Insights
“If there’s no wow, we haven’t done our job”
WhiteSquare is a Bahrain-based experience design studio building interactive, tech-driven installations for events, exhibitions and retail, working alongside its creative arm, Alt Space. Co-founders Vivek Sudarsanan and Sayed Zuhair Abbas spoke to Media4Growth about how the studio’s screens and installations are actually built, and where the tech behind them is headed.
Most event and exhibition screens still follow a familiar model: pre-rendered content playing on a loop. WhiteSquare is challenging that approach by building experiences where screens and installations respond to the people around them. In conversation with M4G, co-founders Vivek Sudarsanan and Sayed Zuhair Abbas spoke about the technology, experimentation and R&D behind this approach.
Their recent installation for the Global Water, Energy and Climate Change Congress in Bahrain demonstrates the idea in action. A tall LED pillar displays continuously generated light patterns, while a nearby LED wall responds to people walking past it. Rather than relying on a fixed video file, the visuals are generated live, creating an experience that can change with every interaction.
For WhiteSquare, this is part of a larger shift from making audiences viewers to making them participants. The team is experimenting with sensors, generative content, WebGL, hardware and AI, while customising its technology for each project rather than repeatedly deploying the same interactive setup. Vivek describes the company as “tech first”, with ongoing R&D happening independently of individual client briefs.
The studio is now extending this thinking beyond events into retail and interactive brand experiences, exploring concepts such as “lift and learn” displays that respond when consumers pick up products. Read the full article in the October edition of Outdoor Asia,