Wednesday, October 10, 2007

Reflecting is Crossing a Border

8 comments:

Noorah Al-Sabah said...
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Noorah Al-Sabah said...

Metaphor: Reflecting is Crossing a Border
Film researched: Antonioni's The Passenger

Noorah Al-Sabah said...

With this exercise I tried to explore the many modes of the act and sense of reflection. Reflection as identification, as meditation, as a physical switch over, and as simply a mirroring device. Reflection also brought into play the role of layers - what exactly is being reflected and in what point in time - since objects constantly change in their state and our perception. The writings of Robert Smithson proved helpful throughout all this as well as those of John Berger.

marc said...

keep writing.

Noorah Al-Sabah said...

My precis is in its formation phases: I intend to address the fragility of cultural identity- objectify identity and have it preserved and celebrated in a building, a space, an experience. When I say preserved however I don't mean to have it frozen in a debilitating manner but achieve a level of interaction between the object and viewer.
Topics that have interested me are various inscriptions in its various forms. Islamic calligraphy will serve as a starting point to see how the modularity of script can lend itself to spatial qualities. The origins of writing relate to the origins of buildings as they both are our transcriptions upon the earth. Any form of art is a language even that of dada - one of nonsense - the strokes of Clyfford Still communicate just as the calligraphy on the walls of mosques.
I'd like to bring into question the arguments of Adolf Loos against those of Ruskin and Viollet Le Duc. The role of Islamic ornamentation in the midst of these arguments will be analyzed and defined. The writings of Kandinsky will be a source used to discuss the spatiality of the line itself, as well as shapes and later these findings will be used to analyze various forms of calligraphy even further.
The preservation and celebration of legacy serve as the goal within this project. Pages - as opposed to layers - of the earth packed upon one another bear witness to history's events. It is layers in a book continually being written, ripped up and out and erased away. The earth is being transcribed upon with buildings that rise up and crumble and have people living on it who walk and create material and immaterial events and objects for their civilization for the sake of production and or the memory of it.

Noorah Al-Sabah said...

Programs being considered:
The one that I am most invested in as of now is the mixed use of a library and a museum (with possibly park/garden potential). Bridges to the sea comes to mind - more on this during class.
An airport terminal - (perhaps just an entrance/welcome hall not the entire complex) - brings to mind: first impressions of the country's identity - crossing borders ...etc
A cultural center (this could link back to the museum/library complex); gallery spaces; war memorial; a mosque - not a traditional one
All these programs have relevance to either my thesis interests and will be deeply rooted in them or have potential in relation to the film and installation analysis - the themes of the crisis of identity, reflection-mirroring, the landscape versus man...

Noorah Al-Sabah said...

added program consideration: an orphanage
note on site: in Kuwait - a few plots of land are being considered - all are by the gulf close to a municipal/commercial area with residential areas nearby and the inudtrial free trade zone about a 10 minute drive away.

marc said...

i would like to hear how you might address the senses and synaesthesia. you write well, keep doing it.

perhaps look at synaesthetic alphabets...
kandinsky for color and line...

pages or layers, it still a palimpsest site you are talking about...right?

what are bridges to sea? did you mention this today?