9th March & 10th March 2022, 9 AM – 12 PM
Room 281
Upon Registration Only

This workshop explores various technological practices through the lens of mythical/irrational structures as a tool to disrupt the western imaginary and logic. Through discussions and experimentations, we will trace speculative narratives of technology and machinery back to premodern cosmologies.

In Islamic traditions, occult practices depend heavily on a numerology known as “Al-Jafr,” the science of numbers claimed to be taught by Imam-Ali. The simple idea is that numbers are stored in the time/space fabric of the universe and can be called on to represent different elements. For example, the planet’s moves and positions that can be calculated based on its rotation reveal astrological information. It is believed that by using rational mathematics, you can calculate such physical elements, as well as calculate and manipulate other spiritual or mystical elements that are in control of or connected to the physical world.

Al-Awfaq, also known as “magic squares” are algorithmic structures used to carry out such calculations. They are believed to process and channel mystic powers in order to manifest them in a physical form. These algorithmic squares are the base of any talisman’s drawing on material varying from paper to animal skin and plant leaves. The talisman is the code that embodies the non-physical calculation of mystic power/energy/information.

Computer machines are built of a combination of circuit boards made out of silicon, ceramics, copper, gold, and other materials. These circuits run by regulating electrical signals using mathematical algorithms that define certain rational processes in order to calculate specific operations, and deliver logical results. To define and write such algorithms you have to code and embody them inside the material part (the circuit).

Participants should have basic knowledge of creative coding and prototyping tools such as Touchdesigner, processing, openFrameworks, etc., and are required to bring their laptops or tablets with 2D or 3D visualization software installed.

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

• 9th March & 10th March 2022, 9 AM – 12 PM
• Room 266
• Upon Registration Only

Merging culture studies, in which anthropology intertwine with artifacts’ social life, with reflections around natural ecosystems: in this masterclass, we will investigate the possibility to think of designed objects as a direct and pure representation of humans’ activities (=endogenous), and/or rooted in specific geographical and cultural contexts (=endemic).

The use of a biological framework is motivated by the idea that a sort of Lex Naturalis (Natural Law), intended here in its secular exception, should drive design towards solutions that create as little friction as possible between the natural environment and its inhabitants. Moreover, we will analyze how adjacent subjects, such as material studies and circular design could play a fundamental role in explaining how endemic and endogenous design is defined and what are its principles and methods.

This masterclass is, in some way, at the crossing between the four Tasmeem axes touching on critical elements such as design utopias, vernacular knowledge, post-colonialism, and new ecologies. After an initial brainstorming and gathering of creative stimuli from the local environment, participants will engage in some physical experimentations chasing endemic and endogenous design opportunities. The final outcomes could result in both still images, videos, or physical representations depending on the nature of the conceptual paths that each participant/group will decide to undertake.

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

• 8th March & 9th March 2022, 4:15 PM – 7:15 PM
• VIRTUAL
• Upon Registration Only

The workshop is designed to help anyone who wants to engage in complexity, narratives, systems, design, business, problem-solving in a people-centered and futures-oriented way. It is meant for anyone who is interested in learning and ideating about how to design for and with people, understand mindset and behavior. Participants will have hands-on experience in mapping systems and unpacking people and doing problem-solving with an empathetic humanistic and systemic worldview. We will do this through a gamified experience (with sets of tools and cards designed at D.epicentre). This will potentially open conversations on the future of many aspects with reflections of the nature of crises we are undergoing.

Participants are required to bring their laptop with Zoom already installed.

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.

What new trajectories are created when future visions from different worlds connect, converse, and influence each other?

Futurisms is a possible trajectory. It is a cross-cultural journey mapped by the desire for a future filled with love and beauty. This exhibition brings together artists Jasmine Murrell, Saba Taj, Alisha Wormsley, Saks Afridi, and the artist collective, Hyphen Labs, to initiate a conversation between Afrofuturism, Sci-fi Sufism, and Muslim Futures. Each artist reminds us that we can still find the utopia within the dystopia. Here, embodied knowledge is liberatory technology. A technology activated only through vulnerability, reverence, empathy, and excitement. Futurisms engages this technology to offer a way forward. Futurisms charts strategies for imagining a fruitful future, one that helps us to confront ourselves and recognize the magic inside.

The term Afrofuturism was coined in 1996 by cultural critic Mark Dery. Afrofuturism as a cultural movement, however, has continued to evolve into a multidisciplinary, intersectional, multi-temporal visioning practice that foregrounds the past, present, and future of Black bodies. Speculating about the future through art is a central characteristic of Afrofuturism. During its evolution, other practices have emerged, such as Arab-futurism, Gulf-futurism, Muslim-futurism, and Sci-fi Sufism. Each practice has developed and can be defined differently, and yet each, inspired by Afrofuturism, query whether possible futures are sites of concern or innovation. Futurisms further expands this inquiry by traversing radical dreaming and ancestral kinship to survey the multiple dimensions of our shared realities.

Jasmine Murrell presents abstraction as expressed through the aging Black body. The tapestries are evidence of Black life woven into our future. Each tapestry calls to attention Murrell’s process. We see the final form of materials collected over 10 years. Among them are images of a Black female body, signaling that her wisdom must be central to our future.

Saks Afridi introduces us to Sci-fi Sufism through his series Space Mosque. We are pulled into a para-fictional narrative about a phenomenon of spiritual machines appearing on Earth. The event has ended, and we learn through newspapers and artefacts that these spiritual machines revealed the best and worst of our humanity just by answering our prayers.

Alisha B. Wormsley collaborates with Li Harris to investigate ways to activate a network of portals that lead to safe pleasurable places. In D.R.E.A.M.=A Way to AFRAM, the video documents the process of opening a portal in Marfa, TX. The tension we witness between the two is the necessary energy to help transport us to utopias they’ve identified here on Earth.

Hyphen Labs’ NeuroSpeculative AfroFeminism is a multi-media installation combining design, virtual reality, and neuroscience to craft a surreal world that is protecting communities by distributing communal memories to “escape cognitive tyranny.”

One of the tenets of Afrofuturism is that the Black body cannot be entirely free until all other oppressed groups are free. Our liberations are tied. They are bonded, and they seep into each other. To that end, the agenda of subjugation and extraction, be it from the land, body, or the skies, the systems that bind the Black mind, body, and soul also bind the mind, body, and soul of everyone, even if expressed differently.  We train each other in the tools of emancipation.

By reminding us that there is beauty within grief, pain, confusion, and frustration, each artist of Futurisms offers a modality towards the revolutions of freedom that speak to and support all future visions of justice.

• Artists: Alisha B. Wormsley (in cooperation with Li Harris), Hyphen-Labs, Jasmine Murrell, and Saks Afridi
• Curator: Ingrid LaFleur
• Exhibition Dates: March 7 to April 9, 2022
• Opening Reception: March 7 at 7 pm at The Gallery  (You must register for each event separately)
• Panel Discussion: March 8 at 5:30 pm in the Atrium (You must register for each event separately)
• Entry: Free and open to the public upon prior registration.
• Venue: The Gallery at VCUarts Qatar / Panel discussion in the Atrium (virtual + in-person options available)

Image by: Saks Afridi, Spacetime, Print on Aluminum, 2018. Courtesy of the artist.
In collaboration with Narcy (Yassin Alsalman) with Tamara Abdul Hadi, Roï Saade.

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.

• 7th March & 8th March 2022, 9 AM – 12 PM
• Room 266
• Upon Registration Only

This Masterclass by Jessica Charlesworth and Tim Parsons from art and design studio Parsons & Charlesworth reveals how satire can be used as an effective tool in the creation of provocative fictional worlds. Using their recent installation at the Venice Architecture Biennale, Catalog for the Post-Human as a case study, Jessica and Tim will take participants through a fast-paced process from digesting critical ideas about the future to creating descriptions and visualizations of satirical products. Along the way they will show examples of satirical works from different genres and illustrate how speculating upon the objects we may use in the future can be an effective means of questioning the values of the present.

The workshop will explore ethical concerns about human enhancement and the future of work, focusing upon four areas: Cognitive Enhancement, Enhanced Productivity, Optimized Wellness, and Expedited Recovery. This research, concerning the ethics of how technology might be applied in our futures, will be combined with the development of personas and scenarios, to generate new ideas for products which will be written up and visualized. The combined output of the workshop will form a new “page” in the Catalog for the Post-Human.

The workshop responds to the theme “The Institute of Speculation – Future Fictions, Dystopian Worlds & Imagined Artifacts”, covering topics including alternative futures, post-human narratives, and speculative sciences.

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

• 7th March 2022, 5:30 PM
• Atrium
• Upon Registration Only (limited seats available)

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 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.

Artists: Alisha B. Wormsley (in cooperation with Li Harris), Hyphen-Labs, Jasmine Murrell, Saba Taj, and Saks Afridi
Curator: Ingrid LaFleur

What new trajectories are created when future visions from different worlds connect, converse, and influence each other?

Futurisms is a possible trajectory. It is a cross-cultural journey mapped by the desire for a future filled with love and beauty. This exhibition brings together artists Jasmine Murrell, Saba Taj, Alisha Wormsley, Saks Afridi, and the artist collective, Hyphen Labs, to initiate a conversation between Afrofuturism, Sci-fi Sufism, and Muslim Futures. Each artist reminds us that we can still find the utopia within the dystopia. Here, embodied knowledge is liberatory technology. A technology activated only through vulnerability, reverence, empathy, and excitement. Futurisms engages this technology to offer a way forward. Futurisms charts strategies for imagining a fruitful future, one that helps us to confront ourselves and recognize the magic inside.

• Exhibition Dates: March 7 to April 9, 2022
• Opening Reception: March 7 at 7pm at The Gallery  (You must register for each event separately)
• Panel Discussion: March 8 at 5:30pm in the Atrium (You must register for each event separately)
• Entry: Free and open to the public upon prior registration.
• Venue: The Gallery at VCUarts Qatar / Panel discussion in the Atrium (virtual + in-person options available)

The term Afrofuturism was coined in 1996 by cultural critic Mark Dery. Afrofuturism as a cultural movement, however, has continued to evolve into a multidisciplinary, intersectional, multi-temporal visioning practice that foregrounds the past, present, and future of Black bodies. Speculating about the future through art is a central characteristic of Afrofuturism. During its evolution, other practices have emerged, such as Arab-futurism, Gulf-futurism, Muslim-futurism, and Sci-fi Sufism. Each practice has developed and can be defined differently, and yet each, inspired by Afrofuturism, query whether possible futures are sites of concern or innovation. Futurisms further expands this inquiry by traversing radical dreaming and ancestral kinship to survey the multiple dimensions of our shared realities.

Jasmine Murrell presents abstraction as expressed through the aging Black body. The tapestries are evidence of Black life woven into our future. Each tapestry calls to attention Murrell’s process. We see the final form of materials collected over 10 years. Among them are images of a Black female body, signaling that her wisdom must be central to our future.

Saks Afridi introduces us to Sci-fi Sufism through his series Space Mosque. We are pulled into a para-fictional narrative about a phenomenon of spiritual machines appearing on Earth. The event has ended, and we learn through newspapers and artefacts that these spiritual machines revealed the best and worst of our humanity just by answering our prayers.

Painted during the COVID-19 pandemic, Saba Taj creates a Muslim future world cloaked in glitter. In her series, There are Gardens in the Margins, Taj seduces us to an edge, a place where the undefinable is the abundance. Her paintings give us permission to indulge in beauty and to be undefinable as well.

Alisha Wormsley collaborates with Li Harris to investigate ways to activate a network of portals that lead to safe pleasurable places. In D.R.E.A.M.=A Way to AFRAM, the video documents the process of opening a portal in Marfa, TX. The tension we witness between the two is the necessary energy to help transport us to utopias they’ve identified here on Earth.

Hyphen Labs’ NeuroSpeculative AfroFeminism is a multi-media installation combining design, virtual reality, and neuroscience to craft a surreal world that is protecting communities by distributing communal memories to “escape cognitive tyranny.”

One of the tenets of Afrofuturism is that the Black body cannot be entirely free until all other oppressed groups are free. Our liberations are tied. They are bonded, and they seep into each other. To that end, the agenda of subjugation and extraction, be it from the land, body, or the skies, the systems that bind the Black mind, body, and soul also bind the mind, body, and soul of everyone, even if expressed differently.  We train each other in the tools of emancipation.

By reminding us that there is beauty within grief, pain, confusion, and frustration, each artist of Futurisms offers a modality towards the revolutions of freedom that speak to and support all future visions of justice.

Image by: Saks Afridi, Spacetime, Print on Aluminum, 2018. Courtesy of the artist.
In collaboration with Narcy (Yassin Alsalman) with Tamara Abdul Hadi, Roï Saade.

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