Interruptions | Banana Edition

interruptions BANANA EDITION

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experimentations on architecture, art and culture in the Levant

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interruptions

sponsers

Khaled sedKi darya tarawneh nader Gammas

amman institute aramex arab company For white cement industry Jacaranda wide:screen 16:9

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dr. rami F. daher ................................

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contributers

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adel samara ahmad humeid ahmad sabbaGh ali musleh anarchy archiGram ashraF KaFaween blouzaat / typism dina Khawaldeh hadi alaeddin ibrahim attar omar Jarrad paola zindel reloadinG imaGes roula yaGhmour ruba assi saKhr malKawi suleiman hadidi woroud adhali ................................

desiGn

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syntax / ahmad sabbaGh syntaxdiGital.com ................................

interruptions | Publications http://int-publications.com/ http://interruptions.weebly.com/ interruptions@live.co.uk

interruptions is an independent non-profit initiative enabling non-standardized experimentation on architecture, design and culture in the cultural zone of the Levant and releases publications, (independent or collaborative), in various forms, shapes or contents framed by a shared commitment to the contextual existence we operate within and contribute to.

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preliminary

2nd, May 2008 Interruptions | Publications releases its second publication titled, Idiom. The issue contained 12 articles by various contributors and a collective mosaic of critiques collected from architects, artists, anthropologists and social figures on the contemporary transformation of the city.

9th, May 2008 Fierce gunfire between pro-and anti- government movements broke out in several districts in Beirut. Lebanon’s long-simmering political crisis lurched deeper into violent civil conflict bringing back the memory of a brutal civil war that lasted over fifteen years.

9th, June 2008 Interruptions together with JAE released a special edition of Mimarion titled, 4th Architectural Conference:High-Rise Buildings.

It was distributed throughout the conference ,included abstracts of key-note speakers, interviews edited by Interruptions and samples of student projects.

27th, December 2008 On 27 December, Israel began its bombardment on Gaza strip which lasted for 22 days. At least 1300 Gazans had been killed, with 70% civilians including more than 400 children, and more than 5300 injured in the most brutal attack on the strip since 1967.

June 2008 The price of oil has made a record jump to nearly $139 a barrel last June.Crisis impact reached almost every spot in the world until finally along with other factors resulted in the financial crisis to appear to surface on Septermber 2008 with the US government taking over Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae.

8th, August 2008 Beijing held its opening ceremony for the 2008 Summer Olympics. The ceremony, held in the National Stadium, was attended by thousands, and has caught nearly 4 billion people’s eyes worldwide. Featuring more than 15,000 performers, and have cost over US$100 million.

4th, September 2008 Interruptions team held a workshop in Damascus upon [Reloading Images:] artistic research platform.

Workshop was titled, Damascus: Narrative on Place and the City. a remapping the for the city theatre sets. it published a summary of the workshop in Reloading Images Drat Report.utat, quisi blandre.

17th, January 2009 United Arab Emirates (UAE) developer Emaar Properties announces Burj Dubai reached its final height of 818 m. The tower is designed by Skidmore, Owings and Merrill. The design of Burj Dubai is reminiscent of the Frank Lloyd Wright vision for The Illinois.

5th, November 2008 Barack Obama has been elected the 44th president of the United States—the first time an AfricanAmerican has won the nation’s highest office and the rare occasion where a newcomer to national politics has captured the White House on his first try.

14th, December 2008 On an Iraq trip shrouded in secrecy and marred by dissent, President George W. Bush on Sunday hailed progress in the war that defines his presidency and got a size-10 reminder of his unpopularity when a man hurled two shoes at him during a news conference.

21st, November 2008 There was no evidence of the global financial crisis as tycoons and celebrities streamed into Dubai for the $31 million party.

After Kylie Minogue performed to 2000 guests the sky lit up with the world’s largest fireworks display, opening ceremony to be seen from outer space.

21st, February 2009 Amman Institute for Urban Development is hosting a forum sponsored by Greater Amman Municipality and moderated by the architectural magazine Interruptions. The Form will host the mayor of Amman, Omar Maani interacting with the youth of the city.

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54 what’s love got to Do with it? reloaDing images

58 big brown box

60 12 proJect5s x 12 architects

62 proFile: pierre el khoury/architect

64 reviews

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65 review: blouzaat manual-animal workshop @ makan

To them, we dedicate this hard work, for helping us place that banana up in front; because at times, it is almost alright to be Interrupted, or even slip as to get up right after, but much more careful than before.

66 material Fetish: on white cement

For Ahmad Humeid and Ahmad Sabbagh of Syntax for helping us redesign Interruptions. For Mayor Omar Maani, Gerry Post, Amman Institute and GAM for allowing us to join hands together with youth to engage ourselves in the growth of our city, Amman. For Dr. Rami Daher, our academic patron, for the unconditional support. For Nader Gammas, Nadine Dihmes, Omar Jarrad and Rasha Aboude for their passion and dedication. For all contributors from Jordan, Syria, Berlin and Mexico for making Interruptions diverse. For all sponsors and collaborators for making all this achievable.

68 news From utopia

Dear Interruptionists, It is only now that I finally had the time to write the opening statement, at 5:40 a.m. and only hours away from print submission! Well, this is how hectic it has been! With less than one week left for Amman’s Centennial Forum, we hardly had time to spare for breath, but yet it is beautiful. Perhaps it is most beautiful because every part of this issue has been done with love, as it has been with every release of Interruptions. Two ironic years have passed, and whether Interruptions went on or not, we are very confident that us being here at Syntax at 5:47 a.m. on Valentine’s Day is a celebration of something worthy of every bit we invested in. It may not look ‘celebrational’ while we pulled so many all-nighters for the last two weeks, with so many laptops, stacks of papers and piles of drafts. But we certainly are satisfied.

It’s funny when you play it all together at once. Our meeting with Ahmad Humeid literally swept us off our feet when he offered <Syntax> to design our baby! The Centennial Forum that was made true by the help and the blind trust of Gerry Post, Amman Institute, and the generosity of Mayor Omar Al-Maani. All brought us back with loaded energy and passion. Now we’re finally here, with no opening statement. So instead we wish we could thank those with the passion, determination and dedication enough to help us reinvent interruptions:

07 photo essay: sharing a Fountain 08 illegal Forms: Quality oF place; the case oF Dharaya 10 photography: i call architecture Frozen music 14 observing the Flow oF ‘thought’ anD coFFee JaFra: analytical stuDy oF perception patterns 19 Design rituals 20 back when cars useD to be transportation vehicles 22 consciousness anD resistance a travelling workshop to unravel the politics anD practices oF heritage within bilaD al sham anD its connecteD publics, actors anD networks 26 architecture “on-holD” 27 15sh 29 blouzaat: visual stories 32 branDing gaza: how to take a long, sustaineD “revenge” on israel 35 necropolis metropolis 36 through the mirror: observation - reFlecteD 38 proxemia anD accumulation 40 reversing the basic block through art 42 FlooDeD lonDon: Five images oF the Future 44 geography oF memory 45 archi.toons 46 sheesha, Dust anD highway views observations on substitute urbanism 47 narrative 48 voiDs 49 anarchy 52 experiment

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photo essay sharing a Fountain Nader Gammas

Earlier this year, I had the privilege of going on a private tour of Old Damascus with Maktab Anbar, the preservation committee for the old city. The house pictured here is one of many fascinating courtyard houses. Larger then most of the courtyards houses, the original owner of the property was the irrigation master of Old Damascus, hence the family name, Saqaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;Amini. The highly prestigious position of the pasha was controlling the distribution and regulation of water to the various districts within the city walls. The house was passed on to family generations then abandoned. It was left to the homeless for shelter.

Currently there are five families living in each of the five rooms, all sharing the central courtyard. I asked one of the residents how long they have been dwelling there. She says she doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t remember how long she has been living there, but she says her brother who is now 48, was born in one of the rooms.

Many of the residents arenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t welcoming, for they fear of being evicted at anytime. Plans to restore the house have been discussed. But due to insufficient funding and lack of housing for the current occupants, restoration projects are postponed.

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illegal Forms: Quality oF space the case oF Dharaya Woroud Adhali

PEOPLE’S ARCHITECTURE Phenomena:

ArBITrAry lOOkINg hOusEs ThAT wErE DEvElOpED By lOcAl INhABITANTs wIThOuT INTErvENTION Of ANy spEcIAlIsTs, ENgINEEr Or ArchITEcT. Building procedures are not monitored or under any supervision of engineer/ architect.

In some cases a 3 story building is built only with cement bricks and no reinforced concrete in the whole structure, and regarding Form and function, it’s merely developed by the builder

Land division is done by a specialist “that divides it among owners” and in most cases lands are being transferred through in heritage.

Land ownership is being transferred by “inherit age” from father to family members according to Syrian laws, and then each cultivates or takes care of the new territory and in most cases builds that zone.

The building process is done by agreements among the owners of land in collaboration with the builder, they decide together the location of the ally the start and the end of it along with the connection to the street.

[Privacy as a value of the local community is respected from all; no windows are designed in any way to violate that value] one can find that it’s been according to rules that were respected by the people that formed the community [owners of land] no door’s openings that may face each other /property boundaries haven’t changes much since the French’s new distribution of land

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Local community services and quality human conditions are hardly noticed, since the whole building process is illegal in that part of town; No any wish of community growth or any sustainable thinking regarding the services, open spaces nor kids playing grounds or any recreational area.

The Design is merely developed by the builder in consultant with the owner of “the houses to be” it’s arbitrary forms with no apparent reference or any systematic operation but after investigating the building procedure and the formation process]

Whatever encoded message that is being transferred through the images of informal settlements and irregular houses, one must not ignore the hidden value of the community that regulates it’s forms and communications, and maybe we “architects to be” should gain and give back knowledge to such self-developed zones help them reach healthier communities, communities that solve its spatial problems by accommodating the urban policies to the benefit of people.

And eventually we must admit that the informal settlements are the contemporary architecture of Damascus in 2007.

And maybe designers of space” can work with urban policy makers and locals to reach new solutions that are at the same time legal and an elevation the qualities of life by improving the spaces experienced by people in the city of Damascus.

And maybe architects should consider lending hand/ instead of punishing people of Dharaya for form violation and changing land description we “architects and designers of space” can work with urban policy makers and locals to reach new solutions that are at the same time legal and an elevation the qualities of life by improving the spaces experienced by people.

In dharaya, Jarmana, Kassioun and other periphery spaces have been

the most growing, rapid and vibrant construction in Damascus in the last 10 years.

While architects are waiting a change in urban policies so they could produce or make their unique designs, people are not waiting and they are taking the matter into their hands and they are violating the law to provide themselves with a shelter but eventually it is the

BAsIc rEAsON fOr ThE ExIsTENcE Of ArchITEcTurE.

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architectural photography: an introDuction Ibrahim Attar

HAUNCHES Ibrahim Attar Stade Olympique, Montreal Canada Make: SONY Model: DSLR-A100 Shutter Speed: 1/800 second F Number: F/9.0 Focal Length: 16 mm ISO Speed: 400

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“I cAll ArchITEcTurE frOzEN musIc” Johann Wolfgang von Goethe I have been oft asked how to take an architectural photograph and the question has always bought Goethe’s quote to mind. Architecture truly is an instant of human creativity frozen in time baring its beauty for all to see. If architecture is seen as an instance of creativity transformed into a tangible physical creation then the first step towards understanding architectural photography is taken. David Rutton described architecture as being “one part science, one part craft and two parts art” and the photographer must never forget an architectural photograph is an interpretation of another’s work of art. This means that architectural photography is an immensely personal endeavour; it reflects the individual photographer’s personal response to a work of art and is then interpreted by those who see the photograph. I believe art should be personal and should speak to the viewer and the artist on a personal level, all my photos represent a little piece of my personality. I also always try to challenge the conventional point of view (okay not always... but most of the time) people have about the subjects in my photographs.

Architecture has two essential parts to it from a photographer’s perspective; the structure itself and the environment that it is located in. On first reflection it would seem that I have merely restated the obvious; everyone knows that there needs to be a structure and the structure needs to be located

somewhere. However this is a point that many seem to forget when trying to take an architectural photograph.

On the first point the structure itself is of utmost importance and contains within it several aspects. Primarily one must understand a particular structure’s function; why this structure created and what was is its purpose. Knowing this helps the photographer understand the philosophy that underpins the design of a particular structure which in turn allows the photographer to appreciate the structure itself. Understanding the design philosophy makes it easier in trying to find the beauty of the structure and translate it into a photograph.

Second one must ascertain the best place from which to take an interesting photograph. Use the structure’s design to your advantage. Make sure that the lives in the photograph flow well together and that the photograph is well composed with regards to structure.

With regards to the second point it is more intimately connected with a photographer’s art. The environment in which the structure being photographed is essential to an architectural photographer for it defines how the camera is going to be used (that is to say the settings). The photographer must choose whether he wants to take an interior shot or an exterior shot. If it is an interior shot one must consider whether or not to include the furniture or the human element. Never forget that architecture is first and foremost meant for people, and when doing interior architectural work one must decide whether or not to include people in the photograph. Sometimes the presence of a person in the photograph will serve to highlight the architectural piece while as in other cases human subject will dominate more than the architecture.

Even though architecture is about people, and architectural photograph is about the structure itself and the human element is secondary and should only reinforce the structure being portrayed.

If the photograph is to be of the exterior then the surrounding environment of the particular structure must be taken into consideration.

Gardens, trees, the sky, other buildings that may be included and even the structure itself are important considerations. All these elements must be taken into consideration as their inclusion or exclusion plays a great deal into the aesthetics of the photograph.

The weather must always be taken into consideration. I have always found that the sky is an important aspect of any outdoor architectural photograph.

It is best to wait for the right kind of conditions depending on what you want to bring out in you photograph. A deep blue or a reflected cloud can make all the difference in a photograph.

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ASCEND Ibrahim Attar Stade Olumpique, Montreal Canada Make: SONY Model: DSLR-A100 Shutter Speed: 1/500 second F Number: F/9.0 Focal Length: 16 mm ISO Speed: 400 The stadium is a popular and a much photographed landmark in Montreal; the challenge was in trying to come up with unconventional angle to capture the structure.

[Ascend] was an attempt to take the viewer closer to the structure and allow the graceful lines of the tower dictate the composition.

[Haunches] was taken from behind the stadium; where very few people go.

In both cases the goal is to challenge the viewer to perceive a well known landmark in a different way.

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observing the Flow oF ‘thought’ anD coFFee JaFra: analytical stuDy oF perception patterns Khaled Sedki

NARRATIVE Making my way out of western Amman across Abdali, images of posh skyscrapers and steel dressed buildings from the Abdali Project were swirling around my head, creating an image as hollow as the icons that have been attempting to capture me one after the other. As the taxi’s meter continued to count numbers, I realised that numbers were probably what I have been seeing through this display of structural merchandise.

The evolutionary consistency was to be interrupted once we went downhill, gradually allowing these numbers to align equations, equations into meanings, meanings into sense; a living poem of Amman.

Somehow, tracing this memory led me to one of these corners exposed to the street yet arousing curiosity, leading you to a story at its heart. Narrating it through a contradiction that you notice once entered, the randomly assembled overstepped stones at one corner, trash laid against rusty steel framing its wooden panels at another. All seem to disappear with the illumination of the escaping rays of light embracing its terraces and shading its mystically arising stairs. The space lies silently observing the dialogue between the woods of the stairs, the rays of light, humid smells, baked bread and the escaping voice of Fairuz.

THE CASE OF JAFRA Jafra is a cafe in downtown Amman. Since its opening, it has been a refuge of many types, nostalgic and intellectual, a hub or another themed cafe.

Provoking wide discussions and debates among youth each presenting his own theory of the cafes essence, and meaning all diversely finding asylums under its roof within its harmonically enveloped paradox.

Observing discussions taking place at Jafra, or various Ammani settings and on the web, people have approached these debates from strangely uncommon perspectives that lay far beyond issues of commodity and aesthetics. Jafra was

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JAfrA hAs BEEN A rEfugE Of mANy TypEs, NOsTAlgIc AND INTEllEcTuAl, A huB Or A ThEmED cAfé; lOuD, quIET Or rhyThmIc BuT NEvEr sIlENT.

hardly evaluated for whatever criteria used for any other type of cafe. Rather, it was discussed according to individual interpretation of the place, integrity, relativity to downtown Amman, intellectual dimensions, commitment or authenticity.

The following is a brief extract from an analysis I performed on Jafra. The analytical process took two dimensions: The first, perception through which we analyze place/meaning, perceptive politics by listing major arguments concerning methods of perceiving, meaning of place, and then adopting a psychoanalytical approach for this study.

The other dimension is interaction behavioral patterns where I try to identify the mutual relationship between individual/space and group/place, and the values each donates to the other, exploring the values of behavioral setting, and the role of behavior’s consistency in forming the place’s milieu.

As well as understanding Jafra’s architectural homogeneity and the interaction patterns it evolves.

PERCEPTION While the empiricist assumed that meaning is to be supplied to events after the perceived have registered their structure, Transactionalists believe that meaning is given as a perception takes place while past experiences interrupt this perception to give a new meaning. On the other hand introspective analysis suggests that meanings are given first. Gestalt theories believe that expressive meanings, at one level, are a function of the geometric character of the environment.

Psychoanalysists postulate an unconscious component of the mind in which the memories are deposited to be awakened by the psyche.

These meanings can be highly perceived in place of high cultural and social heritage, or ideological dimensions in which the user can relate to and personalize within. Some places hold reverence through the architectural elements and the experiences beyond. These would elaborate a mutual understanding between the receiver and the place where the

true definition of one’s past is preserved and that being the catalyst of such relationship.

This can be highly perceived in the case of Jafra. While the space preserves an essence of an ideological merit identified by one of Jafra’s founders, known as Aziz, as a place that declares humanity and honesty as its reason for existence.

Owing this to a charismatic experience that addresses the users’ unconsciousness and takes them to high levels of dispositive memories; found in their understanding and belonging to a certain belief. The discussion evoked by people holding that belief is the psyche that awakened the psychoanalytical meaning pre-attached towards the place.

This is probably evident among all patterns and types of visitors to Jafra, developing either nostalgic or intellectual values and pre-suggested qualities associated with collective memory of type. A case not very applicable to that of ‘modern’ cafés since lower expectations are attached to the latter, therefore, these modern cafés are judged according to their essence and singular qualities.

BEHAVIOUR: Ideology producing new politics of cafe/customer relationship Once accommodated with these affordances and enveloped by its physical medium, the customer in Jafra, is projected to a new set of Cafe/Customer politics. The customer donates to the identity of the place and plays many roles being the customer, the observer, the contributor, the cook and a major part of the essence of it driven by his belonging to the place. “...customer experiences don’t end at their food table, and don’t finish beyond Jafra’s door. Each of them is Jafra.”

Throughout our observation of the various patterns and the acts taking place in Jafra, the ideological unity embracing groups from various backgrounds have provided the milieu with new possibilities of socializing and creative ways of interaction uncommon around places of such functions in the surrounding context. interruptions | 15

ARCHITECTURAL HOMOGENEITY: Architecture /architecture – architecture /people: On the topic of architectural homogeneity and interaction patterns J. Lang explains, ‘Greater amount of social interaction takes place between people who live in settings that are homogenous in terms of size, style and value of housing units. The evidence for this is indirect. The assumption is that people who choose to live in such areas perceive themselves to be homogenous (important) in values and this will interact more.’

Lang presents an argument that the architecture/architecture homogeneity reacts into a consistency and a frame unifying human behavior and increasing their level of interaction.

This applies to people ‘who’ choose the setting which in turn can be homogenous or not.

What about the case of architecture/ideology homogeneity or place/behavior. Analyzing the case of Jafra leads to a question whether the patterns accommodated in Jafra can be practiced elsewhere, and if so, the level of homogeneity it perceives and the extents by which individuals practice is

JAFRA Cafe’ Downtown Amman/Balad photography; khaled sedki

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affected. The practices imitated elsewhere than Jafra would appear definitely unlikely and deviant. The place/behavior homogeneity is a formula of two factors and fails if accommodated one without the other.

SUMMARY It has been two years since I wrote this analysis and it probably may not be applicable or have not adapted to the changes Jafra recently undertook. It is perhaps the experiment of observing these patterns and attempting to decode perception, engagement and evaluation politics of a place with many dualities that appears intriguing. Perception is never a passive receptive process but rather a very elaborative complex one.

As fOr mE, JAfrA Is A mEDIum By whIch I pErcEIvE scENArIOs I wIsh TO ENgAgE wITh, pErhAps DEcONTExTuAlIzED BuT yET suBsTITuTIONAl TO rEAlITIEs ThAT mAy NOT AlwAys BE As plEAsANT As ThAT Of ThEIr AssOcIATED mEmOry.

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amman institute www.ammaninstitute.org

ThINk urBAN ThEN suffIx IT wITh ThINk-TANk. NExT: INsTITuTIONAlIzE IT lOcAlly. rEsulT: ThE AmmAN INsTITuTE. Home grown with an eye on the region, the Amman Institute is a not-for-profit institution that aspires to operate as an international center of excellence in urban governance, community planning and development, and organizational reform in Jordan and the region.

Established by the Greater Amman Municipality (GAM), the Institute operates not only to serve GAM, but also to advance the work in the urban governance at the local and national levels, tackling issues of land management, physical planning, public policy, and city leadership, among others. The Institute believes in global thinking that is

vIsION: AN ArAB cENTEr Of ExcEllENcE

ThAT hElps urBAN cOmmuNITIEs ExcEl

mIssION: BuIlDINg lOcAl cApAcITy

fOr susTAINABlE cOmmuNITy DEvElOpmENT ThrOugh cITIzEN cENTErED gOvEmANcE

cOrE vAluE: AN INDEpENDENT prOfEssIONAl vOIcE ThAT ThINks glOBAlly AND ADApTs lOcAlly

suppOrTINg vAluEs: ExcEllENcE IN whAT wE DElIvEr TEAm wOrk AND cOllABOrATION IN ThE wAy wE wOrk wITh Our sTAkEhOlDErs AND wITh ThE frEEly shArINg Our kNOwlEDgE TO EmpOwEr OThErs rEspEcT Our DIvErsITy As A mEANs TO sTrENgThEN ThE OrgANIzATION AND ThE sOluTIONs wE OffEr BuIlDINg cApAcITy By AcTINg As AN INcuBATOr TO BuIlD cOmmuNITy cApAcITy AND By ENcOurAgINg cONTINuNg lEArNINg fOr Our EmplOyEEs OffEr 18 | interruptions

adapted locally to suit the needs of the citizens, and to reflect their visions and aspirations. No more foreign versions implanted from top-down with disregard to our context, the Institute seeks to understand the locale and operate within its sphere whilst expanding it under its own rules to create success stories in urban governance.

But then what triggered the creation of such an entity traces two years back to the AMMAN PLAN, an initiative undertaken by GAM for planning the growth of the city through 2025. During such a visionary and courageous initiative that seeks to instrument the city’s growth, a valuable human resource foundation has been formed due to such an endeavor. A team of Jordanian and international experts has established a CRITICAL MASS OF TALENT. Amman Institute aims to draw from the pool of experts to prevent such a base from dissolving with the eventual conclusion of the Amman Plan. Moreover, the Institute is reversing the brain drain and contributing to the building of a knowledge economy by retaining and attracting back professional Jordanians in the field.

Amman Institute provides its advisory services in land management and planning, and in urban governance.

However, AI’s mandate is much larger than advisory services. The Institute aspires to play a critical role in shaping the discourse of urban governance and planning, which is just rapidly emerging in Jordan and the region. Publication, translation of seminal works, intellectual debates, executive training in both hard skills and soft ones, outreach initiatives to the public in general and to the children in particular, are among many other programs that are being initiated by the Institute, to set the bar really high.

For students interested in a summer internship at Amman Institute please mail at: amman.institute@gmail.com

Igna faccum ipismeod ex eu faci blia con num doluim tionsendit velesse feummod tem acinit velessi.

Nullaore con henisse consequisim ip elit et, se tet atin heniamdolut eliqu am quam diamet, corpero eugiam, corpero odit wisl ullam et vulpuamt veliquipisse te tet, velessi.

Name Mohammed Hallak (aka. Moe) University Jordan University of Science and Technology Department: Architecture 5th year (graduate)

Drink Nescafe (Gold Blend) Rabee3 orange juice!

Eat Lays chips Music ArminVanBuuren - State of Trance 294 DJ River - Green Room John Mayer - Where the Light is LIVE Smoke Indeed! (= POT) Cigarette brand: Gitanes’SUPER Communication Chat (messenger) Fav Architects / Role - Models Tadao Ando Richard Meier Rem Koolhaas Design Tools Pencil. B. Digital pen pad UHU Night / Day Night, till brake of dawn!

Design Face :-B Don’ts Don’t Shave Don’t Eat

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back when cars useD to be transportation vehicles

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both groups acquiring driving licenses. The second, factor was the tax decrease on cars.

Traffic increased drastically. Like an Ammani with his last bite of Mansaf, roads could no longer accommodate free flowing traffic. The congestion and slow moving traffic allowed drivers extra time to scope their surroundings. We became our own paparazzi. Cars and their passengers became subjects of entertainment.

Congestion, shaped by sporadic city planning, spawned a culture. Mannerisms dedicated to the streets were founded and developed through time. Different generations had Once upon a time there was a motor vehitheir own way of competing in street life. At cle. That vehicle carried his humble owner one point, speaker systems worthy of a U2 across the land in search of food and enterconcert were installed in cars to boast street tainment. When the economy grew, so did credit. Load music was a form of communicadevelopments in technology. Venues opened tion. Flasher signals were also utilised to send up, exploiting these advancements. Destinamessages to drivers. A quick right left signal tions became eclectic in choice. The trip, the meant a race. Double tapping the brakes median of point A to B, evolved, ultimately meant slow down, you’re getting too close for becoming the destination itself. Cruising is comfort. The make, model, and colour of the now considered a past-time, like watching TV car also gave away information about the genand browsing the web. der of the driver, important for those looking When I first moved to Amman, traffic was at for ‘drive-through’ relationships. a minimal. Getting home was quite easy. In All this is dictated by city growth. Certain early 2003, driving around town changed. demographics can be zoned to specific locaTwo factors owe to increased congestion. The tions, depending on the area of the city. New first, a major shift in demographics. Tweens trends of vehicular communication would became teens, and teens became adults, then follow.

consciousness anD resistance A Traveling Workshop to Unravel the Politics and Practices of Heritage within Bilad al Sham and its Connected Publics, Actors, and Networks Dr. Rami F. Daher

Please Note that the author had published a different version of this article in the Daily Start of the Herald Tribune on October 1, 2003, No. 11198 22 | interruptions

A group of researchers from Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, France, and the UK encompassing architects, planners, heritage & tourism specialists, and anthropologists gathered to research the dynamics of heritage definition and politics of place and their links to development within the region of Bilad al Sham. The research main conception was started by R. Daher of Jordan and was assisted by an International Collaborative Research Grant from the Social Science Research Council’s Program on the Middle East & North Africa. The research group was concerned with socio-economic, cultural, and territorial changes in historic and heritage sites of architectural, spatial and/or social significance such as in neighborhoods, streets, historic buildings, and other places of public gatherings. The various researchers: J. Abed (Lebanon), R. Daher (Jordan), M. Doughman (Syria), X. Guillot (France), and M. Robinson (UK) embarked on this exceptional “Traveling Workshop” during February of 2002 which covered different “sites” of investigation from all over Bilad al Sham such as the historic neighborhood around Rainbow Street in Amman; the old neighborhood of Saruja in Damascus; the Hijaz Railroad Line Stations and Infrastructure all over Bilad al Sham, and new developments and urban regeneration endeavors in various historic city cores of Bilad al Sham in Tripoli (Trablus), Aleppo (Haleb), Sidon (Saida), and Aqaba to mention a few.

The research conceptualizes heritage beyond its edifice complex, and one of its main objectives is to understand the nature and dynamics of the various types of publics, actors, and stakeholders (e.g., individuals, NGOs, families, institutions, donor agencies, specialists, donor agencies, investors, activists, other) involved in the definition, production, and consumption of heritage and to unravel the various networks, communication structures, and discourses operating between and within such publics and actors.

In Saruja, -a historic neighborhood in Damascus that suffered a lot of destruction as a consequence of “grand planning schemes” during the French Man-

date era and beyond into the 60s and 70s of the last century-; the researchers had found a “living” and extremely significant yet, marginalized part of Damascene neighborhood heritage. In the midst of “creative destructions” of French city planning and its poor imitation during the post-nation state era, not only that this significant neighborhood was cut in half by a main highway, but also, many of its houses and alleys were rendered “slums” in contemporary planning maps.

The whole neighborhood had been reshaped and “modernized” on paper and was sold to shareholders, in fact some of Saruja’s old buildings had been already demolished making way for “modernized” planned visions of the area. We, the researchers, met with members from the Friends of Damascus Society in addition to representatives from the Old neighborhood who were continuously trying to contest the new plans for Saruja, and we were extremely surprised of the Society’s high level of awareness of the historic and social value of Saruja and of the sincere and fervent sense of belonging to this historic neighborhood expressed by the various representatives.

In Aqaba, the whole city is going through intense socio-economic and territorial transformations as it is being declared a “Special Economic Zone.”

Talking to taxi drivers and shop owners, many have reiterated that “the city is no longer theirs.” It is very obvious that the whole city is being taken over by multi-national big money investments in the form of 5-star hotels and large-scale development projects. The “hot” and most desired places on the shore such as popular old beach coffee houses, public beaches, fish restaurants on the beach, or even significant low rise hotels from the mid 20th century are all being taken over by such “first class tourism investments,” as termed by one city official. Aqaba’s distinctive, yet not so recognized heritage of the 1930s and 40s represented in the Old Town with its residential houses, coffee shops and open air cinema; will be completely disguised and submerged by this sweeping “grand planning” and “new vision”

for the city. Everybody is aware of “the change” including the ordinary citizen, yet, people like the taxi driver and the shop owner do not posses the right tools to contest or even mitigate such visions and investments.

In the midst of such large-scale tourism developments, emerges a genuine and very authentic partnership between tourism and heritage in Bilad al Sham represented in family-owned and run small hotels in Damascus, Aleppo, Amman, and Beirut offering a different alternative to the grand luxurious hotels.

Whether it is Al Rabi’e historic hotel located in an old Damascene courtyard house, or Baron Hotel from early 20th century Aleppo; not only that revenues from tourism stay in the country and leakages to the outside are kept to a minimum; but also such places provide a different experience for the tourist or traveler willing to explore the city with its wonders and social realities of everyday life as appose to a “swift” and “iconographic” experience of the place that is restricted to “certain” chosen buildings and places put on a pre-

planned itinerary. The families that run these old hotels and enterprises, which are becoming very popular amongst tourists, are definitely very active actors in the definition and in the shaping of heritage, and provide totally different levels of connections to these cities and their historic and public places.

One extremely very interesting observation related to the heritage of Bilad al Sham is the reemergence of certain “notable” families from the 19th century as active participants in public life. But this time, such families are not reinstating their status through Politics (with a big P) but through being the patrons of culture, art, and the intelligentsia. Sidon represents a perfect example where families like Debbaneh are restoring and adapting their old residence into the new Debbaneh Palace & History Museum. Other families like Audi not only adapted their old residence into the famous Soup Museum but are involved heavily through the Audi Foundation in urban regeneration activities in Sidon and in promoting cultural activities in the city. In Amman form example, the Adbul Hamid Shoman Foundation not only sponsors intellectual and cultural activities, but have been extensively involved in the conservation and protection of the architectural heritage of the city through the Darat al Funun Project: an old deserted house/complex converted into a nexus of art and culture accessible to all strata of society.

Whether it is al Hariri, Debbaneh, or Audi in Lebanon; Shoman or Mango in Jordan, Toukan or Husseini in Palestine; or Ayidi, Jabri, or Azem in Syria, these heritage patrons are reclaiming their position in different places of Bilad al Sham through the appropriation of heritage and through an appeal to culture, art, and the intelligentsia.

During the Traveling Workshop, encounters with the public were diverse.

At the very informal level, we met individuals on sites (e.g., shop owners, citizens, clientele of coffee houses or hotels, other). At a more formal level, we had also the opportunity to engage in discussions with different types of pubinterruptions | 23

lics and actors such as: NGOs & other social groups, representatives from historic neighborhoods, families and heritage patrons, experts and academicians involved in heritage or in urban regeneration projects from Amman, Aqaba, Damascus, Aleppo, Tripoli, and Sidon to mention a few. These various encounters created some sort of a connected network of communications and contributed to an emergent social space of public contestation and critical debates on issues related to heritage & place, identity construction, globalization, and socio-economic change regarding these sites. The Traveling Workshop develops a categorization and understanding of such emerging “public(s)” in Bilad al Sham that is intersecting, fragmentary, ephemeral, and/or disconnected. Yet, and in spite of the lack of tools for public contestation in the area, such “publics” have been very active, and somehow successful (in varying degrees) in debating issues related to the politics of heritage, development and place (politics with a small “p”) which have predominantly remained outside the realms of critical rationale debates and public contestation in the region that is overburdened with assumingly larger political questions. But, still, the various publics and social groups in the region are urged to become more wellinformed, aware, and involved in order 24 | interruptions

to be able to address and contest such issues.

Finally, this research project attempts to contribute to the critical debates on the issues mentioned above. The Project itself becomes a connected network of communications with the various publics and actors; it aims to promote the emergence of a private sphere in the region of Bilad al Sham leading to the emergence of communication structures that facilitate the generation of a social space hosting critical public debate. Such communication structures, of which this research group is but one, might contribute and enrich an emerging public sphere within the region that is capable of forming a transformed and critical public opinion regarding issues of heritage definition, place development politics, and identity construction.

Top-right corner: Debban House, Lebanon Bottom-right corner: Friends of Damascus meeting

ThEy All gAThErED TO rEsEArch ThE DyNAmIcs Of hErITAgE DEfINITION AND ThE pOlITIcs Of plAcE AND ThEIr lINks TO DEvElOpmENT wIThIN ThE rEgION Of BIlAD Al shAm.

architecture “on-holD” Suleiman Alhadidi

A small building shaped as a regular “box” with columns protruding from the roof! This is what I look for, a comforting memory leading me to houses built with this description, remaining in this state for a couple of years until they are complete.

It’s an odd sight when you come across a number of “waiting homes” in some cities (Salt, Jarash, Irbid and Karak) which represent a situation affecting the urban fabric of these areas.

You will find many of these “on-hold” houses, each with its erected columns and lifeless facades, which almost stand as a style of architecture in these cities.

It’s a phenomenon I would like to call ‘Realistic Jordanian Architecture:’an architecture that reflects the exact product of the human perception in our county. It represents the way they live and think for the future. It seems like “the present” in these houses have been neglected. Yet, it’s a chance to look on these buildings before waging on the future. To have a few of these houses existing in our cities could possibly be an opportunity. We could generate a positive image and memory without thinking of Spanish Shingle roofs or decorated Italian columns that people have as a way to express the richness in their design.

Maybe they are waiting for an opportunity to buy cheap! It could also be for a son who will be able to build it in the future, an old man who is waiting

for financial support during retirement, or a dream for a man to give the lower part to his family and the upper one to be rented for it will be an ongoing income source.

These On-hold buildings also remind me of what happened after the recent economic crisis. Quite a number of projects have come to a staggering halt in response to the shortage of financial supplies. Big cities may adopt this ‘typology:’Amman’s Abdali, and Dubai’s Nakheel Island: plan but without buildings or towers with exposed columns. Among those are many other investments in Aqaba and major projects in Amman, so that nowadays many architecture firms are suffering from the situation and one of the solutions - of course - is to put some of their employee’s on-hold.

A style and a way of thinking might be a solution for the financial crisis that affects the whole world which threatens a long way of developments especially in Jordan. The idea is to match the small projects in the suburbs with the projects in the new downtown in Amman.

We can develop some ideas from the surrounding existing houses … some touches might be enough to enrich this Jordanian Style of building with some useful function for these standing columns.

TAT, sI vOlOrErO ExErA IrITAlIs, AD DO ODIpIsI Er DOlOrEN DuI TEm IlIT, cOmm.

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interruptions | 27

‫ خمسة عرش شارع ًا من الشوارع الصامدة يف غزة‬+

ThE 15 sTrEETs ABOvE ArE lOcATED IN rElENTlEss gAzA Roula Yaghmour

28 | interruptions

blouzaat: khureiF visaul stories

branDing gaza: how to take a long, sustaineD â&#x20AC;&#x153;revengeâ&#x20AC;? on israel Article by Ahmad Humeid posted on 360east blog January 19th 2009 Visit blog to view article and comments http://www.360east.com/?p=1111

Gaza Map from Kharita, Solidarity Maps group. http://kharita.wordpress.com/

32 | interruptions

In a blind show of power and as cynical political tactic, the leaders of Israel (and behind them most of the Israeli public, I am afraid) went ahead a committed an unbelievable crime in Gaza.

By now everyone knows the statistics: Over 1300 Palestinians killed, amongst them hundreds of children. Over 5000 wounded. Billions of dollars of destroyed civilian infrastructure. Untold amounts of suffering.

But in its blindness, Israel seems to have also made a big mistake. If you want to put it simply: they totally “overdid it” this time!

And it is this mistake, that Palestinians, Arabs, Muslims and every concerned and decent person around the globe should exploit, to expose the crime and to help Gaza and Palestine.

The urge to take revenge for what Israel did will take violent forms that will plague this region for years. This is unfortunate and I will not concern myself with that here.

But Israel’s utterly criminal behavior presents us with a rare chance to drag it through the mud, globally and, hopefully, effectively.

Israel needs to be dragged through the mud, for sure. A global public opinion should be formed that, at least, guarantees that Israel gets more heat next time it decides to mindlessly kill children, bomb schools, hospitals and UN buildings. If we want to be more hopeful, we can dream of beginning a global movement that finally pushes for a free Palestine.

Israel should be globally branded as the new apartheid-era South Africa.

But for that to happen, we cannot go on with our current media and communication policies. These have totally failed so far.

In this post, I want to start thinking about what it will take to turn Israel’s crime in Gaza into a potent movement to limit Israel’s power and to break its monopoly of attracting sympathy where it counts.

It is time to create THE GLOBAL GAZA BRAND. A BRAND FOR AN UN-IDEAL WORLD: In an ideal world, the leaders of Israel should be now being arrested for war crimes and taken to the Hague to be tried.

In an ideal world, the Arab world should have been able to make a credible military threat against Israel to deter it from bombing Gaza.

But we don’t live in an ideal world.

One thing that Arabs need to understand, is that the asymmetry of military power between the Arab world is almost absolute, and that this has been the case since probably 1967. No amount of flag burning, shoe throwing and Starbucks boycotting will change that.

Palestine is NOT Vietnam and NOT Algeria. That was another time and another place.

Another thing we need to get into our heads (both over-enthusiastic young, and over-depressed old) is that we the Arab world should have no interest in entering a large-scale war with

Israel, because our military, economic and, yes, CULTURAL weakness vis-a-vis the West is so great that even contemplating such a military confrontation is simply crazy.

The ultimate response to Israel’s continued aggression and Arab’s continued weakness has been the idea of the “human bomb” or the so-called “martyrdom operations”. But I think it is becoming clear that this response is neither sustainable, moral or even effective.

In short, we live in an un-ideal world and we’d better start playing a new game that WORKS. MEET CARL, THE PRO-ISRAEL GUY: When we want to tell Gaza’s story to the world and win hearts and minds, we shouldn’t think of the leftists and hippies and the few intellectuals who know what’s going on in Palestine and are our friends anyway. These people are super important and we should not loose them, and they should be given every tool possible to tell the story of what happened in Gaza and what happened in Palestine.

DEfIANcE frEEDOm humAN rIghTs glOBAl AppEAl hOpE interruptions | 33

But when we shape the story and the essence of the Gaza Brand, we should think of a really challenging audience.

Let’s imagine an ardent anti-Palestinian, pro-Israeli person. Let’s even imagine that this person, probably someone from the Western world, is also somewhat racist against Arabs. But let’s also imagine that this person still has some amount of human decency or maybe a superficial sense of a “fair fight”. Let’s call him Carl.

Let’s imagine that this person blames Hamas 100% for the war and that he is totally convinced that they have been using Gaza’s population as a human shield. Let’s also imagine that Carl is also somewhat afraid of Islamic terrorist blowing up the train he takes to work.

In other words, he is someone totally sold on Israel’s side of the story.

That’s our audience if we want to make Gaza a household name.

How should Carl perceive what Israel did over the past 3 weeks in Gaza?

What would the chances be of convincing this pro-Israeli person that Israel has committed a murderous crime of unbelievable proportions.

What is a communication strategy that can convert Carl into a friend of Gaza and Palestine! (or at least someone who can see both sides of the story).

WHY “BRANDING”: Branding is the a sustained, strategic management of a perceived identity, or reputation.

“Strategic” and “management” are the two words that have been missing from Arab vocabulary when it comes to almost every aspect of life.

And because branding cares about audiences and their perceptions, it focuses our minds on what works and what doesn’t.

Brand Gaza has to be so powerful, coherent and appealing, that even Carl has to stop and listen/look/understand/ act.

It has to become so popular, all over the world, but especially in the US and Western Europe, that politicians and

34 | interruptions

leaders have to take notice, or else risk looking totally stupid and out of touch in front of voters, newspaper columnists and leaders of public opinion.

Someone might ask: haven’t Palestinians suffered enough over the past 50 years? Where is the decency of the world?

Let’s just face it: the “decency of the world” is relative. Perceptions and attention are all that matters when you want to tell/sell your story. If Israel, a mighty country which has brutalized the Palestinians for so long still manages to sell its story to the world, why is it that the Palestinians are incapable of selling theirs, although they are more deserving of sympathy and help?

WHAT THE GAzA BRAND CANNOT BE: The creation of a sustainable core idea for telling Gaza’s story to the world, needs a thorough clean-up of the language we use to describe our tragedies. The clean-up needs to get rid of the language of exaggeration, of comparisons to past “epic” events and of generalizations, racism against jews and heroic Islamic/Arabic self-aggrandization.

In other words, it is not business as usual.

The brand cannot be the “Gaza Holocaust”: the “Holocaust” brand has already been taken by the world’s Jews.

No one takes us seriously when we talk about Gaza’s Holocaust. Let’s acknowledge that suffering of the Palestinians today, although tragic and totally unacceptable, still is not directly comparable with the systematic annihilation of the Jews by the Nazi in World War II. The brand cannot be “Gaza’s Epic, Heroic Battle of Victory”: If we keep talking about epic battles, the world might actually believe it and thus will fall into Israel’s trap of portraying its war on Palestinians as war of equals. It is NOT a war of equals and we should not claim we’re winning it.

The brand cannot be “Wipe Israel off the Map”: This sounds aggressive and, frankly, is not credible. Given that Israel actually has nuclear weapons, they

can more credibly talk about wiping an Arab country off the map.

The brand cannot be “Hamas”: Political movements come and go. Gaza is not about Hamas. Gaza’s problem and Palestine’s problem was there before Hamas.

The brand cannot be about “glorifying death”: If all we’re saying is “we don’t care if we die” others will just shrug their shoulders when the bombs fall on our little concrete huts.

WHAT THE GAzA BRAND SHOULD BE: The brand should be about defying mindless power: it should shame Israel for inflicting violence upon a population, resulting in the shameful ratio of 100:1 (killing 100 Palestinians for every 1 Israeli killed).

The brand should be about Palestine and the dream of a people of life in a free homeland.

The brand should be all about Human Rights as a universal concept that Palestinians seek to attain The brand should have Global Appeal: it cannot have global appeal while being chauvinist or aggressive.

It should also be connected to the suffering of people everywhere, not just people in Palestine.

It should be about Hope: without emphasizing hope and belief in a better tomorrow, you can hardly inspire people to support you. Remember, in a few days we’ll be living in the Post-Bush, Obama era. Hope is a word that has gained new currency.

Focusing the message to tell the world what happened in Gaza might only a piece of the puzzle. But in a media saturated world, we’d better start thinking clearly about what we want to tell the world.

In the coming days and weeks, the full extent of the crime in Gaza will become more apparent. The needs of the people their are urgent. Here again, a coherent Gaza Brand, can play a role in attracting aid and support from across the world.

By Nader Gammas

Atlantis Hotel opening ceremony cost $30 million which lasted fifteen minutes.

More importantly,

IT wAs vIsIBlE frOm spAcE DuBAI

gAzA

1

0

Karl Lagerfeld has been assigned to design ultra-luxury homes in Dubai. Karl is quoted saying

hE cAN’T DO IT wIThOuT hIs pAl ‘elmo’

interruptions | 35

through the mirror.. observations.. reFlecteD a Drive across amman Dina Khawaldeh

36 | interruptions

It was a clear day. A screen in front of me was merely shining with the red numbers that are gradually increasing as the music of Fairuz rose across, the play of sunbeams and clouds created a general fuzziness that gave way to the particles forming patterns; Ones that I have perceived for the first time; and relapsed to its definition immediately.

Throughout this adverse encounter, I was left mesmerized and ironically confused by the construction axis that constitute these series of perspective shots that are made up of diverse vanishing points, each independently projected however intertwined. All towards that certain focal point where the entire image is reflected, projected, and determinately formed.

Stuck in a paradox of reality within the virtual zone, and fettered by a crossroad of exploration; to establish my long lost definition of the â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Realâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;.

Shuttling around the taxi, I went from one sophisticated urban reflection to another. Along the way, the unbuilt plots of land gave a pattern of a felicitous encounter of the streets, buildings and the people. That is being transformed into different reflections of reality, with only one overwhelmed perception that conceived the observer to what we were meant to perceive. In a hub that is congested with virtual reflections that can seamlessly be real; yet never highlighted.

There were so many of them that the city barely has a

definable centre. Being more like a hub of networks linking those different encounters using pure manifestation of power.

Crazy collages of styles desperately trying to invent some kind of cultural authenticity that Amman itself had already gone way beyond. All the contradiction and the paradoxes apparently met under these particle formed patterns.

I fell into conversation with the taxi driver, a significant member of an audience of observers that are merely participants. The ones that have come with a reality to observe and be observed. All fettered within their charismatic dilemma. To question the true definition of a reflection; taking me back to simple physics where the actual/real image is formed up-side-down at the back of a mirror yet we see it upright. But if reality lies at the back of that silver layer, where all the sight lines gather in one point and reflected back, is this veracity a mere reflection of a virtual medium that alludes?.....and Amman, I wondered, does it have a reality.

Even the city had turned into a vast construction site of inimitable forces of the society. And the culture was apparently no obstacle to the economical moguls to forge its way through. Correspondently confined with this predetermined path. The one of exuberance, glamour and chic architecture, luxury, towers, consumerism, and the

excess. All consuming the energy with which it builds the future…..but are we turning into a city that is living for its future??

At this point, there was no way to gauge my location or speed, or even the fact that I was Stuck in the traffic jam, I decided to get out and walk. I headed away from the street and the billboard edifices of what is yet to come and began strolling through the stretches that lead me home .it is there where I got saturated from the city, where the humane and yet spontaneous reflections were perceived. It is there where I found the back of that mirror that is a paradoxical definition of a virtually fake image but a cohesively REAL perception. It is there where I found Amman.

I got home…turned the TV on and dove into a screen foxed with pixels, tiny modules of reality, that are never perceived but make up the real animation. Whether we chose to see it or not; and decide on dreaming the Utopic dream.

With the sight lines engraved at the back of my head in the form of an inevitable question of where it is heading and how it would be portrayed… a question that only time would articulate…

interruptions | 37

proxemia anD accumulation Paola de la Concha Zindel

The term proxemia was introduced by the applauded anthropologist Edward T. Hill in the sixties to describe the measurable distances between people during interaction. It refers to the use and perception of a person´s physical space, personal intimacy and how and with whom he or she makes use of it.

Commonly referred to as “personal space”, proxemia plays a key role during day to day basis, as the permission to invade ones physical intimacy space sways between cultures.

Minimal distances between an individual and another, generate social bubbles used as weapons for defending emotional boundaries, that could demonstrate a mechanism used against anxiety factors in daily operational practices. Once the bubble is transgressed, and the space invaded, it provokes a crowded feeling in an accumulated space.

The first time I observed this feeling on a collective scale on a daily basis was on the London tube. In all underground metro systems, the accumulation of space inside the carriages develops in a constant fashion, station to station, in which the commuters enter and slide

38 | interruptions

towards an empty space or vacant seat.

The movement could be described as a gliding horizontal accumulation of space. Brits are famous for being slightly cold on the affectionate side of things, and squished sweaty body-against-body encounters in the tube station tend to make anybody uncomfortable in any country but more so, in this part of the world. The lack of a few centimeters to play around with in order to find a comfortable position to last a few stations, forces gestures that result in miserable attempts to avoid any sort of relation or intimacy towards the person you are being slammed on top of.

In other countries, specifically in Latin America, crowds tend to be frequent and a standard experience of urban living. In Buenos Aires, the same scooting and horizontal occupation inside the “subte” carriages presents itself every day and the discomfort seems to be less. During three months of commuting in Buenos Aires I decided to take on a project called SUBTE ( the name given to the underground)in Buenos Aires.

Initially, Subte grew out of an architectural analysis exercise in which

multiple encounters between strangers are observed, bound by a thick line of spatial composition and the distribution of bodies in the Buenos Aires metro system. It questions the horizontalness of this distribution of space in the public quotidian context and the indifference and lack of emotional interaction between people who shift, brush, lean, gesture, hit, push, shove, and hold each other in the limited oxygen space of the PorteĂąo underground.

A long task of documenting interactions on one of the lines began. The documentation included any sort of information useful for the analysis with any reference to the occupation of space, and verbal or corporal interaction. This information gave us conclusions concerning the space as it is perceived on many different levels and from several perspectives. Subte developed into a dance for screen project at this point. Avoiding the horizontalness of occupation as it normally would develop, a team of eight dancers were set the task of occupying a space normally designed for three seats, or three people sitting down. The vertical occupation was adopted, by squirming, pushing,

and holding each others limbs creating a human mass of jumpers, bags, arms, legs, and hair that uses displacement as its motor.

With screen dance as a tool, accumulation is a protagonist as a concept throughout the film, as it narrates inand-out moments interwoven with dancers that emphasize emptiness vs. fullness whilst searching to accommodate their bodies to small vacancies found among other bodies. Through film, one lives and breathes minute in-between spaces created by anonymous grey and yellow body bulks that shift in a subtle swaying motion.

Social barriers and a conventional horizontal way of distributing ourselves among others in an erect position by avoiding touching each other as much as possible, results in emotional indifference and unhelpful inefficient occupation of space that leaves a superior area in the tube vacant and obsolete. Under these terms, the design of these public transports is highly questionable. But the interior of transport is not the only design that could be modified. The design of the alleged positioning of our bodies can be questioned as well.

If our social patterns were adjusted to the possibility of laying on each other, extending our limbs to accommodate unconventional positions, and use our flexibility to acquire and satisfy other peoples´ corporal positions, then commuting might get a little bit more comfortable. By defying these social barriers, relationships would be born and engagement between civilians could even establish a sense of collective effort, of solidarity and physical and emotional empathetic collectiveness by sharing space on a more organic level.

mINImAl DIsTANcEs gENErATE sOcIAl BuBBlEs usED As wEApONs TO DEfEND EmOTIONAl BOuNDArIEs.

interruptions | 39

reversing the basic block through art AA BB cc EEEE g hhh III k l m NN OO p rrr s TTTT u x Darya Tarawneh What is the smallest component when zooming into an image?

What is the smallest component when zoomming into a human being?

The case of a He// She//It//They

it /he/she/they=pixel(s) it/he/she/they=cell(s) ? cell?=pixel ?

it

they

he

humAN + ImAgE=OBJEcT////////////////cEll + pIxEl= cOmpONENT. BlAck pIxEl//////AN ImAgE Of A BOy/// BlAck pIxEl//////AN ImAgE Of A mONkEy//// BlAck pIxEl///AN ImAgE Of A grOup Of pEOplE.=? ThEIr mEmOry Of ThE pIcTurE TAkEN Is A pIxEl sTOrED IN ThEIr mIND.

40 | interruptions

Human //Cell//Image// Pixel.....

Cell + Pixel are Components with no entity and has constant frame =/NOT interchanging or corresponding to its surrounding. (identity-less). Those components mingle to create the bigger frame for a full picture. They create Objects with different identities that are regenerated form the same components under the context of tangible and intangible mobility.

Cell+ Pixel////// components that has no entity of their own///// existence depends on the entity of other objects consisting of smaller atoms //// preliminary components are different from the object======!? The object becomes component?!

Can the object become a component for another object? ie; can a Cell from a Human and the Human form Society white Societies form City! In what way the distinctiveness is changed and merged with the contextual space that it occupies. And becomes the module for the interchanging cycles that from our life when it is put in a loop.!!!!!!But what is the moving force of this loop and in what ways can it be controlled.

So, under those factors how can different preparation and different positioning for Components and Objects be related to the systems of duality and polarisation, of black and white, good and evil, /// where is the point that they can be related to the everyday stories?!

cITy + BlOck + sOcIETy + INDIvIDuAl + humAN + cEll/////cAN All BE cApTurED IN AN ImAgE/////AN ImAgE Is A 2D rEprODucTION////ImAgE cONsIsTs Of pIxEl//// ImAgE Is A pIcTurE/// EvEryBODy lIkEs TAkINg pIcTurEs/// pIcTurEs== cOllEcTIvE mEmOrIEs//// pIcTurEs==spAcEs//// cOllEcTIvE mEmOrIEs + spAcEs==pIxEls

city

block

society

inDiviDual

human

cell interruptions | 41

FlooDeD lonDon Five images oF the Future

fIvE ImAgEs Of lONDON AfTEr ThE ImAgINAry grEAT flOOD Of 2090, By ThE uk grOup squINT/OpErA ArE ExhIBITED AT JAcArANDA ImAgEs, 1sT cIrclE frOm 5 TO 30 AprIl 2009.

Nick Taylor and Squint/Opera Following a degree in architecture, Nick spent a year designing elements of a rural hospital in Malawi. Returning to London, he launched himself into the fledgling digital art world and founded Binary Heart in 1999, making visualisations and animations for architects.

In 2004 he merged with Squint/Opera, a young film production company which unites the work of directors, animators, artists, writers and music composers to create computer generated visualisations,

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Three hundred and forty years after the Great Fire of London comes the Great Flood – but the flood of 2090 is a different order of catastrophe altogether..

THE FIVE IMAGES St Paul’s There may be no one left to mend the windows, but the semisubmerged St Paul’s Cathedral has become a very tranquil space London in the 1660s was awash with predictions of doom and in which, on a summer’s day, you can jump from the Whispering gloom as one disaster piled on another – the plague was raging, Gallery into a cool basilica filled with water. Here is a man – a tornado strode up the Thames, the Great Fire gutted the City of clearly in his Zen moment – who is taking full advantage of London. The end of the world was surely nigh… Yet somehow the London’s altered architectural landscape. world – and London – survived.

Now, in the early 21st century, with doom and gloom back Canary Wharf in fashion. Nick Taylor and the company Squint/Opera wanted Two fisherwomen are dressed up for a girls’ day out. The eddies to portray a London of the future, after today’s environmental that flow around the deserted and decayed towers of Canary doomsday predictions have played themselves out. This Wharf can be good picking grounds. But it is not just about the realisation of a London taken back by the sea is curiously utopian fishing, it’s also about having a good natter and a picnic.

– we see life carrying on, and people still finding moments for creativity and enjoyment.

Honor Oak The five images of ‘Flooded London’ are snapshots of people’s Some of the hills that surround flooded London are still lives some time after the catastrophe, obliquely depicting populated. Here a family has managed to keep the dream of a adaptations to a near-deserted urban environment where an suburban family alive. But, as Dad cannot drive a car very far, office block like Canary Wharf is a place to go fishing and a street he has put his energies into a home-made submarine (which in Honor Oak turns into a slipway. The catastrophic side of the he keeps highly polished) and an emergency ramp. The natural sea coming in has long since past and the images are snapshots world is forever encroaching on their ordered world. of people going about their lives, having adapted to the city’s new circumstance.

St Mary Woolnoth Squint/Opera, an award-winning film and media studio which The flooded maze of narrow streets in the former Square Mile are produces films, animations, web sites and installations, used now abundant with marine life; and also with spooky, abandoned photography, 3D modelling and image manipulation to imitate and submerged history. Here is the early 18th-century Nicholas the techniques and aesthetic of Victorian landscape painters.

Hawksmoor façade of St Mary Woolnoth church, near the Bank Exaggerated details play with scale to present images that of England, seen through water swarming with plump fish and conceal their composition. The series of fantastical 3d images patrolled by lobsters, all there for the taking. have been on display as part of the London Architecture Festival in the summer of 2008.

Tate Modern A Heath Robinson-inspired inventor/salvager and his trusty assistant try to hook up and re-rig pre-flood contraptions and keep the old technology alive. The large upper rooms of the semi flooded Tate Modern make good workshops to produce homemade electricity.

installations and short films about the built environment. Their projects include work for Amman, Restoring Historic Jeddah; Plan Abu Dhabi 2030; Britain’s Olympic Stadium 2012; Singapore’s Gardens by the Bay; Bradford Centre Regeneration; Future of Cities for the Danish Royal Academy of Architecture.

Nick is the nephew of Amman based archeologist and photographer, Jane Taylor.

Jacaranda Images Jacaranda Images is a store dedicated to showcasing original art prints and works on paper. Screen prints, etchings, lithographs, photographs, as well as reproductions and posters, are collected from around the globe and are shown in a continuously changing environment.

The selection of work is suitable for those looking for affordable art pieces for their home or corporate environment. It is located on Omar Bin Al Khattab Street, 1st Circle, Jabal Amman, near Books@Cafe.

For further information please contact: Jacaranda Images +962 (0)6 464 4050 www.jacarandaimages.com info@jacarandaimages.com

interruptions | 43

geography oF memory

Keywords: Geography of Memory, Place Mnemonics, Toponymy, The Borrower, Patterns, Palimpsest, Circular Time

Ruba Assi

“whAT ThEN Is TImE? If NO ONE Asks mE, I kNOw whAT IT Is. If I wIsh TO ExplAIN IT TO hIm whO Asks, I DO NOT kNOw”.

Saint Augustine

We come to this world at a very certain and known instant of rupture that terminates and disrupts the serenity of the preexistent slumber, time prior-to this threshold instant is deemed unidentifiable, unknown. The nameless ‘before,’ out of time zone is an inanimate mummified state that rests in unverifiable silence, as if an ice cube, if left uncovered, agitating and let to live into water. Then, in the afterwards, we are made to believe that we are born and not made. The unmistakable reasoning behind our becoming is primarily a very empirical one. It is as if an arbitrary, rushing pretext for that which we cannot defend. One’s presence is reduced to having to need a mother and a father supporting a doubt-free, justified genealogical history, so that one may finally and logically ‘be.’

Our entire ‘claimed’ history or registered memory is strictly tied to the ‘official’ moment of the advent of writing, at the moment when we started to value our experiences here, and thought them worthy of documenting. Ever since, it has popularly been assumed, believed or reckoned as common practice (perhaps unknowingly) that whatever is written, physically recorded or collected and kept, acquires an immediate and suggestively automatic

44 | interruptions

validity. A reader once engaged in the act of reading automatically bestows a sense of legitimacy onto the written text, and the more the mass of readership the further this trustworthiness is endorsed.

“Written language must be considered as a particular psychic reality. The book is permanent; it is an object in your field of vision. It speaks to you with a monotonous authority which even its author would not have. You are fairly obliged to read what is written.”

Bachelard, Poetics of the Reverie To draw on the geography of memory, the different patterns of how events, happenings, or moreover time coordinates itself to its geographical setting, how it conclusively makes itself known by the place of its occurrence, and the instant effect that this has in annihilating the degrading sensation of an illegitimate child, a child of no know origin. The archaic mnemonic of attributing appellation to the alternating sequence of days, names of days, names of months and the count of years; evermore the names of things, the evolution of language as a means to remembrance, the most sustainable media to the foundation of a collective,

archi.toons Omar Jarrad

accumulative universal memory bank.

No one occasionally stops to reconsider the correctness or incorrectness of how the word ‘water’ comes to convey the transparent liquid we all know, and what kind of processes may lead to ‘ water’ becoming ‘the word’ for the liquid of life, the word arrived to us as definite fact.

This inscription of memory is highly dependent on the processes that produced it, and it is only natural that time is the material of process. ‘Modern’ cognizance of time is often informed by a brain centered, metrically operated and mechanically callipered clockwork that maintains the truth, synchronicity or indifference of the many clocks that exist. Reference to such an apprehension points to what might as well be linear or ‘absolute’-rather than relative or circular-time; where the poor captive finds place in tidy boxes and fancy parcels of minute minutes, fierce seconds and strict hours implied by a static contemporary chronology.

Process, typically speaking, refers to a number of steps set in a certain order, a sequence, it is this, the ‘how’ that determines the nature of that memory.

Memory arises as a documentation of an impermanent experience, a miniscule, mobile, unoriginal copy of a true,

but passing reality. In observing natural phenomena, there consistently appears to be present a physically sensed indication of memory manifest in all living things, marks indicative of the process of their making; a semi-veiled memory of being made. At an instant were physical memory, or evidence is unavailable, and present settings do not afford any correlation to the past, words become the only refuge to a fugitive and physically abandoned memory. Toponymy, names of places that no longer exist, aid in perpetuating and sustaining the history of a place that once was. Memory bottled in words.

As borrowers, every now and then, we are attacked by a strangely known instinct of dispossession that creeps in signaling an unease with the face we carry around most of the time, an uncertainty towards our hands, our bodies and our eyes. It so very much persuades us in that we were just set in a long circular & loving conspiracy of borrows and place holder plots, where we revisit and reimagine that we might have ‘been,’ else before, elsewhere.

interruptions | 45

sheesha, Dust anD highway views Observation on substitute urbanism Sahkr Malkawi

46 | interruptions

horizons for people working there; coffee, light sandwiches and sheesha kiosks, in addition to flowers’ and toys’ children sellers.

Even these kiosks seem to be the same, but everyone has its own identity, customers and services; while Abu Ahmad kiosk is famous for its special sheesha, Abu Al Abed is the best choice for fast and delicious sandwiches.

The most key feature, however, is Cars facing ( THE VIEW), different the changing of users of these spaces kiosks scattered all over the street, by different times of the day; from an young boys holding sheesha and coffee intimate theme of families and playing cups, loud music of cars’ radios making children in the daylight, to a romantic a rhythm with the noise of the fast one -by the sun set- of young couples trucks and cars crossing the road, and looking for a panoramic view and a non very dimmed light to form scenes of costly evening. these spaces !!

For a city to have a plan for the The substitute urban spaces are rapid transformation of metropolitan public spaces created spontaneously areas, presumes a will to have a future. by individuals forming the pattern of It needs opened minds on the urban urban spaces in our city Amman, such planning and architectural decisions. as airport road, Abdoun neighborhood, And of course a comprehensive Jordan street – focusing on the northern relationship between social, financial, zone of Jordan street. and political variables that build the What drive people to choose such complex scenario of a city like Amman. places?!! What other choices do they As a result of having no efficient have for an entertainment time – activities nodes, the scattering of having neither defined squares nor community facilities through the city, recognizable activities?!! Where can a no eccentric nucleus of theaters, cafes, low income family go for a night out?!! restaurants and cinemas, etc, and taking Ironically, these spaces are slicing in consideration, the striking economical our community; most of wealthy people crisis our world is facing; I do believe will not use these spaces – having their that soon in the weekends you will need own countryside farms or memberships a reservation to go to (THE VIEW) and in the relatively expensive clubs and park there! hotels inside the city. * Arabic word for coal which used in sheesha.

While and on the other side of the financial aspect of this phenomenon, these spaces created new business

”fAhIm.. fAhIm”* A shArp sOuND INTErrupTs ThE mOmENT BETwEEN TwO lOvErs.

‫حكاية االنسان والزمن والحجر‪..‬بني‬ ‫املايض والحارض‬ ‫نادين حنّا دحمس‬

‫حكاية احلجر في داخله وخارجه املتعدد املتجدد‪،‬‬ ‫وحكاية االنسان بني الثابت واملتحرك‪.‬‬ ‫أبدأ باآلن‪ ...‬احلاضر‪ ،‬أسير والى يساري األحجار‬ ‫تتراتب مبتعدة عني لتصبح مدرجة‪ ،‬تتخبط في‬ ‫تشققاتها آالف السنني بني صوت قيصر وصدى‬ ‫عازف معاصر تتسع في حدقة عينه ما يقارب‬ ‫العشرة اآلف مشاهد‪ ،‬يجلسون على نفس ذاك‬ ‫احلجر املدرج وصدى الصوت يختبئ داخل تلك‬ ‫التشققات ثم ينفجر ليمأل السماء قاذف ًا نفسه‬ ‫الى ميينه؛ على سفح ذلك اجلبل حيث احلضارات‬ ‫تعاقبت وتركت "جبل قلعة" أراه يتوارى خلف طبقات‬ ‫من األحجار التي ترتبت ٍ على الهضاب احمليطة‬ ‫بالوادي الذي أسير –فيه‪ -‬واملاء تسير عكس اجتاه‬ ‫سيري واسفلي‪ ،،،‬مياه السيل!‬ ‫وأعود للحاضر‪-‬‬ ‫أو أنه يعود لي‪،‬‬ ‫باملشهد الذي أمامي وأنا أدخل الشارع الضيق‪،‬‬ ‫على مييني ويساري أحجار‬ ‫متباينة االرتفاع‪.‬‬ ‫مباني حتتضنني‪...‬‬ ‫أنا والسيارات والناس‬ ‫السيارات والناس وأنا والباعة‪ ،‬في منطقة كانت‬ ‫تس ّمى مبركز ع ّمان التجاري‪ ،‬وأصبحت منطقة في‬ ‫ع ّمان‪ -‬وبالتحديد في (وسطها) ‪ ...‬لن ُقل احلالي!‬ ‫مشه ٌد متزاح ٌم بالناس والسيارات والدخان‪ ،‬متزاحم‬ ‫باملباني ولوحات االعالن وأسماء احملالت‪ ،‬والكلمات‬ ‫املتطايرة من فم "انسان"‪ ,‬تعبر عن سوء وضعه‬ ‫االجتماعي‪ ،‬هو ومن هم واقفون على أبواب محالتهم‬ ‫يبيعون التحف أو األفالم املسروقة‪ ...‬أو يبيعون‬ ‫الكالم‪ ...‬نعم‬ ‫وأرتفع بنظري ألرى أصحاب الفنادق القدمية‬ ‫جالسني على الشرفات يتبادلون األحاديث مع نفس‬ ‫األحجار العتيقة التي كانت يوم ًا ما تعانق حيا ًة‬ ‫ّ‬ ‫خطت كتب ًا‪ ،‬وباتت اآلن تعانق ُدخان السيارات‪.‬‬ ‫أو تعانق جملة اعجاب من سائح عشوائي‪ -‬أو‬ ‫تعجب‪) ! ( .‬‬ ‫ُّ‬

‫‪interruptions | 47‬‬

‫حتى اخلطوات‪ ،‬فهي تُع ُّد بعدد احملالت التي تسير‬ ‫عنها بالدقيقة‪.‬‬ ‫وأصحاب هذه احملالت ينظرون لي بتم ُعن‪...‬‬ ‫ال أعلم أين اخلطأ كان؟‬ ‫في طريقة لباسي؟ شعري؟ أم في أعينهم؟‬ ‫فأنا في أعينهم واحد من ثالث‪:‬‬ ‫• سائحة‬ ‫• فتاة من عمان الغربية حتاول اقناع نفسها بأن لها‬ ‫مرجع أ ّي ًا كان هذا ~‬ ‫ِ‬ ‫• أو زبون اعتيادي دائم‬ ‫هذه الصورة على طول املسير بهذا الشارع‪.‬‬ ‫وتتكرر ِ‬ ‫ثم تتزاحم األحجار بنقطة وتنفرد بعدها لتظهر‬ ‫أمامي تلك‪...‬‬ ‫هي مرتفعة صامدة ثابتة‪ ،‬هي وتلك التي الى‬ ‫جانبها‪.‬‬ ‫وأرض وناس‬ ‫حجر‬ ‫وكأنها حت ِّدث من حولها من‬ ‫ٍ‬ ‫ٍ‬ ‫فجر ًا ظهر ًا عصر ًا مغرب ًا ِعشائ ًا عن احتفاالت‬ ‫ساحتها صباح أ ّيام األعياد _ وتعانق ما كان‬ ‫يجري مقابلها في داخل "مقهى حمدان"‪.‬‬ ‫وهي نفسها الساحة أمامي وقد أصبحت اآلن‬ ‫ساحة لبيع الكتب الثقافية أو أرض ًا للصالة ال‬ ‫جتزئها خطوط السيارات عن "اجلامع احلسيني"‬ ‫أ ّيام اجلمعة‪.‬‬ ‫وأصل الى هنا‪.‬‬ ‫وأنظر خلفي _‬ ‫وأرى املاء أسفل أحجار الشارع الرماد ّية تنجرف‬ ‫جارفة معها آالف السنني‬ ‫وقوافل قيصر‬ ‫وقناطرها احلجرية‬ ‫ومكاتب األطباء واحملاميني‬ ‫وجلسات أكبر املفكرين والسياسيني في مقاهيه‬ ‫مستحضرة مكانه‪:‬‬ ‫أبنية حجرية مزخرفة بلوحات االعالن العشوائية‬ ‫ورماد ُدخان السيارات‬ ‫وصفوف املشاة املتبعثرة بني هنا وهناك‪...‬‬ ‫و(كلماتهم)‬ ‫وسيارات وسيارات وسيارات‬ ‫وأبقى أنا هنا االنسان‪ ،‬ومعي األرض واحلجر‪،‬‬ ‫جسد روح ُه على الورق‬ ‫وسطور ٍ‬ ‫زمن ّ‬ ‫و‪...‬‬ ‫غاب‪.‬‬

{voiD} Woroud Adhali

DOEs DAmAscus NEED TO gENErATE mOrE cOmplEx scENArIOs?

Many scenarios could erect and emerge of that urban disappearance of mass but how would the city would look like in 2017 or 2037 with all these urban transformation in the fabric and the multi ownership of spaces? Who would decide what the functions of these fabrics and does Damascus needs more complex new generated scenarios; if the urban policy makers would not take into consideration the multiple realities ahead, and the realities that are vanishing due to neglecting and destroying the life style that lives within the fabrics that were/life style that accompanied that old fabrics.

They maybe should consider some balance in preserving and moving forward in a win win situation; and maybe an open discussion with the people that own the city eventually US.

This work has been developed during the RI08 work in progress along with the 98 weeks workshop in Damascus in 2008.

The focus was the city of Damascus, and the tool was mapping.

When you search Damascus you come across the abandoned and the stuck in transition zones, the voids of urban fabric and the transitional space/ This work been developed through my place between different fabrics. contribution with the IFPO - damas But what is the significance of these voids .. the potentiality that lies in the reconstruction .. Damascus is a rich city of many historical periods and it’s obvious in the urban scene and that somehow make the construction of new buildings in town a rare opportunity..

Those voids or voids to be are a good potential of reconstruction in the city .. but how and what does the city needs?

In the last maybe 10 years there have been new social change in Syria a lot of new associations and organizations have been established and concept of young people volunteering and becoming an active tool and voice is people are more introduced to the community work and the whole civil society is changing..

How is that change in society is being reflected on urbanity “physical urbanity?” could there be linkage between those places that been abandoned or neglected and community... could it transfer into a community breathing spaces? Or a high rise that cast a shadow on the underneath spaces? [the question is abstract, I don’t want to talk about ownership of the place since there isn’t a common owner of the space]

48 | interruptions

interruptions | 49

52 | interruptions

ACE P S E E FR

interruptions | 53

What’s Love Got To Do With It? An index of random notes, edited by Sarah Rifky and Kaya Behkalam, loosely connected to the one year long artistic research project Reloading Images: Damascus / Work in Progress, a platform for the production and discussion of artistic agency in the wider context of Damascus, involving more than 40 artists, architects, designers, writers and other cultural practitioners.

[www.reloadingimages.org] Reloading Images: Damascus / Work in Progress 2008 featured contributions by 98 Weeks / Adel Samara / Aiham Dib / Akram Zaatari / Ashkan Sepahvand / Azin Feizabadi / Beatrice Catanzaro / Carla Esperanza Tommasini / Dominique Marr / Elie Dagher / Ersan Ocak / Gabriel Martinez / Hanadi Traifeh / Interruptions / Isa Andreu / Jan Ackenhausen / Juergen Rendl / Juma Hamdo / Kaya Behkalam / Kianoosh Vahabi / M. Gabriella Micale / Manuela Scebba / Marie Elias / Mikala Hyldig Dal / Omar Berakdar / Orwa Nyrabia / Paula Bugni / Rania Mleihi / RAQS Media Collective / Roberto Cavallini / Sanna Miericke / Salina Abaza / Sarah Rifky / Soudade Kaadan / Sophia Krey-Kolios / UEBERMORGEN.COM / WE INSIST / Woroud Ahdali / WU MING 4

A Architecture

Damascus

D

Both sides of a found photograph, Friday Market, Damascus

Artistic Research What is research?

I am told it is common understanding that research is a scientific method of knowledge production and the development of particular theories in certain ‘scientific’ disciplines.

What is research?

I believe it is a means of continuously [see Re-] that is lying around in cultural, historical and geographical spaces.

B Bandaly Family Do you love me? Do you? Do you?

C Collecting What does a collection tell about its collector? A library, about the city that houses it? Rummaging an antique bookshop around the corner from an old train station, a small volume falls into my hands, offering me a concise compendium of the phenomenon of negation. Another one, by the same author, is a dictionary of all negated words in Arabic and English.

A friend introduces us the Borgesian Chinese encyclopedia, the ‘Celestial Empire of Benevolent Knowledge’, in it animals are divided into 14 categories: (a) belonging to the emperor, (b) embalmed, (c) tame, (d) sucking pigs, (e) sirens, (f) fabulous, (g) stray dogs, (h) included in the present classification, (i) frenzied, (j) innumerable, (k) drawn with a very fine camel-hair brush, (l) et cetera, (m) having just broken the water pitcher, (n) that from a long way off look like flies.

54 | interruptions

Recension of ‘Unknowing and its circumstances” “Each time we relinquish the will to knowledge we have the possibility of a far more intense contact with the world.”

Georges Bataille In an open courtyard, one day, one of us brought a text to our meeting: Un-Knowing and Its Consequences. We used the text, de-constructed it, claimed it, re-wrote it, discussed it, appropriated it. How does one claim ‘to know’? 21 days left for Un-knowing. Damascus.

Highways

Diary

The highway is a transitory space, an in-between space, par excellence. The mesh of asphalt, lines and signs is a complex story web, constructed to enclose the many single narrations of a city. The street creates interrelations and relations create streets. But then the concrete flatness might suddenly transform into a spontaneous meeting point of the bizarre:

E F

Extract from The Diary, work-in-progress 2008-2009

Exoticism, beyond [see Image]

Fear: a narrative impression

G

He rustles al-Hayat, a newspaper coincidentally meaning ‘life. He hides behind it pretending to read. The firmer his grip on al-Hayat, the more news, ink and paper images, touch each other, scattering semblances of his life on the grime covered table, right in the middle of al-Rawda café.

A cigarette is drawn (but not smoked); he jostles with the pages, his life of books, diaries and empty bitter coffee cups in front of him; he picks up a napkin, and starts to jot down a note.

It all seems so trivial, yet you’re enthralled. Now, imagine this: you want to read what is written on this napkin, but the waiter has taken it away. So, instead, you get up and move across the café to the place our protagonist is sitting and you read, very slowly, what is clearly spelt out on the filthy tablecloth right before you: “My fears are innumerable, but mostly I cannot decide if I’m more afraid of life than of death, but I have a sense for decay.”

Godard, Jean-Luc H

[see Here and Elsewhere]

Here and Elsewhere

Someplace, an exit to the city of Damascus, a mélange of global capitalism’s many faces ensues. A market, pulsating with commerce, people bustling, merchants jousting, objects exchanging hands - to the backdrop of a highway, the means of expansion, mobility, connectivity, urban site developments enclosing the world, disclosing places. Ranges of products (mostly indistinguishable from common trash on the street) are ligned up, infront of men, selling assortments of objects. Civilization’s debris: a broken shoe heel or half a pair of scissors desperately call for attention, silently warping their miserable fate awaiting the odd customer to take pleasure in their uselessness.

Take the market and the highway - two protagonists conflate into caricatures of themselves. The market with its useless remains lacking their original context, an open museum of the absurd; and the highway, a classical stage for this spectacle, relieved from its primary function, as a straight freeway, particularly since every spectacle has its spectators, and so, the occasional traffic might cue to watch.

Still from “Ici et ailleurs”, 1974 interruptions | 55

The highway is a complex protagonist. It takes you to places that are otherwise inaccessible in the narrow alleyways of Damascus’ old city. Its desire eclipsed behind urban planners’ blind spots. This transitory space becomes the temporary home of all urban longings. Outside of the city it hosts temples of kitsch, slowly rotting through sun and humidity: dancing halls in the desert that transform into brothels and casinos at night. Only those watching closely can see the secret life of our highways. Along the road you can find bank notes of erotic republics of fantasy, meant to be thrown at lapdancers in awe filled respect and in gratitude for certain services.

The highway as an access point to the unplanable spontanous eruptions of urban desire. The guide to the subconscious of a city.

I

I I once fell in love with myself being somewhere else.

Love Love is enough/ Liebe ist nicht alles

MOTO: Museum of the Occident

M

“The museum was officially founded in 2008 in Damascus as the “first and biggest museum of Western culture in the Orient”. The museum employs classical methods of archaeology and analysis as well as artistic research and activist strategies to join in on the displacement of the notion of “West” as center, noting that “West” is a term that has historically been constricted spatially, historically and politically. [...] This institution is a mental in-between space, constantly shifting and shaping our knowledge and perspectives towards our objects of study, combining artistic practice with scholarly thought and art history.”

Excerpt from MOTO’s Mission Statement

Image

Display at the National Museum Damascus

J Journal [see Diary]

K Kaleidoscope

Network

N

“What is the difference between a network and a community?

We are part of a multilayered, multidisciplinary network, amongst ourselves as a collective body and within the context of Damascus, which grounds us, stimulates us, rewires our movements, sensations, and reactions. We exchange and collaborate on artistic terms as well as in the urban space around us, leaving traces of ourselves behind. How do we create relationships that last? How to move between North, South, East, and West, cultivating professional and personal connections over time? What does it mean to be an artistic network? Is it contagious?”

Orient/Occident

O

[see MOTO]

Pancosmic whirling dervishes

L Language “For me speech was so odd, all gutturals, and spoken in the throat, in such a hollow and odd manner, that they could never form a word; and they were all of the opinion that I might speak my language just as well if I was gagged as otherwise; nor could they perceive that I had any occasion either for teeth, tongue, lips, or palate; but formed my words just as a hunting-horn forms a tune, with an open throat.”

56 | interruptions

... and the Theory of Catastrophic Transubstantiation “According to this theory, ‘the art of the future’, the self-sacrifice of a human body actually transforms all the matter around it. So a suicide bomber or the victim of a military air raid will not die, rather, they will turn into their immediate surrounding landscape, infusing human consciousness into the trees, bushes, soil, and houses surrounding the site of catastrophe. By harnessing enough cosmic awareness, an act of “future art” could lead a group of Pancosmic Whirling Dervishes to re-summon the transubstantiated bodies of death back into their bodies as they were before, resurrecting them and in this way, recreating the site of destruction through the energy left behind from the disaster.”

P

V

Performing

Voyeurism

Let me read to you from Walter Benjamin’s Arcades Project: “Preformed in the figure of the flâneur is that of the detective. The flâneur required a social legitimation of his habitus. It suited him very well to see his indolence presented as a plausible front, behind which in reality, hides the riveted attention of an observer who will not let the unsuspecting malefactor out of his sight.”

“I was chosen to be a cultural voyeur in a city that I could almost claim was my own, constantly chasing ‘the authentic’ in an Oriental fairy-tale town.”

Preform. Perform.

Xenophobia

Q Questions [see Artistic Research]

R ReReproducing. Representing. Reconstructing. Rearticulating.

Remembering. Rekindling. Rewinding. Repeating.

We Insist

W

[see Kaleidoscope]

X

Reading Daniel Dafoe in Damascus...

The thought that romanticism may have been an extension of, rather than an antidote to, ideologies of conquering “nature” and “Other”.

Y

Yarmouk

Reliving. Relieving. Resisting. Reloading. Recurating. Rewriting.

Rereading. Retelling. Replaying.

Redactors Every witness is also an actor. All actors are also witnesses.

All witnesses are redactors.

[Reading the KDVyas Correspondence Vol.1, Raqs Media Collective]

S Self [see Zaat]

Secret Services Working as a secret agent does not differ that much from the work of an artist or any other story teller. Researching information.

Producing Information. Acting between disclosure and closure.

T Translation

Still from “Haisv_A”, 2008

Zaat

Z

epitomizes the political attitude of our post-modern condition.

Literary montage: I play. With words. [I frame] and figure.

She dances.

Zaat, he called himself I myself.

Etymologically translation stems from the Latin perfect passive participle “translatum” or “transferre” meaning: across and to carry out, to bring. I am a translator, although I don’t seem to be one. A translator is a bridge, between two places. A translator’s task is by default political, although there are some things I cannot translate, for example, words like Mabroumeh, Ballourieh or Baklava.

U Un-knowing [see Damascus]

Images: Adel Samara (K,Z), Kaya Behkalam (A, D) Mikala Hyldig Dal (M, T, H), Paula Bugni(I) Sarah Rifky/Roberto Cavallini (Y) interruptions | 57

12 proJects x 12 architects

Project: Adaptive Reuse of Amman Project: Jordan Kuwait Bank, Electricity Hanger, Location: Ras Al-Ein, Location: Amman, Amman, Office: Turath, Architecture and Office: Bilal Hammad Architects Urban Design Consultants

Project: Bahrain children Museum, Location: Manama, Kingdom of Bahrain, Office: Faris and Faris Architects

Project: Sifeen Mosque, Location: Sifeen, Irbid, Office: Mohammed Malkawi - Architects & Consulting Engineers

Project: Atrium, Location: Abdoun, Amman, Office: Symbiosis Design

Project: Abu Dhabi Pensions & Benefits Fund, Location: Abu Dhabi, U.A.E., Office: Omrania & Associates

Project: ACT Adminstration Building, Location: Aqaba, Jordan, Office: Alnasser Architects

Project: Cairo Eastown, Location: Cairo, Egypt, Office: Sahel Al Hiyari and Partners

Name: Ren Chai, Location: Jabal Amman, Office: Khammash Architects

Project: Building No.4, Location: Wadi Saqra St, Office: Yaghmour Architecture

Project: Horsemanship Institute Location: Manja, Madaba, Office: Faris Bagaeen,

Project: Tayyan Building, Location: Aqaba, Office: Tahhan and Bushnaq Consultants

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the omrania | csbe stuDent awarD For excellence in architectural Design

frOm sTOck ExchANgE BuIlDINgs TO cOmmuNITy rEhABIlITATION cENTErs, ArchITEcTurE sTuDENTs hAvE AN IDEA AND TwO ON whAT ThE fuTurE Of ThEIr cITy shOulD BE. In Amman’s most contemporary museum, The National Museum for Arts, fresh architecture graduates exhibited their work last year as part of the first cycle of The Omrania l CSBE Student Award for Excellence in Architectural Design, which is organized by the local non-profit research center the Center for the Study of the Built Environment, and Omrania & Associates, a regional architectural consultancy firm. The graduates were granted an unprecedented opportunity to present their ideas to the local art and cultural scene. As part of

last year’s success, this year the award has been expanded beyond the boundaries of Jordan by widening eligibility to include students from all Arab countries.

The award, which is given to the most outstanding submitted architectural graduation projects, aims at recognizing quality in the teaching of architecture in the Arab world, and at encouraging students in Arab architectural schools to excel in their design performance.

For more details refer to the attached flyer to this issue of Interruptions.

Qala’ Community Rehab: Dina Hadi, Hazim Samawi, and Mousa Shahin University of Jordan

Seaport Terminal: Dima Abu-Arida Jordan University of Science and Technology

Art School: Darya Tarawneh Jordan University of Science and Technology

Aramco Cultural Center: Atallah Othman Al-Israa Private University

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proFile pierre el khoury / architect Khaled Sedki

Pierre El Khoury has run his own architecture practice since 1959. He first designed and built his own house in Yarze – Lebanon, and continued into a very busy courier.

He designed public institutions, housing and mixed-use complexes and developed designs for both existing urban districts and entirely new ones. He has won many competitions and built in many other countries than Lebanon.

He served in the Lebanese government as the minister of public works, transport and agriculture, between 1982 and 1984. He also played an active role in education when teaching at the Lebanese University, the American University of Beirut, and The Saint Esprit University in Kaslik.

“Why did you chose architecture?” he was once asked. He frowned and answered as if he was talking to himself; “my father was an architect and one of the first in Lebanon to undergo architectural academic training. He went to the “Beaux Arts” in Paris, where I did my studies later on. I‘m not sure I could say this was the reason I became an architect. I had always liked buildings and making images. My family in fact wanted me to study management so I could run our business.

They did not succeed even when they tried to convince me by buying me an American brand new convertible car. All I wanted was to travel to Paris and study architecture. So I did”.

Pierre El Khoury started his studies at the ‘Ecole des Beaux Arts’ in 1948 by taking courses in the History and theory of architecture. He later was admitted to the school of architecture after being selected through an entrance examination.

He completed his studies in 1957, including one year of urban and town planning. He had one year off during that period for having broken a leg in a ‘horse riding’ accident while back in Lebanon for holidays.

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The architecture of Pierre El Khoury as he explains is based on intuition. “Every time I visit a site, meet the client and study the programme, ideas are stored in the back of my head until finally an image is generated. A geometric structure comes next and the design develops into a building”.

On the evolution and development of his architecture he comments that as a young architect one might tend to include all his ideas in one project, and with time designs change into much simpler yet richer compositions. He said: “The designs and geometry of my earlier buildings were more complex than those of the more recent. It is apparent in the large variety of forms, textures and relieves that were used to animate buildings. Through time, the evolution lead to a language that uses more simples and pure volumes, it was evident that the later could attain great richness and beauty with the right adjustment of a certain line or variation that would affect the outside and the inside of a building. Extrovert sculpturing got replaced by simplicity of shapes and forms. Time helped refine the design development. This can be sometimes similar to linguistic expression that develops with experience from using big fancy words to tell a certain story, to using simpler words to tell the same story even more effectively”.

my fAmIly DID NOT succEED swITchINg mE TO mANAgEmENT EvEN whEN ThEy TrIED TO cONvINcE mE By BuyINg mE AN AmErIcAN BrAND NEw cONvErTIBlE cAr. All I wANTED wAs TO TrAvEl TO pArIs AND sTuDy ArchITEcTurE. sO I DID”

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reviews

Art exhibition The return of the soul – Jane Ferre

Presenting a play in Damascus (Warum Warum)

Compitition in Damascus Sham Spiritual Oasis

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A multi dimensional installation that took place in Darat Alfunun in Jabal Alwaibdeh that consists of three thousand wax figure.

Suspended in the air by clear nylon thread, the figures are positioned on a crossed like hill shape through the space, giving the illusion of depth and motion representing the departure of Palestinian in the 1948.Sounds accompanied the installation to refer to people’s fears when they were forced to leave their homes.

Those figures were the outcome of a work shop was held in Palestine by the Scottish

artist Jene Ferre that targeted young refuge artist. The aim of the workshop was to enable them to express their feelings in a nonpolitical and non-didactic way with an artistic tool.

The project was sponsored by the Palestinian Welfare Association. It has premiered in Palestine and travelled through Jordan, United Kingdom and other countries to give the exhibition a wider recognition to be exhibited in the other galleries and spaces.

The General Secretariat of Damascus Arab Capital of Culture presents the play (Warum Warum) (Why, Why) by the international director Peter Brook, which was performed for the first time last April in Zurich. In this new work, his second in German, Peter Brook takes texts from several important contemporary directors, including Meyerhold, Craig, Dullin, Artaud and Zeami Motokiyo, a master of the Japanese N-Theatre. He uses the new text he creates from these to explore the origins, language and devices of contemporary theatre. In doing so, he raises questions

about artistic creativity and how it arises from the dynamic interaction between actor and audience, and the questions and doubts they exchange. The General Secretariat also played host to a work by Peter Brook last June, when his play “The Grand Inquisitor” based on the novel “The Brothers Karamazov” by Dostoïevski.

Sham Spiritual Oasis is the name of the architecture competition that aimed at developing concepts for a facility of hospitality for travelers and pilgrims through Sham Region (Damascus Area). The Oasis is to serve as a visitor center, a place of spiritual growth and an opportunity to provide initiation to welcoming the other. Potential Participants were asked to accommodate within the Oasis, in an area of about 14 hectares, a space for meditation and contemplation, an educational museum focusing on the environment and cultures, a multi-purpose hall, crafts workshops and sell-

ing points, a hostel of 100 beds and a camp site, plus optional additional facilities of their choice. Funds for the project were provided by the European Union as a contribution to the celebration of Damascus as the cultural capital of the Arab world for the year 2008.

reviews Blouzaat Manual-animal workshop

hOsTED By mAkAN, BlOuzAAT gAvE AN ArT wOrkshOp TO A grOup Of EIghT yOuNg ArTIsTs frOm DIvErsE BAckgrOuNDs AND TAlENTs. The main objective of the workshop was the production and development of nondigital, hands-on artwork and installations, ranging from wall murals, small and large wood board pieces, and a little oven.

The artists all joined in for this week-long workshop, working in groups or individually, created and developed their concepts under the main theme of the workshop, which entailed the discovery and exploration of the artists' sense of self, and the reproduction of the self, through the artist's own understanding and visualization of oneself, and using various artistic mediums including pain, markers, pencil, stencils and spray paint.

The workshop ended with an exhibition of the final artwork. The day of the opening coincided with the atrocious attack on Gaza, and in a united front, the artists all covered their artwork with strips of black tape as an expression of defiance and outrage. The opening day also featured live musical performance by EP, Ramalla's own electronic music guru, and guest DJ Lilibungalow from Germany.

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material Fetish white cement Article and information on white cement provided by Arab Company for White Cement Industry

The Arab Company for White Cement Industry (ACWCI) was established in 1982 as a public shareholding company with a capital of 10 million Jordanian dinar (JOD), the equivalent of around 200 million JOD today. The company was established with the aim of providing Jordan and the surrounding markets with white Portland cement – the whole process, from production to application – from the quarry, through the kiln, into packing, for distribution. The company began producing effectively in 1985, with a production capacity of around 100,000 tons a year. In 1992 this expanded to a production capacity of up to 125,000 tons a year, the equivalent of nearly 350 tons a day. The company has its own manufacturing and quarrying sites, with around 350 personnel working at the factory site.

dustry concerning highly pure raw materials. Special materials are used in the mills and kilns to prevent contamination and produce a high product specifications to comply with the international standards.

WHITE CEMENT IS UTILIzED IN MANY FIELDS LIKE, • Manufacturing of all kinds of floor tiles specially mosaic tiles.

• Artistic finishing touches and decoration works.

• Ruins and archeological sites restoring works.

• White concrete structures, reinforced with fiber glass • Road pavements and curb stones • Traffic signs and roads and airport runways • Manufacturing of artificial stone blocks.

PRODUCT INDUSTRY • Mortar and joint filers work White cement is a hydraulic binding ma- • Production of structural and architecterial used in many building purposes. tural precast elements White cement is distinguished by its • Fixing works of marble stone and tiles. white color due to the very law content • Production of infrastructural elements of iron, manganese, chromium and any and material other coloring elements. It is important • Walls and ceilings converting works to know that ordinary Portland cement (lining or spraying) and white Portland cement have the • Fountains and swimming pools works same standards.

Special care has to be taken in this in-

“ThErE ArE mANy DIffErENT TypEs Of cEmENT, ThE mOsT wEll-kNOwN BEINg grEy pOrTlAND cEmENT. whITE cEmENT hAs A vEry wIDE rANgE Of ApplIcATIONs. IT’s BEEN usED IN pOOls, sIDEwAlks, sculpTurEs, lANDscApEs AND lANDmArks; IT Is vEry hIghly vAluED. whErEvEr yOu hAvE A prEcEDENcE fOr A BuIlDINg mATErIAl wITh A purE, DurABlE whITE cOlOur ThAT Is wATEr- AND hEATrEsIsTANT, yOu gO fOr whITE cEmENT.” Explains Khaled Tarawnah, General Manager of (ACWCI) in an interview with Euroasia Industry.

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ArAB cOmpANy fOr whITE cEmENT INDusTry Administration: Amman 8th Cricle, King Abdullah St. Tel. 06 581 8246/48/49 Tel. 06 588 5708/09 Fax. 06 588 5707 P.O.Box. 191 AmmanŘ&#x152; 11831 Jordan E-mail: acwci@cyberia.jo Website: http://www.acwci.com/ Factory: Duleil, Al Zarqa.

Tel. 05 382 4048 Fax. 05 382 4050

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news From utopia ARCHIGRAM: Instant City Project

ARCHIGRAM dominated the architectural Avant-Garde in the 1960s and early 1970s with its playful, pop-inspired visions of a technocratic future after its formation in 1961 by a group of young London architects – Warren Chalk, Peter Cook, Dennis Crompton, David Greene, Ron Herron and Michael Webb and based at the Architectural Association, London - Archigram was futurist, anti-heroic and pro-consumerist, drawing inspiration from technology in order to create a new reality that was solely expressed through hypothetical projects. The pamphlet Archigram I was printed in 1961 to proclaim their ideas. They sold 300 copies of their magazine at nine pence each, mostly to architectural students and assistants in architects’ offices. As Cook recalled, it was “brushed off by the few senior architects who saw it as a student joke and…everybody thought it would die a natural death.” A year later, he, Greene and Webb printed a second, more substantial issue, which was typeset on stapled pages like a conventional magazine.

INSTANT CITY is transported from location Peter Cook + Dennis Cromp- to location via trucks and ton + Ron Herron 1968 airships. It is erected and unfolded in a short period of One of the Archigram project, time into a sprawling enInstant City, is a mobile tertainment complex that technological event that drifts offers the virtual experience into underdeveloped, drab of urban life, bringing news, towns via air (balloons) with events and the flavor of city provisional structures (perliving to remote areas. Instant formance spaces) in tow. The City was the result of a grant effect is a deliberate overawarded to Archigram by Chistimulation to produce mass cago’s Graham Foundation for culture, with an embrace of Advanced Studies in the Arts advertising aesthetics. The in 1968. The project sought to whole endeavor is intended reconcile conflicting human to eventually move on leaving natures - to travel and to stay behind advanced technology put; to visit the city but reside hook-ups. in the suburbs; to experiThe instant city is an urban ence change and yet preserve intervention in a rural town. tradition. It also incorporates A zeppelin floats into town, Archigram’s ongoing interhooks into the center and bombards the town with art, events, temporary structures, media infrastructure such as billboards, projectors and screens, and other stimulations, then eventually drifts off after installing a wide range of communications infrastructure that hooks the town into the new urban network. The intention being intensive and deliberate cultural urbanization.

Instant City travels from town to town like a circus. It 68 | interruptions

est in the dynamic potential of an itinerant, impermanent metropolis as in Walking City.

One of the members, David Greene wrote in the first issue of Archigram magazine: A new generation of architecture must arise with forms and spaces which seems to reject the precepts of ‘Modern’ yet in fact retains those precepts. We have chosen to by pass the decaying Bauhaus image which is an insult to functionalism. You can roll out steel – any length. You can blow up a balloon – any size. You can mould plastic – any shape. Blokes that built the Forth Bridge – they didn’t worry.”

INTErrupTED Is NOT NEcEssArIly TO slIp, ››BuTTOwEBEusE All mEANs NEcEssAry --