Over a casual weekend stroll through the enchanting streets of Edinburgh, my partner and I fell so deeply in love with the city's harmony with nature—the hills, the sea, the wildlife—that we decided to stay. This decision set me on a path that would lead to a serendipitous encounter with Oleg Ishkov, a scientist at Heriot-Watt University.
Oleg shared with me his urgent dilemma: the upcoming COP28 climate conference in Dubai and the challenge of presenting his technology there. This was no ordinary technology; it was Rockit, a chemical marvel from Heriot-Watt University, engineered to trap harmful gases like methane underground for millennia, far from our vulnerable atmosphere. Discover Rockit Technology
The university had selected a handful of its scientists' innovations for display, and Oleg's technology was among them. Others had robots and constructions, but Oleg had a substance—a key to seal wells and lock away greenhouse gases. And now, he needed to make this tangible for the conference.
The Dubai campus urged us to avoid the mundane digital displays and aim for interaction. This challenge intrigued me, and I sought a visual metaphor for Rockit. After days of reflection, I envisioned football nets and balloons—where the balloons represented greenhouse gases and the nets, the technology holding them back.
Designing spatial solutions usually begins with a thorough understanding of the venue's dimensions. However, this time, the concept took shape before I knew the specifics of the space.
Over the past year, I've been immersed in linguistic models and AI services like Midjourney. They've become my work and play. From numerous iterations, I selected striking images that resonated with Oleg, and we began to plan the installation's reality.
We chose a prime location at the university's Dubai campus and designed a transparent dome, filled with balloons striving to ascend, contained by a vast net. Fitness balls on the grass below doubled as seats for discussions, and bubble machines added a dynamic aspect, their bubbles bursting upon touching the net, symbolizing the smaller greenhouse gases and reinforcing the central metaphor.
In the nascent stages, when the spatial dimensions of the conference were still a mystery, I embarked on crafting the identity for this groundbreaking technology. The logo needed to be a distillation of ROCKIT's essence—a visual manifesto of its capabilities and its promise. I envisaged a stark, black rectangle representing the subterranean depths from which the technology would safeguard us, with the bold letters of ROCKIT etched upon it.
Each letter in the logo was a fusion of two hues, solidly bonded to form a single entity, representing the dual nature of ROCKIT—as a name and as a startup. There were no spaces between the letters; they converged upon one another, symbolizing a monolith, an unbreakable union—echoing the metaphor of containment and protection.
On the opening day, His Majesty King Charles III graced the Dubai campus, and the subsequent press coverage featuring my installation was a delightful surprise. My initial detailed social media post proved too complex for casual consumption. A simpler follow-up post, "The King against the backdrop of my design installation," resonated instantly.
It's heartwarming to see celebrities engaging with critical planetary issues.
The two weeks of the COP28 conference were a triumph for the ROCKIT project. The installation became a selfie spot, delighting children and adults alike, with Oleg frequently refilling the bubble solution.
Vladimir Shmoylov, Edinburgh, December 2023
