The Dream Machine
Medium: Multimedia installation with wood and origami “dreamboats”
Dimensions: 8 ft (H )x 4 ft (D) x 9 ft (L)
Date: 2012
Location: American University, Cairo, Egypt
Project Budget: $50,000 (Total budget for smARTpower – Egypt.
made of recycled agricultural waste.
Description: I was selected by the State Department and the Bronx Museum of Art as
one of fifteen artists from a nationwide search of close to 1000 artists to engage in people-
to-people diplomacy through smARTpower. smARTpower
on Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton’s vision of “smart power diplomacy,”
which embraces the use of a full range of diplomatic tools – in this case the visual arts –
to bring people together to foster greater understanding.
The Dream Machine is one of three projects I created in collaboration with a
group of 20 children ranging in age from 7 to 11. The primary objective of this work was
to assist Egyptian children to bear witness to their future. The total budget of the three
projects in Cairo was $50,000.