/GRIDS AND PARAGRAPHS
Parallel Transformations in the Architecture of Texts and the City in Late 19th Century Cairo2020, MA Dissertation, UCL, 9000 words
Grids & Paragraphs explores the intervening period between the French Napoleonic expedition (1798-1801) and British colonial rule (1882-1952). Through examining historical maps of the city and archival Arabic written accounts focusing on the late 19th century, it attempts to situate the city as text discourse within Cairo's urban development and textual culture in the advent of modernity and colonialism. It argues that both city and text underwent analogous transformations in the form of grid-planned developments and punctuated texts. It aims to contribute to a body of literature on the correlations between architecture and language in the context of the Arab City. It asks: How did Egyptian writers react to the ongoing transformations of the city in late 19th century Cairo? How can we trace the change, depicted by the maps, from the traditionally dense to the grid-planned urban fabric through the lens of Arabic texts? Or, how did the text echo the city?
/ON THE LINE
Site-Writing Oneself as Critical Spatial Practice2020, Audio-Text Performance, UCL, 31 minutes, 4000 words
In the troubled Spring of 2020, the world was overtook by a pandemic. Everyone, everywhere, are staying put, wherever they are. Our understandings of time, space and society are being redefined. This 3-Act audio text performance draws on diaries, correspondence and voice notes that have become essential during this time to record the echo of non-presence. It draws on notions of time, language, and what it means to be on the line, especially during this time. It documents the site-writing project as a process, one’s self as site, and how I arrived to (writing) it. Or, the journey of finding one’s voice.
This project was supervised by Jane Rendell, and was exhibited in the Site-Writing Exhibition ‘Refracted Sites’ as part of Bloomsbury Festival in London, 2020.
/VOID
In the beginning there was void. Before the past sentence was written, there was nothing.2019, Experimental, short
It is truly spectacular to witness this event in which meaning is momentarily born. Through the slightest of gestures, set in a certain organization, an idea comes to life.
/GRID
I held a pen and drew a line. And then beside it i drew a line. And then beside it i drew a line.2014, Experimental, short
And then there i was with a grid. With each 2 vertical lines and 2 horizontal lines forming a square, there remained only 1 square visibly different. And the rest of the lines, and though i can intuitively see that they form a grid, i vaguely recall to have drawn them.
/FREDRIC JAMESON'S ARCHITECTURE YET TO COME
Examining the Lexical Proposition in Spatial Equivalents in the World System and Other Essays2020, Essay, UCL, 4500 words
In Fredric Jameson’s essay Spatial Equivalents in the World System (1991), he outlines a brief yet powerful methodology for ‘an architecture that performs a rewriting program’ through language and literary analogies. He proposes a scheme in which minimal units in both language and architecture can be investigated. This essay examines Jameson’s lexical proposition in regards to the production of Utopian space in architecture.
يحكى انه كان هناك صديقين. احدهما يدعى عن، والآخر حول
2015، نص ادبي تجريبي، قصير
تفكر عن وحول في هذا الامر، واستوعب كل منهما على حدا كيف ان حكاياتهم المتبادلة تلك عن علاقتهم بالأشياء في المدينة كانت مثل سجالاً غير منطوق بينهم، يتناقشون فيه عن وحول علاقتهم القدرية تلك و التي اتخذت المدينة مسرحاً صامتاً لها. ولكن كان ذلك الصمت حياً، يعج بالأفكار وتنساب في عروقه دماء الحياة حتى انه قد صلد حضوره في حياتهما، وكان حضوراً بليغاً.
/اكتر
اقرا
2015، نص ادبي تجريبي، قصير
تفكر عن وحول في هذا الامر، واستوعب كل منهما على حدا كيف ان حكاياتهم المتبادلة تلك عن علاقتهم بالأشياء في المدينة كانت مثل سجالاً غير منطوق بينهم، يتناقشون فيه عن وحول علاقتهم القدرية تلك و التي اتخذت المدينة مسرحاً صامتاً لها. ولكن كان ذلك الصمت حياً، يعج بالأفكار وتنساب في عروقه دماء الحياة حتى انه قد صلد حضوره في حياتهما، وكان حضوراً بليغاً.
/THE CONSTRUCTION OF MEANING
A fragmentary compilation of writings on architecture and text.2016, Self-published, 26 pages
One of the key functions of this text is to keep the reader reading. The reader must continue reading much the same as how you tell a story is more important than the story itself. Why, then, is it important that the reader continue reading? Because the crafting of the text is as important as its content. Thus, the best way to start writing is by writing about writing for the reader to keep reading.
اطالع كتابات قديمة. مذكرات عكفت على كتابتها لاعوام. محادثات بين اوقات محتلفة تنشأ عندما تجد انك قد مررت من هنا من قبل.
2017، نص ادبي، قصير
لا افهم حقاً لما احتفظ بتلك الكتابات. في بعض الاحيان، اكتبها كما لقارئ اخر عني. من اجل ان يستمتع بقرائتها غيري. و اكتبها، و اعود فاقرأها مجدداً. و لكني اعلم ان لا احد سيقرأها. قد يكون صراع مع ذلك العدم، عبث الوجود. لقد كنت هنا، بينما انا عندك الان. كما انني الان هنا، اكتب تلك الحروف.
/اكتراقرا
2017، نص ادبي، قصير
لا افهم حقاً لما احتفظ بتلك الكتابات. في بعض الاحيان، اكتبها كما لقارئ اخر عني. من اجل ان يستمتع بقرائتها غيري. و اكتبها، و اعود فاقرأها مجدداً. و لكني اعلم ان لا احد سيقرأها. قد يكون صراع مع ذلك العدم، عبث الوجود. لقد كنت هنا، بينما انا عندك الان. كما انني الان هنا، اكتب تلك الحروف.