The intersection between art, tech, and culture has always intrigued something in me.

I was fortunate to work with a smart, hard-working team from multidisciplinary backgrounds (architecture, engineering, and traditional handcrafters) to develop an interactive, shape-shifting fabric art installation. My role was part of the research and product development team, where I explored materials, ran experiments, and developed processes to build strong, reliable McKibben actuators artificial muscles that animate the handcrafted fabric in response to touch.

During the prototyping process, through 40+ iterations, we fine tuned the ideal materials-to-strength “recipe,” then fabricated 20 final actuators for the installation. I also led the sensor integration and Siemens PLC (s7-1200) wiring, designing the core interaction between visitors and the handcrafted fabric. This involved embedding capacitive sensors using conductive yarns and conductive fabrics, then programming microcontrollers to collect sensor data continuously—for both interaction and reliability testing.

Out of curiosity and passion, I also supported the fabric design and production team and helped with the final assembly on-site. I enjoyed the iterative process, from ideation and research to hands-on prototyping and failure, then back again to test and build a new experiments. Conversations about embedding sensors into the handcrafted fabric, hiding wires, writing code, and sourcing materials from across the globe was fascinating I enjoyed the multidisciplinary work.

Grateful to Maryam Aljomairi for the opportunity, and to the amazing team I collaborated with: Rawan Jahromi, Mustafa Dogan, Hassan A. Al Shatti, Mahmood AlShafai, @nseej_bh. The project was generously supported by  Misk Art Institute

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