persian poem

Please take a few minutes to answer these questions. Your answers are important for my MA study, as you provide audience feed back which will help me to develop this project. The information you give is confidential. Any comment is highly appreciated and will be quoted anonymously.

By checking the link you will see a short animation. This animation has been designed to illustrate a Persian poem. At this stage, it dose not matter whether you know Persian language or not. After that, please answer these questions.

Gender: Male/Female
Age:
Occupation (if you are student please specify your subject):

1) Give four feelings in order which you had whilst watching the animation? (e.g. fear, sadness, happiness, and anger)


2) Answer either (a) or (b)

a) If you are not a native in Persian language, could you describe what the poem is about?


b) If you are a native in Persian language, select one of the following options to show how the animation was successful to illustrate the content of the poem.

i) poor
ii) acceptable
iii) successful
iv) excellent

3) In general, do you like this animation? Give your main reason.

Magic’s of Square

I am working on sacred geometry, golden ratio and geometry in Islamic art and architecture. Also I am working on different philosophy and type of symmetry as well as symbols behind the patterns, their shapes and colours.
I have drawn a square and then rotate it in different angles and digress. That is fascinating to see how many pattern we can create by putting this squares in different order among each other.

Computer and patterns

The next step is to working with computer which may make life much easier. Again I have started to work with a very simple pattern. Firstly, I tried to analyze the pattern into as small and basic shape as I can and then I tried to create new patterns by putting these small and basic shapes together in different ways.

In the research part I am working on different type of geometry. Plenty of Islamic pattern are geometrical, and so it is crucial for me to understand this element.

Tiles and Mosaics

I have found an interesting article ‘Modularity in Medieval Persian Mosaics’. And I have interested in trying to create some of tile and mosaics’ patterns. It was really difficult to do this sort of design without using computer and it takes plenty of time.

More practising on patterns

I came across with a useful book called Islamic ornament Design by Claude Humbert. In this book the author gathers a collection of patterns from different parts of the Islamic world. One of the conclusions I came up after studying all of the patterns and selecting Iranian one is that in Western part of the Islamic world, such as Morocco or Egypt, patterns are hugely based on geometry. However, in Eastern part of the Islamic world, such as Iran or Iraq, patterns are more floral (organic) or arabesque and also there are plenty of animal and human patterns.

After analysing and practising on some simple patterns I tried to find out the ways that arabesque patterns have been created. And then try to practise on more complicated pattern all by hand and simple tools.

Symmetry, Geometry and Symbols in Persian Patterns

Finally I have decided to fuscous on Symmetry, Geometry and Symbols in Persian Patterns (in the Islamic period). At the moment I am researching on patterns in different area such as tile, carpet, pottery etc. It seems they have a lot in common maybe because artisans were the same in different types of art or they use to share same philosophy and believes.
I have started my research by reading very interesting book, The Arabesque motif in Early Islamic Persian Art by Dr. Mohammad Khazaie. The book contains good information about root of some Islamic patterns in pre-Islamic period of Persian (Iranian) art as well as meaning of some patterns.
I am trying different ways to create these patterns. I started with very simple forms such as square and circle. To understand the structure of the pattern I decided to analyze some of the forms in very basic shapes.

Modernist or post-modernist, that is the question

Am I a modern or post-modern designer? That is a good question!!!
At the moment I am a bit confused designer more than anything else! I do have some ideas but I don’t know what to do with them and where about to start my research. I am going to have a brief look at different periods of Persian art history and gather some images from each period and then decide about my practical work. I have started to collect Persian tile pictures and I am going to work with them while doing research, anyway let see what happens.

Here are some of the tile pictures. Aren’t they beautiful?

Some of the ideas that I am struggling with ( II )

■ Option two: Designing some posters to visualise (abstract) concepts. These concepts may be individual feelings (e.g. my first feeling when I came to the UK) , general feelings (e.g. fear or anger), abstract concepts (e.g. distance, darkness, order, and unity) or they may be content of some litterateur works (e.g. visualising poetry or a story). There may be a philosophy behind these concepts. For example there is a philosophy behind the concept of symmetry in the eastern art. I like to try visualising at least some of these concepts by using Persian elements and symbols. Also I would like to do art graphic design which means the posters must be artistic peaces of graphic. What I have in mind is that the products must have artistic values and be beautiful from a fine art point of view, but they must have basic elements of posters as well (e.g. they try to communicate a message, use written texts and typography). My goal is to create works that although transfer some massages, but people like to keep and save them for some reasons more than their messages. If I take this issue as my subject then my research would be a very brief look at history and structure of poster and then I would work on to choose concepts and pieces of litterateur which have deep meanings. After that I would research on patterns and symbols which can be used to visualise the concepts.

Some of the ideas that I am struggling with ( I )

My approach to the works is derived from my background, which means I would like to use Persian art and literature as much as it will be needed.

■ Option one: Making a book by using Persian traditional lay outs and patterns (including tiles, carpets, potteries, etc) and Persian symbols in a new way. In the traditional way of book making in Iran artists have used different forms for lay out. They also have written some parts of books (e.g. their titles) using calligraphy which make books much more beautiful. Pages of these books usually have great deal of decorations and illuminations which are combinations of gold and silver with bright colours (Tazhib). Even in some examples artists have used letters to make pictures like tree or lion. There are similarities between some of the illustrations of these books and the pattern on tiles or carpets which could be a subject for working on. If I take this issue as my subject then my research would be working on the history of lay out and patterns. The meaning of a symbol could be searched in the context of history, culture and its environment.

For an introduction to Tazhib (Illuminations), Calligraphy and Carpet see (*)

Need to read more and more

I have really enjoyed the first session that we had with Neil Modernism in Design. I have studied history of art in Iran which was mostly based on fine arts and had a brief look at design area. Considering design through the time and design movements in western countries are very new for me; I’ll try to read and think more about them to get a point of view and be brave to share my thought.
I had a quick look through the art library last Monday 18th Sep. Some of the books are great; I borrowed the visual Research; an introduction to research methodology in graphic design, by Ian Noble and Russell Bestley.

Starting of my diary

I have decided to use this blog as a dairy for my M.A programme. I’ll try to writ down as much about my ideas and work progress as I can. First of all what has happened up to now; we had two weeks induction which was very useful, we get to know different parts of the university , department staffs and a brief induction to the MA programme muddles. We have been told to think and gather ideas that we like to work on and research about. By the way, I have got my student and library card and my Athens ID and Password which are great. Every thing is ready to work with and now I really need to focus on the ideas and design questions and issues. I have to work fast and deeply. Time is too short.

The Beginning

It is the start of a new world and a new skill for me . Writing in English isn't a thing that I would looking forward but here I am making my own first blog in English isn't it funy?