Crossing the Line : What actually does this mean? - Dr Irene Barberis

Irene Barberis on location in Dubai photo by Jan Hogan

Crossing the Line2 : Drawing in the Middle East, -  ‘location’

Tracing the Lineage: Deconstructing the title – "Crossing the Line: Drawing in the Middle East”
Crossing the Line : What actually does this mean?
Various dictionaries say that ‘Crossing the Line ’or ‘to cross a line’ ‘is to go too far, step over the line …move into uncharted territories, cross from one location to another, or more literally physically ‘to cross a line’.
The force in the meaning propels us to think of something in a negative sense – you have ‘crossed the line’! or in a more positive sense – we are crossing the line – moving forward…we WILL go into uncharted territories….”
As artists, designers, scientists, in fact in any creative domain - we desire or aspire to/cross the line or ‘a line’ – to go further, think deeper, wider more incisively…to push against the boundaries and enlarge our understandings, locations, our knowledge, and experience as human beings.
Drawing in the Middle East – Here is a twofold expression, a double entendre – it is either – ‘Drawing in the Middle East’ – a pulling inwards toward a centre or point – or a geographical location of ‘Drawing in the Middle East ‘– the title was meant to do both – a call for attention through dialogue – in this case through the visual language of drawing throughout the Middle East – and it is also a ‘count’, a type of audit of ‘drawing’ that is happening in the Middle East now – a gathering of artists, ideas, perceptions and projections.

Dr. Irene Barberis

links: Irene Barberis
          Dr Irene Barberis page at RMIT University, Melbourne
          Global Centre for Drawing

Crossing The Line 2 Conference at AUD - Presentations

Venantius Pinto

Jan Hogan

Geometric Aljamia - Reni Gower, Jorge Benitez

Stefan Messam

Juan Roldan Martin

Keith Webb

Joe Graham

Miriam Sturdee

Hendrik Wahl

Valerie Hird

Graça Magalhães

Jorge Benitez

Saba Qizilbash

Brian Dougan

Bod Dahm

Crossing The Line 2 - 2014 Conference Schedule

http://issuu.com/crossingtheline/docs/ctl_schedule_130914/0

click here to read and download

Geometric Aljamia links many cultures - by Jyoti Kalsi, Gulf News

“Geometric Aljamia: a cultural transliteration” is an exhibition that explores the connections between Europe, the Mediterranean basin and the Middle East by addressing the fundamental geometry embedded in two-dimensional art. Aljamia is the adaptation of the Arabic script to transcribe texts in European languages. In the past, Aljamia manuscripts played a significant role in preserving Islam and the Arabic language in the West, especially in Andalusia. By understanding the visual arts as a transliteration of one form of thinking to another, this exhibition revisits the ongoing impact of Islamic art, science and philosophy in the modern world.

The show features beautiful paper cuts and delicate wall tracings of Islamic geometric patterns created by artists from diverse cultures. It is curated by award-winning artist, curator and teacher Reni Gower, who is a professor in the Painting and Printmaking Department at Virginia Commonwealth University; and Jorge Benitez, who is an assistant professor in the Communications Arts Department at the same university. The participating artists include Mohammad Saleh Ameen and Tamim Sahebzada from Afghanistan; Dubai-based American artist Julia Townsend; Hanane Korchi, who is a Canadian of Moroccan origin; and the two American curators. The exhibition is being held in Dubai in conjunction with “Crossing the Line 2”, an international conference dedicated to the discipline of Drawing in the Middle East hosted by the American University of Dubai."

read the complete review here

GEOMETRIC ALJAMIA: A CULTURAL TRANSLITERATION

You are cordially invited to the reception for:

GEOMETRIC ALJAMIA: 
A CULTURAL TRANSLITERATION

a group exhibition featuring works by Julia Townsend 

and artists from the US, Canada, and Afghanistan

Wednesday, September 10, 2014 6:00-8:00 pm

 Total Arts Gallery, The Courtyard

 Dubai, UAE

in Al Quoz   04 228 2888,  behind Times Square, 

next to Lime Tree, across from Bounce  

27 August - 13 September 2014

CROSSING THE LINE, 2014 - CONFERENCE SCHEDULE

students of the Visual Communication Department, AUD, 
getting ready for Crossing the Line 2 Conference, photo by Julia Townsend



CONFERENCE SCHEDULE

DAY 1  Friday, September 12

2:00 Campus opens; Registration Begins                      
                                 Outside Room C227, C Building,
                                 American University in Dubai (First Floor, near ‘Unimart’)

2:30 Opening Address and Paper by Dr. Irene Barberis - Room C227
2:40 Introduction of Keynote Speaker
3:00 Dr. Janet MacKenzie, Keynote Speaker,
         presents Drawing on Two Worlds: The Osgood Suite
4:00 Break
4:15 Panel Discussion
5:00 Bus to the Sharjah Art Museum / surrounding venues
8:00 Bus return from Sharjah to Rotana Centro Barsha Hotel


Day 2 Saturday, September 13

9:00 Coffee/Tea -  Outside Room C227
9:30 – 10:30  Presentations  C227
10:30  Break                                              
10:45-12:30 Presentations   C227
12:30-2:00   Lunch at Certo’s, The Radisson Blu Hotel  
                     Behind AUD campus- walking distance
2:00-3:30 Presentations and Artist Talks C227
3:30  Break                                                
3:45-5:00 Presentations and Artist Talk  C227
5:30   Bus to The Jamjar Gallery, Al Quoz
          Exhibition Reception,
          Performances at 7:00
8:30   Bus from The Jamjar to Rotana Centro Barsha Hotel


Day 3 Sunday, September 14

9:00 Coffee/Tea - Outside Room 227
9:30 – 10:30 Presentations C227
10:30 Break
10:45 -12:00 Presentations C227
12:00-12:30 Lunch break
12:30-2:30 Presentations and Artist Talks C227
2:30 Break
2:45 – 5:00 Presentations and Artist Talks C227
7:00 Bus from AUD to DIFC – Several Gallery Openings
9:00 (or earlier) Bus from DIFC to Rotana Centro Barsha Hotel



RELATED EXHIBITIONS

Total Arts Gallery, The Courtyard,  Al Quoz, Dubai

‘Geometric Aljamia: A Cultural Transliteration’

 August 27- September 13

The Jamjar Al Quoz, Dubai ‘Crossing the Line 2’ drawings

September 12,13, & 14

On Campus  - A Building: ‘ART in ROME/ART in DUBAI’

Student works on location,

September 9 – 15

On Campus  - A Building: Geometric Aljamia: workshop results:



WORSHOPS PRIOR AND POST CONFERENCE

Tuesday, September 9-11 (before the conference)

1. Geometric Aljamia: A Cultural Transliteration    This is a workshop let by award winning      Professor Reni Gower    and Jorge Benitez, both from Virginia Commonwealth University,
 Richmond, USA. The workshop corresponds to a current   exhibition at the Total Arts Gallery,  Courtyard also called 'Geometric Aljamia.'

Under Gower’s guidance, participants will design motifs 
based on Islamic tile patterns, which will be used to create 
unique papercuts.  Tessellation, mirror imaging, tiling, will 
be investigated.  

http://www.collegeart.org/awards/teaching2014

Timing 9:00-5:30 Tuesday- Thursday  - resulting in exhibition  in A Building on Friday,

Sept 12.

Under Benitez’s supervision workshop participants will
transform a traditional Islamic geometric motif into a
perspectival drawing.

Timing (9:00-5:30 Wednesday and Thursday- or as per arranged by faculty)  -
resulting in exhibition in A Building on Friday, Sept 12.

2. “Geometric Aljamía” and “Re-claiming the Wild Colors of our Voices”
Under the direction of Susan Schüld, Professor of Theatre at VCU Richmond, participants in a concurrent workshop will explore voices in Dubai and the Middle East today.

Day 1:

Discussion, Awareness, Voice Pictures    

Day 2: River stories and Poems

Day 3: Rehearsal of final exhibit and performance. Creative writings will be transposed into a
performance presented by Benitez and Schüld and students in the gallery at the opening reception. Timing  6-8 pm or as arranged per faculty.


Monday, September 15 (after the conference)

3.   Dr. Irene Barberis - The "Master Class: Drawing on Location":
     Global Centre for Drawing  -  A Metasenta®  Project Class
      coordinated by Professor Townsend

9:10 Bus from AUD campus to Atlantis Hotel – the Lost Chambers Aquarium

10:30 Bus from Atlantis Hotel to AUD campus

Afternoon: 1:30 Bus to Atlantis Hotel, return 3:30 (to be confirmed)

Dr. Janet McKenzie - Keynote Speaker at Crossing The Line Conference, 2014

Dr. Janet McKenzie will present the keynote address:

Drawing on Two Worlds: The Osgood Suite

Dr. Janet McKenzie
Author, Artist and Senior Research Fellow at the University of Dundee

Janet McKenzie was born in eastern Victoria, Australia and was educated at he Australian National University (History of Art/ Philosophy) and the Canberra School of Art (etching). She travelled to the UK in 1979-80 and carried out independent research at King’s College, Cambridge. Returning to Australia she taught at the Canberra School of Art, the Victorian College of the Arts and the City Art Institute, Sydney (now College of Fine Art, UNSW) and published: Drawing in Australia, Contemporary Images and Ideas (1986), and Noel Counihan (1986). In 1986 she married architect Michael Spens and moved to Scotland the following year where she settled permanently. Whilst raising a family, her studio practice was primarily painting. She continued writing and publishing and completed her Doctorate at the University of St. Andrews on The Art of Arthur Boyd, under the supervision of Professor Martin Kemp, published by Thames and Hudson (2000). She has co-edited Studio International with Michael Spens since 2000. She wrote Contemporary Australian Drawing #1, published by Macmillan Art Publishing in 2012. She is a Senior Research Fellow at the University of Dundee, and has embarked on Drawing on Two Worlds, a practice-led research project using collaborative drawing to explore issues of identity and dispossession in Scotland and Australia. She delivered the paper ‘Drawing as Discovery’ as the keynote speaker for ‘Drawing Out’, the 2012 drawing conference at The Centre for Drawing, The University of the Arts, London.

Janet McKenzie

Sanctuary 1984 Edition of 30

Drypoint 

14 x 17 cm 

link: Drawing on Two Worlds at Langford 120

Information for Participants

The American University in Dubai is located in Media City, between Al Barsha and Marina neighborhoods.

Below are two suggestions of hotels close to the University or with transportation to and from.

The Al Barsha neighborhood is where the Mall of The Emirates is located. The area has a great diversity of shops, restaurants and hotels, and with the metro service it is 15 minutes away from the American University metro stop.


 Centro Barsha - Dubai - United Arab Emirates - Centro Hotels

Media One Hotel, 4 Star Hotel Dubai, Hotel in Dubai Media City and Dubai Marina: Mediaonehotel.com

CROSSING THE LINE 2 - ACCEPTED PAPERS AND PRESENTATIONS

CROSSING THE LINE 2, 12-14 SEPTEMBER 2014, AUD, DUBAI

Accepted papers and presentations


1 Drawing as a transdisciplinary practice

Drawing: the Active Desire from Design. A Case of Designing Architecture
Graça Magalhães, Communication and Art Department, University of Aveiro, Portugal 

‘Complex Histories in Architecture’: Drawing as a Method of Design Discover, Makkah- Saudi Arabia
Samie. I. Kayani, Architect/Researcher and Co-founder of Carpet Philosophy, experimental design studio, London, UK

2 Drawing as an intersection

Speculatio Through Drawing
Venantius J Pinto, New York, NY, USA

The Intermediary Between Space and Surface in Current Drawing Approaches and Practices
Dr. Kelly L. Devrome, College of Arts and Creative Enterprises, Zayed University, Dubai, UAE

“Writing Culture” with Arabic Letters
Dr. J.R. Osborn, Culture and Technology Co-Director, Technology Design Studio, Georgetown University

3 Crossing the Line: hand and technology in a changing world

Editorial & Political Cartoons in the Age of Web 2.0: Definition, Drection & Diversity
Miriam Sturdee, Lancaster University, UK, doctoral candidate 

Copying in the Digital Age of Drawing
João dos Santos, Philip Cabau, School of Arts and Design, Caldas da Rainha
Polytechnic Institute of Leiria, Portugal

4 Drawing: portrait and landscape-notations of our time

The Resurrection Lands: Art Book meets Graphic Novel
Stefan KK Messam, College of Arts and Creative Enterprises, Zayed University, Dubai, UAE

Step Away from the Computer: Why Drawing Still Counts
Suzanne Albanus, Education and Training, Amnesty International, Australia 

The Expanded Line
Dr. Jan Hogan, Tasmanian College of the Arts, Hobart, Australia

Not Just Splitting Hairs – The Displays Project
Christos Chatzichristos, Chrystalleni Loizidou, Program of Architecture, University of Cyprus, Nicosia, Cyprus and University of London, UK

Visual Language: A Key to Cross-Cultural Communication
Valerie Hird, Saint Michael’s College, Vermont, and Art Student’s League, NYC, US

5 Pedagogical applications  

Reluctant Image Makers: Teaching Drawing in Arabia
Bob Dahm, College of Architecture, Art and Design, American University of Sharjah, UAE

Figure Drawing in a Culturally Sensitive Environment
Stefan KK Messam, College of Arts and Creative Enterprises, Zayed University, Dubai, UAE

Formal Analysis Methodology. Drawing as a Thinking Tool
Dr. Beatriz Itzel Cruz Megchun, Belén Hermida Rodríguez, Juan Roldán Martín, College of Architecture, Art & Design, American University of Sharjah, and  Scuola Del Design, Politecnico di Milano

Forward ever_backward never {avoiding hesitance} fostering confidence
Brian Dougan, College of Architecture, Art & Design, American University of Sharjah

Tools for Identifying Typical Errors in Young Adults Drawings as a Way of Assessing Progress in the Learning of Drawing
Sahra Kunz, Research Center in Science and Technology of the Arts, School of the Arts, Portuguese Catholic University, Porto, Portugal

Art and Illustration: Are Educators Missing the Big Picture When Developing Studio Curriculum?
Keith Webb, Department of Design, University of Central Oklahoma, US

6 Kinesthetics and Performance

The Specious Line: The drawn line as a method for recording the ‘specious present’
Joe Graham, Loughborough University, UK

New deadline

The deadline for submissions for Crossing The Line 2 Conference has been extended to May 1st.
Final announcements will be made by May 7.

guidelines :
http://crossingthelineconference2.blogspot.com.br/2014/02/call-for-papers.html

 please write to: crossigthelineconference@gmail.com

The Drawn Word

Editors: Professor Stephen Farthing RA and Dr Janet McKenzie

Publisher: Studio International and the Studio Trust, New York and London, 2014

The essays are organised into five key sections: Definition; Transmission; Application; Representation; and “All Writing is Drawing”, an exhibition remit for artists in Australia and the UK.

Following the publication of Contemporary Australian Drawing (2012),1 the 80 artists in the book were invited by Dr Irene Barberis (RMIT/Metasenta) to create works for an exhibition that would travel to London (UAL) for Drawing Out 2012. Artists were invited to respond to two statements by French writers Michel Butor and Serge Tisseron, that: “All writing is drawing” and “The space of writing, what is that?”

http://www.studiointernational.com/index.php/the-drawn-word

CALL FOR PAPERS / PRESENTATIONS

Crossing the Line 2: Drawing in the Middle East - intersections of transdisciplinary practice and understanding will bring together specialists from various fields of research and practices to examine the role of drawing in the contemporary Middle East and its wider international interactions. It is hosted by the Department of Visual Communication, in the School of Architecture, Art & Design at the American University in Dubai, and partners with the Global Centre for Drawing, Melbourne Australia.

Friday-Sunday, September 12-14^th 2014

With accompanying exhibitions and events.

Optional excursions on September 11th and 15^th

Following the same premise as Crossing the Line 1 in November of2011, the Conference invites papers or artist/lab talks to consider the wider implications of drawing, from technology to ideology and cultural practices, from art, science, music, performance and architecture. Drawing can be considered as medium, as a tool, as notation, performance, and as a specific mode of thinking and imagining in the processes of invention, production, reproduction and communication within and across fields and disciplines.

Continuum: Crossing the Line 1

       “The trans-disciplinary approach of the conference will highlight the specificities, as well as the commonalities of the various dimensions, fields, forms and uses of drawing, broadly defined as the production and extension of lines in space, as the creation of meaning by marking surfaces, as the creation and fixation of visible paths that record and communicate patterns of temporal-spatial experiences.

       In this sense, drawing is the activity and product that makes explicit the interrelationships of flow and form in mental life. It mediates the flux of internal processes and allows the objectification of mental constructs and operations into practical-material as well as perceptual-symbolic entities.

       The central notion of Crossing the Line emphasizes the act and the idea of drawing as, on one hand, the setting of clear boundaries defining symbolic and material entities within a representational field and representational practices, while at the same time stressing the relational nature of all formalizing processes and constructs, of meaning making and communicative processes in general.

       In this sense, to draw is at the same time to establish a limit and to surpass it, it is to define the interrelated positive and negative components of any configuration. To draw is to create a boundary that is also an interface between domains, territories, modes of thinking and corresponding modes of being. To create a line is to produce a vector of thought and action, and in this sense, to mark a boundary is already to cross it, that is: drawing is a trans-formative process; it is the creation of new paths, new relationships, new configurations of knowledge.”     

Dr Marcelo Guimarães Lima, CEPAOS Research Center and University of São Paulo, Brazil

Crossing the Line 2

The conference will examine a potentially new nexus of drawing in the Middle East and fresh paradigms for drawing interculturally, extending and building on the themes from 2011:

1 Drawing as a transdisciplinary practice

2 Drawing as an intersection

3 Crossing the Line: hand and technology in a changing world

4 Drawing: a portrait and landscape-notations of our time

5 Pedagogical applications   

How have instructional methods evolved in light of broader definitions of drawing in the last decade? Papers that examine methods and theories of drawing instruction at all levels are welcome, referencing contemporary practice, historical context, experimental projects, etc.

6 Kinesthetics and Performance

As Paul Klee famously explained, ‘a line is a dot that has gone for a walk.’ Drawing, by definition, requires movement, whether physical, metaphoric, or poetic. Papers that consider kinesthetic relationships across the spectrum from performance, dance, science, all forms of the ‘laboratory’ are invited.  Proposals may include a performance component (there may be an opportunity for a soiree of performance drawing. TBC)

Schedule for Proposals:

Deadline for submissions: May 1^st , 2014

Results of Selection Committee: May 7, 2014

The Selection Committee is comprised of
 
Dr. Irene Barberis, International Chair
Prof. Julia Townsend, Middle East Chair

Dr. Marcelo Guimarães Lima, Publication Chair

There are two categories of submission for proposals:

Papers:(25 minute presentation): An abstract of maximum 500 words, images not required, for proposals for presentation. If accepted, the full paper is due for Peer Review by June 1, 2014. Of all of the accepted papers, eleven will be included in the subsequent publication and will be informed by July 1. (There will be up to 20 presentations)

The Peer Review Team is comprised of Dr. Irene Barberis, Dr. Marcelo Guimarães Lima, Janet Mackenzie, Julia Townsend.

The publication will be produced by Metasenta Publications:

Dr. Irene Barberis, Executive Editor

Dr. Marcelo Guimarães Lima, Editor

Julia Townsend, Editor

Luis Castaneda, Designer

Artist/Lab Talks (up to 30 minute presentation): An abstract of maximum 500 words. 3 images. These presentations will not be considered for publication.

ALL PROPOSALS MAY INCLUDE AN IMAGE (related to the proposal) FOR CONSIDERATION IN A CONFERENCE-RELATED EXHIBITION, additional to accompanying exhibitions already planned. Location may be on campus, near the conference presentation room (TBA). Image may be framed or unframed, of any 2d medium, up to 42 x 59 cms, and may be delivered on the first day of the conference. Please title this image “LastName_Firstname_4Consideration” and include title, date, size, and medium in the image list.

Please write to:
crossingthelineconference@gmail.com