Ramadan Kareem*

Ramadan Kareem to all of you who follow it...
May during this month we all become better human beings...
May God bless us all with His infinite love, mercy, light, peace and blessings..

رمضان مبارك للجميع اللهم أهله علينا بالأمن و الإيمان و السلامة و الإسلام
تقبل الله طاعتكم جميعا



* Tomorrow is the first day of the holy month of Ramadan in Jordan... it may vary from one country to another...

Now it's Italy's...

Six months ago... Australian government said sorry.... and yesterday Italy said that too...
In a precedent, Italian government said sorry to Libya [ a former colony]. But not only that Italy has vowed to pay $5bn to Libya. Furthermore a headless statue of Venus was returned as well...
It's arguable whether saying sorry after years of aggression and destruction is ever enough... but certainly it is a good gesture and is very welcomed...
Of course Italy can afford saying sorry because it only invaded one country which is Libya...
Whereas countries like Britain, France and USA has [still] occupied many countries... so saying sorry won't be that easy.
The worst part of it is nowadays we see occupation as a favor done to the occupied... aggression is named justice... and war is named freedom...

Anyways... though I'm not a Libyan... I thank Italy for this... and again hope that one day... history will find a way to give people all their natural human rights back...

Embrace...

[...They are huge... high... kissing the sky... and escaping the force of earth... one day... I want to be a mountain...] long time past from my dairy!

On hospitals and banks...

If only bank tellers would work as nurses or hospital tellers... and if only hospital tellers and nurses could work as bank tellers...

Maybe then I can feel less agitated and more comfortable and happy going to these two most hated institutes...

Somethings about the sea!

The Narratives* | 16

16

The Sun don't say farwell...
The Moon knows...
The Moon understands...

That's why The Moon reflects the light of The Sun...

He knows she is in love with him...
He knows that her light is the way she shows it...

Those who live down on the earth see them as the impossible two who can't be together...

But in the freedom of the Universe and the openness of the Heavens...

They are together since ever and for ever...

* The Narratives: stories, events, and scenes that happen[ed] inside and around my head…

رمضان يجمعنا !

ها قد بدأت الحملات المتنوعة لشهر رمضان, سواء كانت دعايات ترويجية لمحلات المأكولات أو المطاعم أو منتجات غذائية و غيرها. و بدأت حرب بين المسلسات "الرمضانية" من اجتماعية الى تاريخية الى هزلية. و البارحة تم اعلان رسمي عن تقصير ساعات الدوام في المؤسسات الحكومية خلال شهر رمضان.

كل هذا استفزني للتفكير في حقيقة الشهر و غيابها عن العقل المسلم الحالي. رغم انني لا أجد مشكلة عندما تتحول عادة او طقس ديني الى جزء من الموروث الثقافي لاي شعب من الشعوب لا انني اجد صعوبة في تقبل فكرة تحويل بل و قلب المفهوم الاساسي لذلك الطقس.

من خلال فهمي لصوم شهر رمضان أجد معان متضاربة بين المقصود و بين المعمول. فمثلا هذا الشهر يدعو الى رفع الهمم و زيادة النشاط و لكن ما نجده هو مزيد من الكسل.

و كثيرا ما تسمع عبارة " أنا تعبان! الدنيا رمضان" و هذا ليس بمبرر. لست افهم الغرض من تقصير الدوام لهذا الحد خاصة ان هذا الرمضان سيكون آذان المغرب بعد الساعة السابعة مثلا في عمان.

مرة أخرى أرى ان شهر رمضان هو الشهر الذي يعمل العقل فيه بشكل كبير. فيصبح العقل هو المسيطر على سائر الجسد. فلا تستجيب لرغبات الجسد من حاجة الى طعام أو شرب أو شهوة. و لا تستجيب لحاجات نفسية بل عقلك يقرر أنه لن يفعل كذا و كذا بل سيستجيب لما يمليه العقل. و انا أجد في هذا تمرين يروض النفس و الجسد و يرقي العقل و الروح.

رمضان من شانه ان يجمعنا و لكن ليس امام التلفزيون و تحت أسقف الخيم الرمضانية و لكن يجمعنا بالمجتمع الذي نعيش فيه. يجمعنا مع العالم و مشاكله.فلماذا لا نطور عقولنا؟ لماذا لا نطرح اسئلة تهم واقعنا كبشر على أرض تتداعى بفعلنا؟

رمضان يجمعنا مع ذاتنا الافضل , مع حقيقتنا البشرية , مع نفخة الروح التي جعلت من جسدنا انسان. رمضان فرصة لتجديد مفهوم اجتماعنا مع نافخ الروح و خالق الارض و معلم الانسان.

اتمنى لو أن كل واحد منا جلس و فكر فيما سيعنيه له رمضان. عن ماذا سيكون صومه هذه السنة! و بمن سيجمعه رمضان....

و عسى ان يجمعنا رمضان!

300

This is my 300th post!
Happy blogging myself!

experimental | Take 2

And here is the video of the event I previously talked about...

experimental | Take 1

Despite the lack of large audience, the limited space and the few equipments available the show went out very well...
I'll explain the projects here though I will not pass my own judgment on the pieces. Soon I'll be uploading a video of the show.

Behind the Walls | Dina Khayyat


Dina dealt with the issue of violence and how it can cause harm to the human being. She has used two videos. One was projected in a corner; this video had a woman sitting in a dim setting with newspapers cladding the wall behind her... the woman repeats the word "violence" over and over... and there are other images inter-cutting her image. The second video is a slide show of personal snapshot images of her and her friends in a happy shiny situations. The second video is projected on the ceiling just above the corner. Dina emphasized that though she used herself [a woman] in the video she wasn't referring to domestic violence or women beating in particular.


Killing Me | Laura Nofal


Laura had two videos as well one was projected in a small size of a man sitting and going through intensive display of emotions. A sound track taken from the Pop song [Killing me softly] is repeating through out the video. On the other wall there is a projection of the same man sitting and doing nothing, staring at nothing and saying nothing. Then the first video stop and in the second one the man says [It's killing me]. What Laura was trying to show is the two different ways of expressing emotions between being excessive or passive.
For me I was thinking of how nowadays with all the troubles we have around us. People seems to take either one of these two sides and in both cases it is killing them.


A Piece of A Piece | Hanada Khatybeh


This piece is interactive in its nature. Hanada was working with the same mindset of Nam June PAik's meditative works like "TV Buddha". So what she did was having one projector projecting a video of a projector. It looks like the projector is looking in the mirror. And just next to it she had a seat with a web cam in front so a viewer would come sit and see his/her projection in front of him as well. She had thought that people would be sitting in a more contemplative mood but what happened is that most of the audience started playing around in front of the cam. Which gave the work another meaning.


Roller Coaster | Dana Qabani


This is a video art piece dedicated to people who suffer from Tourette Syndrome. Dana's work look more like digital art since she made abstract animation that translated some of the phases that patients of Tourette Syndrome suffer from.


Mediatate | Dina Ridwan


This video art dealt with the issue of consumerism and how it is the new religion of our times. So the video depict the artist doing some yoga and meditation while repeating names of famous brands as she breath in and out.

CRT | Hiba Abdallat


This is an experimental visual video. The video starts with Hiba drawing the basic shapes of Circle, Rectangle and Triangle and then she plays a fast show of her own photography that contain these shapes while confusing the viewer by saying the wrong name of the seen shape.

A Box | Aml Serhan


This video try to confuse the viewer by stating that the viewer is actually being watched by the man they see int he video who is sitting, staring at them while munching on some snacks. We hear two people having a conversation as to who is inside the box.

experimental | art exhibition

You are cordially invited to the above exhibition of my students work for a course I have given them titled [Digital Art and Installation Art].
The exhibition will be held at JU, IT building, 1st floor, Design Studio.
The exhibition will run from 10.00-12.30 tomorrow...
The exhibition will feature the following art pieces:
:: Behind the Walls | Dina Khayyat
:: Killing Me | Laura Nofal
:: A Piece of A Piece | Hanada Khatybeh
:: Rollercoaster | Dana Qabani
:: Mediatating | Dina Ridwan
:: A Box | Aml Serhan

Looking forward to seeing you there...

Design your own room | Take 2

My course at CMJ has ended... and it was an interesting chance to learn from children... as I walked them through the process of designing their own rooms...

Image courtesy Children Museum Jordan | Photography by: Zeina Saket

To "Noor" or not to "Noor"...

I've been observing the media frenzy around the two Turkish soap operas now presented on MBC channels. The top of it was last night's show of "The Opposite Direction" on Aljazeera.
A lot has been said and discussed about these two shows... some of which are quite interesting... my own take about this... is that we are missing the main problem... and that is... the only reason these two shows have become a phenomena is the mass...
People went crazy about these two shows... and we should analyze carefully why before we blame anyone or condom any culture...

Turkey is a country that went through some drastic changes in the ladder of "Westernization"... and though a Muslim country they have a different cultural structure and ethics than the neighboring ME countries... We can't judge their values because they are irrelevant to ours... and we can't compare ourselves to them...

Having said that TV series are not always an honest mirror of the real situation in life...
Look at any Egyptian series or movie... Egypt is a country dominated largely by Hijabi girls... how many do you see of them on TV shows?

MBC is a media based corporate... which means they only care about the MONEY... whatever brings more viewing rates... they put it on... and they encourage people becoming crazy about it... again... they only care about the money... like all other TV channel... are they part of some grand conspiracy to demoralize our youth? =?

Now the people... and here I must confess that I do believe that the Arab world and the Arabic 'traditional' culture is festering from inside...
Yesterday the presenter of "The Opposite Direction" said something which I found so true about globalization... he said that it is one of the biggest lies of our times... and it is only a one way globalization... that what happens is our Arab countries are taking all the Western culture without them taking anything from ours...
I agree with that... and I think that we still have things to offer to the world in general but what happens is that nowadays we feel so empty and numb that we are ready to take anything...
For me the real problem with Noor or any other show put on TV... is the simple fact that it becomes a tool to serve what I think is the biggest crusade of our times... which is [depriving people the freedom of thinking]...
Now people are debating whether to watch these shows or not... they are between two poles... the extreme approach of banning it and condemning the Turks... or continue watching it blindly searching for role models or fantasies...
The fact that the Arab youth are creating icons or idols from fictitious characters is very dangerous when we take them as perfect human beings that we wish to imitate...
I don't believe in role models... and I hate imitation...
I can't see any problem in watching TV... the problem becomes when the people have empty vessels inside their heads and they are not [THINKING] and making conscious choices...
Noor or others are just a side effect of what the real problem is...
We should work on the mass level... expand the minds of people not to accept what is being presented or modernized but to [think]... for themselves... to have clear stands about everything around them... in that case... even if they watch a hundred prettier women having abortion they will still have their own thought about abortion...

We should stop crying out for better shows or for cleaner media... Media is just a response to the masses... we should start changing ourselves and fixing our own cultural faults...

A human is the sole savior of her/his own self...

Solitary

i









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