The Static Between: Dina Alkhateeb, BA Design Media Arts
What does it mean to be a fully interior person, constantly trying to connect with equally complex interiorities that surround us? This is the kind of questing that fuels Dina Alkhateeb's practice, emerging frequently during her time in the School of the Arts and Architecture.
"I have actually tended to circle very similar themes, namely, like the texture of human contact or the static between people," she said.
For her capstone project, "Face Value," that theme took shape as a game in which players interact with a series of characters using their face as the sole mechanic. A webcam tracks expressions in real time and game characters respond according to their own unseen, unexplained logic. It's about understanding that humans are constantly calibrating themselves in relation to whomever is watching, Alkhateeb said.
"The self is something we author in real time," she said.
Inspired by courses with professor Jenna Caravello, Alkhateeb learned creative coding at UCLA — and found new means to explore the masks we wear and the elusive nature of human relationships. Alkhateeb's project "Imperfect Strangers" is a dating simulator in which the game character retreats from connection the harder the player tries to make connection. Another, titled "Alienation," places gamers in the scenario of an alien chef who must find a way to cook with ingredients they've never seen before.
Her thinking around digital media as a medium evolved out of a strong writing practice, and she harbors a dream of publishing a novel. She's also drawn toward film production for the way it weaves together writing, image-making, sound and performance.
"I'm less committed to a medium than identifying the conditions a given piece might require, and building from there," she said.
Last summer, Alkhateeb worked as a teaching assistant through UCLA's AI and Art Summer Institute, helping high school students engage with AI as a creative tool.
"What really, really matters is education and teaching them what these AI, what these machines really are, and how you can best utilize them as a tool and not as a way to outsource your thinking process," she said.
