03. On Challenging the Status Quo
للقراءة باللغة العربية
الله لايغير علينا
A saying commonly used in the Gulf countries roughly translated to “May Allah keep thing as they are for us”. A saying we’ve surely heard and used before. A proverb that is up for debate in our opinion. Set on the hopes of sustaining good health, prosperity and relations and an expression of gratitude. However, what about if things are not going so well? The implication would be to settle with the status quo.
In this month’s insights we will be looking at those who are tackling the norm in their respective fields. Tales come from past speakers of Nuqat, including topics such as an alternative model for fashion education, a questioning on the value of capital, and a conceptual take on anonymising internet usage.
On Creative Education
In education, we seem to face the continuous conversation surrounding the privatisation of learning and presence of structured, rigid curriculums. With regards to education in design fields, budget over talent tends to determine an individual’s chance in entering further studies. Sarah Hermez set up the Creative Space Beirut on a quest to make fashion education fair and accessible. The space is a free school, a progressive model for craft learning that predates the institutionalisation of design as students work alongside apprentices and mentor.
Hermez joined us for a talk on “Creative and Social Justice” (The Missing Link, 2014). The idea of a free school came out of the combination of a passion for both fashion and community engagement. The result was not only a school that allows for a holistic approach of learning as technical skills are learnt through the creative project, but also a clear alternative to the norm in higher design education. Additionally, Hermez stresses on the power of design in empowering individuals and communities particularly in a country where there are many prominent social and economic gaps.
“Why a free school for fashion design? Design is a process used to shape and structure our world. In the clothes that we wear, in the buildings we live in, in the products that we use. In order for design to be used as an effective tool for progress of society it needs to be inclusive, incorporating the visions and voices of people from all backgrounds”
On challenging the norm in education, Nuqat has partnered up with Zain for the IN٠DIG٠GO kids program — a program that focuses on bringing in teachers with creative professionals to create and deliver curriculum content and creative skills in an engaging way. This summer, we held our first ever Filmmaking Summer Camp — an intensive two-week workshop for young adults between 12 and 15 years old. All three of magnificent films can be watched below:
- LALALA by Ghaneema (Music Video By Mubarak Al Sulaiti, Suad Al Bahar, and Tamara Ebrahim)
- Behind the Scenes (Short Film by Sophia Saif, Sabika Al Bahar, Faisal Al Mulla, Juda Ayyad, and Marwa Rachidi)
- “It’s Time” (Talk Show by Noura Fahad, Yousef Alabdalrazzaq, Rawan AbouAlsoud, Abdullah Buhaimed)
On Internet Privacy
Building awareness through education is essential to keep up the constant technological changes, particularly when it comes to sharing our own personal information — whether it’s our interests, or our purchasing habits and so on. Lately it’s becoming increasingly clear that privacy on the internet is much non-existent. We have all seen those eerily specific instagram advertisements about that conversation we just had. It does not seem that Instagram is actually listening to your conversation however it sure does know a lot. We are all daily consumers of information through the internet, and the data we share is laid bare for corporate and government eyes — something we put in the back of our mind. As a stand against network surveillance, The Tor project was set up to create a place for internet users to browse whatever they would like without leaving a trace.
A speaker from the Tor Project joined us with a talk on the “Conceptual Expression of Privacy” (Copy + Paste Syndrome, 2015). Since 2014 members of the Project have been exhibiting a sculpture called the ‘Autonomy Cube’, a transparent cube with a Wi-Fi router in the middle that directs traffic into the anonymized Tor network. The Autonomy Cubes has appeared in several museums and institutions over the past few years. Audiences have a chance not only to see, but also connect to, a system that’s challenging the ideals that have built the technology that we use today. In this new network, the framework used upholds the values of privacy, protection, and autonomy. The goal is for these small cubes to allow users that log into the internet to reclaim the space as a civic space. For a more technical read of the autonomy cubes, read here.
The Revaluation of ‘Return’
Lately, Nuqat has been interested in understanding and measuring non-standard forms of return, more specifically non-financial and intangible returns, that enhances the wellbeing of communities at large. This topic was prompted during an Exploration Session that took place in Kuwait in 2016 on “Funding for the Creative Economy” (Moderated by Ali Khalil).
“What does creativity bring to stakeholders? Beyond the modern economic returns it brings to financiers, it is essential for the advancement of societies. Not all business ventures have cost and benefits that are as easy to define. In today’s mainstream modern economic system, a cost has to be attached to a business venture in order to make it viable to investors. However, what is the most efficient and accurate way of attaching a cost to a social cause such as environmental conservation, or the preservation of national heritage? In the case of environmental perseveration, the World Bank was able to attach a cost to environmental degradation through the use of contingent evaluation (i.e. the willingness of individuals to pay for a good)… Such methods of evaluating a business venture are signs of a transition from a profit-maximization driven ecosystem of institutional decision-makers to a co-creative business ecosystem that is concerned with addressing societal needs.” (Exploration Sessions Kuwait, 2016)
As a result of this session, we are currently in collaboration with Strategy& to develop an Index that can standardize social impact measurements on an entity-scale. We will come back to you so soon with updates on this project.
And there are countless other tales from individuals who have not only challenged the existing realities in their own respective fields, but have also worked on paving an alternative possibilities that embody the values they hold most valuable — whether its privacy on the internet, or accessible education in fashion and so on.
Thank you for reading this month’s insights, for any suggestions or comments feel free to send them over here insights@nuqat.me
What We’re Reading
- A Brief History of Specialization by Faris Ali: An overview of education systems and a delve into the relationship between the institution of education and the labour market.
- Creative Coworking Spaces in Kuwait and Saudi Arabia published by the Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington (AGISW)
- Innovation and Urban Inequality Go Hand in Hand by Richard Florida: A review of a study finding between number of patents produced in a city and increasing economic segregation
- بمبي يا صلاح: كيف يتعامل الفن مع الحرب؟ كاتبه ياسمين أكرم
And finally… an ode to the heat we have been facing:
- “Heat Makes You Dumb, in four charts” , no worries summer is nearly over!
