In a recent paper written by Melissa Plourde Khoury & Tarek E. Khoury from The Lebanese American University, some of the same issues I have been researching over the past few months came up. Here is a quick review of all the important points:
Visual Culture
Beyond the obvious historical cultural heritage that Lebanon has accumulated over the years, there is a strong visual culture that depicts Lebanese nightlife, fashion, urban landscapes and modern media. Yet, they claim that this vision of Lebanon is in jeopardy. Quoting Nicholas Mirxoeff The question arises: 'what if everyday life has excessive influence from an outside culture?' Here the influence of westernization plays an important role.
Westernization "Westernization is taking a dominant stance amongst the multitude of influences."
As is the problem with most countries suffering from globalization; lebanon's visual culture is constantly altered as Western fast-food chains, products, movies, magazines, books and advertising are found more abundantly every year all over the country. Obviously, this attracts the youth of Lebanon towards a lifestyle that is no longer Lebanese. Moreover, what is even more alarming is that Western brands are commonly seen as superior, more reliable, of higher quality. This had lead to Lebanese brands and visual communications that mimic Western aesthetics and have nothing that visually identifies them with Lebanon.
Education Most of the Lebanese universities are based on American or French educational systems. Problems arise as the content and structure of Lebanese design programs are based upon Western ideals.
An interesting quote about Qatar's recent design program in the American Virginia Commonwealth University- Doha states: "...the establishment of this design college in Doha was approached with the buy-an-American university-degree-program-bring-it-home-take-it-out-of the-box-and-plug-it-in mentality. The main objective was to have ‘on-site’ an American design curriculum…The result is the teaching of an American design program…” (Bennett
2006).
Another problem in the Lebanese Universities is that many faculty members are not finding means of inspiring and encouraging students to create culturally significant design.
Furthermore, students commonly do not take initiatives to integrate Lebanese culture into their work. Students are typically resistant to working in Arabic typography, finding it far more challenging than either English or French; especially because of the bi- or even tri- lingual nature of most Lebanese students, their Arabic tends to be weak making design work in Arabic
extremely difficult.
The only Middle Eastern country recognized in having culturally significant graphic design is Iran. This is primarily due to their creation of contemporary designs integrating Arabic typography and calligraphy.
Suggested Solutions Both writers have created a list of suggestions to reinforce identity in Lebanese Graphic Design.
• Use the juxtaposition of opposites to spark culturally
creative design solutions
• Inspire students to modernize their culture by combining
influences from East and West
• Encourage the creation of unique culturally significant
design
• Recruit faculty/workshop hosts with specialization in
Arabic calligraphy/typography
• Incorporate culturally specific workshops, lectures and
seminars
• Introduce and teach new design/cultural courses
• Modify existing projects to be culturally specific
• Modify projects to be interactive with the local
community.
well here's the thing, if you think that students in the middle east need to base their designs more on the arabic feel and culture, I think you need to start with the professors in the universities.
ReplyDeleteI mean hell! No matter what you design here, if your design doesnt have the feel of a european one, you tend to get a lower grade.
Experimenting with design and making it stand out of the ordinary is what students in the middle east could do, yet all their professors teach them, is exactly the opposite of being unique and bringing something new to the table!
How many times have we heard from our teachers here doreen: "think outside the box, think outside the box?" well that box should've been an arabic box I guess. cos looking back at our designs, generally speaking, we all had similar styles that lack cultural creativity and yet encourages the western style in design!
Nevertheless, we all heard about swiss design and all that follows it up to andy warhal. But looking back to our history of design studies, I dont remember us learning much about the islamic arabic design! I mean dont get me wrong here, yes we did do one installation that had to do with the ismalic design, but generally speaking? we could've learned so much more...
I hope what I said wasn't nonsense, but I it's my strong belief that yes, we did learn a lot in university. But judging by the way things have followed for me? I've learned a hell lot more, from the books and magazines I've bought!
thank you for your your comment marcus, i will quote you on that :)
ReplyDeleteIdentity is a complicated issue for the Lebanese. As the inheritants of the far travelling Phoenicians, Lebanese are the very first international people and they still are the most international people, I mean they are a nation with the world as mother country. With so much expansion in time and in geography, it would be hard to find design identity typical for the Lebanese, since such identity must go through a certain isolation in time and in geography, which the Lebanse have not yet experienced as far as I know.
ReplyDeleteartonaut, you make a very good point. but i would not take this complicated identity issue of the lebanese as a barrier, but rather a challenge. No matter how expansive and indefinite, there are still norms in lebanese identity that most could agree upon. perhaps the challenge comes here to be able to transcend these norms into visual communication. again, something that the education system should learn to encourage.
ReplyDeleteActually, dear Design, in this case, the challenge is not in transcending norms, but it is about being able to extract and distill basic norms and forms from the sea of time and through the blankets of noise.
ReplyDeletei like your poetic uptake artonaut, you must be an artist...:)
ReplyDeleteI am curious to find out: How did you get a hold of this article? It was submitted and accepted to a conference but never presented or published. I agree with marcusmatoss completely. It is true that faculty must encourage creativity and Middle Eastern influences and inspiration. It is a shame that you feel so much disappointment with your education. Hopefully, this will change.
ReplyDelete--Melissa
Dear Melissa,
ReplyDeleteIt is the best paper i have found so far on my subject, and as you can see, it causes heated debate. I am assuming that you are one of the authors of this paper, and I can assure you i found it just by googling it. I think it was available from an Italian website. I plan to do some more hands on research on the matter, any advice or thoughts I can get from your part would be highly appreciated.
I am one of the authors. Thanks to your blog I found out our paper was published. I enjoy the debate. Best of luck in your research.
ReplyDelete--Melissa