Like Dust is an interactive Graphic novel that tells the story of Sam Yazdanpanna and also symbolizes a much more universal story.

Every day thousands of young people flee from one country and travel to another country full of hope and expectations.

This journey is always accompanied by uncertainty and danger. You never know who you can trust and where you might end up. The Graphic novel ‘like dust’ shows that there is a whole story behind every refugee. It’s always easy to dismiss people as fortune seekers, or just numbers, but every individual who leaves their home goes through some kind of identity transformation.

This graphic novel is an ode to Sam’s mother Sahin Wakili and Yilmaz the human trafficker who gave him the future.

https://likedust.nl

Credits:
Script and Director – Sam Yazdanpanna
Producer – Bas Broertjes / Sam Yazdanpanna
Art Director / Illustrator Artist – Meysam Barza
Motion Design – Mustafa Kandaz
Motion Design Assistant – Nevzat Aydin / Savalan Godshi
Web Design and Coding – Maarten van der Glas
Web Coding Assistant – Lindsey Schaap
Audio Design – Olivier Rekers
Script Coach – David Henrich

THIS PROJECT IS FINANCIAL SUPPORTED BY

I have been asked to create an AR artwork for the climate museum addressing climate issues.

With the AR artwork, I aim to express the challenges posed by the climate crisis. Challenges that humanity can ultimately overcome if the right choices are made in time. These challenges can be seen as opportunities – opportunities for a clean environment, a better balance with natural resources, and justice for indigenous populations.

The climate crisis is also a crisis of the exploitation system. A deep layer of our history and system is based on an exploitation system, exploiting both nature and people.

Those who benefit from this system resist change, which is why the necessary energy transition is taking too long. Now that the consequences are being felt firsthand, there is some shift noticeable, but is it timely and sufficient?

My artwork expresses the necessary revolution that is needed – a shift from fossil fuels to renewable energy, from competition to collaboration, from greed to satisfaction, from selfishness to the joy of life on a livable planet.

Why an AR artwork?

With AR, you see a virtual world projected onto the ‘real’ world. AR allows you to create vast worlds that would not be possible otherwise: images can move, be larger than life, and impossible worlds can be created.

AR also enables a visitor to view the artwork in multiple locations: on the street or in the comfort of their own home.

You can load the artwork here:

https://ar.klimaatmuseum.nl/

Credits:

Art and AR development: Maarten van der Glas
Production: Laura van Rutten / Klimaat Museum

TRANS ECOLOGY was part of “Klimaat op staat”

Artist page @ Klimaat Museum

De Vrolijkheid (The Happiness) is an organisation that gives art workshops for kids in asylum centers in The Netherlands. It was a great honour for me as a multi media artist to be given this complex task. I designed, made a technical plan, and programmed the game, from 2021 – 2024. Additional programming was done by: Lindsey Schaap (back end, and svelte code), Eelke Feenstra (svelte code, UI improvements). UI concepts and icons by design studio Harris Blondman. In-game graphics are made by Max Holicki, and are not open source.

In the 3D game world children can explore art works and make their own.

The children can draw, make stopmotion animations and compose music. The children can also make their own avatar and personal space. To me it was important that selecting an avatar was not done with pre made templates but that the children can express their own unfiltered creativity.

I tried my best to design the app to be as simple as possible. Harris Blondman Studio designed the icons and cleaned up the design. Eelke Feenstra later refined the UI/ UX.

By 2024 about 700 children have made use of ARTWORLD and many touching and surprising art works have been made.

I am very excited to have been granted the opportunity to work on this project. I have worked with De Vrolijkheid before on a videomapping for a small museum project.

ARTWORLD is a multi user game, so players see and can interact with each other.

ARTWORLD is open source and hosted on Github

Documentation on Github

ARTWORLD project page on De Vrolijkheid website.

ARTWORLD blog:

Starting work on ARTWORLD

Technical Paper for ARTWORLD