Tasmeem Hekayat 2019
The Tasmeem Hekayat conference was truly inspiring, particularly because it was led by four women alumni who are all graduates of VCUarts Qatar. These women exemplify what it means to be creative, dynamic, patient, powerful and resourceful. They have worked tirelessly to make this conference come to life and it is beautiful watching our alumni bring so much back to the school and put VCUarts Qatar in the spotlight! Here is a bit about the theme of the conference:
“The concept of Hekayat (stories) in art and design can be understood through multiple lenses, connecting audiences with cultures, histories, and future visions. There is something magical that happens when a story emerges through a piece of art or design. Many projects developed in the classroom embrace storytelling as a method for creation and inspiration, resulting in various forms, mediums, perspectives, and pedagogies. The exhibition, Tasmeem In the Classroom – Behind the Scenes, invited the audience to take a journey through the different perspectives of VCUarts Qatar faculty and the ways in which they guide their students to imagine, create, interact, and locate stories in their creative work.”
The Tasmeem co-chairs did a great job of picking an amazing line-up of speakers that were powerful and engaging:
SIR DAVID ADJAYE OBE – OPENING KEYNOTE
Sir David Adjaye OBE, Founder and Principal of Adjaye Associates, gave the opening keynote of the conference. His work is truly inspiring and pushes architecture to the level of cultural commemoration. Talking about the concept behind his work he states:
The buildings belong to yet diverge from their contexts, absorbing and animating difference rather than homogenising it. They are bold statements of a complex contemporary world and an unsettled territory of cultural experimentation.
I was a participant in Narratives Mash-up + Responsive Riso Stories led by Tricia Treacy. During the workshop, I collaborated with Farah Adawy, Rabeya Khatoon, and Denielle Emans to create a narrative zine about overcoming fear and anxiety in order to find your own voice.
Utopian Dystopias: A study of Architecture and Print is another fun workshop that I participated in and was led by Samer Fouad. He introduced screen-printing and explored utopian architecture from different creative points of view.
This year two students projects were accepted for Tasmeem in the Classroom: “Behind the Scenes”. The projects are from my Fall Typography 1 course, co-taught with Denielle Emans and they consisted of bilingual typographic posters and diptych banners (for design across divides).
I am extremely proud of our collaboration with VCUQatar’s Painting and Printmaking (PAPR) and Graphic Design Departments (GDES). Special thanks goes to faculty members Zach Stensen and Leland Hill for collaborating with me on this fun project. Kushk is a mobile printing studio that uses a 400-year-old block-printing technique to transfer hand-carved images onto t-shirts. This year students from the GDES department created the template and typography component of a series of modular designs that could be matched up with image-based modules designed by the PAPR students. Thanks to the PAPR students for printing and running the KUSHK station during the conference.(Students + Alumni designers from GDES are: Zainab Al-Shibani, Reham Mohamed, Yeon Hwang, Maha Akl and Izza Alyssa.)
It was a great experience watching our very own students from the graphic design department performing sound experiments and synthesized beats during the Sonic Jeel performance (outcomes of a joint course taught by Michael Hersrud and Simone Musculino). As part of this performance, I joined the fashion design department’s “Dress-Up Troop” led by Federica Visani and Naylaa Al Mulla in a performance of secret identities and curated personalities.
QAL: INTERACTIVE AUDIOVISUAL INSTALLATION BY: ALI PHI
An amazing performance & exhibition and probably the highlight of the conference was Qal by Ali Phi. The anti-carpet, is an interactive generative audiovisual installation exploring environmental design in futuristic architecture with roots in ancient motifs of carpet. In contrast with traditional carpet, “QAL” is not a single pattern, it is mortal, which dies in one second and it is very easy to create by the motion of hands in real-time affected by light. Ali Phi’s performance took place in the atrium and was a mesmerizing and truly breathtaking experience.
And an amazing off-campus event was the opening of the Minus 162 exhibition at the Doha Fire Station. This collaboration between faculty and students utilized 40 floating printers and coding to scrape images from online sources to explore the Qatar Japan LNG agreement. The project is a collaboration between faculty and students at VCUarts Qatar, Texas A&M University at Qatar, and Tokyo Metropolitan University’s AIIT. Originally exhibited at the W+K gallery in Tokyo.
Dress-up + play: Photoshoot experience / Curated personalities / Secret identities by Nayla Al-Mulla and Federica Visani was a fun experience…here is one of our secret identity photos:
Such an amazing conference thanks to these amazing co-chairs: Noha Fouad, Yasmeen Suleiman, Hadeer Omar and Wajiha Pervez! Congratulations on your outstanding work and for making Tasmeem a resounding success!
