VCUarts Qatar Presents Ghūl at Ars Electronica 2025
Virginia Commonwealth University School of the Arts in Qatar (VCUarts Qatar) takes its vision of creative research and critical design to the international stage for the second time. This year VCUarts Qatar presents Ghūl, an immersive exhibition premiering at the Ars Electronica Festival 2025 in Linz, Austria, from September 3 to 7, 2025.
Inspired by the ghūl (غُولْ), a shapeshifting, mischievous creature from Arabian folklore, the exhibition reimagines this mythical figure as a metaphor for the unseen systems that structure our everyday lives. From the technological to the ecological and economic, Ghūl asks visitors to reflect on how these constructed systems influence, ensnare, and haunt us.
“In Ghūl, we use folklore as a portal to examine modern systems as active forces in our lives,” explains Dr. Diane Derr, Associate Dean for Research and Development at VCUarts Qatar. “This exhibition engages critical issues in a manner that is poetic, playful, and deeply reflective.”
Transcontinental Collaboration
In a first for Ars Electronica, Ghūl showcases works developed across two campuses: VCUarts Qatar and VCUarts Richmond. The collaboration includes contributions from faculty artists such as Peter Baldes, Sirena Pearl, ShanMu Sun, and Stephen Vitiello, alongside students and alumni.
Exhibition Highlights
The works in Ghūl invite audiences to move between folklore and futures, critique and play:
Self Reflexive Worlds: Ideal Home (ShanMu Sun) – An XR narrative merging immigrant memory, generative AI, and immersive storytelling to navigate belonging and displacement.
Self Reflexive Worlds: Text Textures (Sirena Pearl) – A real-time installation translating player movement into dynamic ASCII streams, confronting digital identity and surveillance.
Roto Riso (First-year VCUarts Qatar students) – A kinetic installation inspired by Duchamp’s Rotoreliefs and Op Art, using RISO-printed spinning discs to explore motion, printmaking, and interaction.
Food Waste Renaissance (Yasamin Shaikhi) – Biodegradable lighting objects crafted from rice and date byproducts, transforming waste into sustainable design material.
HydroGAN™ (Fariha Ahmed, Fatima Nazir, Alice Aslem, Selma Fejzullaj, Jood Elbeshti, Shawky Abdalla) – A satirical corporate-style installation offering “AI-generated water,” critiquing environmental exploitation and identity commodification.
Apparitions (Ryan Browning, Sarah Khankan, Ameena Darwish, Martin Juras, Moom Thahinah, Lana Selo, Maha Alnaimi, Aljohara Almeraikhi, Fatima Al Muftah, Abdelrahman Moustafa, Nada Hijawi, Essa Al Mahmoud) – An interactive digital cave where a sculptural keyboard conjures swirling apparitions, exploring how intuition and embodiment shape our digital encounters.
Systems, Stories, Futures
Each project within Ghūl is united by a shared intent: to reveal the invisible systems shaping contemporary life while proposing alternative futures through critique, engagement, and imagination. By bridging folklore with cutting-edge media, VCUarts Qatar highlights how art and design can uncover what lies beneath the surface of modern existence.
This ambitious exhibition underscores VCUarts Qatar’s commitment to creative research that spans disciplines, cultures, and technologies, situating Doha as a global hub for experimental and forward-thinking design.
