Morroccan tiles

 

I love Moroccan interior aesthetics. Found this website that supplies Moroccan design tiles in the Netherlands. So if I'm to have a house here, I know where to look :D

Identity, Love, Marriage & the Female Muslim Migrant

I am an FOB*; an International student. My journey begins from a simple middle-class household in Pakistan, and arrives in the midst of the First World cacophony of the Netherlands. This journey has evoked several questions - from the bigger issues of the System crash to the more intimate and human worries of love. While everybody likes splashing their feet in the political ponds, I give my time to the tunnel of love and identity.

I want to open a dialog - an FOB vs an EBCD**. I invite you to share your views with me of your life as a Muslim dual-identity holder. I want to talk about the basic issues of love and marriage in a minority community. What are your challenges and how are they different than mine?


*Fresh Off the Boat
**European Born Confused Desi


IDENTITY, LOVE, MARRIAGE & THE FEMALE MUSLIM MIGRANT.

Venue: Piet Zwart Institute
Mauritsstaart 36,
3012 CJ Rotterdam,
The Netherlands

Date: Saturday, 5 June 2010

Time: 1500 - 1700 hrs

p.s. Please confirm your attendance by e-mail.

my Bachelor's thesis

Fe

take a looksy ..

Is Married.

22nd - 25th Jan 2010 :D

language of love

It's coming back to me :)

Did this today after a long long time ... felt great!

The Burka Machine

Any creation is bound to inherit traits of its Creator. The Burka Machine is a very conscious creation of a female-machine that behaves very female-like upon interaction. The political and social associations that society and Man have conjured about the Burka make us forget the presence of a very feminine human within that attire, and the very feminine emotions and desires she beholds.

"The Burka Machine" is my installation developed for "Build, Break, and Broadcast", a thematic project on do-it-yourself hacking and recycling of electronic hardware. This project was presented as my first-year final project under the course MA Networked Media: Media Design and Communication @ the CBK Rotterdam, from the 3rd till the 12th of July 2009. This exhibition, titled "Networked Media", showcased works of the 8 graduates and 5 first-year students.
Being rather new to the western world, and facing a series of frustrations, and kicking and punching through this sea of new ways of life, trying to find my roots, trying to connect somewhere - in vain: there was a lot more happening around my own nucleus. There was something happening that had something to do with my background, against this new world I was (am) trying to penetrate. It's a difficult situation to be amidst strangers and to have to explain and talk about something that you're against and it belongs to YOU. The burka is one of those things. I do not appreciate or promote the burka, but I also do not appreciate others going against it who have no sense of balance *Pat Condell*. Aren't the burka and bikini/nudists examples of two extremes? And haven't we agreed upon fighting against extremism? Then why this bias to just go attacking one side of it ... no ... then why this bias of attacking one side of it and promoting the other? Since when is breaking more boundaries, and creating a limitless life the new CORRECT way? Who decides upon the correct? It's human life we are dealing with, not an internet connection!
But having said all that, my installation was more about the western-viewer than the lady in burka. The installation was created to project a cliché we (they) live each day. The apprehensions projected on television about the burka, and then it being banned in France, is completely absurd in my eyes. But then I also understand that when they don't respect their own symbols worthy of respect, how would they respect someone else??
example 1
example 2
example 3
example 4
To them, the burka is a symbol of oppression, of gloom, of anything but life. No matter how many documentaries there may be created trying to shift this distorted view, by their own folks, it seems impossible to create any flexibility.
The installation projected 3 states. Each state generated an audio/visual response according to the distance between the viewer and the burka. State one: the viewer being farthest, generated a colorful display with happy sounds. State two: the viewer within an alert zone, generated a black/white display with sorrowful sounds. State three: the viewer within red zone, generated a red display with sounds of anger and fright. All sounds were basically ripped audio from bollywood movies (gathered from youtube), each clip ranging between 10 seconds and a 100 seconds. The idea was to have as much female sound as possible, and cut out any possible male sounds.
No woman, that we see on streets, is ever crying or projecting an image that she is oppressed. They all seem happy and content. I've seen burka-clad women even smoke in street corners in groups, which is rather more shocking to me, since personally in my culture, women who smoke are seen as those with a loose character: so the burka and the cigarette is a strange juxtaposition for me. So the point is, from a distance they all look happy. It is their psychology for the next two stages, which I feel, is extremely media-generated. The problem is, the image of an Islamic woman in the eyes of the non-Islamic world, and a lot times also within Islamic world, is so drastically non-Islamic, it does erupt questions for where this ideology is coming from, and who is responsible? I have often seen such strange questions on forums like inter-religious relationships, they drive me nuts. Muslim women shouldn't talk. Muslim women don't have fun. Muslim women don't hang-out. Is it possible to go out on a date with a Muslim woman? Can I offer a drink to a Muslim woman? Muslim women are not human!!?? ugh! Such a distorted spectrum of views. Who has created this?
There is a very nice book that was put together by John L. Esposito and Dalia Mogahed: "Who Speaks for Islam?: What a billion Muslims really think." This was a result of a mass poll that was taken from Islamic countries, in which the Muslim opinion on various aspects of life was questioned. I feel it really puts forth the reality - even the bad parts, which undoubtedly and unfortunately DO exist.
A Jewish turned Muslim, Muhammad Asad is also an interesting figure to mention at this point. He has done a lot of study about Islam; written his translation of the Qur'an, which is considered rather unique and better in most cases; done a study about how head-cover for a woman has nothing to do with Islam; etc. Like everything else, why isn't it possible to believe that there have been figures in history who have not been able to change the literal word of the Qur'an, but have obviously corrupted it's essence and meaning. And the rest of the public is lazy enough to not investigate themselves and just follow blindly; not to mention the lower literacy rate in most Muslim countries.
At the end, this installation was an effort to only put a mirror - a mirror to the ongoing psychology and attitude. Although the subject is so difficult, if it helped even half a man to understand anything, I'll feel my work is done.

The Burka Machine: technical over-view

Hardware: arduino board, ultrasonic distance detector, projector, speakers
Software: processing, arduino alpha 0015


Technically I have to admit I had to face a lot of drawbacks.

-The space I had to work with was quite challenging since my detector was not 007-perfect, and the narrow hallway walls kept coming in the way.

-My system was rather slow in respect to the memory my program was using. It was H-O-T that day, and even more hot in my thick black-fabric lined space, and it was effecting the working of my system, as it would automatically shut-down after the fan quit o_O

-Although some effort was made to heal this, the system still kept getting jammed every 2-3 hours and had to be restarted =(

-The gallery was also not very compromising: weak ceiling didn't let me hang anything from it, and the oh-so-special walls were not to be touched.

-Had to build extra wooden structures to close ends off with fabric as I really wanted a dark interior. Shortage of money and a huge window on one side ... not very amusing!

-AND on the other side of my installation was the "special" space for performances, so mine had to be kept quiet for a while.

hmmm ... what else?!?! I'll make sure to write each down as I remember!

Stop Motion

Geert Wilders on WEED!

In the video below Wilders says he has nothing against the people of Islam, but he wants to deport millions of Muslims who have a certain ideology. He is incapable of answering the simple question of exactly how many Muslims are there who in fact pose a threat to the society and are part of criminal activities and are a burden on the government of the Netherlands. Who is he fighting against? Or is he just a punkass attention seeker!
He can't even speak properly! What is wrong with the Dutch people that they make him into such a large political party?!

Memory Erasing Drug

I came across this rather outstanding article just now about a breakthrough in medicine regarding the brain. Apparently the scientists in New York claim to have produced a drug that can erase memory! Now this is quite heavy information! The article fairly covers the pros and cons of such a drug, click here to read it.
Facebook quizzes reveal what an "anti-everything" I am :P ... so here I am talking against something yet again. I agree that this drug could serve as great help for some medical cases, namely those suffering some kind of post-traumatic stress or Alzheimer's. Then again, the possibilities and abuse of this drug are so vast that just knowing a drug can do this is insane. I agree with the statement in the article: "Memories serve an evolutionary purpose, reminding us what's unsafe about a certain situation, person, setting." Everything that happens in life, gives something towards creating the person that we are today. Our bad choices lead us into bad consequences, and these are just repercussions that we have to live with, and this is exactly what we call L-I-F-E - it doesn't come with a second chance. The memory may be erased from a single person's mind, but what about other's related to that memory? Does everybody have to have that drug then? Or do you then live a lie, only to help someone else?
And politically speaking. These darn governments are so freaking untrustworthy, we better stop inventing, or create a public secret society only to exclude the government. This drug would only serve as a catalyst towards the wonderful *sublimely sarcastic* New World Order!

isabel allende tells tales of passion

Chris Jordan

the tree: part 2 - art changes.

Saturday, April 18.


Tuesday, May 12.

Pixel/print

"While Amazon's Kindle is a bestseller in the United States, Europe seems still a bit slow in taking up e-readers. Producers prepare for conquering the European market. The introduction of e-book readers and their eventual effective diffusion will transform the publishing industry. An international conference organized by Florian Cramer from Rotterdam-based Piet Zwart Institute revolves around the future of publishing, paper and the transformation of reading and the book in the digital age. The program is packed with exceedingly interesting presentations by designers, publishing experts, and researchers from the cutting-edge front of media development."
http://www.mtschaefer.net/entry/printpixel/

Quite a two-day conference I must admit, and an interesting divide of presentations over the past 48 hours. The first day full of e-reading utilities, e-x, e-y, e-z .. easy? Not to mention how the screen is turning half the world's population blind. I will have to place my interest in the second day, and in Alessandro Ludovico's (of neural.it) talk - paper, paper, paper!
Maybe it's me, but I am sure more artists/designers have this: have you ever felt this obsession with any visual/text/image that you want to HAVE it, HOLD it, HUG it? I have. Yes we all have internet and I can watch my favorite image anytime, it's just a matter of going online and loading it. But it isn't quite satisfying; it's not real enough - it lacks weight, substance and the MATERIAL essence. Aren't we material beings?
I am broke and I feel sad that I can't buy books. Then I download my ever-friendly torrent, and the counter never goes above 1 of me opening that file. I am going blind, the screen hurts my eyes, I want to hold my text and sing lullaby to it.
But getting back to the conference which is about publishing. I, being an artist/designer, felt sweetly excluded. I left the conference questioning, can the Sony e-reader or print-on-demand provide me the pleasure of the romanticism an exclusive art-book lying on a walnut-wood coffee-table definitely can? Or is it the death of romanticism we are compromising? Hmm ... may I remind how we are turning into robots ... I really don't want Ray Kurzweil to be correct ... YET AGAIN!

Time-Lapse Across China

Watch in high-res here.

male 'contraceptive jab'

"Family planning campaigners welcomed the news and said they hoped an injection would give couples more choice and enable men to take a greater share of the responsibility for contraception." On one hand, one may say it is a good thing that men can share this burden of continuing/planning the cycle of life, on the other hand, I am not so excited about this either. A woman's body is created to withstand the drastic physical and chemical changes that it undergoes. I don't even want to begin thinking about the horrors it might bring of swooping distorted male behavior - as if it isn't distorted enough already!

They say, "Previous attempts to develop an effective and convenient male contraceptive have encountered problems over reliability and side effects, such as mood swings and a lowered sex drive." Well of course, and this is exactly my concern. Imagine a man, in his general parameters, of how he functions and behaves, and then superimpose him with mood swings ... pretty picture? I don't think so!

In the West there is a high risk of unwanted pregnancies precisely because of the ECP (emergency control pill); because men know they have something to fall back on, they don't care enough to use protection. And it is only repetitive to talk about the effects of constant ECP usage.

There is also a chance that men with a thing for needles may not even mind taking these injections, but the whole point is how it effects the social behavior and social growth of men within a society, rather than how useful the injection proves in that given situation of a needed contraception.

Read more here.

A few things.

2 things. I have an opinion about them - I AM DISGUSTED.

1. Shariah Law implemented in Somalia, and the first thing they do in celebration is: stone a 13 years old little girl to death after her father reported to the police of his daughter being raped by 3 men!
Bless humanity!



2. The brilliant walk-out of 30 nations from the United Nations, Geneva conference, after the Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad started his speech, labeled as "hate speech". News holds that some countries boycotted the conference completely and did not attend after knowing that Ahmedinejad will be attending and speaking.
I love Ban Ki-Moon for being the secretary at this point, as he stands as a third party, and is better at position to condemn this walk-out.



And on a rather hilarious note. lol.
What do you do if you receive a stack of papers that have cost $27.55 to deliver, and then find out it's your $26K mobile bill? ahaha ...
I want to see the face of this guy! Read the story here.

Technological Singularity

All's good, but I'm still skeptical of the supercomputer part. The entire technological singularity debate is back and Google is being one of its supporters, but in order to create this supercomputer, we need a superhuman first to create that. The Great Human Being is growing intelligent as well, although I'd also like to point out that majority of them is going dumber!
I am on the side that there will always be a more intelligent human.
Visit my school's homepage to see a little mapping I did of political history vs technological advancements since the 20th century.

The Tree

Eendrachtsweg is a beautiful road in Rotterdam, somewhere between the ErasmusMC and the city center. There is some great Dutch architecture alongside the road, lush greenery, and something called a singel: a Dutch word to which I don't know the translation of, but that's what they call these lake/channel-like water features around the country. It's on the way to my school, and today I came about a rather interesting effort. I am not sure how I should define it. Create your own story.
Perhaps it was there all along, and I never noticed it, considering the button-eyes I have :D ... does that term make any sense to English-speakers? It's something my mother used to call me all the time in Urdu. It basically means to have big eyes but still not be able to see things around. And I am rather bad at this. Things right in front of me tend to disappear out of my sight!