Week 01 Blog - Emergent Strategy & Research

Although other people may have different and albeit much more difficult experiences as an answer to this question, I feel like I owe it to myself to answer this with my humble experience. Something that has come to my attention more than ever lately is the illusion that I am trapped inside someone else’s imagination when meeting new people. I constantly worry about what they must think of me; timid or shy, less outgoing, weird, not as social, does not fit in, vain (because I was told I give that off ‘falsely’ as a first impression). As a result, I overthink the entire scenario and may not engage as much in a conversation, which makes socializing just a lot more difficult for me. On the bright side, however, it has made me a great listener. Listening just comes a lot more naturally to me than speaking about myself or engaging in conversation. I was talking about how I felt about this the other day, and was told, “Maram, because you don’t engage in any conversation, you don’t even get to show them who you really are. You are not even giving them the chance to get to connect with or know you, the real you.” As simple as it sounded, hearing that finally made me make sense of why I was trapping myself in their imagination - I am scared of not connecting with people. Funnily enough, reflecting back at what I wrote in my statement of purpose when I applied for IMA Low Res, one of my main aspirations was to help people connect and be heard. It is funny how I strive to create this for my users/audience through my design/art practice when I perhaps need it the most. Have I broken free of it? Debatable. I am still trying to figure out strategies on how to do so. I am interested in how brown mentions to have more presence and develop critical connections, to live in the ‘now’ and how she engages her own imagination to break free from someone else’s imagination, however I don’t think I quite still understand how to adopt these strategies or implement them.

Yes, I believe that we, as a community of creatives and our use of technology as a medium in our practice, definitely have a huge impact on envisioning different alternatives of how we might live our lives. Art and design has always been a reflection of life or lifestyle, what is to stop it from being a reflection from what could be? A reflection of how our life could be transformed. To note some of the subtle differences between an author’s role and a designer/artist’s role are in terms of the medium and the type of experience that could be evoked. The medium of the latter’s role could stimulate all senses, and can deliver a clearer comprehension, in my opinion, of how this imagination could visually look or sound like, etc. to those who find imagination a challenge. The medium can also evoke a sensory experience of a direct and deeper impact, helping the users/audience envision ‘clearer’, especially if it allows for interaction between the artwork and the audience - as if holding a conversation or discussion. The author’s medium however leaves more room for a wider range of perspectives and wider imagination, but is less conversational. Nevertheless, authors are still considered artists - shaping the readers’ imagination with words as their medium. 

‘Non-linear and Iterative’ is the element that I feel is more evident in my work. I think with any creative project, there is always a vision at the initial stage of how you expect a project to turn out like, but you end up iterating on what does not feel right or what does not work several times during the process. The final outcome ends up being completely different from what you had envisioned in the first place. I tend to go with the flow of the pathways of change and see where it leads me to in a project, because I mostly take that flow as my process guide. However, this process guide is obviously non-linear and the pace differs, especially when you are stuck at a specific stage or experience a creative block. And sometimes the non-linear process is generally due to my scattered through process, or is due to a sudden incoming flow of so many changes that is hard to document at times. 

We need to be aware of the importance of considering the emotional aspects of family photography, its function as a social tool, the personal creation of identity, culture, and history, as well as the more sociological and ideological aspects of the material. My album examples are simultaneously a locus of trauma and conflict and a site of love, affection, personal story-telling, and production of subjectivity."