7/9- FINAL DAY

Ilene

"To start off today Laila gave us a quiz on what we had learned. Some questions did strike me as a bit inappropriate, possibly offensive, and a slightly absurd... but I won't delve into that too much. After the quiz we gathered up all of our project. Then we put on some finishing touches: covering all sides of the small blocks, touching up the big blocks, and finally putting it all together to see how it looked. That took up about half the class time. After that there was not much else to do, me and Bora buisied ourselves on our computers while Alia and Fatma were constructing a book. At the time I had no idea what it was and thought it was some independent project(for fun) of Fatma's. However, once it was done they explained it to us, and informed us it would be in the show. I really liked it and felt bad I didn't help, but as said I did not know what it was, and when I did go over they seemed to have it all under control. The actual crit was much smaller than I thought it would be and much less intense. Overall we got positive feedback, but not much in the way of constructive criticism, which personally I always like, at least just a bit. The girls brought us gifts and we all hugged and got teary eyed and did all that girly crap that girls do. It was a nice fair-well. I am sad that we did not do more with the girls outside of class, but overall it was fun and a worthwhile experience."

7/8- last full day of class

Ilene

"Last day working in class... first run on the small blocks, not so successful, however we'll try again with the help of Josh and hopefully it will work better. Right now we are just kind of waiting I suppose for Josh to help us with the blocks. Alia brought the constructed head block today which looks great, seeing them all together in a 3d format makes the large scale of our project seem even more impressive. I am so ready for this project to be finished though, so we can enjoy Dubai without worrying about getting these projects done. We are having lunch delivered today as well as exchanging gifts...what an exciting day! Oh yea, I just shot a screen of my cowgirl..she's really creepy looking and ghostlike."

"On another note, Emily, Maya, and I just went to the coffee bean to go get food. Emily and I both were wearing short sleeve shirts, this is quite a difference from our first day in class when Laila stressed the inappropriateness of wearing such scandalous clothing(while she was wearing a rather low cut shirt). Even after 3 weeks here I am still not sure about things like haggling, dress code, proper conversation ect. I feel like most people I ask have different answers, though I suppose it is similar in the states(as far as the different views on such topics). It's going to be kind of weird going home and hanging out with my friends who swear make obscene jokes..and never make me tea."

Okay, well these pictures are not from today...but they are some more examples of us working and the progress we are making:

Silk screening and preparing our boards...

Oh, I forgot we all had pizza at lunch, we tried to kinda tried to serve the Emeraties but they would have non of that

7/7- more class time

Bora

Ilene
"One more day of class until the crit..eep. Anyways we've all made some good progress. Right now Fatma and Alia and printing on Alia's panels. Bora has pretty much finished all of hers( with the exception of her transparency), and I am almost done(also with the exception of a transparency, Alia sounded like she wanted us all to have them so I changed my plans a bit to include one). We all got a lot done today so I am not too worried about getting everything finished, as far as the rotating body parts go. However, we have not yet started screen printing on the wood blocks, we will need to get those all done tomorrow if we plan to use them. Since we will be using the same screens though, once we get started on the blocks, I'm hoping that they will not take too long... if it does I think our project will still look good without it."

7/6- working on our projects

Bora

Ilene

"We spent another day doing work all day. We really need the time. Fatma has been helping Alia, Bora, and myself in-since she does not have her own series of panels to do. She helped me a lot with my transfers, which may be the death of me...personally I prefer good ol' winter green oil. Anyways back to what we are all doing. Alia just got her transparency printed. It's looking good. Bora has been putting transfers on wood all day, they are looking good as well. As said Fatma has pretty much been helping everyone, as well as painting blocks that we can screen print on. I think all our transparencies are printed as well as a few of our screens. After some frustrating tried I finally got the whole transfer thing and I took my boards home to work on. So as far as those go I am about halfway done and I should finish during class tomorrow. Oh, also(on a not so work-related note) for lunch Rhotha brought us mannaeesh(sp?) for lunch. It may have possibly been my favorite food this whole trip(along with what Amal brought the other day)."

7/5

Bora

We were on the yesterday's newspaper!

Our group project is on the process.

Ilene

"We spent all of today in class working on our project. Much of it was individual work but we did discuss some things in a group. I think all our different parts will look unique, fitting for the fact that we are each different, but there will be an over lying unity. The project will have both obvious and metaphoric symbolism of each of us. Bora and Alia are both doing transparencies and screen printing while I am doing a transfer and paint(or screen printing). However the basic composition will be similar. We also need to get working on the wood blocks for the smaller piece, however we have not yet got those, so we won't be able to start until we do...once we do, it should go by fairly fast though. In terms of cultural differences, we had an interesting moment yesterday when Josh asked how we were going to construct our larger blocks. Before I could suggest using wood glue, Bora jumped in offering to do it(at MICA that would be perfectly normal). However, rather than being thanked and moving on(like what would happen at MICA) Alia, Fatma, and Josh just kind of laughed. We were told they could find someone to do it, which was kind of a relief that we had less work, but such a weird difference from the "do everything and do it yourself" attitude back home. So all we really have to do is decorate the wood with our images."

7/2 visiting the Sheikh

Ilene

"So today we visited the minister of education(Sheikh Nahyan Bin Mubarak Al Nahyan). We were unfortunately quite late so we were not able to stay too long. However it was still a great experience. It was interesting looking around the room and seeing the twenty or so men, some dressed in traditional western men's attire, and some in traditional arab men's attire. Just like us and the Zayed girls we've all come together and really are not too different. The man sitting near Bern explained to us about the food and his initial experiences with the culture, and just listening to him, as well as the man who spoke to us at UAEU it seems that their exploring and accepting other cultures really helped them to get to where they are today. Having so many ex-patriots I think Dubai rally is a good place to experience people learning and accepting other cultures to better themselves."

http://www.gulfnews.com/Nation/Education/10225494.html

Fatma

here is how our day went in pictures

7/1- trip to art galleries/business district

Ilene

"So we spent a bit of time in class doing odds and ends, we probably we not as group oriented as we should have been but Alia was not here and Fatma was busy working on a print for the Sheik. Hopefully we will have a lot of time in the next week to

work on our project. After some independent working time we went to the business district to visit art galleries(curious right?). Anyways that was fun, One of the galleries was more modern and had a lot of spray painted stuff, that was probably my favorite. The mix of different galleries was certainly interesting though, we saw all sorts of art, including very old islamic art/design(at furjan). Then we all went off and got iced coffee, that was fun... I think Fatma and I spent more time talking then than in our group. After that we went to the woman's club where students talked about their experiences traveling and working with people from other places. They all pretty much revolved around our mission statement of taking in other cultures and learning about the world around you in order to better yourself and broaden your work."
(pictures still on my camera, i'll post them once i get them off).

Fatma

Tour at the Farjam Collection










Gallaries @ DIFC




Bora

The Farjam Collection

"The Farjam Collection is one of the finest privately-owned Islamic art collections in the world today. Spanning almost the entire history of Islam, it brings together items produced throughout the vast region between Andalusia and Mughal India. Its treasures include Qur’anic manuscripts, miniatures and illustrated books on science, mathematics and poetry, as well as finely-decorated metalwork, lacquer, glasswork, tiles, glazed pottery, woodwork, textiles, coins, jewellery, carpets and art from the 13th century AH.

Illustrative of Farhad Farjam’s interests wide ranging affinities and tastes, the collection also includes works by major masters such as Picasso, Chagall, Dali, Braque, Renoir, Matisse, Miro, Leger, and Giacometti, as well as modern and contemporary artists including Warhol, Basquiat, de Kooning, Calder, Moshiri, Ehsai, Tanavoli, Al Rais, and Moustafa."



http://www.farjamcollection.com/