Today, my next to last day in Doha, I found a space where I could see myself sitting to work: the library at the gorgeous Mathaf museum, housed in a converted school and designed by Jean-François Bodin. The library is … Continue reading
Today’s provocation is less of an irritant and more of a caress. The topic: Khaliji Color. Can it be named? Philosophers since Kant have struggled over the difficulty of capturing colors in words and impossibility of attaching specific meaning to values … Continue reading
Today I was stuck in Doha traffic for so long, it made me question whether my expedition (from VCUQ to the Damien Hirst exhibition at the Al Riwaq exhibition space) would be worth the privations of my seemingly interminable journey. As … Continue reading
The students and staff of VCUQ were just treated to a lecture by the performance artist Marina Abramovic, in which she recounted some of the pivotal realizations that have helped to shape her 40-year career. In ‘Rhythm 0‘, a 1974 … Continue reading
Today the 1st year MFA students got on their soapboxes, and wrote, designed, and distributed some feisty design manifestos. They demanded equal rights for Arabic men in design, advocated for the use of materials by graphic design … Continue reading
For Provocation #2 we looked at the outsides of books. Now it’s time to look inside them. Inside novels, in particular. Exploring the way designed things function in literary fiction, can help us as design critics and as designers. As … Continue reading
Hi it’s me again. I really enjoyed the MFA Design Studies 2nd year students’ presentations of their thesis experimentation this morning. Currently I’m reading the essays they’ve written which detail precedents for the kinds of work they are exploring. Later … Continue reading
Hi, I am Alice Twemlow, Critic-in-Residence in the VCU Qatar MFA Design Studies department. Normally, I am the Chair of the SVA MFA in Design Criticism in New York. But for the next few days, I’ll be based here, to bring … Continue reading