dreams ignite our imagination—and in this class, we begin there: with the dream as inspiration, we will build a collective 3d collage inside new art city, an open-interactive world. you’ll be guided through demonstrations to work with 3d objects, images, and soundscapes to create a shared “dreamland” together. we’ll use tools like blender, gifs, and bandlab to design immersive spaces that reflect our collective vision. drawing on contemporary digital art, afrofuturism, speculative fiction, and critical theory where we engage the work of octavia butler, sayaka murata, annika hansteen-izora, tabita rezaire, ruha benjamin, refik anadol, ursula k. le guin, morehshin allahyari, legacy russell, carolyn lazard, and the hyphen-labs collective—we’ll treat dreaming as a communal act of world-building, crafting digital portals of possibility grounded in accessibility and disability justice. assignments will invite you to build your own collective world, arranging images, 3d objects, text, and sound, and link it to a growing network of dreamscapes that form our larger shared world. the class will culminate in a collaborative presentation of final projects, in a spirit of discovery, connection, and play.
this workshop series has undergone several iterations and revisions, and the student work featured on this page represents these different versions. the first version was in 2023 at digital art resource centre (hamilton) and successful iterations were taught in 2024 were taught at index space (nyc), interaccess (toronto), ox-bow school of art & artists residency (chicago). in 2025, an updated iteration was taught at ox-bow school of art & artists residency (chicago) and a two-part workshop was taught at kunst museum bochum (germany). in 2026, this course was taught at school of making and thinking, (nyc.) and as a workshop at powrplnt, (nyc).
2023
digital art resource centre, hamilton, ontario, canada.
- this was part of a four-part digital art workshop series at digital art resource center, hamilton, ontario, canada.
2024
index space, nyc. ny, usa.
- this was part of a four-part digital art workshop series at index space, nyc, ny.
interaccess, toronto, ontario, canada.
- this was part of digital dreamscapes, a two-part digital art workshop series at interaccess, toronto, ontario, canada.
ox-bow school of art & artists residency, affiliated with the school of the art institute of chicago, saugatuck, mi.
2025
ox-bow school of art & artists residency, affiliated with the school of the art institute of chicago, saugatuck, mi.
kunstmuseum bochum
welten bauen is inspired by and based on dreaming community: 3d world building in new art city by hiba ali – a workshop concept that invites participants to collectively create 3d worlds shaped by shared imaginations and visions. kunstmuseum bochum as part of ruhrkunstbewegt, a mediation project of the 21 ruhrkunstmuseen, funded by the rwe foundation.
2026
school of making and thinking, nyc, ny, usa.
powrplnt, nyc, ny, usa.
