Faisal Anwar - Aga Khan Museum and Aga Khan Council Canada 

The term 'charbagh' refers to the Persian/Islamic-style quadrilateral garden divided by walkways or flowing water into four smaller parts with axial paths intersecting at the garden's centre. This highly structured geometrical scheme is a powerful metaphor for the organization and domestication of the landscape and a symbol of socio-political territory.

Using internet/web, open network data and patterned geometry, Charbagh is an ever-evolving, dynamic digital garden that grows over time with incoming streams of large public data. The project examines today’s socio-political realities, questioning the changing human behaviours, and how we access and interpret information; how the data generated in social media documents our modern history and blurs the line of facts and fiction.

“The idea of creating a digital garden using social media and big data furthers Faisal's ongoing interest in re-imagining nature and organic forms in light of technology.” Zulfikar Hirji, Curator, Writer, Associate Professor York University Toronto.

"Charbagh is much more than just an architectural form or a participatory art – it is a symbol of coexistence and sustainable living for contemporary times” deconfine festival.

A large scale digital garden will be projected on the facade of the Aga Khan Museum and presented at the Ismaili Center growing throughout the night. Audiences interact using cellphones to add new content in real-time.

Co-curated by Zulfikar Hirji

For more information: https://nbto.com/project.html?project_id=108

http://the21st.ca/portfolio-item/exhibition-transformations-chahar-bagh/