Elsewhere Together — Hamed Karami

Elsewhere, Together

Elsewhere, Together was my Master's thesis project exploring how collaborative public art could foster connection between politically divided communities. The project consisted of two identical interactive installations placed in separate cities, challenging the passive nature of typical public art by making collaboration the medium of communication. By replacing verbal communication with visual co-creation, the project reduced language barriers and promoted empathy through shared human experiences. The exhibition took place on August 28th and 29th, 2026, in Luisencenter Darmstadt and Altmarkt Galerie Dresden.

Thesis

Interactive Public

Participatory Art

Real-Time Collaboration

Cross-Border Communication

Co-Presence & Drawing

Strangers from the two cities were matched in real time through a live video feed and collaborated for four minutes on a shared digital canvas using a wireless mouse pointer based on emotionally grounded prompts.

Non-Verbal Communication

Participants communicated solely through the drawing process and specific gesture triggers, such as like, dislike, and love, which spawned visual emoji bubbles on the screen.

System Architecture

The entire installation operated as a custom web application built with HTML and JavaScript. This web-based architecture handled the real-time canvas synchronization, live video feeds, and continuous data transfer between the two cities.

Public Engagement

A secondary display at each location showed a continuous slideshow of completed artworks alongside a QR code, inviting passersby to view the online gallery archive.