• 10th March 2022, 2 PM – 3 PM
• Atrium
• Upon Registration Only

“Designing From Within” is about adopting the biological terms endogenous and endemic as principles for setting just design practices. Through a reflection on Design’s mistakes and questionable methods, Paolo Cardini will invite us to rethink the role of design and designers in our society moving across the complex matrix that runs from global awareness to local identities and from future thinking to present actions.

This event is an in-person event for the VCUarts Qatar community only that will be streamed live. Members of the public are welcome to ask questions in a moderated chat, at the end of each session. Please use the registration button to register and receive a link to your chosen event.

• 10th March 2022, 5:30 PM
• Atrium
• Upon Registration Only (Limited seats available)

How do we historicise or begin to reflect on a present that is so free-wheeling that it is rife with constant speculation and anxiety? One minute we are in fear of Artificial Intelligence, but in an instant, we are interminably interlinked with them, without realising. Human lives are now fashioned and intertwined into a form of living media. Enter the metaverse—a schematic field laid out decades ago—a paradigm of and for augmenting reality that is accelerating once again. An NFT you say. You want one; the best one; gotta catch ‘em all. A currency that is not your own. A banking system built without plastic or paper; silver or gold. Is it real or is this a game of monopoly? In this closing keynote, Dr. Omar Kholeif, one of the leading experts on digital visual culture, presents a reflective survey of our present, exploring the illusory forms and aesthetics that define it.

Omar Kholeif will be giving this keynote virtually to a live audience. Seats are limited and are only open to VCUarts Qatar or Education city students, faculty, or alumni. In-person attendees must follow VCUarts Qatar guidelines related to COVID-19.

This event will be streamed live. Members of the public are welcome to ask questions in a moderated chat, at the end of each session. Please use the registration button to register and receive a link to your chosen event.

• 9th March & 10th March 2022, 9 AM – 12 PM
• Room 223
• Upon Registration Only

When does a future independent of carbon models begin? When can we envision a post-petroleum society? At times of planetary urgencies and extraction, the future of a post-petroleum society seems so near, yet far out of reach. The workshop examines the truth behind the so-called political urge to move beyond a petroleum-based society and to take steps closer to a knowledge-based society. The focus of the workshop is to create manifestos that address a radical future inherent in our hands. That is, the workshop extends on the accelerationist concept; a heresy insisting that a radical political response to capitalism is neither to critique, nor to détourne it, but to accelerate and exacerbate its abstractive tendencies. This workshop touches upon a broad range of subject matters including Manifesto Writing, Political and the Aesthetic, Historical Criticism, Affect Theory, and Film Studies.

The workshop is open to all participants interested in the above subject matter and does not require any prior knowledge.

This event is an in-person event for the VCUarts Qatar community only. Please use the registration button to register.

The artist recalls personal experiences that occurred at the Egyptian Embassy, at Counter #6, the division that handles Palestinian refugees who carry Egyptian travel documents. The artist sets a mood of dream and hope played in irony portraying the endless dilemma of those who struggle with identity and citizenship.

This film is screened as part of the Gulf Metaverse 2.0 program curated by Róisín Tapponi (Assyrian Iraqi-Irish film curator, programmer, writer, and academic)

The screening is taking place in the Atrium on 8th March 2022 at 9:30 AM for the VCUarts Qatar community only. Please use the registration button to register.

Furthermore, this film is streamed via Shashamovies.com.

Every year, Ghulam Mohammed Andalib comes from Afghanistan to Dubai for work. He’s here for a period of four months, where he is offered a stage to perform his craft on for the visitors of Global Village. At his assigned setting, Ghulam sits and engraves poems from Hafez, Saadi, or Quranic verses. Here, in the late Sheikh Abdulaziz al Qassimi’s abandoned palace in Ras Al Khaimah, Ghulam explores the interiors. Like himself, Sheikh Abdulaziz had a passion for Persian poetry and miniatures and can be found hand-painted on the house walls. Part documentary, part performance, exploring the themes of migration, trade, and cultural identity that shape our world; this film brings two shared loves, of two seemingly different men, together.

This film is screened as part of the Gulf Metaverse 2.0 program curated by Róisín Tapponi (Assyrian Iraqi-Irish film curator, programmer, writer, and academic)

The screening is taking place in the Atrium on 8th March 2022 at 9:30 AM for the VCUarts Qatar community only. Please use the registration button to register.

Furthermore, this film is streamed via Shashamovies.com.

• 7th March 2022, 9 AM – 11 AM
• Room 281
• Upon Registration Only

Forensic Architecture (FA) is a research agency, based at Goldsmiths, University of London, investigating human rights violations including violence committed by states, police forces, militaries, and corporations. FA works in partnership with institutions across civil society, from grassroots activists to legal teams, to international NGOs and media organizations, to carry out investigations with and on behalf of communities and individuals affected by conflict, police brutality, border regimes, and environmental violence. Our investigations employ cutting-edge techniques in spatial and architectural analysis, open-source investigation, digital modeling, and immersive technologies, as well as documentary research, situated interviews, and academic collaboration. Findings from our investigations have been presented in national and international courtrooms, parliamentary inquiries, and exhibitions at some of the world’s leading cultural institutions and in international media, as well as in citizen’s tribunals and community assemblies.

This event is an in-person event for the VCUarts Qatar community only. Please use the registration button to register.