Catching Up: June 30- July 2

Since the talk with the creator of Freej, we have been moving forward at a faster pace with our final project. We've been working out the kinks within our group and have the materials ready to start working on the physical aspects of the project. Khadeeja purchased 16 15"x15" panels of MDF on which we are going to paint and print on in the upcoming days. Our concept is that unless we share our thoughts and stories with one another, we cannot see the big picture- a unified and peaceful world. We were inspired by one quote in particular- "The essence of the beautiful is unity in variety."

On Wednesday, July 1st we went to a gallery talk lead by our art history professor, Ron Hawker, on Ancient Islamic Art in Farjeem Gallery, a gallery in DIFC.

We walked around the area and visited several other galleries with all kinds of art from all over the world. One of the galleries was Cuadro. Another was the Opera gallery.

Later that day we went to a catered panel discussion at the Dubai Ladies Club. Emily and Sunny represented MICA on the panel and talked about their experiences with art exchange programs- this one in particular. We also discussed about the identity and how we can change peoples' perception by sharing arts (Method of communication).

Art and design is the greatest tool to communicate and spread ideas and culture.
We feel that it is our responsibility to share our experiences and spread what we have learned to the public.

On Thursday, July 2nd, we visited Sheikh Nahyan at his farm house. We ate a huge lunch there and talked to him briefly about our program. There was more food on the table than any of us had ever seen. It was surreal!

After lunch the Sheikh insisted that the provost of UAE University take us on a short tour of the facilities. He showed us a research lab where we saw a robot that they had been working on. He was capable of using social networking sites like facebook. The also had several other projects in progress around the lab.

This week we will have 4 days of studio time before the final exhibition. Now that the blog is up to date, we are going to start printing and painting on the MDF.