Thursday, December 9, 2010

Media Theory: Joumhoureyet Alby

Media Theory assignment:
These are the lyrics of a famous Arabic song titled [Jmohriat Albi]
This song has caused many debate between [extreme]/ feminists, Arab men and women.
Research about this song and its impact on the Arab society, watch the video clip here and then pick the most 5 disturbing ideas that were portrayed in this song...
Apply all the knowledge we have gained so far in this course especially theories of Semiotics and theories of Feminism.
The article should be around 700 words.



A song by Mohamed Eskandar titled Joumhoureyet Alby "The Republic of My heart" has caused Lebanese feminists to go on a couple of rallies to protest against the song and its messages. Both the lyrics and the video clip are embedded with messages against women rights and their freedom of choice.

The song starts off with the graduated girl telling her dad that she wants to work. Eskandar, playing the role of the dad bluntly states that "we have no girls here that work with their degrees, our girl is pampered and everything she wants is at her service." Now what does that even mean? Assuming that all families have the luxury to "pamper" their girls, is that what all girls are after? Not only it is demeaning to women's ambitions and goals in life, it also encourages them to being a non-productive part of the society. How on earth would the Arab world move forward while half of its population is being "pampered" at home?

It seems that the song aims at putting women in their "place", to Eskandar this place is the kitchen. We see the girl giving the man, who seems to be her fiancĂ©, a look asking him to support her decision, but he starts shaking his head and waving his hands saying "you get married and that’s it". Now that’s the role women are supposed to fulfill according to the song. It simply undermines women's rights and intelligence.

Then the dad tells his daughter to hypothetically assume that he would allow her to work, what would he do with her with her beauty!? In the video clip we see the girl dressed in a very revealing dress that her boss couldn’t help but sexually harass her. The problem here is that the dad is going to have to intervene and destroy the office. "Take the idea of working out of your mind, why to cause yourself problems?" Assuming that a working woman would wear something like that to her work place, how is she to blame if one man is a pervert. The song is basically saying that all men are pigs and it blames women for that.

According to the song, another reason why women should stay in their kitchens is the kids. We see in the clip the woman going to work leaving her little son with the Asian maid that doesn’t pay any attention to the crying baby. Well, first of all, there's a lot of working women I know and none of them leave their kids with the maid. Second of all, the image that Asian workers are portrayed in the video clip is extremely racist. Third of all, if a mother is working it doesn't mean that she is going to neglect her kids or not care for them. Sure, a lot of women decide to stay at home when they become mothers, but that is their choice and a second class singer shouldn’t have a say in that.

In my opinion, the most insulting part of the song is when the father goes like "what is this job that’s going to separate us, who cares about money, I would burn them for your eyes". It's a bad stereotype that shows women would smile like dolls and do what you ask for if you buy them fancy things. Apparently it hasn’t crossed Eskandar's mind that women need to work to fulfill their dreams and ambitions, not just to earn some money. Furthermore, it would be great if all fathers can afford saying that and actually buying their girls convertibles and give them golden credit cards, but that’s just not true.

What's dangerous about this kind of messages that come in the form of catchy songs is that the words are easily implanted in the minds of kids and youth. How many of us sang and danced along such songs? Such messages lead to backward thinking thus hindering the Arab world from acknowledging women as a productive part of the society and becoming more of a civilized culture. I think there should be more special organizations to spread awareness about this kind of popular media and advertisement.

Thursday, November 4, 2010

Tracing Circles: my first experimental film

Its a silent, black and white short experimental film. I didnt put my own explanation so that everyone can have his or her own interpretation.

Monday, October 25, 2010

Media Theory: Social networks


were facebook and other social networking sites created as a response to  society's needs or as a changer of the society's current social norms?

A lot of people might argue that social networks were created as a reaction to social changes and a response to people's needs. But can people really need something they didn’t even know exist? Nearly half a century ago, Raymond Williams said that a new technology "'emerges' from technical study and experiment. It then changes the society or the sector it has 'emerged'. 'We' adapt to it, because it is the new modern way." The Canadian communication theorist Marshal McLuhan also agreed that the media technologies are the tools used to 'shape' modern societies.  Thus all kinds of social networks were created as part of the process of evolution and consequently became a social norm. 
Few years back, the idea of sharing private information on the web was completely foreign to most people. Then the rising popularity of some social networks reflected the changing attitude of people towards sharing and communicating. "People have really gotten comfortable not only sharing more information and different kinds, but more openly and with more people." said Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of facebook; the world's largest social network

The Truth about Facebook

Sunday, October 10, 2010

Experimental films i like (1)

"This was a found footage short exploring the concepts of death that I put together for my experimental film class at UT. I bought over a dozen 16mm films and edited them to accompany the narration of a suicide letter in order to create a short about life and death and the memories we will never forget. Music by Aphex Twin. Narrated by Daniel McNamara, my good ole' English chap."

My Last Life- Found Footage Experimental Film 

Thursday, October 7, 2010

Quote of the day

"Maybe it's not too late to learn how to love and forget how to hate"
Frank Zappa

Saturday, October 2, 2010

Photo of the day: despair


despair

"The Dream"

She was laying there in the dark, staring at the shadows overhead. Its half past twelve and the night is dark as the moon hides behind the passing clouds. At that moment it seemed to her that she's been laying there since ever as she lost track of time and place.

Swiftly, without any introductions, she got out of bed and looked at her reflection in the mirror. It felt like she is gazing into the eyes of a complete stranger. The sound of the rain drops tapping her window woke her up from that state of mind.  
She heard the sound of a car stopping in the entrance of her house. It was him waiting for her outside. Her mind drifted back to the previous night when they agreed on eloping together. She tip toed her way out of the house.

Only the sound of the mighty thunderstorm broke the silence that fell upon them. Suddenly the lights of another car flashed into her eyes. Next thing she knew, the car was upside down on the edge of a deep cliff. She starts screaming and screaming… then she woke up!

As she lay there, it came to her like a tide flowing its fathom over her, it was all a dream


 

Thursday, September 30, 2010

from Aisha to hip hop

The final project in the documentary film class I took last summer was a 5 min documentary about anything interesting in Amman. My group and I first decided that we want to do it about this lady that passes by our university everyday on her donkey to collect empty bottles and cans. First time we approached her, she asked for 20 JDs and said her name is Fatima. After a couple of times I guess she started trusting us, told us her real name and invited us to her home. Her mother and sister welcomed us warmly to their tent an extra sweet cup of tea. We found out that 30 years old Aisha earns an average of 1 JD a day as she exchanges 1 kilo of empty bottle for 0.25 piaster's from a factory in Baqaa. What's even more unbelievable that that’s the only source of income they got beside the 60 JDs the mother gets from the government which barely covers her medical bills as she suffers from a heart condition.   






Anyways, we agreed on everything and we were looking forward to start the shooting. On the scheduled shooting day we go there at 7 am, all excited, equipment ready then we meet the brother. "The brother" sounds very intimidating but in fact this "brother" is a 12 year old kid that started hurling rocks at us and threatening to call the police because according to him, we want to film his sisters and post everything online which is obviously disgraceful and unacceptable to him, he even threatened to kill his sister. Long story short, we left.
We did this...

Tuesday, September 28, 2010

Offensive commercial



Birell is a widely popular non alcoholic drink in Egypt that is associated with manhood in the commercial. Last three seconds of the ad clearly shows the way the guy is transformed into a stud after drinking Birell. Most shocking thing about this commercial is the blunt message it's sending through its slogan "A girl's personality is the last thing you notice", or more like the last thing you "should" notice. It is such a gender discriminating, distasteful commercial that reinforces some wide spread negative beliefs. Not only it portrays women as merely sex objects but it also shows men as creatures governed by their desires and instincts showing a completely wrong understanding of real manhood.

Monday, September 27, 2010

Avant Garde: Bruce Conner

Bruce Conner is an American artist born in 1933 in Kansas. He is known for his work in a variety of mediums such as paintings, drawings, prints, collages, assemblages, and sculpture. He began making short movies in the late 1950s. His first film "A Movie" in 1958 is an excellent example of assemblage film. It is a 12 min non-narrative experimental film edited from preexisting and non original newsreel and other old footage.
Another short Avant- Garde film by Conner is the 1967 "Report" that is listed in the book "1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die". It consists of found footage of John F. Kennedy's assassination edited with a soundtrack of radio broadcasts of the event. It is said that the film "perfectly captures Conner's anger over the commercialization of Kennedy's death". The flickering black and white screen followed by looping images of the late president and his wife Jackie Kennedy. Conner uses clever juxtaposition of images that might seem ironically random at first but in truth it symbolizes the shock and confusion associated with the assassination. 

Experimental film- Heaven vs. hell

First try in experimental short film. It was done during class duration...

Thursday, September 16, 2010

Artist of the day: Firda Kahlo

The broken column-1944

"I paint self portraits because I am the person I know best."
Frida Kahlo was crippled, bisexual and a communist; that right there explains a lot about her paintings. She's a beautiful artist that reflected her pain and misery through her art. The actress Salma Hayek did a great job in playing the role of Frida in a movie about her life. Here's the trailer...


another video "The real Frida Kahlo" from History channel



For more information about her life and art check out her official website http://www.fridakahlo.com/

Wednesday, September 15, 2010

Still life

from my art classes this summer...




Hollywood’s epic battle




"The Kingdom" starring Jamie Foxx and Jennifer Garner draws inspiration from the 2003 compound bombing in Riyadh. It unfolds a vicious terrorist attack on Saudi compound housing employees of an American oil company. Unsurprisingly, it is yet another one-dimensional Hollywood movie where "Arab Land" is portrayed as an unwelcoming environment of harsh deserts full of fanatically religious or nationalistic terrorists.

In Hollywood’s epic battle between good and evil, it has always been the all American hero saving the day from the villains; weather these villains were Arabs, Russians, Japanese or even Germans. In this post 9 11 world Arabs and Muslims make some of the best generic villains. They are not portrayed as humans and so it is apt to demolish them without a single drop of guilt.

Some might argue they are in away portraying the truth, because after all, most of the Arabian Peninsula is a harsh desert and it holds a lot of anti American extremists. Does that mean that all Arabs are oil billionaires, sheiks, religious fanatics and belly dancers? Many people are inclined to believe that Arabs are hooligans from the 10th century, who like to see Western blood flow. They are portraying a tiny portion of the truth and that’s what generates all those stereotypes.

Of course this is all a mere act of psychological warfare by Hollywood and part of the political agenda. Jack Valenti said: "Washington and Hollywood spring from the same DNA". Indeed, movies do have that prevailing effect on public opinion without people even realizing it. If all those blockbusters don’t instill enough fear from Arabs and Muslims, then another season of 24 will do! Without a doubt, Hollywood and Washington reinforce and react to one another.

Frankly, this is getting far too boring, predictable, and upsetting. Fine, they can reflect the "Arab violence" towards America, but what about they also show some of the American violence towards Arabs in Iraq and Afghanistan for a change.


Ps: I highly recomment watching "Reel bad Arabs" documentary (here)

Tuesday, September 14, 2010

self portrait: tears and laughter

I did this piece back in 2008, mixed media on canvas and wood. It was inspired from Khalil Gibran's book "Tears and Laughter"
"I would not exchange the laughter of my heart for the fortunes of the multitude, nor would i be content with converting my tears, invited by my agonized self, into clam. It is my fervent hope that my whole life on this earth will ever be tears and laughter."

Sunday, September 12, 2010

Utopian Society: Aldous Huxley vs. George Orwell






The dream of forming and maintaining a utopian society was immortalized in two novels dealing with the same basic ideas, 1984 by George Orwell and Brave New World by Aldous Huxley. Although the writers take two different approaches, they both feel the same way about the utopian society. I'm inclined to think that this has to do with the fact that Huxley's novel was written pre world war II while Orwell's was post the war. They explore the impracticality of the utopian ideal. Furthermore, they illustrate the two ways in which governments and those in power control and manipulate the general public.

In 1984 the world is in a state of constant war, no one is free, and everyone is ignorant. The concept of the Big brother was introduced in this novel. "Big brother" is any figure of dictatorship that lulls the people into a false sense of security. Those are the ones who ban books and deprive us from information. "War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength." If you tell people a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. As ironic as it is, it's just the sad truth. That is also called “doublethink” which is the deliberate self-deception with which the citizens are encouraged to accept it.

In Brave New World people have chained themselves in front of their television screens to watch a different version of Big Brother. Huxley fears the future will bring too much information, and therefore the truth will be "drowned in a sea of irrelevance". "Drowned in a sea" gives the impression of there being too much of something that makes it easy to lose sight of its true importance. The more people are being sucked into this useless entertainment, the more they become careless and indifferent about what's really important.

In conclusion, people are controlled by either "inflicting pain" or by "inflicting pleasure". I believe that both of these two ideologies are imposed on our modern societies; however, Huxley's way is much more apparent. That is because mass media generally and television screens specifically buzz endlessly with brainwashing propaganda that gets people to act accordingly.