Symposium Program

Cultural survival kits… it would be real nice if we had ready-made ones to give out at the door with simple instruction manuals. Fortunately such things do not exist. Maybe survival manuals are not...

Movable type was the the new media of the 15th century. In Europe many rulers felt threatened by it, and they were right. They did not stop it though. They just tried to censor on the content level.

The National Museum of Yemen in the capital city of Sana’a was neglected when I arrived in 1998. The buildings needed repairs all over, windows were broken and the exhibits were covered in dust. The...

The Arab street – its vibrancy, innovativeness, traditions of design and contemporary expression – has been obscured by geopolitical issues. Any attempt to deviate from the established line that the...

Talk and short video screening by Khaled D. Ramadan. Planet of the Arabs by video maker Jacki Salloum.

Politics, in the form of contemporary cultural resistance projects and in the history of Arab political posters, will be the subject of the presentation.

The Dutch government stimulates contact between groups of different backgrounds by establishing a House for Cultural Dialogue in the four main cities of the Netherlands. These ‘houses’ facilitate...

Peter Bilak will speak about methodologies of approaching unfamiliar areas of work.

The history of printing in the Arab world and Europe is the story of a 500-year exchange of technology, imagery and design. The Arabs adopted printing long before Gutenberg, but did not use it for...

For nearly twenty years, Brody Neuenschwander has worked with the British film maker Peter Greenaway to produce calligraphy for films, installations and operas such as Prospero's Books, The Pillow...

'If I do not mistake, you come from far. May I ask where you are going?' 'I will tell you,' answered Désiré, 'though most likely you will laugh at me. I dreamed that in the land of the sun there was...

Narratives of Arabic typography shift between technological exclusion, historical resistance, and cultural rediscovery. From negotiations surrounding the display of Arabic script by Internet browsers

The Arabic type market has changed dramatically in the last few years, and this has been mainly inspired by recent technology developments, globalization and the growth of the Arab graphic design...

Tarek Atrissi’s will present a research on aesthetic trends and design conventions in the Arab world, through the analysis of selected current practices in Arabic type design, corporate identities

Willem Velthoven interviewing the Typographic Matchmaking Type Designers: Nadine Chahine, Gerard Unger, Tarek Atrissi, Peter Bilak, Pascal Zoghbi, Lucas de Groot, and Lara Assouad Khoury.

Copyright©2007. Huda Smitshuijzen AbiFares Published by BIS Publishers, Amsterdam. 2007 ISBN 978-90-6369-124-0 A new edition is available for ordering from Khatt Books. Click here to place your...

What would an Arabic HEMA look like? Halal sausage? Arabic chocolate letters? Affordable high quality headscarves? 3 Palestinian scarfs (kaffia) for the price of 2? Tunics or Djballas? School...

The symposium program has been evolving and includes topics of every aspect of contemporary Arabic visual culture and identity, going beyond the stereotypes of what is associated with Arabic culture...