Thursday, December 31, 2009

Final Countdown to 2010


I have to say that I never celebrated New Year's and I think it is stupid...
It is a mindset... one of those games a person plays with oneself... so that we can feel less agitated by the torn out pages of the calendar...
So while the rest of the world... will be counting down tonight... I'll be sleeping warmly in my bed... because tomorrow is just another day...
And I create my own hopes... be it 2009 or 2010...

For those who do celebrate it... enjoy! =)

Wednesday, December 23, 2009

Sculptural Photography

I love it...

more on [Design Boom]

Tuesday, December 15, 2009

Arabi or 3arabi...

These days everyone see to be sharing the video of the Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri... struggling to read through an official address in Arabic to members of the Parliament...

This sad [laughable] situation took me to an incident that happened to me a couple of years ago...
My students were leaving the class and one said that she can't read Arabic so good... and the other laughed and said that she can barely read or write in Arabic... I couldn't help but interfere and ask them whether any of them is not an Arab... of course they both said that they are pure Arabs... so I said: " You shouldn't be proud about the fact that you can't read Arabic... you should be ashamed!! My mum who is not an Arab learned to read on her own... "...
What is very alarming and disturbing to me... is not only the fact that the young generation is being drawn more and more away from the proper knowledge of the Arabic language... and in effect from using it... [Maybe I'm one of those]... but the real alarm is in the fact that this has become something to brag about... a contest among the youth of how knows less Arabic than the other...

What's the real importance of Arabic as a language? Is it culture, identity, race, religion [mum's reason to learn it]? or is it just a shadow that maybe it's time to eliminate....?

Tuesday, November 17, 2009

Gmail is Raheeb...





Google... are you freaking kidding me? =)

Monday, November 16, 2009

It's my feet... It's my shoes

Yesterday I saw a segment of Oprah's show... it was about fashion crimes... and she had her own set of fashion "police" patrolling the city and looking at women who according to their standards were going against the fashion.
The whole idea of fashion and following fashion is so absurd to me... I mean it is just stupid that what was very fashionable 10 years ago is now considered a fashion crime...
Who cares what others should or shouldn't wear?!
Even if they are dressed in a funny way... who would mind a repressed laugh every once a while...

But what got me angry the most is when Oprah's friend started talking about how wrong it is to wear sports shoes to your work!!
Come on... if I have to work for 10 hours... mostly standing on my feet... I will surely place my feet comfort before someone's eyes pleasure... that's why 90% of the time I'm wearing sports shoes to my work...
Mum thinks that my students are probably making fun of my shoes...

We have enough people trying to dictate so many things on us... Fashion crime or not! I don't give a damn...

my feet this morning!

Sunday, November 15, 2009

Hip-Hopping with Violins

In any art form or self expression field [including literature] we have to deal with codes and standards that we are told to respect or even to abide by. But what will happen if we defy those rules? what if we try to break them... not necessarily out of rebellious attitude but maybe of a simple need to experiment.

One of the reasons I love listening to "Nuttin' But Stringz" is due to what they did with the violin. They took the violin out of its comfort zone without abusing it, setting new grounds to how to deal and play the violin. For my ears this is challenging.
One of their pieces "Broken Sorrow" was my musical soundtrack when walking alone in the streets of US... Another piece that I love is "Thunder"... in this piece I can see how the violin is dancing up and down in the street like a crazy spirit running around the city...

Another example of breaking the norms with music is what Nam June Paik did with his TV Cello. In his experiment Paik defied the way a cello is being constructed and consequently played. When Charlotte Moorman played it she said that the sounds being produced are not those of normal cello but of a TV cello! And one time they took another extreme by making Paik himself her cello!!

So what really happens when we defy the rules and standards?
We find new grounds that we were brought up to think they didn't exist. We liberate our minds from worshiping rules that some other people set for us. We interrupt the mainstream and maybe create a new one... or at least we create choices!

Someone once told me that when art seize to be dangerous, it seize to be art!

Tuesday, November 10, 2009

Memory of Walls!

May all the Walls of Injustice... be torn down... for Human Liberation and Equality!









Images of the Apartheid Wall built across Palestine by the Israeli Government.

**All Photos are courtesy of Stop The Wall

Monday, November 09, 2009

Happy 400!

And I continue talking to myself... in the mirror... that seems to reflect more than just my face...

Wednesday, November 04, 2009

Amreeka! Movie Review



A couple of days ago I watched this interesting movie titled "Amreeka" by the Palestinian film maker "Cherien Dabis".
The movie depicts the life of a Palestinian single mother and her son struggle in Palestine and then moving to "The Promised Land" of USA.

=Spoiler Warning!=

The heroin" Muna" played by Nisreen Faour is well depicted. Giving an image of a simple Arab woman who happen to be a single mum and her struggle to support her self and her teenager son while dealing with some self-esteem issues... The character is believable and is probably what touched me the most about the movie.

The scenes shot in Palestine is also very believable. The simplicity of the people there and the way they run their lives is very touching.
Again there is a scene where people came to say goodbye to Muna and her mother starts singing and then dancing is very natural and believable and was a touching scene.

Though I'm half Palestinian myself... I have to say that characters like Muna's mum is strange to me... yet I feel close to... [ maybe in an attempt to belong... ]

The plot in this movie is rather easy and with many things happening that you would expect them to happen...

For example that the heroin of the movie Muna will develop a "relation" with a Jewish man. The message that Palestinians are not against Jews is a very legitimate and maybe important one... but the way it was handled in this movie I felt it was a bit in your face... But maybe Dabis chose to show it from this angle... because it is a very human one.

The final scene in the movie was a bit of a disappointment... But keeping in mind that Dabis is herself an American immigrant makes me understand where she is coming from. But again as being myself not a big fan of America... I have to say that I didn't like the ending. It seemed too expected and cliche'...

The music featured in the movie is very efficient... mostly with Fairuz music giving a real Arab feeling to it... which most Middle Eastern audience will easily relate to.

The Cinematography of the movie is beautifully done. The camera angles are efficient and worth an applause...

On a minor aspect there are some mistakes that were mentioned in the movie... like referring to Palestine as "Palestinian Territory" which I never heard any Palestinian use... Usually in official settings it is "West Bank"... or maybe "Occupied Territory"... but as far as I know Palestinians refer to their country as Palestine.
Another mistake was when Muna said that Palestine has been occupied for 40 years... The movie is set to be in 2003 just around the American invasion of Iraq... so if we count the Israeli occupation from 1948 it should be 55 years or if it is from 1967 it should be 36 years! I personally use the first number!


All in All... This movie is a must see movie... it is a very human and touching movie with a hint of comedy! A good attempt and an applaud-able one by Cherien Dabis...

Tuesday, November 03, 2009

How to Enjoy/ How to Ruin a Good Rain!

How to Enjoy a Good Rain...
:: Find a good walking spot... walk alone... and converse with the trees... their talk is very engaging...
:: Put your iPod on... play your best play list... with a hot mug "the best hot drink you choose" of tea... and look through your window...
:: Find a good walking spot... walk with a good interesting friend... and chat about anything you like...


How to Ruin a Good Rain...
:: Having streets and roads... with floods of water due to bad drainage... either your car, your taxi, your bus or worse Yourself will be splashed and bathed in grayish/brownish cold water!
:: Having panicked people around you... with bad temper and panic attacks as if the rain will cause us a natural disaster and we need to stash bread and supplies for a month ahead...
:: Having grumpy looking people walking by you... cursing the rain... and worshiping the sun which a couple of days ago they were complaining about...


Choose your way! But in any case...

(= HAPPY RAINY SEASON AMMANIS =)

Taken by my iSight cam. at 7:55 a.m. 3.11.09 Jubiha, Amman

Sunday, November 01, 2009

Why I didn't become an architect!

Yesterday I read an article by Orhan Pamuk titled "Why I didn't become an Architect" from his book "Other Colors".
In this article Pamuk starts with a journey he took to one of the underprivileged sites of Istanbul where he walks into buildings that had very different past than their current present. He talks about how people came to live in buildings that were built by outsiders of Istanbul... and he had some interesting insights about who at the end the architecture aims to serve!
From this he take us to a decision he made as a third year student of architecture to drop architecture and change his career to become a writer and a novelist... He describes the difference for him between empty sheets that were waiting for "modernist" architectural designs and between empty sheets that were waiting for "his" words...
He ends his article with more reflections about architecture and the-serving-who dilemma as he walks in the ruins of the aftermath of the earthquake that hit Istanbul in recent years.
Through his personal recollections of his decision... he gave me a better understanding of my own choice to stop practicing architecture...

Later on last night I had an interesting phone call from one of my good friends who happen to be an architect though now she is more of an urban designer.
And I was sharing with her my reading... and I found myself expressing my own reasons of leaving architecture...

Probably the first detachment between me and architecture happened when I was taught history of architecture... through these courses I was somehow taught to appreciate architecture and master pieces through their images. So what was designed to be an experiential space was projected through lenses and prints into a see-and-admire experience. I truly understood the depth of this problem when I had the chance to visit famous buildings while I was at the USA. When I went to see the Guggenheim in NY... I was brought into tears... standing there in the massive lobby gave me an experience which I can't put into words let alone images... I felt something...

My second detachment happened when I couldn't relate the big talks and deep concepts that some of my fellow classmates would come up with... and I forcing my self to see the reflections of these concepts in their designs.. but all in vain... I would be standing bewildered and left to think I'm less than the rest of them... because my concepts were not projected as I wanted into my spaces...

This feeling got even worse when I started meeting up with the big names of Architecture at our Amman... and even worse when I did my internship at the company of one of them....

====
Being myself the daughter of an architect... my father... is the type of architects that you should make a film about... my father embodies the real architect struggle to be an architect in a society dominated by empty concepts or trendy designs... [coming to think of it... I should make a film about my father... just like Nathaniel Kahn did "My Architect"]
My father supported my decision of leaving architecture behind... though I know that he is much in love with architecture... for him... architecture is creating a place where a person can feel... that is the only concept my father ever followed in any of his designs... His style of architecture has changed according to time, place and his own maturity... maybe one of these days I should blog about his work...
====


But now back to me and my reasons of leaving architecture...
I stopped at the big talk of the big names... as I said... after working for one of them... I realized that architecture as it is being used is not in harmony with who we were and who we aim to serve...

After that... I graduated and joined the working force... I began to read for Rem Koolhaas... the more I worked... the more I read... the more a nagging voice inside of me got louder...

Until the day I decided to liberate myself... from "... the obligation to construct..."

I turned all my creative abilities... all the crazy concepts and ideas that were rattling inside of my head into different media which for me made sense.... and felt more natural...

Now, I don't feel any need to be pretentious... to add any glamor to my products... I express myself... and I don't do that to serve anyone... yet somehow I'm serving more now than I ever did... or thought I would...

The way I see it... The problem with architecture is that it is used to glorify the architect's mind and visual abilities... or maybe as Pamuk said to serve his/her imagination...

Architecture as I was taught and seen practiced is creating empty spaces... and for that reason I left architecture....

Monday, October 26, 2009

Through my sister's eyes!

These are photos taken by my lovely sister Aicha while strolling around her new territory as a freshman at JU.... The naming is hers too...
Brilliant Aichoka... =)

Through It All

Fun Under The Sun

Down To Earth

Colorful

A Day's Shot


My favorite one is the cat under the sun... what about you?

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Stand In LINE!

It has been a common scene for me... to be standing waiting for a taxi in the Ammani morning rush... finding other waiting as well... I try my best to make sure that those who were there before me... get in a taxi before me... I form a hidden line and wait until my turn comes to grab a taxi... and sometimes the waiting goes for too long!
But then... out of no where... a young lady swaying with her high heels break the line... stretch out her nail polished arm and grab a taxi.. and for some reason... she gets a taxi... And as she goes into the taxi... I imagine myself... going after her... pulling her out of the taxi from her "bil5wa" straightened hair and yelling "STAND IN LINE WOMAN"...
But as I laugh inside myself... I breath in... I breath out... and keep on waiting in my own made line[s]....

GOOD MORNING AMMAN!

Monday, October 19, 2009

The Promised Land : 1

As the plane was landing on the lands so far away from everything I grew up around, I had an ecstatic feeling... this is it... the mighty USA... the promised land... this is it... the country whose capitalistic ideals I'm against... this is it... the real experience that I worked very hard to attain...
I'm there... away from my family and from everything comfortable... starting a journey with 20 other strangers...
At some points it felt as if I'm stepping into my TV screen... where all the scenes that I used to see are becoming alive with one addition... me within...
At some points all my prejudices have been proven right... where I was confronted with consumerism... the American arrogance and disdain toward the rest of the world...
And sometimes I met people who have high social conscious... and in rare cases interest in what is going outside the US.
I have seen Architecture that I long time past learned about... and finally I fully understood what is the meaning of architecture that changes people... and create spaces...
I have seen famous art pieces that I read and seen in books and the Internet... some of these pieces brought me to tears...

I was the odd one out with my veil... which made me question basis of my faith... and challenge my own set of beliefs... and I met people who made it even harder... and some who made it more challenging... =P

I went back to the home within me so many times... I can't describe what it feels to be home again...

I have changed and grown during the three weeks I spent scampering USA from East to West visiting 6 states and 7 cities... being in transit all the time... waiting and wondering what will come next... it was a very enjoyable time...


So... now... after I'm back in Amman... to my family and my work... my self is still in transit as always... as ever...

I'll be blogging in more details about these three weeks under this ironic name of "The Promised Land" which one of my friends I made during this trip used to mock the US...

Keep coming back... I have some good stuff and good photos to share...

Wednesday, September 09, 2009

09-09-09

“How do you pick up the threads of an old life? How do you go on, when in your heart you begin to understand there is no going back. There are some things that time can not mend. Some hurts that go too deep... that have taken hold.” The Lord of the Rings Movie...

Monday, September 07, 2009

On Tawjihi and edu stuff...

I've been trying to avoid writing about Tawjihi... well because a lot of people already did... though I have a sister who was tawjihi this year...
But when the Universities acceptances came out... and my sister who scored well enough at Tawjihi didn't manage to get accepted into a major I know she can easily and passionately excel at... I felt that... enough is enough...
Let me start by establishing this fact... Tawjihi is a rotten old-fashioned system!!
Yes I'll be bold enough to stand by this self-professed fact...
First flaw in the system is the selection of subjects that students have to study during this one year... it depends mainly on which stream you are following... if you are in the scientific stream then you have to study; Maths, Physics, Chemistry, Biology and Geology. Regardless of what you plan to study at the University later on... and of course you have other courses that you share with almost all tawjihi streams which are; Islamic Education (barley deserving the title), Arabic language, English language, Computer skills and General Culture (whatever that means)... again this has no direct relation to what you plan to study later on...
Second flaw is the boring books... don't be misled by the new colorful design and improved layout (though it is one right step taken toward improvement)... the content is as boring as ever.... the amount of information contained is huge and most of the information will be forgotten one month after the exams end since they are not needed in real life...
Third flaw is the grounded teachers' mentality of how to study properly for the Tawjihi exams... which is memorizing the books as hard as possible and sticking by them, taking everything in them as facts... the less you question what you are taught as universal facts... the better you'll score...

Enough ranting about Tawjihi... and let us proceed to another tragedy... applying for universities...
Students are being accepted according to how they scored on all the subjects they studied... let us give this example...
Student A... scored the best in Physics and Geology and not so good in Biology and Chemistry... but his total score is high enough to apply for the Medicine school... since from these four subjects only the highest two will be used to calculate the final tawjihi grade...
Student B... scored much better than student A in Biology and Chemistry... but his total score is lower by a few points from student A...

If students A and B have no real clue to what are the different specialties and career paths offered at the universities mean like most public schools graduates... they'll both apply for the Medicine school... Student A because he scored high enough... and student B because he wants to be a doctor...
The results are out and guess what... ! Student A is accepted... student B is not!!!
Which do you think of the two is more eligible?

Tawjihi by no means is the best indicator of how students should be accepted at universities...

The implication of this wrong placement of students is more dangerous than just being placed in the wrong major... and moan about it...
just imagine all the people that graduated and started working in a job that they don't really like... or not passionate about... jobs that are done mechanically...
and imagine all the frustrated people that didn't get a chance to study what they want... and continued resentfully in a career they loath...

Imagine these people ten years... twenty years from now... imagine all that... that's Jordan now...

So what's the solution?
Maybe we should take some successful case studies from the world... and try to learn and apply according to our needs...

Tawjihi should be thrown into the recycle bin before we lose more generations....
That's step one...

Step two should be educating students from much earlier ages about the different career paths... let them learn what does it mean to be a physician... an architect... a philosopher... a teacher... and a trained actor...

Step three should be educate the educators about how to engage students mentally and physically with what they learn...

Step four should be using placement exams when applying to universities... this whole how high you scored at tawjihi is a rubbishy indicator....

If we are to build a better country... if we are to compete with the rest of the world... re-inventing our educational system is a MUST!

I hope someone will listen... and take some real actions...


Another educational problem we have is the equal opportunities standards used in public universities...

..... to be continued...

Wednesday, August 26, 2009

You have your religion and I have mine...

There is a person I come to know at work that I've been told that refuses to hire girls if they wear the veil. For this person wearing the veil is equal to close mindedness or maybe a sign of oppression or backwardness. On the other hand there is another person who was a potential employer of me... but when he told me that I fit in his company because I'm wearing the veil... I immediately declined the job offer.
In the society you'll find people with and people against...
Now some people who are fasting the month of Ramadan condemn those who don't [referring only to Muslims]... And the other way around...

I'm reading in the-now-popular-book [A New Earth]... - which I don't fully agree with the author's views- and the author says that for a human to feel right he/she has to make someone else wrong. And he says that this is the act of the Ego which we should get rid of. He says that we should accept that there is the Ultimate Truth but we shouldn't claim it as our own... or as our own only... that all religions are equally right and equally wrong...

Putting these ideas next to my earlier observations... I wondered what is the stand to be taken by myself as an individual who believe in what she thinks, does and acts upon...

Then I remembered one of the early Chapters of Quran that we learnt in primary school... it is Chapter 109. This Chapter includes an order from God to Prophet Mohammed as to how he should address those who disbelieve-in God, His Oneness, His Messengers, His Angles, His Books and the Day of Judgment-. God told Mohammed PBUH that he should tell them that he doesn't worship what they worship nor do they worship what he worships... and the bottom line is that [You have your religion and I have mine]...

In this statement you don't condemn the other... you identify them as being different than you and maybe against your own beliefs... but still you grant them their way and grant yourself your way...

This is such a great concept -when used properly-... because you don't decline yourself or I dare say your ego the belief of being right and still you don't hate/discriminate others for being "according to you" on the wrong... You just want each party to be and choose whatever way they want.

I think that any person who chooses to believe or disbelieve in anything does that on a strong conviction. And for that reason their whole being, way of life and ideologies become based on that core belief. And if you think that what you believe is right... then by logic what goes completely against it is wrong.
Having said that I don't think that for everything in life there is only one way of doing things or of thinking about thaem... and for those types of things there can be many rights and many wrongs...
Also the criteria to deal with people on a day to day basis should'nt be in refernece to what they believe in... - or in some cases only in reference to that... -

To sum it up... I think that my stand will be simply to let other people have their own way... and expect from them to let me have mine...
What I believe in, think about, and act upon is Mine...
What you believe in, think about and act upon is Yours...

There is plenty of room on this Earth to all of us...

Friday, August 21, 2009

I know your face...

From among the crowds I can still spot you...
They can mask you... they can put jingles and bells on you... dress you like a clown...
They can hide you behind all the phony make-up and put you up for sale...
But.... I know you...
Your scent is in the air... filling my lungs with dreams and hopes...

You shine through... And I'm happy that I can still see you for who you are...

I know your face...

Ramadan Kareem... to all...

Friday, July 31, 2009

Me Touch | Techno me



This art piece is part of an art project I have done titled [Techno Me]...
In all my works for this project I focused more on the process of creating a piece... with the minimum computer post production effects and manipulations...

This piece highlights how intimate we became with technological devices... how we are allowing none animated substances to become closer to us...
The paradox between how these plastic and metal objects are near to our faces... hands... fingertips... and the empty hand waiting for something else to touch and feel...

The music used is composed by my good friend and ex-student Tareq Abu Rahmah....

Also:
:: Me Talk
:: Me Love
:: Me Win
:: Me Face
:: Me Paint

Sunday, July 19, 2009

Crude experimentation

Yesterday I tried to experiment with photoshop on some of my photos... just to see how can I force myself to see some hidden realities within the images I once saw normally...
And here is what I got...

Experimenting with my nephew and niece...



Experimenting with Amman...







Experimenting with Nature...

Monday, July 13, 2009

Me Paint | Techno Me



This art piece is part of an art project I have done titled [Techno Me]...
In all my works for this project I focused more on the process of creating a piece... with the minimum computer post production effects and manipulations...

In [Me Paint] I experimented with how can I use the digital signal... to paint.
Using the basic old trick of making the camera signal feeds itself back into a projection machine. In my case my laptop screen... the rest is done by chance...
The first part of the piece was also created by chance... I was trying to videotape a ceiling mounted projector the one used in schools... and I accidentally touched its cable connected to my laptop... and so the color started changing... I was there... and played more with that...

This piece raises the issue of the new aesthetic of digital art... and plays on a new dimension of abstraction... where the nonsense can starting making sense when we project ourselves and our thoughts onto it...

The music used is composed by my good friend and ex-student Tareq Abu Rahmah....

Also:
:: Me Talk
:: Me Love
:: Me Win
:: Me Face

Sunday, July 12, 2009

The Narratives* | 23

23
She was trying to walk through the darkness...
Shadows roaming around her...
Fearless... and afraid...

He took her hand... and walked next to her...

But soon enough.... he couldn't continue anymore...

He blamed it on the night...
And she on his blindess...

She walks alone...


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

Saturday, June 27, 2009

وعد رجال

معاذ ابن اختي يبلغ من العمر ثلاث سنوات... ما زال يهرب بالليل من غرفته المعتمة الى سرير والديه... و في إحدى محاولات والده لاقناعه بالبقاء في غرفته جرى بينهما الحديث التالي...
أبو معاذ: ازا بتوعدني وعد رجال انك راح تضل نايم في غرفتك هلأ بعملك صحن نودلز.
معاذ: طيب
أبو معاذ: وعد رجال؟
معاذ: اه...
و هكذا ذهب الجميع للنوم ليلا....بعد ان اؤكل النودلز... و لكن لم يمض وقت طويل قبل ان يرجع معاذ الى سرير والديه فما كان من والده الى أن قال: بس انتا وعدتني وعد رجال...
!و جاء رد معاذ بكل براءة: بس انا لسه ولد صغير

!!!و في القصة عبرة لمن يعتبر

Sunday, June 21, 2009

[My Name is Red]

I just finished reading a novel titled "My Name is Red" by Orhan Pamuk.
Whenever I read a novel I think about three things; the plot, the philosophy or hidden meanings and the literary style.
In this novel the plot is OK... it has its twists and turns but at the end it hits you as another plot that you must've read somewhere else.
As for the philosophy and meanings... the novel tackles a lot of the issues related to art and Islam... especially at the time where the Islamic civilization was being challenged with other strong nearby civilizations.
I didn't like many things of how they portrayed the Muslims... but I'm not in a position to judge the credibility of such stories.
I felt that the author was more inclined toward the figurative representation in the "Frankish" Art as apposed to the abstraction in the Islamic Art.
I know that at that time the Islamic Art was containing drawings and paintings of human figures. I'm not going to enter a discussion regarding whether it is permissible or not... for me honestly I can't see a problem in figurative art. However, as it is right now, abstraction give more meaning to any piece of art since it gives the viewer the empty space to complete the meaning behind the piece.

As for the literary style of the novel... here where the novel caught my attention. And for this reason I do recommend you to read the novel. You'll get exposed to a new way of writing.
The novel is comprised of chapters. Each chapter starts with [I...]... and in each chapter, a character from the story becomes the narrator of that chapter.
The characters were as weird as Satan, a dog, a tree, a murderer, a woman, and the color red.
As described on the back of the novel... it is a kaleidoscopic experience.
It allows you to live the story not from one single point of view but from different ones. In a way you are inside each of these characters and yet you know what others think... giving you a sort of an upper eye... sort of a god view... if you know what I mean...
This point has been discussed in the novel since a debate between artists arise as how they should represent life... through the eyes of God or through the eyes of humans... and it is an interesting insight to Islamic Art....

All in all... it was a good read... and it is worth saying that the author Orhan Pamuk is a Nobel Prize winner in Literature.

I would say that this novel is a must read for Art students ...

And here is an excerpt from the chapter titled [I am red]...
[[Color is the touch of the eye, music to the deaf, a word out of the darkness. Because I’ve listened to souls whispering – like the susurrus of the wind- from book to book and object to object for tens of thousands of years, allow me to say that my touch resembles the touch of angles. Part of me, the serious half, calls out to your vision while the mirthful half soars through the air with your glances.
I’m so fortunate to be red! I’m fiery. I’m strong. I know men take notice of me and that I cannot be resisted.
I do not conceal myself: for me, delicacy manifests itself neither in weakness nor in subtlety, but through determination and will.]]

Friday, June 12, 2009

Brands attack!


Thanks to my sister Sophie for sharing...

Thursday, June 04, 2009

me face | Techno me




This art piece is part of an art project I have done titled [Techno Me]...
In all my works for this project I focused more on the process of creating a piece... with the minimum computer post production effects and manipulations...

[Me face] deals with the similarity of emoticons versus the endless variety of human faces and sound gestures...

In this piece I put my skills of photography into practice. Some people found this piece too long. For me I depended on the chances of good photos I had and put them into use with no real hidden reasons of the number of slides...

This piece put into question the idea of completing the true face behind each =), =?. =/ we deal with every day...

Also:
:: Me Talk
:: Me Love
:: Me Win

Monday, June 01, 2009

Untitled

Last week I’ve been in a car accident…
As I was going home with my dad after a exhausting day at work… and just about we were taking our last turn to reach home… I remember I was smiling at something that happened to me… and BANG… a taxi came speeding and crashed into our car… from my side…
I would spare you all the details of the moment of collision which till now I don’t understand how it seems much longer than it was… and how clearly I remember everything….

As I was leaving the car on my feet… though tremendously horrified… I could hear a small voice in me giggling that I have survived what could’ve been fatal…

I don’t understand all the meanings of these two concepts [life and death]… which of these two make us more appreciative of the other…

Amidst my confusions I can’t but thank God for His endless Grace which at moments like these we feel the most…

Wednesday, May 20, 2009

The Narratives* | 22

22

I can see her shadow... moving behind the curtains...
She can't see me... I hide between the trees...

She moves about her life... never looking through her window...

I sallow my tears and fears but never my pride...

And yet another night with me staring at her shadow...
she in the light... and me in the dark...

The unseen mistakenly assumed nonexistent...

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

Monday, May 18, 2009

The Sin of Being Strong!

I don't believe in narcotics or drugs...
I don't believe in any substance that can numb your senses and gives you short-term relief...

I don't like ostrich's act of hiding its head in the ground... thinking that if it can't see the danger... then it doesn't exist...

I don't have an easy life... I can give you 50 really good reasons why I should crumble and cry till I die... why I shouldn't leave my bed in the morning...

But I do... I live my life... I struggle daily... I only have my mind... [A human mind is much stronger than anything else... you can't fight what is inside your mind...]

I live... I believe... I think and I hope...

I do it for myself... and myself alone...

I just wish you have more respect towards me than to treat me as a sinner...

Friday, May 15, 2009

Palestine!

" فلسطين... فلسطين... فلسطين عربية
فلسطين... فلسطين... من الميه للميه "

The same songs and chants continue...
The same prayers and candles continue...
The same talks and fancy words continue...

The same story continues...

Till when...?
What are the free people of the world waiting for, to stop the biggest shame of the modern human civilization?


.................

Hang on Palestine...

Friday, May 08, 2009

The Looking Glass Room!

Inspired by Alice's conversation with her Kitten about the Looking Glass house... I gave my interior architecture students a chance to become Alice...
I gave my students three famous living rooms; one in Villa Savoye by Le Courbsier, another in Vanna Venturi House by Robert Venturi and the last in Budenburgh Haus by Foster and Partners.
After analyzing the given room and the general house where it is located, each student became Alice and had to walk through the Looking Glass into the adjacent room to the one given.
The function, size and character of the room was to be designed according to a story that students had to come about the current client of the house. Students had to be fantastical in their approach by means of exaggeration, apposing statements, or augmentation of reality.

As presentation means I asked my students to learn and apply water coloring techniques... and to make it a bit easy on them I didn't ask for a model.

The results were pretty good in general... the concepts were a bit direct, though some students did embrace the project completely...
As for the application, students showed a deeper level of maturity as interior architects. They paid more attention to details.
I didn't ask them to design their furniture but if they picked a piece of furniture they had to explain why...
One point that were given to me by the Jurors was why students didn't think of how their new imposed rooms would've changed the overall character of the existing houses. [Thanks to Arch. Hazem Turk and Arch. Lana Tahboub from CC for being great jurors]

And here are the students works:
= Villa Savoye
:: Mudaffar Ma'aitah
In his room, Muddafar had a man and his wife with two hobbies; fencing and dancing. He created a space that is cut into two halves with two different characters. Masculine vs Feminine... These two sports depend highly on footwork so Mudaffar made the union between the man and woman be in a one unified flooring. His concept is strong. But his implementation lacked the extra step that would have made it a real bold statement.




= Vanna Venturi House
:: The Black Hole | Amina Sh. Hassan
Amina said that Mrs. Venturi is kleptomaniac. So behind her innocent look she had a secrete life. So Amina designed a normal looking living room that works perfectly with the rest of the house but behind or inside the room there are secret nooks where Mrs. Venturi hides her stolen stuff. Amina played it smart by creating a safe design with this tiny twist to everything. Amina had the best water color presentation among her group. I still think that Amina could've gone wilder in implementing the two opposing sides of the room.





:: Vintage Modernism | Ridab Soudani
Ridab had the most challenging concept. She was playing around the concept of post modernism as rejecting modernism and accepting historical references and modernism rejecting history and accepting functionalism. To apply that she picked famous modern furniture and imposed history on them by using old rustic materials and in some cases stripping them from their functionality. Ridab's implementation didn't take its full extent to produce a mature end result. Though the project hold high potentials for example in the giant art piece that featured Mies Van der Rohe's chair in rusted cooper.. The room lacked a good functional layout with furniture lacking to complete the identity of the room.





:: Sara Khatib
Sara had the story of Mrs. Venturi being an illusionist. Sara started playing well with the idea of creating illusions out of her space but as she went into the details somethings were out of tune.
Sara chose to build her room on top of an existing room and create a hidden stairs that take the client up to that room. The geometry of the room was trapezoidal. Sara picked some interesting pieces of furniture but in general the room lacked the functional appeal in terms of furniture layout.




= Budenberg Haus
:: The Chamber| Dalia Muslih
Dalia created a room on top of the existing room as well. But the function was different. She created a workshop studio for her ship maker client. But the client wanted a bathtub next to his working area where he can relax and have a view at the canal in front of the complex. Dalia had a smooth design development though still her design didn't reach its climax.




:: The Poseidon Room | Ruba Yaghmour
Ruba chose to design a bedroom. Her focus point in the bedroom was a hanging aquarium that was partly inside the room and partly outside it. Ruba played around the relations between in-in and in-out. She created a narrative that starts with a sliding door that connects the bedroom with the living room and then the hanging aquarium which is a reminder of the canal outside and then the window wall that connects the inside intimacy of the room with the outside scenery.
Ruba had a simple but a concise concept and that served her well in implementing it.





:: Shadia Jaber
Shadia also designed a bedroom. But driven by the apple trees she played around notions of seduction, temptation and intimacy. She created a narrative corridor that led to her room. She used mirrors to create the illusion of unfolding the space gradually as you walk to the room. She had an idea of designing an apple tree chandelier but she didn't manage to design a visually appealing one.
Her design is bold in concept but still shows timidity in application.





:: Interior Architecture First Project

:: Originally at SABE Reconnaissance

On a Friday afternoon....

And once again with water coloring experimentation...

Wednesday, May 06, 2009

Asking it to last...

"How enduring, how we need durability... The sky before sunrise is soaked with light... Rosy colour tints buildings, bridges, and the Seine.... I was here when she with whom I walk wasn't born yet, and the cities on a distant plain stood intact, before they rose in the air with the dust of sepulchral brick, and the people who lived there didn't know. Only this moment, at dawn, is real to me.... The bygone lives are like my own past life, uncertain. I cast a spell on the city, asking it to last...." In Twilight by Czeslaw Milosz



Listen to Shadow Journal by Max Richter...

Monday, May 04, 2009

me win | Techno me




This art piece is part of an art project I have done titled [Techno Me]...
In all my works for this project I focused more on the process of creating a piece... with the minimum computer post production effects and manipulations...

[Me win] mocks how can a message on the screen boost the human self esteem...

In this piece I use blank screen with only the sound of clicks then followed by a shot of the famous ending of [spider solitaire] computer game. Which is an obvious blinking message of [you win!]
In the background the sound of clicks is substituted with the sound of a human deep breathing.

In this work... I wanted to play around the fake sense of achievement aroused inside the person just by finishing a given task and being rewarded for it...

This piece is the oldest idea I had in my mind... many years ago...

Also:
:: Me Talk
:: Me Love

Wednesday, April 29, 2009

My photographer sister...

At the beginning of this year... Children Museum Jordan made a photographing contest... with three age groups and three different subjects...
The exhibition was on Thursday... and the results were beyond anything...
Children never stop of astonishing me and blowing my mind away with their creativity...

But guess who won the first prize for the eldest group?... Yeah no one but my very creative lil sister Sophie... Who as always never stop astonishing me with her creativity and eagerness to be a better artist...

So Congratulation my sweet sister... you surely deserve it...


[winning picture]