The MFA in Design Department here at VCUQatar will be hosting a two day symposium exploring and debating the research and practice based paradigms of interdisciplinary design…
An international cohort of presenters will be exploring this challenging topic both at the Msheireb Center on May 17, and at the HBKU Student Center in Education City on May 18…
The schedule for the event's two days is included below (please click on the images to enlarge them). We've also included an invite for the event beneath the schedule pages…
If you wish to join us please RSVP our Administrative Assistant Rebecca Davis at: erebecca@vcu.edu
A photo of a performance, of sorts, where one of our graduate students, Corby Elford, posed as the artist Murizio Cattellan for one of her assignments last year... The Materials Library Curator Richard Lombard conducted the the interview with the pseudo artist...
We're having an Open Day here at VCUQ next Wednesday, February 16, starting at 6 PM...
Our program is in many ways quite unique, as not only is it the only accredited Masters degree in design of the Gulf region, it is also structured to push boundaries in regards to what the practice of 'design' entails in the region as well as establishing a program that introduces something unique on a more pervasive, world-wide, scale... The facilities here are also in line with some of the other top schools around the world - we have the only 'Material Library' (and Materials Curator) of the MENA region, a large Green Room for filming/ video production, a decent Digital Fabrication Lab, as well as a great (uncensored) library. The program is also unprecedented in that the faculty to student ratio is about 1:2 (one faculty to each two students), as we only accept six (6!) students into each year of this two year program...
The whole MFA.DESIGN. faculty will also be present on Wednesday to present the program and answer any questions visitors might have...
I've been invited to present at the Dar al-Athar al-Islamiyyah, Kuwait's perhaps most respected and established cultural institution, on November 11, at 7 pm. This is a great honour, and an opportunity to 'push' some of the issues discussed on this as well as some of its fellow blogs (see links below to the right) and just a chance to debate these issues in a 'live' setting with individuals interested in related subject matters...
If you happen to be in the neighborhood why not aim to joins us at the al-Maidan Cultural Center for some spirited discussions and canapes...
The included short 'animation' consists of some musings made during a walk down Salem Al-Mubarak Street in Salmiya, Kuwait. The film, made out of over 400 individual images assembled in Power-point, had to unfortunately be filmed off my computer screen as the software I was planning to use refused to convert any shots lasting less than a second into a MPEG, AVI or Quick-time format, resulting in the video that should last about 3 minutes taking well over 20 minutes (as it converted the fraction of a second shots into full seconds). Nevertheless, it is clear enough to catch the intended gist of the video, and, if I manage to figure out how to convert the movie directly (any suggestions would be much appreciated) I'll replace the current one.
A few years back we used to live in Salmiya, a stones throw from the Sha'ab Amusement Park, and I used to walk down this street almost daily, on my way to the selection of coffee-shops clustered around the Sultan Center. The Salem Al-Mubarak Street is amongst the only sections of the city that has the the history and, in regards to future development, the 'bones' to be developed into a proper external pedestrianized area. This factor has also been noted by others in Kuwait, such as fellow bloggers re:Kuwait, who included a recent post on the subject matter and area (click here for a link to their submission). Unfortunately the street seems currently to be under threat, as substantial sections of the on average three and four floor buildings flanking its sides are either abandoned or in the process of being demolished. This is a true pity, and, again, a considerable lost opportunity (a term that seems to crop up regrettably often on this blog) as what this street and area has will be very difficult to duplicate or rejuvenate if the current 'developments' are allowed to proceed much further. What it needs is a total strategic overhaul that provides the street and district with an update whilst retaining its unique qualities – its casualness, non-mallness, spontaneity, walkability – its outdoorness...
This last point became particularly pertinent recently when we were invited to present at the Dar Al-Athar al-Islamyyia, scheduled to take place on November 11th (more details about this at a later date) as this occasion could be the perfect opportunity to tie together and develop a coherent proposal from the various, still somewhat discordant, ideas we've developed for this area over the last few years for how this street could be designed and modified to accommodate the desires of the above musings. What this will entails exactly remains still to be seen, but the intention is to present a, still at this stage schematic, proposal for how the Salem Al-Mubarak Street could be rethought. The included video forms a part of this process.
We've been invited to take part in two events this summer. The first one, titled Syn_athr(0)isis}, which is a part of the Synch Festival, will take place later this month in Athens, where we'll be exhibiting a CNC milled version of the Finger Run design. Tom's also going to be giving a presentation, as well as partake in a round-table discussion with a number of illustrious colleagues (list included below), at this event on June 15th.
We've also recently submitted material for the Visions - Beyond Media International Festival for Architecture taking place in Florence this July. We were invited to this event by the London based nous Gallery, who specialize in exhibiting more polemic and experimental, usually computing based, architectural work. For images of our last year's exhibition at the nous gallery click here.
Let's encourage and aid more Kuwait based practices and thinkers to partake in these kinds of international occasions. We need to shout out and let the wider community know that there are some truly worthwhile things (catalytic ideas/ polemic proposals) originating and taking place here in Kuwait and the region that carry a unique flavour all of their own. These types of international happenings are a good medium through which to start spreading the word and laying the foundations for a revitalization of a more evolved discourse regarding related matters...
More about these, and perhaps a few other, events in future blog submissions...
Alia Farid's adaptable monument - movable and customized to respond and reflect the interest of a particular community in Boston (Photo provided by Alia Farid)...
The other day, Artist Alia Farid gave us a wonderful presentation at Kuwait University. She has a Fine Arts degree from the Escuela de Artes Artes Plasticas, in Puerto Rico, as well as a MSc from in Visual Studies programme at MIT. Along with being a practising artist, she is also currently working as a Curator and the Cultural Director of the Al Sabah Art & Design Collection.
A short synopsis, in her own words, of her interests and approach to practising her art(s).
“I began my experimental practice as an artist/curator somewhere in between the lines of art, architecture, and the public realm. Today I’m still interested in exploring these areas, but with a much more focused point in telling how informal networks are forced to compensate for lack of formal structure, as one of the things I value most is the subversive quality of work that goes unnoticed.” She identifies her role as a curator with that of a mitigation planner by acknowledging, “There’s a duality in dealing with art – a disconnect between who we are and what we see that can either mean death to the work or a strike in change. My job is to mitigate, or make up, for this disconnect”. The risk factor involved in re-presenting art is a challenge Alia readily enjoys, however instead of handling the work with gloves, she’s more likely to want to figure out ways in which the audience can engage with the art directly.
It is this aforementioned engagement that is sorely needed in Kuwait, where the value of ideas - engaging, exploratory, novel and occasionally even polemic ideas - are still largely undervalued.
An additional view of her mobile and adaptable monument/ sales & service stand (Photo provided by Alia Farid)...
This blog is maintained and predominantly written by Dr. Thomas Modeen, partner of Architects Independent, which he founded with his wife Maysaa Al-Mumin in Kuwait in the Fall of 2008. The practice also has a base, and its origins, in London, where it's known as Independent Architects, which is headed by Paul Brady and Eng Ling Ho. The blog aims to provide a personalized outline of all our practice and discipline related escapades.
ArchitectsIndependent/ Independent Architects are a research based architecture and design practice that retains a equal and collaborative footing within both practice and academia, with strong links to various academic and research facilities around the world. Our current interest involve the use of various computing based design methods and tools in the realization of physical builds (using both subtractive and additive CAD-CAM methods).
