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Studio NAWA is a creative partnership between Alina Nazmeeva and John Wagner, based in Chicago, Illinois. This collaboration fuses Alina's background as a media artist with John's expertise as an architect, merging their passions for digital simulation and material assembly.
Alina, a Tatarstan-born media artist and educator, crafts works integrating XR, AI, textile, physical installation, digital simulation, and gaming engines as storytelling devices and as sites of critique. John, a practicing architect, creates spaces and assemblages with a honed sensibility and understanding of detail, materiality, and respecting the longevity of finely crafted objects and spaces. Together, their creative process is non-linear, oscillating between material and digital experimentation. Intuitive and visceral, yet deeply research-based, their work combines a range of techniques and materials, from analog and digital fabrication experiments with stainless steel and textiles, to working with gaming engines, augmented and virtual reality.