Arena Qatar

By Design

A Merged Experience
The new designers from the VCUQatar campus inhabit an area between disciplines, say their mentors, as they delve deep into the philosophy behind the need for design a dialogue that is all about context.
By sindhu nair Photographs by ROB ALTIMIRANO
CREATIVITY CAPTURED (Top): VCUQatar and its rooms where creativity is commonplace; Below: Super Heroes concept suit aimed for Qatars migrant work population, designed by Alia Khairat

Waiting for the professors at Virginia Commonwealth University in Qatar (VCUQatar), my senses were alert, picking up details, the white board completely camouflaged by yellow stick-on scribbled notes (part of a student project that touched on memories and history); clothes scattered or bunched up and a desk with blots of paint on it; and camel hair (another project) rolled into a heap in another corner. The room had a certain air about it, although there were no wow elements visible, no creative pieces on display; it had an air of anticipation of great things to happen, traces of previously finished projects, products which might have attained greatness, all in stages of disarray. And this disorderly look seemed to be apt for the room. Not much of a surprise, as it was the meeting room at the VCUQatar (their corridors are equally creative). The topic of discussion seemed to fit into the scheme of things, the Masters of Fine Art in Design Studies (MFA), which the professors claimed explored, questioned and broke barriers within design.

We started with the very basic question of design and what it meant to each one of them and the program they were part of, a topic that would, as I rightly assumed, be the ice breaker. Thomas Modeen, Assistant Professor of Graduate Studies,who also has a Qatar-and London-based architectural and R&D practice says: In the context of this department, what we do is practice interdisciplinary design. We spend hours and hours discussing what this type of design should entail. All of us come from different backgrounds, though in some way or other what we do is always affiliated to design. There is extended debate within the faculty, between design and art and what essentially is the difference and distinction between the two and the program (MFA) is but an extension of this debate. The boundaries are blurred and even idiosyncratic to some degree. What distinguishes design is that beyond the conceptual exercise it needs to be functional, says Modeen. Modeen says there is no defined definition of design, and the

Arena Qatar

By Design

Design is romantic though we design things to make them function efficiently, the first step is an idealized view of the current reality and how it can be better

From far left (clockwise): The corridors of VCUQatar in the process of being mapped creatively, glimpses of Aisha Nasser Al-Suwaidis work in a quest of creating objects to find history.

course is therefore more practice-and experience-based. Design in our context, he says, is inevitably going to be openended as it is always in the process of being redesigned based on precedents that can reinterpreted into a new context. Well, if that confuses you, it is meant to, as Michael Wirtz, Head of Research and Library Technology, says that this is the same question with which they surprise their new students and inevitably trigger the thinking cells of our students when they join the course. They come into the program after finishing a Bachelors degree in certain aspects of design, and they seem to know their area of specialization, like fashion design or graphic design, he says, But we break down the boundaries of what those specializations are by nature and begin to ask what is art, what is design, where it fits together, where one stops and the other begins? Where craft comes in and so on. It becomes a very big question and sometimes there are no definite or easy answers. To MFA student Al Hussein Wanas, who comes from a graphic design background, design means three things: It is primitive just like we need to drink water, eat food, breath oxygen, find shelter and seek abundance, we also need to do all these things with less effort and more comfort; design is romantic though we design things to make them function efficiently, the first step of that process is an idealized view of the current reality and how it may become better; and it is political if you design something as simple as a spoon, you still have to understand the limitations and requirements of the manufacturer, the cultural context of the consumer need, and the competitive advantage for the stakeholders. The answer seems to be the last piece into the jigsaw puzzle that points to the designer from VCUQatars MFA motivated and selfdriven, with a personal approach to design. We are not asking them to build the course language but asking them to explore and find their own approach and their own justification of what design should be, says Modeen. If the students work were to define what MFA is all about, it would

make us all contemplate the form of design explored. But as their mentors have visualized, the work straddles different aspects of design and comfortably links them together for the end product. There is the Super Heroes concept suit aimed at Qatars migrant worker population, which according to student Alia Khairat uses fashion to trigger ideas and materials and illustration to articulate the concept; a multidisciplinary workshop for undergraduate students, in the process of which Amin Matni had to question how higher education can engage strategically with the 2030 vision of the

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T Qatar: The New York Times Style Magazine

DESIGN DIALOGUE clockwise From far left: camel hair as upholstry; Professors of VCUQatar MFA program (clockwise from left: Pornprapha Phatanateacha, associate director of graduate studies, Michael Wirtz, head of research and library technology, Diane Derr, assistant professor and media technology coordinator and Richard Lombord, materials curator) discuss design, Thomas Modeen, assistant professor of graduate studies, VCUQatar ; camel hair is put to use.

The biggest advantage is the freedom to do everything on your own and formulate your own ideas without adhering to a strict pedagogical framework

country; and the sustainable project of finding creative ways of using camel hair, which set Corby Jayne Elford asking questions about products and where they come from. So how would they describe themselves? Multi-designers, perhaps, since they touch on all aspects of designs. Pornprapha Phatanateacha, Associate Director of Graduate Studies says the students are mature in their desired discipline and understand how to implement their knowledge. Diane Derr, Assistant Professor and Media Technology Coordinator takes the example of Aisha Nasser Al-Suwaidi, a student who created objects to find history, to illustrate how design undergraduates and graduates interpret design principles. The primary component that differentiates her work from an undergraduate student is her development of a theoretical framework from which she created objects and then the rigor with which she was engaged in her project. She looked at nostalgia specifically with Qatar and its culture. For Al Hussein the meaning of design remains the same, (even after his MFA course) though his understanding of its complications became deeper. The biggest advantage is the freedom to do everything on your own and formulate your own ideas without adhering to a strict pedagogical framework, he says. According to Phatanateacha, Aisha Al-Suwaidi, with a graphic design background could push herself to develop programs and

experiment without any limitations. Her work led other students to be able to develop new applications that are not specific to any discipline, but the language itself is uniquely embedded with questions that provoke awareness, she says. The ability for students to map out their own territorial investigations is another factor that distinguishes them from the rest. Undergraduate design, according to Wirtz, is about how it gets done while the graduate student thinks about the emotional motivation, the history behind the need for design. In Alia Khairats thesis, The Super Hero Concept, where she interviewed close to 700 workers, and conducted extensive research with a scientist on the nano material used and finally even dabbled in human physiology, flirts with the concept of social status; she delves into many philosophies to get the desired outcome. With a goal of advancing design studies, designers from THE MFA program who have a huge responsibility and experts who dont really know all the answers, but will help find the solutions and expand the students discovery process, VCUQatar is where creativity meets contextual implementation. For students like Al Hussein, there is no pursuit of design. He is not interested in using design in a traditional way that follows current market conventions, trends and gimmicks. He says, My work is intended to create more questions, rather than answering existing ones.

September-October 2013

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