enlightened!

I am very convinced
now I want to see what you make!
.
.
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Being lost sometimes helps to clarify where you’d rather be.
It’s a valuable lesson, what happened in sentosa. It has helped you to better articulate the direction you feel you must go in....don’t feel it was a waste.

Now make what you have to make!

Aa

*now i am feeling great. not only because Prof Astrid is convinced by what my piece of mind said, I let myself free from a corner again and it feels quite good to be out of that messy mind.

well i am in the process of making now... IT'S HARI RAYA TOMORROW!!! i cant wait! (=

(please click on picture to see details)

i realised that there are thumbprints on the reverse side. so cool! the person who made this soap stone is felt/known through his sole identity, his/her thumbprint.

now i can incorporate that idea into my own patterns. how can i make it obvious, there's me inside. maybe my own signature style of creating my patterns.

clarification

In wider sense, 'batin' can refer to the inner meaning or reality behind all existence, the zahir being the world of form and apparent meaning.

zahir: what we see: nature moving
batin: we know how nature moves, because there's wind. and Allah causes the wind to happen.

since batin can refer to reality behind all existence.wind itself is very much felt and not seen through the eyes. we are able see wind through another form that is more apparent, that is nature.

so as to speak of my patterns,

zahir: my calligraphic patterns, the mergence of kufic and nashki scripts
batin: what emotions my audience will feel
: by knowing someone creates this work

they will feel my presence through the expression of my patterns.

like how nature moves, we feel wind and we know it's wind and we felt Allah's presence.; as He who creates the wind.

confession #02

Hi Prof Astrid

I need some help!

I have been trying some documentation and some serious thinking. i think about the definition of zahir and batin in my patterns again.

from last presentation, i was sure about my definition. but the assignment re-connect could have misled me a little bit. but now i am trying to make sense of
everything again.

TRUE DEFINITION OF ZAHIR AND BATIN
from http://www.sherifbaba.com/batin.htm

It is like this body and the ruh, the spirit. The Zahir is the body. It is seen, visible. It is known. It moves. But Batin is the inner side of this. This is not seen through the eyes. Existence is felt. And how is it felt? With the actions that it performs. With the art that is brought forth.

Let's say we see a painting. We look at this painting; it’s beautiful. There is a beauty in its Zahir, its outer side. But this doesn’t happen by itself. When we look, we think, “There is someone who created this.” The person who painted it is not visible, but she has hidden herself inside of the art that she has created. That is the Batin.

Another example: a block of ice. Its form is this block. This is Zahir. Its Batin is water. How are you going to understand that it’s water? When it melts, it softens and lets its water flow. Then we understand that its Batin is water, but its outside, set in a form, is ice. Zahir and Batin are like this.

THEREFORE, my stand here is that the patterns I create is ZAHIR but the batin comes from within my patterns, cause I am not seen but my thoughts are felt through my own work. The calligraphy I created to make my patterns, I am not visible in my patterns but I am hidden inside. I think that's the beauty of batin; defined as the interior or hidden meaning of a zahir.

So the last conversation we had in class about the re-connect assignment, i have to re-think about the analogy. BATIN is not something that changes ZAHIR overtime. It is there all the time. It is still fluid in the staticness of ZAHIR because i feel that batin is organic in the sense that it can be altered through feelings, meanings and the development of zahir itself.
that quality is showing its fluidity.

In wider sense, 'batin' can refer to the inner meaning or reality behind all existence, the zahir being the world of form and apparent meaning.

I believe that all that Allah created has two sides. We see there's always two sides to everything. the Zahir face and Batin face.We have to work well with our zahir, then we can have good batin as well.

With this body we are going to serve everybody well, and make our thoughts beautiful and good. The more beautiful our Zahir gets, the more beauty Allah will manifest in the Batin.

Also, the Divine books have to be seen in this way. There is the Zahir writing, the outer writing. This is the Zahir judgment. But there’s also a Batin meaning, and to find this, we have to work towards good behavior and conduct. Otherwise we can read the Zahir, but still understand nothing.



So, Prof Astrid, can you help me sort this little mess in my head now.

What I really really really want to show in my system of patterns is my signature style of typographic exploration through the mergence of the two scripts I chose to explore.

I am keen to show the beautiful mergence of the zahir and batin quality of the two scripts in order to express a balanced individual as a whole.

the zahir is my outer form, the patterns.
the batin is the inner meaning of the patterns, the fluidity of my hand when i draw the calligraphy, the poetic meaning of my personal thoughts for universal use. i find that the many layers of my patterns is the beauty of batin in my patterns itself.

are you convinced now? that one can see batin through my patterns cause me, my thoughts and many other things is hidden but existence is still felt?


hope to speak to you soon.

thank you!

.s

http://www.clublaugh.com/es-items/712.swf

something not so bad

if i am doing this kind of effect to show batin in my patterns, i would require specialised printers. however this is just a visual inspiration. but the effect is cool and mesmerising. i find myself moving the small pouch so many times just to see the cat wag its tail. static to moving. i need more inspirations!

confessions

i have to admit this. i feel a little stuck. i enjoy the exercise re-connect but the exercise is making my fyp tricky.. as in if i draw inspirations from re-connect, my whole system of patterns will take on another level of representation.

it will no longer be static. it will be something i am unsure yet.

i once had a vision. my system of patterns is something 2d, flat and something to be applied for wearable and other products. but the exercise re-connect made me realise the patterns cannot be represented in that way. it doesnt show the flow of batin.. BUT batin is more important than zahir.

oh gosh. i feel a little lost. but i think i am suppose to feel that way every now and then when i meet a junction of truth.

ok initially i want my patterns.... the mergence of zahir and batin to represent a balanced individual. in my opinion, zahir is the pattern itself and the batin is the content. like how we look at a painting, the beauty is the zahir, but the painter is the batin as existence is felt. but does that reach out to my audience efficiently?

of course it does not communicate effectively enough!

the content is transcribed text from my poem. not everyone can read english jawi. so the content which is the batin is not felt as strongly like how impactful the waves as they hit the shores.. i need something new, a solution to resolve this batin thingy. i need to look in deeper. how can i show my zahir and batin at the same time. how can i show my patterns and at the same time show the fluency of their batin which is also eventually the content of my poem!

i kinda brainstorm about the representation of my patterns.

i think i need to explore how textural type works. designed experience and how a space can be used to evoke the emotion. as it is batin is something felt. so when my viewer looks at my pattern, they feel something and have an expression of it. and another time they look at the same patterns, it is a different feel, presence and expression altogether.

time for serious thinking.

more inspirations

my feet is still quite aching from all the walking during our awesome sentosa fieldtrip and the mini trip to vivo with erica and li ying. oh what a fun day!

i need to filter through the footages and re-connect them!

oh i already put up the links that inspires and fed my soul. click them on the left.

some batin for the zahir today.

may not be the best word in art around but definitely unique and beautiful in its own. i must find the bookmarked sites back from my last research for GD4 Calendar project.

quick update

as i promised myself to get some things done as soon as possible, i have completed my updates insight with my updated title, sentence and paragraph. i also have typed out my tentative handout for this saturday's presentation.

now working on my ppt slides and of course my strings exercise process book, and then i will be good to go to prepare my speech!

i will update all my research, visual inspirations thus far and any fyp relevant stuff up this blog once i have completed my priority checklist.

waiting for prof astrid to give her feedback on the two things i sent her.... 

till then some eye therapy and to take a few moments of mind peace. 

check this out: http://leogeo.com/28_timebeat.htm

my very first post!

Here I am creating my very first post in my FYP processbook blog... in class while waiting for Prof Astrid to go round the table to talk to all of us individually about fyp.

I feel that it is never to late to start a blog. I will be writing my journal at the same time, penning down thoughts I have on the train or in the shower or whenever I can't get online.

Well.. first things first. I am happy I finally found a path and a good direction for fyp. I have come to a conclusion to narrow down my gaze to using myself and my religion as a lens to view the world, and to look into the Islamic/Arabic viewpoint of the world.

I am very sure of the two scripts I have chosen to work with intensively, but I am open to exploring other scripts since there are many schools and types in the typology of Islamic Calligraphy.

For now, things to do as of today:

_get the strings process book done

_get my handout for fyp presentation this saturday done_then send to Prof Astrid for edit

_PPT slides, plus speech/script that should be within 7 mins

_put together nicely my updated insight: the title, sentence, paragraph and the new schedule!

Ok quite a few things on hand BUT I shall remain calm and complete things one by one and feel happy about it.

Need to scan those great images from two awesome books I found at the library:

Islamic Calligraphy by Sheila S. Blair 

The Splendour of Islamic Calligraphy by Abdelkebir Khatibi and Mohammed Sijelmassi

Freaking expensive! One cost SGD 280 and the latter is SGD 98. Still thinking whether I should get the book for myself. Or else I would have to keep borrowing it.

p.s I just said something to erica.. i love calligraphy like how i love my soul.

more later...