Fabric Heaven

When (from left to right) Anila, Tooba, Mahsina, and Quendeel said that they were going to take us shopping, I could never have imagined this. Rather than going to a mall of "pre-stiched" clothing, they have the option to come here instead, walk the endless rows of fabric stalls, select their fabric, and bring it to a seamstress with a sketch describing how they would like the garment to look. From this moment on, shopping in the United States will always be a disappointing experience.

"Collateral Repair"

At the Social Intervention Conference, S. Hassan Abbas gave a paper titled, "Collateral Repair: Using Social Intervention to cure the problem of Militancy in Pakistan". In his presentation he cited a study (Sohail Abbas, Probing the Jihadi Mindset) of 517 militants who went to Afghanistan to fight against the Americans after 9/11. The study showed that, "despite the obvious perception that these fighters are hardened Islamists, only 29% of them had attended a Madrassa and surprisingly a whopping 72.5% [of the 29%] had attended it for only 6 months or less. Another surprising figure was that only 52.5% of the militants had received any sort of religious education at home or abroad further debunking the Islamist myth." Hassan (pictured below on the upper left), made an interesting point that it was actually those who were from little religious background who were most vulnerable to persuasion.

His proposed solutions: (1) Rehabilitation Centers for Captured or Suspected Terrorists with Mandatory Psychological Evaluations, (2) Poverty Alleviation through Direct Aid and Development, (3) Vocational Education and Training, (4) Adult Education, (5) Awareness Programs against Pseudo-Religious Propaganda and abuse of Religious Texts and Symbols, (6) Regularization of the Madrassa System, and (7) Strangulation of Finances Intended for Militant Use.

This was the first time (of many to come) that I heard a rational and research-based approach to ending terrorism. I am sure that this is not new to many people but, for me, it was the first time I had heard about strategies to address the causes of violence rather than the symptoms. Hassan's presentation gave me a new angle from which to consider our "War on Terror" and a new reason for supporting the belief that violence never ends violence.

Artists, Fools, Scholars, and Humans

On Thursday, we had the privilege of visiting the Indus Valley School of Art and Architecture, where we were warmly greeted by faculty, staff, and peers. Due to the open plan of the building, the hallways filled with the sounds of art production--hammering, pounding slabs of clay, shifting tables, and open conversation. A senior 3-D major's sculpture dominated the central space: a nuclear bomb explosion constructed from hand-sharpened bamboo spears, referring to the past, present, and future of violent acts.While this may or may not have been her intent, I compared the two modes of warfare and tried to imagine how many spear-holding individuals it would take to create the amount of damage done by a single nuclear bomb. She is also the student who burned a small hole into the map of Karachi for each of the bomb blasts since 2001 (mentioned in the previous blog entry).  

My talk was called, "The Role of Art in Addressing Conflict" and it started with the idea that, in Elizabethan literature, the Fool was the only one who could tell the King the most difficult truths without getting his head chopped off. Artists--especially those who are interested in addressing themes of violence--can share this same status. While, on one hand, we struggle to be taken seriously, on the other hand, it is precisely because we're not taken seriously that we have the freedom to say what we want to say and have people listen without retaliation. Perhaps this is because we speak in metaphor. And perhaps because we aren't working for anyone else. Instead, we are often self-funded and we often have no personal agendas beyond what we are putting forth in the art. What makes us this vulnerable is also what makes us this armored when we speak out. Imagine how ridiculous it would look if a powerful person fought back against an artist! That's how we get out power.

  

All of this being said, I intentionally left Home Drone, one of our most recent and controversial projects-in-process, out of the presentation. When the Q&A period started after my talk, however, a student asked if we would consider doing any of our work on an international scale. In response, I explained the first steps we have made on Home Drone. The positive response reminded me that I was in an art school, where we are educated to question power, corruption, and status quo in an effort to create a better future.  The last paragraph of the Indus Valley School of Art & Architecture's Mission Statement reads, "We shall not feel content till we have succeeded in preparing our graduates to live in the world of tomorrow, enabled them to share in the responsibilities for social, economic and political problems and to apply their professional knowledge and abilities to the solution of such problems, so that besides being technically and aesthetically literate, they are above all, good human beings."    

This faculty member (Ayesha? I will be sure to confirm her name as soon as I look back at my notes from the day--we met so many people!) is teaching a political art and performance class very similar to the one that I am teaching at the University of Rochester. We look forward to finding ways to either have our students work on collaborative projects and/or to working together on our own project(s). We had such an amazing conversation, regardless of the fact that we had to pack it into the confines of minutes! 

Before lunch, I was thrilled to have the opportunity to visit the senior studios and speak with students about their thesis exhibitions. Here, Hamyda is showing me large packages of holographic stamps that she has made using images of people that have been deemed personal heroes by ordinary citizens. She is asking participants to write stories about the personal heroes in their lives and will be making small, barely legible history books referring to each individual history. Other students are making senior thesis exhibitions around themes of mapping, urban architecture, Muslim identity, and dyslexia. I will add more to this blog once I get some more photos of the studios from Ali, our guide from the U.S. Embassy. I'll also have the students' names once I unpack my bags.

These students are the first two people I have ever met from Afghanistan. I wish that I could have stayed longer to talk about their art and their experiences at IVS. I wish, in fact, that I could have had more than a week to learn more about the students' works! We unfortunately only had time for five studio visits before lunch. Inshallah, we will continue our discussions over Skype, Facebook, and email.

It was our good fortune that we arrived on the day that the 3rd year students were having their annual luncheon. The food was delicious! I especially liked the sweet dessert made with shaved carrots.

Again, we are sooooooooooooo appreciative for the efforts of many, many people who helped to organize these exchanges. Throughout the week, Brian has talked about micro-changes. This experience has been a perfect example: Two (2) people, Anila and Maqsood, came to the United States and, within a matter of minutes, had such a positive affect that Brian and I (4) boarded a plane only months later for Pakistan. We met with students and diplomats at Anila's house for lunch (11), and spoke at the Social Intervention conference (311). If 50% of the people we met told one other person that they had a good experience in our interactions, Anila and Maqsood have now affected 461 people. Then we met Tony, Sarah, and Ali (464), our U.S. Consulate representatives and mentors. They planned the trip to Indus Valley School of Art and Architecture (564) and to Jinnah University for Women (664). If only half of the students we met at those schools said a single positive thing to someone else, Anila and Maqsood have now affected over 700 people. In addition, Brian spoke with the media on Friday, which opens up a whole new opportunity for dialogue and exchange. On our side, we have started this blog which has already had over 500 hits. We will be sure to spread all of our incredibly positive experiences upon our return to the United States. I imagine that the events of this one week trip, thanks to all of the students, staff, faculty, family and friends we met, could reach thousands of people. This is significant during a time when we are at a great lack for stories of positive relationships between our two countries.

Thank you so much to the U.S. State Department, Bureau of Education and Cultural Affairs' International Visitor Leadership Program for inviting Anila, Maqsood, Rasheed (who is collaborating with us on other projects) and the other members of their group to visit Rochester, NY, last year. This exchange is evidence that the program is working!

Where We Are

Karachi is the capital of the province of Sindh. It is the largest city in Pakistan and a major center for cultural, economic, philanthropic, educational, and political activity. It is the largest port in Pakistan and, most notably, the birth and death place of Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan. This (above) is the view from our hotel window.

The Teen Talwar (the Three Swords) monument was commissioned by the former President and Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto (Quaid-e-Awam). The swords represent Unity, Faith, and Discipline, three of the principles that Jinnah said were essential to the success of Pakistan's future. These themes phrased many of the conversations we had this week, perhaps because the conference was designed around the theme of planning a better future and/or perhaps because Brian and I had so many questions about the history of Pakistan and Muslim culture (thank you to everyone we met for patiently and thoughtfully responding to each one--we are more informed global citizens because of it!).

Over the past decade, Karachi has been plagued with violent clashes along ethnic, religious, political, and linguistic lines. After several natural disasters in the northern regions of the country, many people moved to the city, bringing the population from 12 million to approximately 20 million in a relatively short amount of time.  One of the students at Indus Valley School of the Arts is currently working on a senior thesis project about violence in Karachi. During a studio visit, she told me about a project where she took a map of Karachi and then burned tiny holes it it that represented the sites of bomb blasts since 2001. By the end of the project, she said, only a very small part of the map survived. 

After meeting soooooooooo many extraordinary people during our trip and after making so many new friends, the descriptions of the city's struggles were all the more heartbreaking. As the week went on, it became increasingly obvious that both of our countries have suffered and continue to suffer greatly as a result of the terrorist attacks on 9/11. The idea that this international conflict is a "United States vs. ______" thing is no longer accurate or acceptable in my view. Rather, I now understand this decade as a struggle between the vast majority of all citizens on both sides who only want for peace vs. the vast minority on both sides who are perpetuating this violence for personal agendas. The rest is the result of miscommunication based on a lack of opportunities for interpersonal contact. 

Words (either in Urdu or English) can't describe the extent to which we were welcomed with warmth, curiosity, and unparalleled hospitality. When I now think of Pakistan, I first think of the loving people, the transcending music, the homemade spicy food, the fresh brewed tea, the vibrantly colored clothing, the families riding on motorcycles, the patterned carpets in the markets, the guys climbing to the top of the "truck art" vehicles, the public monuments, the tops of the mosques, the gracious humor, the insightful talks given at the conference, the attention of the students at all three universities, the full moon while sailing, the smell of the shisha smoke, the decorated camels on the beach, and the pleasant weather before I think of anything else.

Letters to a Future Generation

Had you asked me a week ago, I never would have guessed that well over 100 people would write letters to a new generation at the conference. This is in addition to approximately 50 letters that I brought with me from the United States. 

To fit the new conference context, we reformatted the project so that it could be executed within one of the sessions. I started the session by explaining the project and reading some of the letters from the United States (thank you again to everyone who wrote!). Graduate students then passed out letter forms and collected them at the end of the session. They inserted the letters into pouches that they had made in preparation for the conference, and pinned them to the walls for all to see as they left the conference. 

We will be making a website so that everyone can read the letters and/or add new letters to the collection. Several students that I spoke with wanted to continue this project within their own departments and universities, so I am hoping that they will add their letters, too. This August, we plan to reinstall a third version of this project (again in a different format) in Romania this summer, at which time we will add those letters to the website as well. Lastly, Anila will be using the fabric pouches that I brought to Pakistan for another installation in a public school in Karachi. I look forward to seeing what that installation brings as well!  I will post some examples of the letters from the University of Karachi as soon as I get a chance to open them up.

For those who are not familiar with the project, the following three images document its first installation at Cornell University in Ithaca, NY. Over the course of 5 days, nearly 500 people wrote letters to a new generation and placed them into pouches (in person or by proxy). Before doing so, however, they turned the pouches inside-out, revealing the brightly colored, uniquely patterned interior. The bags were then sewn shut as time capsules to be opened in year 2100 by an artist who has not yet been born.

Social Intervention Conference 2012: A Better Tomorrow for the Coming Generation

The conference was a tremendous success. Over 300 people participated. While the presentations were unified by the theme of working toward a better future, we addressed it from a vast number of angles. The titles of the talks included: 

• "Concept of Terrorism, its Root Causes, Impact of Religion and the Role of Media", Afreen Faiza 
• "Ecologically and Culturally Responsible Tourism", Ameer Hamza
• "Applying Physical Education and Sport as a Medium to Improve the Lives of Disaffected Youth in Pakistan. Youth in Crisis?", Dr. Jamshaid Ahmed
• "Collateral Repair: Using Social Intervention to Cure the Problem of Militancy in Pakistan", Hassan Abbas Rizvi

Other topics included preventing juvenile delinquency, treating psychiatric disorders and addiction, the connection between reading and academic success, water conservation imperatives, and many more.  

This sentence, taken from the conference description, described the tone for everything that happened within a densely packed, two-day time period: "The Social Intervention International Conference forum is a wake up call for the masses, government authorities, media, NGOs, youth and thus for every sane individual to rise up, engage with each other, make collective efforts for the sake of good governance so that we can be proud of ourselves as a [Pakistani] nation.

Our First Day in Pakistan

When we stepped off the plane, there were four men waiting for us with a "Layton/Bailey" sign.  They helped us carry our luggage and handled security for us entirely. When we got to the luggage carousel, our bags had already been assembled on a cart. Outside, Anila gave us a big, warm hug and then introduced us to Sarah, a Cultural Affairs Officer and our new host from the American Embassy. We had only taken several steps toward Anila's car when she rerouted us to the "car" that we'd be driving in--a large, black, tinted-window truck with four men and three machine guns in the back bed. This photo of our new security team was taken through our rear view window. I am amazed at how quickly we have acclimated to this aspect of our trip.  

Abrar Afridi, our security coordinator, has accompanied us everywhere and has, in the process, become our tour guide and good friend. He has been incredibly generous with answering every question we have and explaining all of the great landmarks around the city (as well as instructing us on when we can photograph and when we cannot). The fact that Brian and I were both able to start our lectures in Urdu is entirely a result of his patience! I don't know how many times he listened to and corrected our attempts to pronounce a single sentence. So much of our trip has been shaped by his guidance and kindness.

After checking in at the hotel, we went to Anila's home for a traditional Pakistani feast (delicious). This is where we first met the group of five graduate students who would be instrumental in helping us throughout the conference and beyond. From our current vantage point, it is very difficult to believe that we only met four days ago! We reviewed our schedules with Sarah, reconnected with Maqsood for the first time since meeting him in the U.S., and had our first look into the extent of the work that Anila did to organize what would become a groundbreaking conference. At the lunch, we also had the great privilege of meeting two of the Chief Guests, Professor Dr. Ahmed Ali Kahn and Lord Shaukat Nawaz Khan, two very impressive men who have had a significant global impact (emphasizing "significant") on improving conditions for children, Ethnic minorities, and those living with psychiatric disorders and learning disabilities across the world. 

Words and images will never suffice in describing what came next:

As part of a "secret surprise" we were escorted to a motor-less sailing boat--one that I thought only existed in fictional movies--and ventured off into the sea for a seafood dinner that was partially caught and entirely cooked on the water. Had it not been so dark (our only light came from the glow of the distant city), I would have photographed the thick, worn ropes and the beautifully aged wood in more detail. Luckily, it was too dark to document anything at all.

While I try my best to restrict this following word to kids' events that include an old man, a deck of cards, and a rabbit, I have to make an exception in this case when I say that the experience was "magical". Yep. There, I said it. It was magical. 

Eternal gratitude to our hosts for arranging this first and lasting impression of Pakistan.