Under the direction of Project Director, Dr. Sabiha Al Khemir, the Brigham Young University Museum of Art (MOA) organized and opened Beauty and Belief: Crossing Bridges with the Arts of Islamic Culture, the largest traveling survey exhibition of Islamic art ever assembled in the United States. As a part of the exhibition, BYU students from the Laycock Center for Creative Collaboration in the Arts experienced hands on professional experience and worked with staff members at the MOA to create digital elements that enhanced the museum visitor’s learning experience. More than 150,000 guests visited the exhibition while it was open at the Museum of Art.
“For all the memories that we have of the Arab world and Iran, what can we say but this is beauty, love and hope,” comments one visitor.
“Thanks you for deepening my love, respect, understanding and knowledge of the world around me!” says another visitor.
Students were able to collaborate with their supervisors and other professionals to design interactive multimedia elements that were incorporated in the exhibition. The exhibition included 276 works of art from 42 world museums. The display was divided into three parts: “The Word,” “Figures and Figurines” and “Pattern.”
In “The Word,” the student team displayed the ninety-nine names of God on a digitally animated display of thirty-two iPads. Each iPad was synced with the other iPads to create a pattern that correlated with Islamic beliefs.
In the “Figures and Figurines,” engineering students and visual arts students created an interactive display of a multi-layered horse. Viewers could look into a room from one angle and see all eleven animals separately hanging, but from another angle they could see all eleven animals combined together creating a whole image of a horse.
In the “Pattern,” the student team designed digital reproductions of Islamic dome designs that were projected on the ceiling of a small side room.
The students had the opportunity to produce these multimedia elements as well as many other digital elements throughout the exhibition. And as one visitor comments, the students helped make the exhibition “transcendent!”