Searching for Structure Presentation.pptx

The following is the script of my presentation entitled "Searching for Structure", presented at Sharjah Art Forum's Symposium "Focal Point", co-organized with Asia Art Archive. In the presentation, I explore possible elements of Constructivist practice in the typography and imagery used by two Tatar-language periodicals in the 1920s: Magarif and Bezneng Yul. I fail to find sufficient evidence of large-scale Constructivist inspiration or adoption, but nonetheless do identify possible expressions of similar goals and outlooks.

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2008

This dissertation examines multiple applications of Arabic script and the relationship linking visual design with written communication. It presents typography and calligraphy as distinct communicative practices and explores the importance of print culture and printed material in relation to the rise of the modern bureaucratic state. The work is arranged in seven chapters, each illustrating how changes in the visual appearance of Arabic letters connote distinct channels of textual authority and knowledge. Chapter 1 opens a comparative framework with three models of writing in relation to religious tradition, and Chapter 2 explores written communication through the lens of grammatology. Chapter 3 delves into the Arabic calligraphic tradition, the symbolic interpretation of letters, and the meanings of multiple scripts. With the arrival of print, Arabic writing practices shifted in response to a new communication technology, and Chapter 4 outlines the Ottoman adoption of print technology. This section examines historical and archival material, which chronicles early Ottoman printing as well as post-print developments of Ottoman calligraphic art. The symbolic, visual, and textual changes that accompanied the new medium are addressed in Chapter 5, and Chapter 6 introduces a comparative study of Arabic letter design in modern Jordan. A series of interviews with practicing calligraphers, graphic designers, and contemporary artists highlight diverse applications of Arabic script and the flexibility of written communication and. Finally, Chapter 7 reflects upon the historical trajectory of previous chapters to ask what the story of Arabic script might teach us about the future of writing. This chapter traces the continuity of calligraphy and digital design and suggests a more nuanced concept of writing for digital practice. As practices of writing continue to shift both in the Middle East and globally, visual conventions surrounding Arabic script provide a wealth of strategies worthy of preservation and exploration.

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A survey of modern formal theories and tropes compiled by students during a seminar of the same name taught by Yale School of Architecture professor Eeva-Liisa Pelkonen at the Beinecke Rare Books Library in spring 2012.

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Visible Language, 2019

This article takes up a material analysis of a set of eleven nineteenth-century Arabic broadsides entitled Nafir Suriyya, published in Beirut by Syrian intellectual Butrus al-Bustani from 1860-1861. Produced in response to the civil wars of 1860 in Mount Lebanon and Damascus (in the Ottoman Syrian provinces), when intercommunal conflicts occurred between different confessional groups, these publications called for unity and cooperation amongst these communities through the framework of “patriotism” (wataniyya) and one’s “love of the homeland” (hubb al-watan). These broadsides have thus played an important role in twentieth and twenty-first century scholarship on early nationalist sentiment, particularly a Syro-Lebanese political identity, amongst Arabic-speaking Ottoman denizens. However, the format and visual conventions of these broadsides are oftentimes overlooked or misinterpreted, thus effacing an important layer to understanding Nafir Suriyya’s wider socio-political significance. Addressing these oversights, this study provides a close material reading of the Nafir Suriyya broadsides as examples of a then-new format. Comparative analysis with other contemporaneous public texts, such as Ottoman edicts and proclamations, better clarifies the social and cultural significance of these publications.

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In this paper, I explore the British Library's early holdings of the Tatar periodical Magarif. I do so with an eye to uncovering information about the socio-economic and intellectual conditions extant in Tatarstan in the 1920s. Throughout this brief study, I highlight the pitfalls of drawing wider conclusions from this small sample size of issues, and tag potential sources of further study.

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2000

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