Inter-Frequencies is a creative project that gives voice to the real experiences of international students (like me!) especially those who don’t fit into the usual exchange programs and often get overlooked.
It’s all about connection, conversation, and community. Through a bold magazine, a live podcast, and an interactive installation, the project creates space for honest stories, shared struggles, and the kind of belonging that goes beyond university support groups.
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Inter-Frequencies is a creative project that shines a light on the real experiences of international students, especially those like me who aren't part of formal exchange programs and often slip through the cracks. This project is for those like me, who were never handed a guide on how to build a community but instead had to carve out spaces of belonging on their own, outside the walls of university life. Forming genuine connections, especially with locals, can be difficult when the main avenues are limited to university 'support' groups. But we’re not here just to be supported; we’re here to become a part of the wider community.
Inter-Frequencies, at its core, it's all about connection, conversation, and community.
While the project includes a live podcast series and an interactive installation, the heart of it is the magazine.
A thoughtfully designed publication that brings together everything Inter-Frequencies stands for.
I imagined this like a space where stories, reflections, and visual diaries come together to spark dialogue and help students feel seen, heard, and a little less alone.
I ensured the publication to feel very different from a tipical student newspaper. Typically a problem emerges with student magazines where they feel almost so corporate and university focused that it can lose that human element of genuine connection. This is where Inter-Frequencies steps in and bridges that gap between international students that yearn for that connection and their possibilities.
The magazine features bold neon colours and intricate graphics so to speak to the audience, not to be muted like many international students might feel. It is loud and clear in its message, it wants to be picked up and read by everyone!
One standout exercise featured in the magazine, invites readers to reconnect with their younger selves by placing a childhood photo on their mirror an activity that's simple but surprisingly powerful in boosting self-acceptance and reminding us how far we've come. This is an example of how this project wants to connect on a deeper level with the reader.
Through the magazine (and the wider Inter-Frequencies experience), I've focused on creating content that opens up real conversations, honest, sometimes messy, always meaningful.
The goal is to make international students feel more at home, while inviting the wider community to better understand their (or better : our) world.
It's storytelling with purpose, and hopefully, a reminder that we're all more connected than we think.
The Talking Cubes.
This is where Inter-Frequencies as a publication becomes alive & attracts new listeners in,
These cubes were created using a microcontroller similar to an Arduino board, allowing me to bring the interviews featured in the magazine to life.
This was achieved by engraving plexiglass sheets with the Visual Mark of the magazine to create visual cohesion, then painting the frame with a reactive film with an electroconductive material to activate the speaker underneath.
This interactive installation serves as the project's centerpiece, designed to spark curiosity and draw people in. When touched, each cube plays the corresponding interview from the magazine, immersing the listener in the stories being told.
The setup is inspired by the atmosphere of a record store, a place where people gather to tune in and discover beautiful pieces of music. But in this case, it’s not music that fills the air, it’s the powerful, personal testimonies of international students.
Every voice here deserves to be heard.
Embracing life’s chaos!
Inter-Frequencies wants to be a way for international students to speak up and let their voices be heard, to create a sense of authentic connection within the community they find themselves in. Before creating a safe space to do so, it is valuable to look introspectively and give our inner children space, being at peace with who we are so that people will accept us regardless of where we come from and what our background is.
This exercise featured in the magazine invites people to print out an image of themselves as children and have it in a place so it can be seen daily. This is to remind ourselves of what challenges we might have already been through, give ourselves grace and really push for those dreams and aspirations we might have had as children!
Receipts of the world
This exercise featured in the magazine wants to connect people through the most simple of written mediums : a receipt. Often ignored and forgotten about, this exercise wants to bring attention to the value that receipts hold. They carry with them valuable information of our traces, where we have been, what matters to us and how we decide to spend our life.
Each student is invited to submit their receipts from their homeland to create a beautiful collection of all of these traces that we often leave behind without noticing.
DABF 2024 - Temple Bar Gallery & Studios
The publication was featured in Temple Bar Gallery + Studios' Dublin Art Book Fair (DABF) 2024, Ireland’s leading art book fair.
DABF is a renowned platform championing creative, independent, and small publishers, showcasing over 275 artist books that explore the book as an artistic medium.
Dublin Culture Night 2024 @ INTER:PLAY
Inter Frequencies – Developed as part of my MA, this publication was featured in INTER:PLAY, an exhibition set up as culmination of the Master Course in Creative Arts (Visual Communication). The exhibition took place as part of the renowned Culture Night in Dublin. Culture Night / Oíche Chultúir is a national moment, celebrating all that makes up the richness and diversity of Culture in Ireland today, connecting people to cultural activities locally and nationally and aims to open up pathways to ongoing engagement.