smART + TECH
+ NATURE Lab
Faculty of Arts and Design
West University of Timișoara
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Artwork 01 / ISEA Dubai selection

Desert Storm

Dust Negotiating Humanity

Paul Babencu   /   Immersive atmospheric installation

The artwork / Interactive edition

Enter the encounter.

Combine six visual layers. Shape their movement with your mouse or touch, explore the sound, or bring your silhouette into the work with an optional camera.

A turquoise particle ring and a luminous white core in Desert Storm.

Desert StormPaul Babencu

Launch interactive experience
Interactive edition · Desert Storm

Sound starts when you choose Start. The optional camera stays on your device. Closing the experience stops its sound and camera.

A participant surrounded by circular projections of light in Paul Babencu’s Desert Storm installation.

The artwork

Atmosphere · breath · matter

Atmospheric instability becomes an immersive field of matter and motion. Dust, turbulence and changing visual conditions place human presence within an environment that never fully settles.

Alongside Breathing Fields, the work connects the scale of an individual gesture to an unstable, shared atmosphere.

The interactive experience

The interactive experience combines six visual layers, sound and an optional camera silhouette. Move your mouse or drag a finger through the particles and adjust the layers to shape the field.

Continue the constellationContemplating Life ↗

Your visit / Your choice

Visitor preferences

Accepting enables participation analytics on exhibition pages and interactive editions: navigation, active time, clicks, touch, sampled pointer positions, scroll, artwork controls, errors and contribution events. We also record your full IP address, browser and device information.

We do not record or save video or microphone audio. Camera and microphone effects run locally on your phone or computer. Feature Fusion is the exception for a photo you choose to submit; its processing and storage are explained before you send it.

Session heatmaps and reconstructed visits help us study how the exhibition is explored. They do not record camera images, microphone audio, passwords or the contents of text fields. Administrators can view participation records; these are not shown in the public gallery.

Interactive editions require acceptance. Declining keeps presentation pages available. Camera and microphone access always require a separate browser permission. Feature Fusion explains its AI image processing and gallery publication before you submit a contribution.

Storage and retention

Name / technology
isea_replay_tab · sessionStorage
Provider / scope
This exhibition website
Purpose
Random tab identifier used to join accepted navigation and artwork reconstruction. Contains no camera or audio data.
Category
Participation reconstruction, after acceptance
Retention
Until the tab closes; removed on withdrawal.
Your control
Withdraw in Visitor preferences.
Name / technology
isea_language · localStorage
Provider / scope
This exhibition website
Purpose
Remembers the language you select (EN or RO), including after a page refresh. Contains only the language code.
Category
Language preference
Retention
Until you change the language or clear browser storage.
Your control
Choose EN or RO, or clear this website’s browser storage.
Name / technology
isea_visitor_choice · localStorage
Provider / scope
This exhibition website
Purpose
Stores Accept / Do not accept, the notice revision, choice date and expiry. Acceptance enables participation analytics and interactive access.
Category
Remembers your choice
Retention
30 days; renewed only when you make a new choice.
Your control
Change or clear the choice in Visitor preferences.
Name / technology
__Secure-isea_session · Secure, HttpOnly, SameSite cookie, API path only
Provider / scope
This exhibition website
Purpose
Connects accepted participation events to a random session code. Full IP, browser/device details, events, heatmaps and reconstructed visits are stored privately on the server.
Category
Participation analytics, after acceptance
Retention
Cookie: up to 30 days. A participation session expires after 30 minutes of inactivity. Archived records have no automatic expiry.
Your control
Withdraw in Visitor preferences to stop collection and revoke the session.
Name / technology
isea_fusion_pending · sessionStorage
Provider / scope
This exhibition website
Purpose
Remembers the random identifier of a pending Feature Fusion generation so a refresh can recover its status. Contains no camera image.
Category
Contribution continuity
Retention
Until the generation finishes or the browser tab closes.
Your control
Cleared automatically when the result is received.
Name / technology
__Secure-isea_admin · Secure, HttpOnly, SameSite cookie
Provider / scope
This exhibition website
Purpose
Authenticates the private statistics console. Only created after an administrator signs in.
Category
Necessary for administrator authentication
Retention
8 hours, or until logout.
Your control
Sign out of the statistics console.

Participation records, reconstructed visits and generated artworks have no automatic expiry. The team reviews whether continued retention remains necessary for the research. Withdrawing stops future collection; it does not automatically erase existing records. Contact the exhibition team through the privacy notice for an existing-record request.

Google Analytics is not connected. Any change to analytics services will be reflected in the notice and storage inventory before activation. Cloudflare separately delivers and protects the website.

Cookies & storagePrivacy notice