11 Implications and applications¶
Inspiration¶
"I didn't want to push you, but I hoped you would go there," Claudia said after my presentation in week 07. Anastasia said she "smells a final project" and I got a beautiful feedbak from some amazing participating designers. I even saved a screeshot.
When I first applied to the program, I had an idea to make something with paperclay, which I had already started experimenting with. You can check my concept note in the first week. But I changed the plan after week 07. I'm now planning to do something with Circassian embroidery.
Many people do not know who are Circassians. Even though we have been in Jordan since 1878, I still get some weird comments from a lot of people. One of my students at Ruwwad Innovation Space commented after I explained that Circassians came from a place next to Russia: "ys3ed Allah (may Allah make you happy)! We have a foreigner in our class!" A girl once asked me if Circassians are muslims like Jordanians. That was super weird because I was wearing the hijab (a head cover muslims wear)! It is strange meeting many people who do not know about Circassians in Jordan especially that we participate in cultural events like Jerash culture festival every year with Circassian dances and the Circassian royal guards appear on TV a lot alongside the king.
This is maybe due to Circassians beign a little closed off becuase they are afraid to lose their culture. A friend once told me her Circassian friends refused to teach her circassian dancing because she was not "Adiga" (the name we call ourselves). Non-Circassians are usually not allowed to come in when we have game nights or events at the Circassian Charity Association.
Then you have me who runs around teaching my friends some dance moves and giving two "sh'harkhwans" to my Thai and Pakistani friends at the end of my student exchange semester in Ankara, Turkey.
Starting to Formulate¶
I started looking for resources and gathering data about Circassian embroidery and fashion on the miro board. You can check it below. I divided the diagram into twot parts: gathering data and thinking about the project. I was torn between designing big sleeves or the hooded scarf for my final project. Both Claudia and I thought the sleeves were something different and looked performancy but ther were for females only. The hooded scarf (Sh'harkhwan), on the other hand, was traditionally worn by men only but is today worn by both males and females. I think it can also be cool in a performance as it could cover the head and the face and has long arms similar to the dress sleeves but thinner. This also made us think about possibly designing a piece to be a part of the scarf and detachable to become a sleeve.
I have prepared the following teaser to present on the last lecture of the first part of Fabricademy.
Teaser¶
Script
Slide 02: Around 1760, Russia made a war against Circassians that lasted 101 years. It killed around 800,000 Circassians and forced many to leave Kavkas, thier home.
Slide 03: when Circassians first came to Jordan, they called the Arabs bzamo', meaning no tongue or no language. Because they could not understand the arabic language.
Slide 04: I started telling stories ever since I learned how to talk. When I was 6 years old, I started writing my stories down all the time.
Slide 05: When I went to architecture school, I found it easier to express myself using visuals. When we use words, we are afraid of misinterpretations. But we invite different iinterpretations when using visuals. This scribble could be a light, a hole, a fingerprint, a flower, or something else.
Slide 06: Bza means language in Circassian. It is a journey of discovering and reinterpreting the Circassian embroidery vocabulary.
Slide 07 & 08 are examples of Circassian clothes.
Slide 10 - 15 are examples of four Circassian motifs and where they came from.
Slide 17: I am going to design three "sh'harkwans" which are circassian hooded scarfs to represent the past, present, and future of Circassians.