paneer, Tandoor Fried Chicken, and more. I'm still accepting name suggestions!