 My name is Benaz Farahi. I'm a designer based in Los Angeles. I've trained as an architect, but now I'm working at the intersection of interactive design, digital design, fashion, and architecture. I'm originally from Iran, a country with a rich history of art, architecture, and poetry. In my work, I explore the potential of interactive environments in relationship to human body, ranging from intimate scale of human body and variables, all the way to architectural scale and the word of interactive spaces. One of the most challenging part of a design process for me is the actual idea, what it is that I'm trying to do. Because a lot of my process is iterative and happening through prototyping, but a bigger picture of what that project is about, what is the main idea behind the project, which a lot of times also is trying to bring ideas from critical theory or feminism or humanities into the design, is the most challenging aspects of the work. My work is really addressing the sort of affective computing. I'm interested to see how materials of the environments are able to respond to human emotions. For instance, Opal is an emotive color that responds to emotional expressions of the people around. Similarly in Iridescence, which was commissioned by the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago, the intention was to see how our fashion or wearable item could respond to its surrounding environments. So if your eyes are closed or if someone is blind, could sense the information from its surrounding environment, even with her eyes closed. The cue for the project was the hummingbird and the way that the neck feathers change based on the orientation of the head. For me, the part that was really fascinating was to come up with the actuator to move the lenticular device. The other project that is very dear to me is Chorus of the Gaze. Chorus of the Gaze is a 3D printed shape that responds to unlooker gates. Amelia Jones, who is an art critic, a scholar, and a fierce feminist thinker, is a great source of inspiration for me. The outfit that is sensitized to respond to the male gaze and to act kind of change shape and act as a protective therapist for the body, or the pieces that involve the Iranian Burqa, which kind of looks back and gives women wearing that clothing a gaze. So, you know, those are really exciting activations of theories that are usually quite abstract. I'm truly honored to be given this award and to be recognized for my work. I'm extremely humbled and grateful. And I also want to thank my incredible team, especially Paolo Salvegione and Julian Cipic, for supporting me throughout this journey. And thank you for this award. I'm humbled and grateful.