We’re looking back over 25 years of VCUarts Qatar through Tasmeem Doha – one of the region’s leading and most influential design initiatives – and chatting with six VCUarts Qatar faculty members and key players who have helped make it what it is today.
In the third episode of this series, we’re joined by Professors Michael Perrone and Leland Hill to discuss the idea of ‘non-traditional expression’. Together, we think about Tasmeem Doha as an example of a non-traditional design event and its exciting role as a shot of creative adrenaline for everyone who attends. Hill and Perrone share what they see to be the conference’s core impacts on the fields of art and design and map out its legacies over the years.
In the course of the conversation, we seek to ‘demystify’ art and design — questioning whether we even need to distinguish between the two. Both professors contemplate the ways that arts education has changed and what opportunities and ideas have been brought to Doha as a result of the Tasmeem Doha conferences.
0:00 Introduction
0:35 First memory of Tasmeem Doha
6:01 How is Tasmeem Doha’s approach as a design ‘conference’ non-traditional?
11:35 What is the mystery about ‘art’ and ‘design’
19:15 Changes over the past 25 years and how VCUarts Qatar has shaped changes in arts and design education
28:16 Tasmeem Doha’s core legacy & most important impact
32:40 Projects that have been born out of Tasmeem Doha
37:06 Students’ experiences of Tasmeem Doha & VCUarts Qatar over the years
48:05 Is there a specific memory from Tasmeem Doha that always makes you laugh? And one piece of advice for Tasmeem
Leland Hill is an Assistant Professor of Graphic Design at Virginia Commonwealth University School of the Arts in Qatar where he teaches typography and interdisciplinary collaborative systems design strategies. His interests also extend to how graphic design and comic book studies come together as visual and sequential narratives. Hill is also the co-founder of the VCUarts Qatar Comics Lab, a partnership with the VCUarts Qatar Library to explore diverse narratives in comic and sequential art.
Michael Perrone is a painter, currently working as an Assistant Professor of Painting at VCUarts Qatar. He studied Art and Art Education at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and a Master of Fine Arts in Painting from the University of Pennsylvania. His recent work is the result of his continued research and investigation into the concept of monuments, exploring both local, regional and several international sites.
THIS SERIES IS PART OF THE AFIKRA PODCAST NETWORK
More about The Tasmeem Doha Podcast
Tasmeem Doha is a biennial international conference that focuses on unique and contemporary themes in art and design. For 2024, the theme of the event is “Under Construction”, which is both a metaphor for creative research as well as a celebration and investigation of transformation. It is also a state that Doha has found itself in for decades: a transformation that has presented an outsized impact on the residents of the city.
“Under Construction” will also explore the past, present and future of VCUarts Qatar’s flagship event Tasmeem Doha. As part of the 25th anniversary of VCUart Qatar’s campus in Doha, the event will bring together voices from the past, present and future of various disciplines involved in this cycle of rethinking and remaking.
