Yara Feghali
Lecturer
Yara is a French Lebanese architectural designer working at the intersection of architecture pedagogy, transmedia, and immersive technologies. She is a member of the design faculty at UCLA Architecture and Urban Design, and the creative director of Folly Feast Lab, co-founded with Viviane El Kmati and based in Santa Monica, California. Viviane is a Lebanese designer and the technology director working with virtual reality, storytelling, and artificial intelligence technologies. Through worldbuilding and storytelling, Yara and Viviane design immersive and interactive experiences, applications, software, design tools and games around queer identity, sustainability, and technology. With Folly Feast Lab, they are committed to designing fantastic experiences that are as aesthetically engaging as they are technologically performing. Their XR work has been part of Fiber Festival Amsterdam, Architecture + Design Museum Los Angeles, Los Angeles Forum, Ars Electronica, and Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary (TBA21) Academy Austria, AD Magazine, Re-Fest Culture Hub, Cyberia Playground India, XR2C2 Cannes, Onassis ONX, Cal Arts Visions 2030 Festival, MU Hybrid Art House, ZKM Germany, Pompidou Paris, and Art Science Museum Singapore.
Related topics |
Technology, Mixed Reality |
Related Links |
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| M.Sc. in Design Theory and Pedagogy, DI, Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-Arc) |
| M.A. in Architecture and Aesthetic Practice, Städelchule Architecture Class (SAC) |
| M.Sc. in Architecture, Lebanese Academy of Fine-Arts (ALBA) |
| 2023 | Resident, Extended Reality Research and Creative Center XR²C², Cannes, France |
| 2023 | Completed Virtual Herbaria AR for Android and Apple site at the California Institute of the Arts, as part of "Earth Edition Visions 2030: Futuring, California" |
| 2023 | "Be.Longing XR" exhibited at Athens Digital Arts Festival (ADAF) 2023 |
| 2022 | Led a VR workshop at Ars Electronics, as part of Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary (TBA 21 Academy) |
| 2021 | Co-edited "Breaking Glass: Spatial fabulations & other tales of representation in VR" (Staedelschule Architecture Class; co-edited with Johan Bettum) |
| 2020 | #TalkAboutBeirut, co-curator for exhibition about Beirut in the aftermath of August 4th explosion |
- Virtual Herbaria augmented reality app, site-specific to a location in the French Riviera
- Virtual Herbaria augmented reality app, site-specific to the California Institute of the Arts campus
- Be.Longing XR at Culture Hub Re-Fest, Los Angeles
- Be.Longing XR by Folly Feast Lab
- "Mediterranean Sea Diaries," an interactive VR forum/open-world game exploring the Anthropocene’s repercussions on the Mediterranean coast
- Breaking Glass (a virtual-reality publication)