Here are Ithra's five finalists for its new Creative Solutions program. The projects which have progressed to the final stage feature themes as diverse as traditional Saudi art designs, gamified virtual museum tours, a journey in search of a lost family member, and even the weather.
The five final programs were selected from the 26 teams whose projects were selected for the initial refining and presentation phase. These participants, many of them young Saudis who work in the creative and high-tech industries spend several weeks at a series of masterclasses, technical workshops and networking events designed to help them all in their creative careers, whether selected for the final five projects or not.
Creative Solutions Winners
Alqatt XR
Which features the iconic traditional Al-Qatt art form southern Saudi Arabia. The project is dedicated to documenting, and preserving our Saudi cultural and natural heritage. It uses digital visualization, 3-D virtualization, geospatial informatics, and open access solutions to provide digital data and 3D models to regional institutions, museums, local scholars, and the public.
Team Representative:
Layla Albabtain
Team Members:
Areej Alwabil, Haifa Alhababi, Layla Albabtain and Abdullah Moshantat
Jawaab
Interactive Gamified Museum Tour Application, which assists visits to museums. The application is linked to location data and involves augmented reality and gamification to bring a new dimension to studying museums and their collections.
Team Representative:
Nouf Alsughier
Team Members:
Nouf Alsughier, Nora Almunaif, Reem Alrashoud and Bayan Alarafi
Wamdah
A VR interactive film about a man who embarks on a journey to find his lost brother in 1970. He teleports to the far future, where he witnesses the bright future of Saudi Arabia and regains his lot of passion along the journey.
Team Representative:
Abdullah Ba Mashmos
Team Members:
Abdullah Ba Mashmos, Mohammed Shalabi, Mohammed Molham, Roua Alzahem, Moyaser Tamim, Atheer Minwar, Omar Balfagih and Muneb Younes
The Anticipation of Rain
This is a mixed reality, location-based experience based on the sensations which comes from heavy rainstorms. This is a solo project by the Saudi-based artist Naima Karim, who originally comes from Bangladesh, and delivers a theater-based installation with thunder, lightning, orchestral immersive sound, and sensors with the aim of provoking thought about the need to care for our world.
Project Representative:
Naima Karim
Story of Science
It is a virtual museum tour involving holograms, virtual reality and multi-speaker immersive sound and is the brainchild of the Saudi creator Abdullah Alarfaj. The project allows the user to walk into a simulated elevator to witness the development of the physical understanding of the universe.
Project Representative:
Abdullah Alarfaj