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Raphael Arar

Designer & Researcher/Artist

IBM Research

Raphael Arar is an award-winning artist, designer and technologist whose work seeks to trace the trajectories of interpersonal and intrapersonal interaction in light of progress. These works manifest themselves in a variety of forms encompassing a synthesis of nostalgia and novelty often informed by scientific systems and humanistic research.

His artwork has been shown at museums, conferences, festivals and galleries internationally including the International Symposium on Electronic Art (ISEA), Gamble House Museum, Boston Cyberarts Gallery, and Athens Video Art Festival.

Commercially, he has worked with clients including Apple, Google, The Smithsonian and Children’s Hospital. His design work has been awarded through MITX and The Webby Awards and has been featured in sources including The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, Communication Arts Magazine and Forbes. Arar holds an MFA from the California Institute of the Arts and a BA from Boston University.

Arar is currently a Designer & Researcher at IBM Research and a recent Forbes 30 Under 30 awardee in Enterprise Technology. Previously he was the Lead UX Designer for the Apple + IBM Partnership, Lecturer at the University of Southern California’s Media Arts + Practice Division and an Art & Technology Fellow at CalArts.