Full Moon of Ramadan

The Narratives* | 17

17

[] The birds flying in the sky can't understand why birds in cages can't fly with them...

[] The summer breeze can shake a willow's heart... but it can't take it out of its grounds...

[] The turtle stood away wondering how come the rabbit asked it for a stroll together if the rabbit is so busy running and hopping around...

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

Jordan University Farwell | Take 2

image by PipThePony | Flickr

The building that will be missed the most from JU... is definitely the Main Library...
The building is a typical early modern architecture with its free facade. It is built with red Granite.

The Library has a great and large selection of books and unlike the believed amongst students that it is out of date... IT IS NOT... if anyone took the trouble to search they would have found that...
Also in the past two years they have added the self-service book borrowing system where you don't have to wait in line for a desk clerk to help you... you can do everything alone... also the searching engine for books are done online and at the comfort of your own home... another thing is the e-library which gives you access to many e-books and journals and you have access to SpringerLink as well...

~~~
In the library I felt safe... more like visiting my sanctuary... the spooky aisles filled with dust books... the smell penetrates your nostrils making you a bit high...
~~~

I remember I had a practice of going to the library walking randomly and then pick any book and read it... by doing that... I got to know Emily Dickinson... and understand more about Sufism...

I'll miss the library and all the wonders it offered me...
Though they have a system for people outside the University to become members but I'll have to pay more and I'll have limited number of books and time...

Anyways I believe that the library is the one section of the university which have a clear vision of improvement and is actually pursuing it... and I hope it will continue that way...

Jordan University Farwell | Take 1

:: After spending 8 years of my life at Jordan University... I'm leaving... ::

First time I entered JU was on the fall of 1999... as a new student at the Faculty of Engineering and Technology... I remember I was very angry at myself during that period... so JU with all it's glories wasn't enough to cheer me up... but it wasn't till the winter of 2000 that I started to fall in love with JU...

5 years of my life studying architecture and going through rapid and sheer fluctuation of emotions...
I learned how to communicate with the trees... the people... the old buildings and little drops of water hanging uncertainly in the air...

During these years... I also have learned how to construct... how to think... and how to realize my own creation... I say I have learned... but I wasn't taught...

I graduated from JU on the summer of 2004... happy to leave and eager to see the world outside JU...


But as it turned out to be I didn't leave JU long before my own choice of path led back to it...

I came back on the fall of the same year... This time to the Faculty of Arts and Design where I took a major step in changing my career from being a practitioner to becoming an academic... and from architecture into design...

I spent 3 years at Faculty of Arts and Design where I understood JU in a new way... the people... the system and all the festering underneath the shiny surfaces...

At the same time I have experienced a new feeling... the feeling of creation...

Teaching has given me a virgin feeling of achievement... where I'm happy and proud of other people's work... these people who I helped creating or shaping their intellects...

That was the one and the only reward I had from JU...

During these three years I have grown up a lot...
I have befriended the trees... they whispered to me and taught me how to become part of the Divine symphony...
I wandered and walked with myself... enjoying the other seen but unperceived world...

But like anything in life... you reach a point where you feel that this is enough and now it is time to move on... and I have decided to leave...
I'm leaving behind me a place despite everything I love... a place that had me laughing from my heart... and crying lonesome than a cat gone astray...
A place where I got through my greatest battles on the road of self discovery...
A place where I met people who have touched my life for ever...

For all the moments I had... and lived fully... I say peace to Jordan University... and peace to the person I was inside it...

Two years...

++ Don't cry... you'll see the city once again...

-- But it is not the city I missed the most!

Ramadan prayers at al-Aqsa Mosque

Today I found this interesting though a bit sad narrative of how a Palestinian man living in West Bank plan to go to prayer at al-Aqsa Mosque...

the link on BBC....

His Eyes...

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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Martyrs | a video installation

Yesterday morning I gave my students the chance to make their first installation ever... so I went to class asked each girl to give me the first word that pops into her mind... then we started finding relations between the words and getting a concept for our installation... got the camera... shot the videos... some was doing the editing and some were setting up the space... finding a music and then stitching everything together...
and it was done... for audience two girls went outside and start gathering random students... and in less than two hours we managed to do a video installation...
Now what do you think of that? =)

UPDATE:
For those who like the 1.99$ stamped clearly on their burger wraps...
The above installation addresses issues of routine, monotone, systematized life,solitude and boredom. The title is a metaphorical notion of how we "sacrifice" ourselves to the modern standard of living while thinking we are doing a favor to others or humanity in general... how we kill our time for what we think is worth it...

Zuppa Romana

I first heard this song for a jingle on Fatafeat TV... It's cool...
If I would expect anyone to sing about food... they gotta be the Italians...

a memory of a body part

For their second project I asked my students of "Digital Art and Installation Art" to make a video art piece around the theme of "a memory of a body part"...
Here are their work...


Untitled by Dina Ridwan


Partially blind by Hanada Khataybeh


Disturbance by Aml Serhan


Layers by Laura Nofal


I can't listen by Dana Qabbani


:: Indispensable by Dina Khayyat

:: Blessings by Heba Abdallat

:: Eyes Language by Hiba Akkash

Another 5 in Gaza!

Five die in Gaza City explosion...

OMG... those are not abstract numbers... those are HUMAN SOULS...

Feeling blue...

I'm having one of those afternoons where I feel stuck inside my head but in a blue mood...
This afternoon I went for a coffee with a couple of American girls visiting Jordan on some cultural exchange program... I had a really good time... and very insightful too...
And now as I was reflecting upon the meeting... I remembered one of the girls was telling us a story happened with her family... and it is unbelievable how her story is similar to many stories we hear in our society... and it made me think about how similar we all are...
Half a way around the globe and yet we still share so much... same events... same needs... same life...
I can't understand what went wrong in the world... why do we have all these wars? these fights? why some people spend millions in one day while millions are suffering from hunger every day...?

Why can't we fully understand that all the humans from east to west share the same [one] earth... and dwell under the same [one] sky...
All of us believe or disbelieve in the same [one] God whatever name we call Him...

We live in the so called age of information while I see more and more ignorance around me...
Why some people are manipulating religions... using fear... spreading ignorance... in the name of freedom, democracy and liberality...?

Why are we ruining earth? why there had to be a global warming issue? why the brats are driving 4x4 just to impress their peers taking up more fuel... and more space in the streets... causing more pollution and more traffic jams...

Why are we being second-handers... why do we dress, act, believe, live, marry, hang out, and think in the way that everyone excepts us too...? Just to please them... to be part of a group... to belong to a tribe of any sort or any name...?

Why I'm supposed to be fit or unfit in any place just because I wear the veil...? Why we choose to block one sort of knowledge just because it doesn't conform with our intellectual standards?

I look around me... wars... devastation... hypocrisies... abuse... and ignorance...

The sun is just setting outside my window... and a lovely summer breeze is caressing my face... yet I feel I should cry... cry for earth and humanity and what we got ourselves into...

When will people be free to realize is about time we be humans once again?

Design your own room

Currently I'm giving a course at the Children Museum Jordan. This course is for kids aged 8-12 and it is about how they can design their own bedrooms... so far I'm having so much fun... dealing with children is very enriching because they have a mind that never fails to amaze you...
I'll be sharing their work results as the course ends...

The Fountainhead

So finally I have read [The Fountainhead] a novel that I knew many people praising... Once I started reading it I couldn't stop till I finished it...
The novel is written by Ayn Rand... in the novel Rand chose Architecture as a form of self-expression...

I can't understand why during my 5 years studying architecture none of my professors recommended the book... It is such a good book and deals with architecture in a new critical way... allowing us to interpret the history of architecture and the modern practices of it in a new way...

Many of the main characters are involved in Architecture whether they are architects like the main character Howard Roark or they are critics of architecture like Ellsworth Toohey...
The novel talks about selfishness, egotism and altruism through another perspective which shakes some of the bases of how societies are led to approve or condemn actions that are defined as virtues or sins by other people for whatever agenda...
As you are reading there will be many sections which you forget you are reading a novel but you concentrate on the ideas presented... again gaining more insights about architecture and society.
I liked the way Rand has used architecture as a medium to convey her own philosophies...
The novel is definitely a must-read... especially for architects and architecture students...
The novel had been made into a movie in the 1940s but I'm always disappointed when a novel is turned into a movie... so I recommend the novel... having said that I found this video of Howard Roark's speech toward the end of the movie... is worth seeing...

The novel also tackles some of the ideas related to Capitalism and though I'm myself an anti-capitalism to the core... I have to say that I had a new understanding of Capitalism that made me reflect more about some of own ideas related to man, freedom and wealth...
Also the concept of self, self-sacrifice, selfishness made me think about the concept of the self in my own Islamic beliefs which I'll talk about some other time...

It is a mind opening when we understand the hidden driving forces that shape, create and re-create some of our basic cultural and societal patterns...

The Fountainhead one of my best novels of all times...

Saying .. !

:: Emotion... swap...
:: Rejoicing over partial victory... [[ still a [victory]? ]]
:: Flipping off... slipping out...
:: On sacrifice and slaughter...
::" Twins Peak"


And I think to myself... what a wonderful world....

Second-handers

[[ "Yes! And isn't that the root of every despicable action? not selfishness, but precisely the absence of a self. Look at them. The man who cheats and lies, but preserves a respectable front. He knows himself to be dishonest, but others think he's honest and he derives his self-respect from that, second-hand. The man who takes credit for an achievement which is not his own. He knows himself to be mediocre, but he's great in the eyes of others. The frustrated wretch who professes love for the inferior and clings to those less endowed, in order to establish his own superiority by comparison. The man whose sole aim is to make money. Now I don't see anything evil in a desire to make money. But money is only a means to some end. If a man wants it for a personal purpose - to invest in his industry, to create, to study, to travel, to enjoy luxury - he's completely moral. but the men who place money first go much beyond that. Personal luxury is a limited endeavor. What they want is ostentation: to show, to stun, to entertain, to impress others. They're second-handers. Look at our so-called cultural endeavors. A lecturer who spouts some borrowed rehash of nothing at all that means nothing at all to him - and the people who listen don't give a damn, but sit there in order to tell their friends that they have attended a lecture by a famous name. All second-handers." ]]
Ayn Rand, The Fountainhead

Digital Portraits

This Morning I gave my students an exercise where they have to digitally paint a portrait for one of the following...
1. Saint of War

Work by Dina Khayyat

Work by Laura Nofal

2. Fighter of Peace

Work by Hiba Akkash

Work by Dina Ridwan


3. Prisoner of Freedom

Work by Myself...

Work by Hiba Abdallat

8 Natural Wonders

Can you guess this one is where?
Well... to my surprise is in YEMEN!
The image caption says " Socotra Archipelago, Yemen features an astounding array of biodiversity, both on land and in the water. Credit: © IUCN - Khaldoun Al Omari"

Anyways it was announced new 8 natural wonders in the world... the full list and more is here...

The Narratives* | 15

15

She tries to clean it...
Over and over again...
But always the dust goes up and then down after creating a shallow cloud...
The dust doesn't leave the space...

She has forgotten to open a window...
To let the dust out...
The Sun... The Light and fresh air in...


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

Digital re-Painting

Today I gave my students an exercise where they were asked to digitally manipulate or recreate a famous painting so as to negate, contradict, emphasize or glorify one of the meanings related to the painting... it was done in one and half hour...


By: Hanada Khatyibeh and Hiba Abdallat
Based on American Gothic


By: Dina Khayyat and Hiba Akkash
Based on Birth of Venus and Nam June Paik's TV sculptures


By: Dina Ridwan and Laura Nofal
Recreation of Arnolfini Portrait



By: Myself
Based on The Lovers and random pop stars images

Offensive pro- Hijab ad

translation " You can't stop them... but you can protect yourself... He who has created you... know what's best for you"

I find this ad offensive in so many ways... some are too obvious to be mentioned...

I don't approve of the the way people who claim to be pro-hijab set their propaganda... it implies that women are inferior to men... that women are too precious and should be kept safe and away...
I do wear the hijab and I'm very convinced of it... I appreciate those who have the courage to put it... but the way I understand hijab is a way to enhance interaction between men and women rather than prevent it...
If women are supposed to stay at home... away from all the men... then why do they need the hijab? But if they go out... work... study... live a normal life... then there is no way but to deal with men.... after all at the early beginning one man and one woman inhabited the earth...

I don't like to think of myself as a lollipop nor men who are around me as flies... and I don't wear the veil to please the man and help him not sin... I do it for myself... for the way I perceive myself as a true woman...

I wish if all the preachers who do it so poorly would spare me and all the people out there any more of their ignorance....