Visual Reflections (Asynchronous Session)
The Use of Political and Religious Imagery to Influence Tourists in Bethlehem, Palestine View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Chelsea Wilkinson
This paper is based on an ethnographic study that explores how Palestinians in Bethlehem use graffiti on the West Bank Barrier as a tool to educate and communicate with specific tourist groups. Appealing directly to international youth and popular movements, American citizens, and Christians through memes and pop icons, revolutionary graffiti, nationalistic imagery meant to guilt and shame certain countries’ roles in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and religious symbolism could potentially influence those viewers whose home countries have the power to change policy or public attitudes towards the Palestinian cause. This power lies in social media and international news, protesting US pro-Israel policies and military spending, liberal Jewish activism overseas, and the involvement of the church. From basic stencils to elaborate murals, these graffiti attempt to portray the Palestinian reality on the ground, as well as inspire international viewers to act for social change and build solidarity overseas.
Virtual Identity Design Inspired by Intangible Cultural Heritage: Handling the Burqa Example from the Middle East View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Hind Alhumaihdi, Hend Althibiti
Intangible cultural heritage is identified by UNESCO as the wholistic identity that includes the oral traditions, performing arts, social practises, rituals, festive events and crafts knowledge and practises or skills to produce. While re-enactment and creating surrogates of heritage artifacts was the way to preserve the tangible and intangible cultural heritage, the trend in its digitization is becoming more popular. Hence, the representation of middle eastern intangible cultural heritage is limited and stereotypical. This paper aims to illustrate how the digital image in the form of a designed virtual identity can aid in promoting the accurate intangible cultural heritage of the middle east through interacting in virtual realities such as the metaverse. This interaction would influence the existing stereotypical design of the Arab identities. The design process suggested would include trying to immerse the participant or viewer in the experience to engage with the design as part of their own virtual identity in the form of an avatar design. The ICH (intangible cultural heritage) item chosen is the Burqa, a face cover more relevant to female cultural expression and identity. The Burqa is common amongst tribal groups in the Middle East and functions more like a jewellery piece. As a design item, it is suggested to represent the Burqa in relation to each region by providing designs in avatars and captioning it accordingly or designing face filters on social media. Overall cases support that connections from the designs in these virtual realities influence users and prompt conversations on the design.
Playing with Paper Dolls: A Visual Exploration of Their History, Evolution, and Influence on Gender Development View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Rebecca Barham, Yvonne Dooley
The first American paper dolls were created in the early nineteenth century and continue to have an enduring appeal today. In this paper, we explore the evolution of paper dolls by examining specimens from the UNT Libraries Patricia Fertel Paper Doll Collection, 1865-2020, along with some contemporary paper dolls, as image and media produced cultural objects of imaginal play that serve to both influence and reflect gender identity. This evolution has never been fully examined in a systematic way. Semiotics, cultural studies, and social cognitive theory are the frameworks through which the paper dolls are interpreted. A literature review of the research on the cultural history of paper dolls, as well as key behavioral studies concerning gender stereotypes and play were examined for context. The images of the paper dolls (including view, gaze, age, types of clothing and accessories) are examined for their symbolic content, and the role these aspects might play in gender identity and agency according to behavioral studies. The results of this interpretive work reveal that the most popular contemporary paper dolls continue to reinforce gender normative identities, but some gender-neutral paper dolls have emerged recently that more fully reflect the plurality of gender identities present in society. These findings suggest that doll development is becoming more responsive to gender non-conforming children, as opposed to reinforcing traditional gender stereotypes.
Art and "Trendy" Issues: Cultural Awakening and Toxic Feminism View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Fatemah Alqahtani
This paper presents my concept of feminism from my lens as a Saudi Muslim artist and links it with the context of conditions for producing art in Saudi Arabia. While my artworks are essentially related to women, I did not take a feminist stance for several reasons. Feminism that calls for absolute equality between man and woman is an idea that has a different dimension in my Islamic culture. Men and women are equal in value, but far from the idea of 'sameness' as seen in many western social considerations. In Saudi culture, there is a negative affiliation with the term ‘feminism’ due to the perception that women are rivaling men for superiority. Determining whether this is an issue with conflicting values in the local mindset or specifically with the term ‘feminism’ itself is an important research area; namely, studying whether there is a semantics problem or a cultural one. In Saudi culture, both men and women have confused visions of feminism. The misconception of feminist epistemologies from both sides is an area that warrants further investigation.
Picturing Beingness in the Metaverse: It Ain't Over 'til It's Over View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Ann Pegelow Kaplan
In an integrated, immersive, virtual digital world, how do we know what is a who? That is, what are the images that help us determine being-ness? This is, of course, a return not back to the future but connecting the future back to the continually reincarnated notion of the portrait. The form of the portrait has not ceased to be but rather continues to morph in an ever-connected dance with its shadow partner the photograph. This conference paper addresses the ongoing relationship of the portrait and photograph in the Metaverse, but also extend beyond into the portrait as it reverberates through digits, data, and their inscription upon flesh, bodies, and living matter. Connecting visual culture and art historical methodologies with continental philosophy and post-humanism, my paper encapsulate main ideas from the fourth chapter of my book project on the contemporary portrait.
