Virtual reality artist explores art beyond the physical realm

MUSCAT: Oman’s first virtual reality artist wants people to explore art that exists beyond the physical realm.

Thirty-one year-old Haitham Al Busafi, who runs his own architecture and production companies in Qurum, discovered virtual reality as a medium of art almost by accident.

“At a very young age, I used to play with oil colours because, when I was young, my father would paint at home,” recalled Al Busafi, whose logo for the nowubiquitous ‘Omani Product, Our First Choice’ campaign won first place in a competition organised to design the logo in 2008.

“I went to Sultan Qaboos University to study architecture, and while working, started a company with my brothers,” he added. “We did a lot of branding, advertising and promotional work, but I felt that my understanding about ar- chitecture, on where it is globally, and my work in research and design were lacking; so I took all my savings and applied to study at the University of Applied Art in Austria.” It was there that the seeds for his passion were first sown.

“I got to work with people, such as Hani Rashid and Greg Lynn, who started the idea of a paperless studio, where architecture is designed from scratch on com- puters and not on paper.

“I was exposed to one of the most progressive design schools in the world and began using a lot of software, which was used by film companies to create special effects to design buildings, and that allowed me to play with spaces in an unexpected and surprising way,” he said.