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Inspiration Research

After my intervention I went in search of the fun and aspects of the Arab culture that arouse my interest. I only knew and focust on the negative part of my culture and I wanted to discover parts that are close to my interests. It gave me a tottaly different view on the Arab culture.

- Modest fashion, Stedelijk Museum Schiedam:

https://www.stedelijkmuseumschiedam.nl/tentoonstelling/modest-fashion/

I saw a few posters on the street about this exhibition and it immediately took my attantion. I really thought this would be interesting for my proces for my topic. I am planning to go this week to see this exhibition for inspiration for my end installation.

- Habibi funk Boiler Room Libanon: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zqKROkY2ZFU&t=4467s

I discovered this label called Habibi Funk. Habibi Funk is dedicated to the funky music of the arab world of the 1970s. It gives me the feeling of freedom when I listen to the music.

- Instagram Page Meryem: 

https://www.instagram.com/meryemsfirst/

Meryem is a girl who photographs her mom in modern fashion outfits. She dresses her mom in urban clothes. I found it very adorable to see a older arab mother with a traditional scarf on, in very modern urban clothes. I love that they combine te two contrast and make it look very cool!

- Djemaa el Fna:

I visited the Arab festival called Djemaa el Fna at Museumplein Rotterdam. I had a very good time there. The festival is inspired by the square in Marocco.

Djemaa el Fna Rotterdam is a crossroads of cultures: the place where you get to know each other's stories and taste each other's cuisine. A festival that offers a platform for cultural exchange. Poets, cooks, musicians, writers, dancers and theater makers of different generations, styles and backgrounds are a reflection of Rotterdam society. There are unique, cultural crossovers between these artists on the program. And with that we want to bring everyone who is open to it together.

In all four inspirations you see the western world combined with the Arab world.

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My Installation

For the final assignment we have to make an installation. The installation has to show our transformation or our intervention. Through my intervention I found out to be very grateful for this life that my parents gave me. There are beautiful and less beautiful sides to each culture and I have learned to embrace and love both Arabic and Western cultures.

For my final installation, I intend to show the embrace through a hanging turn mobile. This portrays the Western and Arabian sides. The hoop is about 100 cm so you can stand in the hoop and everything revolves around you. The final installation depicts my life with two cultures. You see things turning in a circle like a vicious circle past you.

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My Dark Side & My Intervention

Fear/Dark Side:

For our first term we were instructed to step out of our comfort zone and face our fear. My fear is that I am afraid of not having complete freedom with regard to my culture. My parents are of Arab origin and there are many things involved around that. There are certain expectations from me that I do not fully support. It therefore seems that I have a double life.

Intervention:

My parents are Islamic and have raised me that way. But how Islamic can a 22 year old girl be in a Western country like the Netherlands in 2019? Sometimes it seems like I have a double life. I feel that I cannot be myself and certain things are expected of me such as: marrying an Islamic man, not drinking alcohol, not smoking, not wearing bare clothes and not going out too often etc.

I disagree with much with my parents' way of thinking and with my intervention I want to become more grateful for the life they have given me as two refugees. They have had to endure a lot to give their children a good life and I have to appreciate that more.

I interviewed my mother about their story about their journey to the Netherlands.

Interview:

What was your life like in Baghdad? Life there at that time was very different from life here. We weren't happy with much, if we already had a little doll our day could not go wrong. Now we live in a time where the internet and other unnecessary things make us happy. The house we lived in with my four sisters was always very cozy. My mother taught us a lot. My childhood in Baghdad was good, but from childhood my parents gave me the feeling of fear for the government. You just feel that as a child there.

What was the reason you had to run away? Saddam was known for doing what he wanted. He decided everything in the country and we did not live in a democracy there at all. He somehow had the impression that we were not real Iraqis and thought we were Iranian. For that reason we had to leave the country. All residents that Saddam did not like in Iraq, like Christians for example, he sent away to Iran as a sort of dumping ground to make Iraq "better". My uncle was a soldier at the time and was therefore killed by Saddam. We went to Iran with my whole family at the age of 17. I didn't know your father back then, but he told me when I got to know him that he was being held by Saddam for 5 months at the time and was then deported and sent to Iran. It was a terrible time full of injustice.

How did you get to know my father and how did you approach it together? When my family stayed in the camp in Iran, I met your father. We were both in the same situation because of Saddam, and as a result, you get a bond with each other faster. After we got married in Iran I got pregnant with your brother and your sister. The war broke out between Iran and Iraq. We received no papers in Iran, our children were not allowed to go to school and your father was not allowed to work because we were not Iranians. Then we decided to go to Syria for a year during the war between Iran and Iraq to go into hiding. There was no future for our children here either, so we tried to flee the Netherlands to the Netherlands with our two babies of 1 and 2, because that was the only "easy" flight at that time without any obstacles from Syria.

In which year did you run away from Iraq and how old were you then? I ran away from Iraq to Iran when I was 17 years old. It was 1980 when I came to the Netherlands, when I was 25.

What did you have to leave behind? My house, my family, friends etc. I remember exactly that I said goodbye to my sisters. It was so very emotional. There was just a chance that I would never see them again because of the war.

What are the things that you have seen / done in the war that you will never forget? We have experienced a lot of war in Iran. I had to sleep nights outside under the sand because we had to hide. Your brother was 1 at the time and I was pregnant with your sister. We also often had to hide on remote farms of people so that the soldiers would not find us. Those kind of anxious moments where you can be dead any moment are really times that will always stay with me.

Have you suffered traumas during that time? I used to suffer from traumas that I suffered during that time. Now that I have been living here in the Netherlands for a while I have processed it and I have peace of mind. Unfortunately I have had some serious migraines, but luckily it stays that way and it could end very differently.

What did you first notice when you came to the Netherlands at the AZC? That they live in a structured way in the Netherlands as opposed to Iraq. Shops close here at 6 o'clock and the streets are immediately empty. Baghdad was a bustling city until the late hours.

What are the differences between the Netherlands and Iraq? The Netherlands is a very free country. The government listens to the people here. Totally different with Iraq. The government cannot be trusted there and the citizens cannot do anything. It is an oppressed people.

What do you miss most about Iraq? My family and my friends from the past. Because I am so far from my family, I could not even attend my own mother's burial.

Are you happy here? Yes, although my head is often still there, I have built up my family and friends here. But I do know that if you are all successful, settled and all of you leave me, I will go back with your father to our family in Iran.

Moodboard Intervention:

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Step Out Of The Garden

Philosophy

For Philosophy we had to visualize things that provokes us to step out of the garden (homogeneous) into the wilderness (heterogeneous). And Visualize  things that try to keep us in the garden (homogeneous).

I got off the train at Rotterdam Blaak to go to the market. I like to visit the market because I always find a nice atmosphere and of course lots of good food. But today it was a bit different. An old man of Asian descent asked the woman who worked at the vegetable stall how much a bunch of bananas cost. The woman shouted to him if he could not read the sign through his split eyes. Normally I hate to interfere with conversations but I really thought this was not oke. I was so pissed off by her. And I screamed that she had to act normally and not be racist. After I had been to the market I visited my friends and had good conversations about this and there came a realization that I really have to appreciate the open-minded people around me, because there are still a lot of rotten apples in the world.

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Dutch Design Week

Prototyping

For Prototype we had to visit the Dutch Design Week and document installations we find inspiring and beautiful.

Saar Scheerlings:

A series of watercolour collages, sculptures and a throne are among the most recent props for a new, fictional culture that Scheerlings designs. Inspired by ethnographic collections in museums, textile crafts and construction methods, the work is a search for a sense of inspiration and meaning as we know it from ancient cultures and religious artefacts such as Talismans. For this collection Scheerlings mixes everyday forms and materials with traditional crafts, both from the Netherlands and other places in the world. For example, the shapes of the Talisman series are derived from unfolded tea boxes from the paper bin. The materials are mostly second-hand; the foam mattresses come from a bankrupt holiday park, the fabrics are remnants of theaters and fashion houses or old clothing from the thrift store, and an old sari was torn into strips to knot with.

In contrast to today’s fast and technological society, this work radically opts for accessibility through craftsmanship and everyday (also unexpected) material culture that can come from everywhere and therefore wants to be for everyone. The making process is unpredictable, because the making itself stands above a well-thought out step-by-step plan. Components can therefore always transform into a different form, a different material or scale, both autonomous or more functional.

I couldn’t take my eyes of her work. I love colorful art, so this installation was very inspiring for me to see.  The way she worked with texture and color is very nice.

Pierre Azalbert, Benton Ching, Karlijn Sibbel: Re:flex:

A reflex is an action that is performed without conscious thought in response to given stimuli. Re:flex is a reconfigurable, programmable material that changes its shape in response to heat.

Natural materials and structures constantly respond and adapt to changes in the environment. This makes organisms resilient to change. Yet our built environment is static, and does not morph in response to changing conditions as natural structures do. The idea of a living, breathing material world has captured the imagination of people for centuries. Advancements in smart material technology have allowed us to pursue this vision of active matter. However, where are these materials in our everyday lives? Inspired by natural processes of homeostasis, we set out to create an intelligent material that could be embedded into the everyday. Re:flex is a thermally responsive material. You can heat it, deform it into a temporary shape, and cool it down to freeze it in place. When heated again, it remembers and returns to its original shape. With re:flex, we imagine a world where the materials we use are no longer inert, allowing objects to be reshaped by users to suit their needs.

What caught my attention was that it was very colorful. After talking to the designers for a while, it also turns out to be very durable! Re: flex is a new type of material that can be transformed by heating it. This way you can turn something into a whole new object.

Vlisco & Co Presents: The Youth of Africa:

Vlisco&co continuously seeks to work with young experimental creative talent from a range of African countries. This exhibition is centered around the works of fashion designers, filmmakers, photographers and graphic designers from Ghana, Ivory Coast and Nigeria. Through their work we learn, listen.

Vlisco Netherlands established a new venture in 2017 which it named Vlisco&co. The name speaks not only of Vlisco and its partners but also of collaboration and cooperation. The presence of Vlisco prints in Africa since the end of the 19th century could never have happened without the collaboration and cooperation of the African traders and without those who turned the fabric into clothing of extraordinary self-expression. That is how Vlisco’s past developed and still continues today, largely in the same vein. So when Vlisco looks to the future it is normal for it to think of future partners and future collaboration and cooperation. This means engaging with the youth of Africa. Vlisco decided to seek young, creative and experimental talent to form a network of young people across Africa. This network would interact to debate and define modern African culture and to discuss how the role of printed fabric would evolve in the years to come. 56 young people of outstanding vision and creativity already form the basis of a growing network.

This was an impressive installation. When you see the pictures in the installation it tells a story. It inspires me because my theme is also about culture and was about young creatives across Africa to express modern culture. They combine the new generation kids with their old culture In Africa.

Supertoys Supertoys:

Inspired by each other, Supertoys Supertoys and Studio Pim Top explore the space between inanimate and animate matter, interrogating modernity and designing within an animistic narrative. The result is a cross-dimensional dialogue between whimsical furniture-like objects and otherworldly images.

Supertoys Supertoys dreams of a world where we are more and more connected with the objects around us in a reciprocal way, a loving way. Where objects, furniture and spaces become alive. For this project Supertoys Supertoys asked artist and photographer Pim Top to dream along. The studios mutually inspired each other and explored the concept of animism, the space between inanimate and animate matter, between life and non-life, interrogating modernity and designing within an alternative narrative. An anti-modernist narrative where there is no distinction between culture, technology and nature, between humans and things, between the self and the world. 
The result is a cross-dimensional dialogue between whimsical furniture-like objects and otherworldly images, inviting the viewer to rethink our ongoing entanglement of “being human through things” to rather “being human among things”.

I really liked this furniture. I like how they play with almost childish shapes and colors.

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Prototype: Design Thinking Proces

Prototype

We had to make a prototype of a product which will get you out of your comfort zone. 

Out of my pyramid came that I love to love people, and love to get love from people. That’s why I made a knife for my prototype. It says on one side: “Stab me in the back” and on the other side: “I am going to stab you in te back”

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Comfort & Discomfort

Research 

We had to make a cultural portrait of your comforts/discomforts. They want us to collect and create images / objects that explain this feeling as a cultural manifestation.  They want you to become aware of the cultural constructions within yourself. What is the difference between you and other people? How does this affect the way you, not only experience life but also make certain choices? 

Comfort:

- Watching old cartoons

- I love to go to the market

- Watching old home movies

- A bouquet colourful flowers

- A beautifully set table

- I love talking with people who are more intellegent in a certain field than I am

- When my mother cooks Arabic food

- Paris is one of my favourite cities in the world

Discomfort:

- I hate small spaces because the make me very claustrophobic

- At this age I feel a lot of pressure to succeed. Which is crazy because I am still very young! 

- I don't like crowded places

- When people say they aren’t mad but disappointed 

- Thinking about people in other countries who live in war

- I am very afraid of airplanes because of my fear of heights

- The thoughts of people around me dying and losing them

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Pastiche & Mimicry

Theory

In class we discussed aspects of the theme reproduction. We discussed what the meaning of pastiche is and what the difference was with mimicry and we looked for visuals to define this together.

Pastiche is a form of imitation. If you recreate or combine certain characteristics of one or more originals to make it into something new.

Mimicry means imitation or camouflage. In biological terms, animals use it to adapt to their attacker to save their own lives, like chameleons. There is a reason for doing it. They change their look by adapting to what surrounds them.

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Ways Of Seeing

Theory

Chapter One:

The first chapter is about the original value of art losing itself because of use of modern equipment to replicate it6 and make it a huge number of copies. It says a photograph is still a form of art but as we turn it into photographs, we are decreasing the value of that art. Before the reproduction of this art, the art never needed to be called original as there would be one and only piece of that art-itself.

This reproduction separates the rarity and value of any image or art form and makes it just an object witnessed in people daily life. Reproducing will always create some problem as the uniqueness of the art does not remain the same as there are multiple of same images. Such replication definitely creates a problem in taking the image as an important aspect, even when people go to a museum or take a look at art object the excitement a peace of mind after seeing the art would not be the same, For instance, one can take the example of Mona Lisa’s painting everywhere from bags and T-shirts to one daily equipment, the actual painting will be of no surprise for the person that witnesses it more often. The rarity of art definitely changes and with it also change the actual message the art is trying to provide. The original art always has the reflection of what the painters see and what message the artist wants to deliver to the people.

Chapter Two:

Chapter 2 examines how women are portrayed as object and product. He explains the difference between nude and naked. Berger begins with contemporary images, orienting readers in a world they recognize. Woman are central in every Image in this chapter.

In this chapter, John Berger mainly discussed the subject of women nudity in paintings. He started with explaining how women survey themselves, watch themselves to always be certain that they are reflecting a good image, an image that would appeal to the others whom are surveying them, whom are mostly men. He also says that women’s actions are analyzed, investigated, and labeled, whereas men are regarded as merely actions or reactions.

Chapter Three:

In this chapter, John Berger mainly discussed the subject of women nudity in paintings. He started with explaining how women survey themselves, watch themselves to always be certain that they are reflecting a good image, an image that would appeal to the others whom are surveying them, whom are mostly men. He also says that women’s actions are analyzed, investigated, and labeled, whereas men are regarded as merely actions or reactions.

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3D Typography Installation

Grafic Design

For Grafic Design we got the assignment to make a 3D typographic installation in a public space. We had to communicate a message through a concept, and reach an audience (target group) with the context of your idea’s

I made this Arabic carpet with “Let me be the woman I want to be” on it. Because I don't always have te feeling that I can be myself at home because of my parents culture,  I wanted to screen this carpet on my television at home. I wanted to reach my parents with this message from me.

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Self Portrait

Photography

The self portrait is as old as art itself, due to art’s impossibility to be impersonal. For as long as humans have expressed themselves, self representation in any form has captivated us as viewers. What is a self portrait exactly, and how is it different from any other portrait we see? What role does self representation playing today’s society? To search for answers (or more questions), students will make a series of photographic self portraits. Students will reflect on each of their self portraits, and then continue to make the next one. As a result, students will combine the art and challenge of introspection with the use of photography as a creative tool to express and communicate. By sharing their results, students will test their assumptions on their work with the feedback from their colleagues. In return, by analyzing and commenting on their colleagues’ work, they will be introduced in different ways to look at images, and multiple ways to read them beyond the surface.

Self Portraits Week 1:

Self Portraits Week 2:

Self Portrait Week 3:

Reflection

In the first week I showed my four insecurities: my lips, my teeth, my skin and my dark circles around my eyes. I wanted to show that I am not afraid to show my bad sides because I think every girl got some things that she finds ugly about herself. When I took these pictures, I was not afraid to show them to my classmates and that made me realize that I am not really stepping out of my comfort zone.

In week two I showed the two different sides of my life. A picture with my family where we are all eating together, like almost every night. We always have a fully set table with a lot of Arabic delicious food. My family finds it very important to spend time together. Sometimes it’s hard for me to move my own life and plans away to spend some time with my family.

On the other photo I showed myself after a long night/morning of partying. Two totally different sides of my life. It almost feels like I have another secret life where I totally can be myself and can let everything go. But sometimes it can be very lonely too. In the past I’ve not always got the freedom I wanted because of my culture. I wanted to take avenge of the moments I was ‘free’. I wanted to do the craziest things when I was away because maybe it could be the last time. In these two pictures I wanted to show you the two sides of my life.

In the last week I really wanted to bring me out my comfort zone. I shot myself in traditional Arabic clothes: a niqab. Because I am at the moment not in a really good place with my culture, I wanted to see me fully dressed in a niqab. I totally saw another person and didn’t recognize me. I also find it really interesting to see me like that because I think my parents and the people from my culture want to see me more like that. Maybe not this extreme but a little more involved.

In these three weeks of making self portraits I discovered that I found it hard to really show and focus on the things I am really uncomfortable in, my culture and my background.

I think after these 3 weeks I can easily talk about myself as a person and I am not afraid to show my insecurities. When I started to make pictures of my family and my culture, that was the moment when I got out of my comfort zone. Normally I like to keep that part for myself and don’t wat to share those feelings that I have about my culture with people. The reason I think, is that I am at a age where I want to focus on other stuff and see what’s more in life.

What I learned by stepping out of my comfort zone is that it is ok to show the world different sides of you and that it’s also ok to have a different sides In your life.

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5 Discomfort Scenario’s

Research

Lisa wants us to look at your images and come up with a (cultural) conflict that is visible within them thinking about your feeling of comfort/discomfort. Ask yourself why/what/how/who. Write scenario’s about that.

Scenarios about losing people as my discomfort zone.

Scenario 1:

I can’t sleep.

I think how happy I am with the people around me.

Especially my boyfriend, Roy.

He changed me so much.

In a good way.

What am I going to do when something happens to him?

I think of me speaking at his funeral.

Tears are rolling down my cheeks.

I can’t live without him.

Never.

Scenario 2:

Thinking about death freaks me out.

But why?

Maybe after dying we go to a better place, where everything will be fine.

We don’t know what is going to happen.

So why am I so afraid for the people around me to die.

Scenario 3:

It’s Friday night.

I am at a party.

Someone ask me if I want a shot of vodka.

I immediately said yes!

Why am I not afraid of death when I go party and let everything go?

Alcohol and drugs are the two ways to die.

But somehow, I really don’t care at that moment.

It makes me feel very free.

Scenario 4:

Why am I afraid to lose people?

Maybe people go for a reason?

Maybe I should not be too attached to people.

If I am more independent, the pain will be less.

Scenario 5:

I am very sick.

The doctor says that I have a food poison.

He said that he can’t do anything for me, and I have to wait till it’s over.

I have to puke every 5 minutes.

My body is totally empty, and I feel I can faint any moment.

I have a panic attack because I see no way out.

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A vicious circle

Prototyping

A spiral with Arabic words like god, thankfulness and culture, which I have a love- hate relationship with. These words from my background keep coming back as a vicious circle in my life.

The transparent ball in the middle stands for me who lives in their own bubble and is stuck in a colored net. It is therefore suppressed in the spiral.

قمع = suppression

بنت = girl

ثقافة = culture

صغير = young

إله = god

شاكر = thankfulness

هربت = escaping

حر = free

PROCES

RESULT

When I got the assignment of making an object of what we looked like as a person I immediately knew that I wanted to make something about me and my culture. I wanted to make it very pure and honest. That is the reason why I used wood for the spiral I made. Wood is an organic and pure product. I went to the wood station and lasered the spiral and the Arabic words into the wood. I made a hole in the middle of the spiral so the transparent ball falls into the middle of the spiral. The ball in the middle stands for me who lives in my own bubble all the time. I found the two nets in the supermarket at the fruit section. I picked the green and yellow net around the ball because those two bright colors are always making me happy.

What I learned was that it’s very hard to visualize what you have in mind. Because we only had one week, I had to figure out what was feasible in that time. I really enjoyed learning how to laser wood at the station.

FEEDBACK CLASSMATES

Yellow cards:

-       Arabic roots

-       Trapped

-       Arabic strong religion

-       Unsure about religion

-       Looks fragile but beautiful

-       Like the contrast between the wood color and the yellow and green in the ball

-       Own path

-       In the middle of something

-       Stuck

-       Clean and perfect

-       You follow the path of your ethnicity. What lies at the end of that is unclear for you. It’s hidden. Maybe purposely. Maybe you’re following that path not because you want to but because you have to

-       Sensitive

-       It looks mystic

-       Hypnotizing

-       Elegant

-       The way the green and yellow fabric show in the glass ball makes it mesmerize to look at.

Orange cards:

-       Why these colors?

-       It’s nice that the bubble is transparent but that it’s captured in the net.

-       It is easy to understand the story behind your object

-       Why did you choose these specific materials?

-       I loved the idea of being so open and put together the project with your culture. Also I love the net you used because it’s like it captured inside in your thoughts.

-       Very pretty

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Peter Singer

Philosophy

We had to make a visualisation of the transformation Peter Singer would like to see in the world

According to Singer, some animals, just like people, deserve the designation "person". A person has rights. With this position, Singer inspired animal liberation movements around the world. He is currently active in The Great Ape Project, an initiative to grant primates more rights. Singer defends animals because he cherishes a "left" desire for equality. He wants to stand up for the suffering, whether it is a human or an animal. He does this from his "left Darwinism" and his "utilitarianism". His Darwinism results in a refusal to draw a strict line between nature and culture. His utilitarianism is evidenced by the fact that he wants to measure the value of actions by their consequences. In his eyes, the suffering of humans and animals is therefore an important indicator of failing government policy.