Samia Elsheikh

Natural Codes in Fabric Weaving

Samia Elsheikh – Faculty of Art Education, Helwan University, Cairo, Egypt – attending the congress and presenting the paper virtually

With Cristian A. Zaelzer-Perez – Faculty of Fine Arts, Concordia University, Montreal, Canada – attending in-person

Abstract:

Nature provides plenty of examples of simple electrical patterns, repetitions, or coded chemistry that can be read, reproduced, copied, and translated to produce responses to an original communicative request. Electrical patterns and repetitions can be easily found in neurons delivering electrical impulses triggered by stimulation from the environment to prepare a response and adaptive behaviour. Meanwhile, the sequence of the nucleotides in DNA or RNA and its translation to amino acids ends in the synthesis of peptides and proteins capable of regulating biological functions.

Because any communication in nature is based on how sequences, codes, and patterns are produced, we can play with those codes and replace them with other codes to explore communication and biology using any art practice form.

Traditional looming has a code, rules, syntax, and grammar, so it can be considered a language to some extent. This research explores several natural communication systems: the genetic code, neuronal firing frequencies, the vibrational signals of bees, and the vocal calls of meerkats – with the aim of developing simple coding manuals for each. These manuals will then be translated into the codes of weaving construction. By combining elements such as patterns, thread types, tension, colour, and sequence, the study seeks to transform stories and narratives from any coded form of communication into visual art using hand weaving techniques.

Translanguaging Territories: Worlding Higher Education Differently (Panel, 45 mins.)

Chair: Patricia Osler – The Convergence Initiative – Concordia University, Montreal, Canada

Samia ElSheikh – Faculty of Art Education, Helwan University, Cairo, Egypt – virtual 

Anita Sinner – The University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada

Susana Vargas – Bogota Museum of Modern Art / Universidad de los Andes, Colombia

Elly Yazdanpanah – The University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada

Cristian A. Zaelzer-Perez – Faculty of Fine Arts, Concordia University, Montreal, Canada

Abstract:

Worlding higher education differently offers a unique accounting of unexpected territories through arts-based, integrative, accessible projects that shift learning to cultivate new translanguaging activations. Our session presents a tripartite ecosystem of transnational (local, national, international), transdisciplinary (technology, art, science) and transmedia (digital media platforms), and in this panel we explore how art-sci-tech immersive learning activations operate as iterative, open systems for transformative change. With translanguaging at the heart of practice, we present processes of becoming(s) in which we embrace seeing what might be, instead of what is. This panel invites educators to rethink art education paradigms, equipping students with the skills and knowledge to thrive as global citizens in a rapidly changing world. We emphasize encounters with difference: diverse modes of thinking, feeling and doing that involve multi-levelled, multi-layered, and intra-disciplinary collaboration with, in and through other perspectives and experiences in teaching and learning. Highlighting a series of projects in Colombia, Egypt, Japan and Canada that seek to disrupt arts education through international virtual and onsite exchanges, we demonstrate why this resonates among students at our site-specific locations. We address core questions: How do international university and museum collaborations advance transnational learning partnerships? In what ways do art-science partnerships contribute to decolonizing discourses of creativity and learning? How does technology function to equalize access and transform lifelong learning? Through open discussion and shared examples of inventive and experimental activations, we will demonstrate the dynamic convergence of art, science and technology as a learning commons with applied ‘glocal’ projects, bringing situated, arts-based knowledges to global contexts. By integrating museums as extended educational settings, we present new ways to diversify theory-practice discourses. Our goal is to enable collaborative, unifying activations as an arts-based blueprint for higher education globally.