I come from Egypt, which is also called Umm al-Dunya, the Mother of the World. It's a rich country filled with stories of rebellion, stories of civilizational triumph and downfall and the rich, religious, ethnic, cultural and linguistic diversity.
Sem iz Egipta, imenovanega tudi Umm al-Dunya, Mati sveta. To je bogata dežela, polna zgodb o uporništvu, zgodb o civilizacijski zmagi in propadu in bogati, religiozni, etnični, kulturni in lingvistični raznolikosti.
Growing up in such an environment, I became a strong believer in the power of storytelling. As I searched for the medium with which to tell my story, I stumbled upon graphic design. I would like to share with you a project of how graphic design can bring the Arabic language to life. But first, let me tell you why I want to do this.
Ker sem odraščala v takšnem okolju, trdno verjamem v moč pripovedovanja zgodb. Med iskanjem medija za podajanje svoje zgodbe sem naletela na grafično oblikovanje. Z vami bi rada delila projekt, ki pokaže, kako lahko grafično oblikovanje oživi arabski jezik. Najprej pa vam naj povem, zakaj želim to narediti.
I believe that graphic design can change the world. At least in my very own city of Cairo, it helped overthrow two separate dictators. As you can see from those photos, the power and potential of graphic design as a tool for positive change is undeniably strong. Egypt's 2011 revolution was also a grassroots design revolution. Everyone became a creator. People were the real designers and, just overnight, Cairo was flooded with posters, signage, graffiti. Visual communication was the medium that spoke far louder than words when the population of over 90 million voices were suppressed for almost 30 years.
Verjamem, da grafično oblikovanje lahko spremeni svet. Vsaj v mojem domačem mestu, Kairu, je pomagalo strmoglaviti dva različna diktatorja. Kot lahko vidite s teh fotografij, sta moč in potencial grafičnega oblikovanja, kot orodja za pozitivne spremembe, nedvomno velika. Egipčanska revolucija 2011 je bila tudi oblikovalska revolucija navadnih ljudi. Vsi so postali ustvarjalci. Ljudje so bili pravi oblikovalci in kar čez noč je bil Kairo preplavljen s posterji, znaki in grafiti. Vizualna komunikacija je bila medij, daleč glasnejši od besed, ko je bilo prebivalstvo z več kot 90 milijoni glasov zatirano skoraj 30 let.
It was precisely this political and social suppression, coupled with decades of colonialism and miseducation that slowly eroded the significance of the Arabic script in the region. All of these countries once used Arabic. Now it's just the green and the blue. To put it simply, the Arabic script is dying. In postcolonial Arab countries functioning in an increasingly globalized world, it is a growing alarm that less and less people are using the Arabic script to communicate.
Prav to politično in družbeno zatiranje, skupaj z desetletji kolonializma in slabim izobraževanjem, je bilo to, kar je počasi zmanjševalo pomen arabske pisave v regiji. Vse te države so nekoč uporabljale arabščino. Zdaj pa samo zelene in sinje modre. Povedano preprosto, arabska pisava umira. V postkolonialnih arabskih državah, ki delujejo v vse bolj globaliziranem svetu, je skrb zbujajoče, da vse manj ljudi za komuniciranje uporablja arabsko pisavo.
As I was studying my master's in Italy, I noticed myself missing Arabic. I missed looking at the letters, digesting their meaning. So one day, I walked into one of the biggest libraries in Italy in search of an Arabic book. I was surprised to find that this is what they had under the category of "Arabic/Middle Eastern books."
Ko sem bila na magisteriju v Italiji, sem opazila, da pogrešam arabščino. Pogrešala sem pogled na črke in razumevanje njihovega pomena. Tako sem nekega dne stopila v eno največjih knjižnic v Italiji v iskanju arabskih knjig. Presenečena sem bila, ko sem pod kategorijo "Arabske/ bližnjevzhodne knjige" našla tole.
(Laughter)
(Smeh)
Fear, terrorism and destruction. One word: ISIS. My heart ached that this is how we are portrayed to the world, even from a literary perspective. I asked myself: Whatever happened to the world-renowned writers like Naguib Mahfouz, Khalil Gibran, iconic poets like Mutanabbi, Nizar Qabbani? Think about this. The cultural products of an entire region of the world, as rich, as diverse, have been deemed redundant, if not ignored altogether. The cultural products of an entire region of the world have been barred from imparting any kind of real impact on global media productions and contemporary social discourse. And then I reminded myself of my number one belief: design can change the world. All you need is for someone to catch a glimpse of your work, feel, connect.
Strah, terorizem in uničenje. Ena beseda: ISIS. Srce me je bolelo, da smo svetu predstavljeni na tak način, celo na literarnem področju. Vprašala sem se: "Kaj neki se je zgodilo s svetovno znanimi pisatelji, kot sta Nagib Mahfuz, Khalil Gibran, ikoničnimi pesniki, kot sta Mutanabbi in Nizar Quabbani?" Pomislite. Kulturni izdelki celotne regije sveta, naj bodo še tako bogati in raznovrstni, so postali odvečni, če ne celo v celoti prezrti. Kulturnim izdelkom celotne regije sveta je bilo onemogočeno, da bi pustile kakršenkoli odtis na produkciji globalnih medijev in sodobnemu družbenemu diskurzu. In potem sem se spomnila na svoje glavno prepričanje: oblikovanje lahko spremeni svet. Potrebuješ samo nekoga, ki pogleda tvoje delo, začuti, se poveže.
And so I started. I thought about how can I stop the world from seeing us as evil, as terrorists of this planet, and start perceiving us as equals, fellow humans? How can I save and honor the Arabic script and share it with other people, other cultures? And then it hit me: What if I combined the two most significant symbols of innocence and Arab identity? Maybe then people could resonate. What's more pure, innocent and fun as LEGO? It's a universal child's toy. You play with them, you build with them, and with them, you imagine endless possibilities.
In tako sem začela. Razmišljala sem, kako bi lahko spremenila, da nas svet vidi kot zlobne, kot teroriste tega planeta, in nas začne dojemati kot enakopravne, soljudi? Kako lahko rešim in počastim arabsko pisavo in jo delim z drugimi ljudmi, drugimi kulturami? In potem me je zadelo: Kaj če bi združila dva najpomembnejša simbola nedolžnosti in arabske identitete? Mogoče bi se ljudje s tem lahko povezali. Kaj je bolj čisto, nedolžno in zabavno kot LEGO? Je univerzalna otroška igrača. Igraš se z njimi, gradiš z njimi, in z njimi si lahko zamisliš neskončne možnosti.
My eureka moment was to find a bilingual solution for Arabic education, because effective communication and education is the road to more tolerant communities. However, the Arabic and Latin scripts do not only represent different worlds but also create technical difficulties for both Eastern and Western communities on a daily basis.
Moj trenutek spoznanja je bila najdba dvojezične rešitve za arabsko izobraževanje, kajti učinkovita komunikacija in izobraževanje sta pot do bolj strpnih družb. Vendar pa arabska pisava in latinica ne predstavljata le različna svetova, ampak vsakodnevno ustvarjata tehnične težave tako za vzhodne kot zahodne družbe.
There are so many reasons why Arabic and Latin are different, but here are some of the main ones. Yes, both use upward and downward strokes, but have completely different baselines. Arabic tends to be more calligraphic and connectivity is important to the Arabic language, whose letters have to be mostly joined in order to articulate a given word. It also uses an entirely different system of punctuation and diacritics. But most importantly, Arabic has no capital letters. Instead it has four different letter forms: initial, medial, isolated and final. I want to introduce the Arabic language to young learners, foreign speakers, but most importantly help refugees integrate to their host societies through creating a bilingual learning system, a two-way flow of communication. And I called it "Let's Play."
Mnogo razlogov je, zakaj sta arabska pisava in latinica različni, a tu je nekaj glavnih. Da, obe uporabljata potege navzgor in navzdol, a imata povsem različni izhodiščni črti. Arabska pisava je bolj kaligrafska, arabskemu jeziku pa je pomembna povezljivost, saj morajo biti črke v glavnem združene, da artikulirajo določeno besedo. Uporablja tudi povsem drugačen sistem ločil in diakritičnih znakov. Predvsem pa arabska pisava ne pozna velikih začetnic. Namesto tega ima štiri različne oblike črk: začetno, srednjo, samostojno in končno. Arabski jezik bi rada predstavila mladim učencem, tujejezičnim govorcem, predvsem pa bi rada pomagala beguncem, da se integrirajo v svoje gostiteljske družbe skozi kreiranje dvojezičnega učnega sistema, dvosmernega toka komunikacije. Imenovala sem ga: "Igrajmo se."
The idea is to simply create a fun and engaging way of learning Modern Standard Arabic through LEGO. These are the two words. "Let's Play." Every colored bar marks an Arabic letter. As you can see, the letter is explained in form, sound and examples of words in function, in addition to the equivalent in Latin. Together, they form a fun pocket book with the 29 Arabic letters and the four different forms, plus a 400-word dictionary.
Ideja je, da bi preprosto ustvarila zabaven in privlačen način učenja moderne standardne arabščine skozi LEGO. To sta ti dve besedi: "Igrajmo se." Vsak barvni stolpec označuje arabsko črko. Kot lahko vidite, je črka razložena z obliko, glasom in primerom besed v rabi, ob ustrezni črki v latinici. Skupaj tvorijo zabavno žepno knjigo z 29 arabskimi črkami v štirih različnih oblikah plus slovar s 400 besedami.
So this is how the page looks like. You have the letter, the transliteration in Latin and the description underneath.
Tako izgleda stran. Imate črko, prečrkovanje v latinico, spodaj pa opis.
I'll take you through the process. So first in my tiny studio in Florence, I built the letters. I photographed each letter separately, and then I retouched every letter and chose the correct color background and typefaces to use. Ultimately, I created the full letter set, which is 29 letters times four different forms. That's 116 letters build just in one week.
Popeljala vas bom skozi proces. Najprej v svojem majhnem studiu v Firencah zgradim črke. Vsako črko posebej sem fotografirala, potem pa sem vsako črko retuširala in izbrala ustrezno barvno ozadje in dizajn pisave. Tako sem ustvarila cel set črk, kar je 29 črk krat štiri različne oblike. To je skupaj 116 črk, zgrajenih samo v enem tednu.
I believe that information should and can be fun, portable. This book is the final product, which I would eventually like to publish and translate into as many languages in the world, so that Arabic teaching and learning becomes fun, easy and accessible globally. With this book, I hope to save my nation's beautiful script.
Verjamem, da bi informacije morale biti in so lahko zabavne, prenosne. Ta knjiga je končni izdelek, ki bi ga sčasoma rada izdala in prevedla v karseda mnogo jezikov, tako da bo poučevanje in učenje arabščine postalo zabavno, preprosto in globalno dosegljivo. S to knjigo upam, da bom rešila lepo pisavo mojega naroda.
(Applause)
(Aplavz)
Thank you.
Hvala.
Working on this project was a form of visual meditation, like a Sufi dance, a prayer to a better planet. One set of building blocks made two languages. LEGO is just a metaphor. It's because we are all made of the same building unit, is that I can see a future where the barriers between people all come tumbling down. So no matter how ugly the world around us gets, or how many discouraging books on ISIS, the terrorist group, and not Isis, the ancient Egyptian goddess, continue to be published, I will keep building one colorful world. Shukran, which means "thank you."
Delo na tem projektu je bila oblika vizualne meditacije, kot sufi ples, molitev za boljši planet. En set kock za grajenje je naredil dva jezika. LEGO je samo metafora. Zato ker smo vsi narejeni iz istih gradnikov, lahko vidim prihodnost, kjer bodo meje med ljudmi popadale. Zato, ne glede na to, kako grd postane svet okoli nas, ali koliko nevzpodbudnih knjig o ISIS-u, teroristični skupini, in ne o Izis, staroegipčanski boginji, bodo še naprej izdajali, bom še naprej gradila en barviti svet. Shukran, kar pomeni "hvala."
(Applause)
(Aplavz)
Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you.
Hvala. Najlepša hvala. Hvala.