week (8)

Foucault again:

This week was about the Foucaldian notions of understanding history..

Foucault has applied the Genealogy and Archaeology methods in reading history which asserts that history is a combination of different liars and roots .it is not lineal. According to this, different notions in different times have a certain power and meanings. Defining the notion in terms of its position in the history map could give a better understanding.

By looking to the Arab world I could argue that the history is still reading in one way. We could see that by analysing the educational, political, and cultural system. This “one way” emphasizes the power and hierarchy system and discourse in the history narration.

However, who said that Foucault theory is the best and the only way to read different history in different nations? Especially we know that he wrote his theory to apply it in the nineteenth century of the European history.

Reflection:

When the nation began to expand in the early Islamic epoch upon the Romanian and Greek territory none of this civilisation had been ignored.

The Islamic thought has the ability and the flexibility to understand the ancient thoughts and use them to come up with a unique and distinctive culture which commensurate with the Islamic values.

This idea makes me think: we might need a unique theory which could be compatible with the different aspect in our culture in order to read and understand our history in an effective way rather than applying the western theories.

week (5)

Bourdieu week:

Yesterday I sent a song by email to some of my friends ..I wrote a “self interpretation” about the song to indicate why I does like it. then I got tow different responds ..my first friend said: what a bad taste, your taste is awful. I was still shocked when another friend has just sent me: I like the song, you always has this unique taste in your choices, and by your words you make things even more charming..!!!

Now, could you help me Bourdieu to understand the reason of these different responds to the same “object” and the same “interpretation”?

According to you, the taste is controlled by people who are in power, and if some one doesn’t have the same language and the same ability to understand the codes he is not welcomed in this system.

So, back to my story: who belongs to the “system” or to the high class art? My friend or me? And who doesn’t belong?

In Bourdieu surveys the cultural practices and preferences in literature, painting or music are closely linked to educational level and secondarily to social origin.

Yes, in our Suadi society the distinction between levels and classes are clearly exist. But this is not enough to apply Bourdieu theories in my society. However, lots of issues are raised in order to understand Bourdieu notions:

• - according to Bourdieu’s thought “Habitus”, it is suggested that the people with adequate levels of education are highly engaged with high culture (museums, art galleries and theatres). But what if we flip this meaning: could we use museums ,art galleries and theatres to educate people and push them to engaged with high culture?
• - What if the concept of the “high culture” as museums and art galleries does not fit in the Saudi society because it is not a part of the history of culture? Do we have to look for another form of culture such as festivals, literature, and traditional costumes to apply this project?
• - What if we want to restructure the “cultural space” in the society? How could the museums become an effected spaces by creating “communication” between people and “signs” in this spaces?
• - Who should exist first: the museums or the museums studies? Or we should expand the term “museum” to be compatible with the different cultural needs according to each society rather than considering the European and the western sample of the museum and art work?

After this sets of questions can I understand why my friend has described my taste as an “Awful” and who give him the “authority “ to do this? Or because he is an “Arabic male” naturally he gets this right?

This is another topic…!!!!

* the painting for the artist" Fathi Afeefe" and I could see "Ramadan" in the picture as an religious festival in the Arabic world which indicate the relation between religion and cultural practices.

week (4)

It is Foucault week. And I was interested about several ideas:

I remembered when a journalist has interviewed me about my last book. And he started to ask personal questions and tried to link them with the content pretending that would help him to understand the book clearly and deeply.

Suddenly I realized that by doing this he is going to shift from analyzing and critique the essence of the book to another direction ،so I told him: do you hear about the theory: “The death of the author”? According to that theory you could try to analyse the text to understand the meanings in an abstract form away from the individual impact of the author.

Do I believe really on this? Can we isolate the text from the author? from his view, his cultural background, his rreligious conviction and his values and history? I believe that the” author “is one of the tools, which could help to understand the meanings from different perspective. While Foucault undermines the author’s influence and authority he described the Author as a function of discourse which offer him a middle position.

Reflections:

• Foucault is dealing with the author as a function of discourse. Although I believe on the influence of the author in the text , I could apply Foucault’s notion on ideas and texts which were existed in history with unknown author such as literary stories, folk tales, and traditional cultural practices. in this case we should consider the collective consciousness as the author and try to analyse its discourse which be compatible with Foucault theory.
• By viewing the cultural manifestations in my country I could assert the Dominance of the political and religious discourse in the classification and narration of the different cultural events and elements. Recently, the higher and the educated class of the society become aware of this fact which has created an intellectual and cultural conflict within the community.

week (2)

Our visiting to Kirkstall Abbey & Abbey House Museum:

-I have to admit: I could not be an academic objective person today. Maybe because I am always appreciate the special relation between humans and places.

While I was walking into the Abbey I can walk through the history and “feel” the “place”.. the real frame is her and I have to look for the hidden stories behind stones.

In the Victorian street in the museum ,the history was pictured and presented to the visitors who are in the present and some one gives them a “bunch” of history.. Although it is authentic, it is just a location without strong romantic feeling..

This was my own impression!! and because audience are different, the history should be presented to them in various ways to cope with the different needs and backgrounds of the audience and to create different feelings and engagements.

-I took the photo above(2007) in the Citadel of Qaitbay ,Alexandria, Egypt which was built in 1477.

While I was standing behind the bars I was thinking how many people during history have stood here in the same spot and looked to the sea !?

week (2)

Methods of Interpretation and Display:

- Our class this week was in the Art Gallery of Leeds. Being surrounding with paintings from different epochs was compatible with Burger’s idea. He asserts that Images are more precise and richer than literature because they are a direct testimony about the world and they treat as documentary evidence.

This idea might be acceptable when we study the western art because the visual elements could be the essential aspect of this art. But we could not apply the same idea on the Arabic and Islamic Art, which the most significant aspect of its culture was the Arabic literature. Although this literature hold in its famous pomes a very strong visual and cultural meaning about the life and the history, it has been argued to which extend it could be documentary evidence.

Benjamin also has revealed a reason of the difference between the western and the Islamic art when he said that the unique value of the authentic work of art has its basis on ritual and cult. According to that an important value in the Islamic art is not to picture any thing has “soul” and instead of drawing people and portrait the Islamic art appeared on the unique style of using geometric shapes and the Arabic calligraphy in agriculture, domestic utensils and textiles.

- In order of displaying in the museums:

We should consider the order of the objects because “The meaning of an image is changed according to what one sees immediately beside it or what comes immediately after it.” Berger. Benjamin has presented a similar meaning when he said “To pry an object from its shell, to destroy its aura , is the mark of a perception whose “sense of the universal equality of things” has increased to such a degree that it extracts it even from a unique object by means of reproduction.”

-The interest in art is related to privileged education and the meaning of the art is changing according to the politics. It seems like a real conflict between the elite and the political forces and according to Hegal theory it is the way to promote the human civilisation.

reflections:

-Each culture has its own meaning and aspects. So, we should study, intreprt, and deal with each culture in its right “aura”. Related to that I was in workshop last Saturday about “writing pictures of places”. The elements of the workshop were grate, but because my cultural identity was in my Arabic language and because I wasn’t in my perfect “aura” it was hard to get the full, creative and effective cultural communication.!!!

How could we create united cultural language and in the meantime protect the beauty of the cultural privacy?

-I did not feel a strong Impression by walking in the art gallery as a visitor. Maybe because of the order of the objects? Or maybe because of the narrative style?

- maybe it is the time to the art galleries and museums to think about shifting to create intimate ,fusion and enjoyment reaction.

-the painting is for Taha Sabban a Saudi male artist and it is about the most holly place for Muslims "AlKaaba" the house of God.

week (1)

Introduction:

The first week was an introduction about interpreting cultures: A Consideration of Text. We started by telling different terms related to the “Museum” such as heritage, identity, messages, cultures, curators, history, stories, politics and art. We also discussed the idea of telling objects and how could the different narratives tell different stories from various perspectives about collections. also we discussed the reasons which may  prevent people from visiting museums.

Mieke Bal has started his chapter with a quotation for Karl Marks: “it is a definite social relation between men, that assume, in their eyes, the fantastic from a relation between things” this is emphasize the idea which compare narratives with newspapers reports. The “facts” always have been seen from one side and one eye,then the audience accepted it as the only “facts”. 

Reflections:

Lots of questions were raised from the introduction: 

•  What are the Saudi heritage collections? And at what point they became collections.

•   KSA is a young kingdom (100 years) and the society is moving fast towards the future that offers new life style. However, people are not aware of the value of their traditional heritage and the importance to collect different artifacts before they lose them. In this term, who are the responsible to collect and how “they” could start this process? And is it possible to create a link between visiting museums as a story of the past and looking forward to the future.

• There is a strong argument in KSA about the value of the heritage which were exist before the Kingdome united especially the aria are rich of historical sights. What is the government political position on these aspects of “non pure Saudi” culture. And what kind of meanings the stories might hold?

• The painting above for Deena Alfadl, she is a Saudi female artist. actually I don't know what is the real title of the painting. However,it seems to me  that it pictured the movement from the old city and the old life and leaving all the past behind...so, do we have to know the real intent of the artist in his work? or is it enough how the work could evoke the audience ?