Rakan DiarBakerli
Rakan is a proud Muslim Arab/American. He spent his formative years growing up in Kuwait and Kenya before arriving to the US. He earned his Bachelor's in Zoology and Master’s in Art and Design, both from NCSU. Currently, he works at the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University after 10 years of teaching science in the classroom. His teaching experience spans public, private and charter schools across the Triangle in NC. He is passionate about cultural learning, exploration of the natural world, gaming, and visual storytelling. Any opportunity he finds disposable income, it goes directly to finding his next adventure in a land he has never been. He aims to immerse himself in new cultures, languages, and food with people he has never met before!
One of his notable projects is The Celtic Arab, a proof of concept video game designed through his Master’s program at NCSU. It is driven by storytelling through mystery and empathy. This project required thoughtful story crafting, purposeful character design, cinematic framing, and painstakingly meticulous visual, narrative and auditory design.
“I always love to teach, from the smallest moments to the grandest of tales. Most of my artwork uses environmental storytelling to give enough for the audience to be intrigued and wonder what led to that moment. I infuse adventure and the lessons it offers our spirit in my craft. The eventual interactive experience takes the concept further and aimed to explore a different culture and religion through a deep and engaging story.”
"Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime."
-Mark Twain