From my visual diary...

Thought I share few page spreads from my visual diary... Some of which are visuals that are stuck in my mind while I was reading into Islamic philosophy or cosmology, others were simple doodles of certain things I feel like I need to remember... 

By jotting these down it helped me personally to remember things, at the same time it also helps in going back to it and see it all together... which is something that may not necessarily be available through laptop screens!

Would be happy to know any different ways of visual recording... 

A friend along the way

I have been warned from the first day of my PhD that it is going to be one long isolated journey, and I have to be aware of it in order not to "disappear". 

This post is mainly about feeling gratitude, to be part of a university that first pushes the boundaries of academic research (PhD is not as boring as people might think!), and second offers a great deal of activities and programs to enrich any student's experience. One program is of "Mentoring scheme" for PhD candidates. You apply, you get matched with a partner (or mentee), and then you start a relationship that at its worst is a formal one that mainly dedicated to give guide throughout a year with free coffee vouchers, or at its best is a friendship that will change your life. 

I have been blessed to be matched with Yakub, though our topics of research are very contradicting, but we are of rebellious souls, we can't join the flow so we aspire to have one of our own! 

We aim to meet once a month, talk about life, life with PhD, art with PhD and everything in between! He has been a source of inspiration ever since we started, not to mention the empowering positive energy that he gives me every time we share good-coffee-talk! 

When we were asked of a word that describes our relationship so far; we couldn't find one in the dictionary, so we created one: 

metapalibelious! (you can see the Mary Poppins effect!) 

meta/ from metaphysics (subjects that I am into)

pali/ from palimpsest (subject Yakub is into) 

elious/ from rebellious (our personality approach for research problem)

Synthesizing through Visuals....

So here I am trying to read about spirituality in Islamic art and design, I am currently reading this interesting book by Ardalan and Bakhtiar (see below) which examines the Sufi approach for the sense of unity in Architecture... 

What I found intriguing is how reading this book stimulates my mind in different directions; the rich visuals and deep philosophical text are inspiring so much that I want to create artworks of what I am synthesizing throughout the book... 

So much of what I am reading feels so simple if it was translated into visual medium... For they can send the message and the content not only artistically appealing but also layered with multiple dimensions. 

It would be very interesting to examine how Muslim, artists, designers, architects, and students in such fields interpret historical information about Islamic art and design... The whole idea of investigating the creative process of syntheses and artistic production is an area of special interest for me. I have a feeling that - in a way- it will be embedded throughout my research... 

For now, I loose myself in this book... and I feel good about it... ! 

Tam

Visual extracts that will find their place somehow in my visual diary... 

Reference: 

Ardalan, N. and Bakhtiar, L. (1973). The sense of unity. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.