Shafiqul Alam's Award-Winning Design: The Bengal Classical Music Festival

A Unique Blend of Eastern Classical Music and Generative Design

The inspiration for this design came from the essence of music, which allows the soul to transcend to a higher state of being. Eastern classical music is seen as a conversation of love spoken in syllables of purity and reflection. Alam's design concept was to visually showcase the unraveling of the soul, pierced by the powerful, uplifting, and euphoric waves of music, as the lover and the beloved become one.

What sets this design apart is its unique properties. A generative system based on 'Raga' was developed to encapsulate the essence of Eastern classical music. A symbol – the statue of a musician sitting at peace, her hands liberating the tunes from her Tanpura – was chosen as the core seed of the system to generate design elements unique to each performer's music. The lighting of the statue for each generation reflected the different times of the day-night when a 'Raga' is played.

The design was realized using advanced technology. The original version of the statue was 3D scanned and virtualized to be used in a custom generative system. This system included a data bank of 378 "Ragas" and a list of classical music performers and their tracks. Selected music tracks went through FFT conversion, and the converted data-points were used to manipulate the 3D shape of the virtualized statue. The light direction was decided based on the time of the day/night the raga of the selected music was played.

The project, which was launched in 2015 and is still in use, was not without its challenges. Translating the complex and nuanced realm of eastern classical music into a generative system posed a theoretical challenge. However, with a dedicated team including Creative/Art Direction by Shafiqul Alam, Technical Direction by Afeef Zubaer Zaman, and Creative Technologist Fahim Ahmed, these challenges were successfully overcome.

The Bengal Classical Music Festival design is a testament to the power of innovation and creativity in the realm of design. It showcases how technology can be used to encapsulate the essence of a traditional art form, creating a unique and engaging brand identity. This design is not just a winner of the prestigious A' Design Award, but also a winner in the hearts of music and design lovers worldwide.