spiral networks of remembrance and elation is an ongoing project by dr. hiba ali that is performance lecture, video game and virtual reality documentary that investigates intangible cultural heritage across sound, architecture, and embodied memory within indian ocean worlds. working across immersive documentary methods, spatial audio, and narrative worldbuilding, the project traces swahili, coromandel coast, and gulf musical and architectural lineages as living systems shaped by migration, devotion, trade, and exchange. this project has been performed at transmediale 2026 (berlin), as part of this project's solo exhibition at the kunstverein pforzheim and projektraum romerstasse (stuttgart.)
the project draws from research conducted in zanzibar at the dhow countries music academy, hyderabad and chennai, south india and across riyadh, saudi arabia, where sound operates as both archive and social infrastructure. these encounters inform an expanded documentary language that treats music and built environments as interconnected mnemonic technologies rather than static cultural artifacts.
research for the project has been supported by the university of chicago’s american institute of indian studies fellowship, enabling sustained inquiry into immersive media and digital somatic approaches to cultural remembrance. upcoming field research will extend this work across zanzibar, dar es salaam, oman, the gulf, southeast asia, and south asia, further tracing transregional networks of sound, architecture, and embodied knowledge across the indian ocean.
through vr environments, spatialized sound, and nonlinear narrative structures, spiral networks of remembrance and elation explores remembrance not as fixed history, but as a relational, embodied process activated through listening, movement, and place.
