The University of Connecticut’s Department of Digital Media and Design is delighted to announce the 2025 MFA Thesis Exhibition (DIS)ORDER. The in-person exhibition is open from April 5 to May 11, 2025 in the William Benton Museum of Art at 245 Glenbrook Road, Storrs, CT, with an opening reception on Thursday, April 24, from 4:30 PM to 6:30 PM EDT.  Museum hours are Tuesday through Friday from 10:00 AM to 4:00 PM and Saturday and Sunday from 1:00 to 4:00 PM.  All events are free and open to the public. To learn more about the exhibition, visit:

Exhibiting artists: 

• Amara Khaled, (Connecticut, USA), The (re)Voiced Collective (2025), Web/Interactive Design Project
• Christian Romero, (New York, USA), The Festival: Hemmingward (2025), Narrative Game
• Maryam Farhadi, (Tehran, Iran), MindMaze (2025), MHealth Application 
• Nooshin Farashaei, (Mashhad, Iran), Woven Garden (2025), Informative/3D interactive website
• Nurudeen “Dean” Musa, (Lagos, Nigeria), Of Home and Now (2025)
• Tariq Rakha, (Virginia, USA), A Soft Heart Is Stronger (2025), 3D Interactive Game

(DIS)ORDER is an exhibition showing the collective work of Amara Khaled, Christian Romero, Maryam Farhadi, Nooshin Farashaei, Nurudeen Musa, and Tariq Rakha – an eclectic mix of individuals with diverse backgrounds, experiences, and worldly perspectives in the Master of Fine Arts in Digital Media Design program at the University of Connecticut. In an increasingly digital world where the lines are blurred between falsehood and truth, and where a single thread of thought can be wrapped and dye to suits narrative – this exhibition is an effort by each artist to showcase the important medium of digital media in its various forms; to tell stories, real human narratives, and experiences.

In (DIS)ORDER, the stories and life experiences being told are geared towards finding the beauty amidst the chaos, order within conflict, navigating trauma and unfair life, and coming through; a beautiful imperfection. 

At its core, each exhibiting artist explores current world conversations from their own perspectives while showing how these conversations can be applied to the current (dis)order going on in the world; ranging from topics tackling mental health, the immigrant experience, a food festival, a refugee journey, cognitive disorder, and championing female artisans. Amara’s The (re)Voiced Collective is an interactive digital archive site that investigates mental health stigma in second-generation South Asian immigrants. The multifaceted projects consist of oral interviews, data visualization, and a website. Christian’s The Festival: Hemmingward is a narrative game about helping a grieving village bring a criminal to justice. In Maryam’s MindMaze, she created an MHealth Application aimed at individuals diagnosed with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and for those who want to maintain their cognitive health. Nooshin Woven Garden weaves the story of unseen Iranian women weavers; preserving Naqshe Khaani—the ancient art of Persian carpet pattern singing. Nurudeen’s collective work Of Home and Now  delves into multi-layered personal identity exploring the contrast between the different lives he has lived. Tariq’s  A Soft Heart Is Stronger is a harkening 3D interactive game narrating a refugee journey; an exploration of a beach of memories showing the disconnect between survivors and bystanders.