Ephemeral vs Permanent | Hadeer Omar x Yasmeen Suleiman | 25 Years of VCUarts Qatar

We’re looking back over 25 years of Tasmeem Doha – one of the region’s leading and most influential design initiatives – and chatting with six VCU Qatar faculty members and key players who have helped make it what it is today. In the second episode of the Tasmeem Doha podcast, we examine ‘ephemerality vs permanence’.

Together with assistant professors at VCU Qatar Hadeer Omar and Yasmeen Suleiman, we think about Tasmeem Doha as a ‘maverick’ event that has fundamentally transformed the region’s design scene. They describe how university life has been changed by Tasmeem Doha and what they see to be the temporary vs permanent day-to-day legacies of the conference. And they celebrate the invaluable community, connections and conversations that are born out of Tasmeem Doha in each of its renditions.

Hadeer explains what ‘time-based media’ actually means — pushing us to reflect on perceptions and measurements of time in a fast-moving and transforming city like Doha. We contemplate the symbiotic relationship between permanence and temporality and finally, both Hadeer and Yasmeen share their favorite memories from Tasmeem Doha over the years.

Yasmeen Suleiman is Materials Library Curator and Assistant Professor at VCUarts Qatar. She approaches materials from a multifaceted design perspective, with an unquenchable curiosity and appreciation for how materials transform ideas into tangible reality. Her research interests encompass concepts of preservation, temporality and permanence, trace, value, culture, and contextual design. Previously, she taught Materials and Methods Studio as adjunct faculty in the MFA department. She also worked on the Hamad International Airport Project as part of their Architecture and Interior Design team.

Hadeer Omar is an Egyptian new media artist and Assistant Professor at VCUarts in Qatar. Her work centers on exploring socio-cultural issues through immersive XR media, graphics, photography, A/V performances, 360 storytelling, and video art installations. One of the key focuses of her artistic practice is to utilize technology to examine complex issues of cultural identity, memories, and the self in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. Her approach to storytelling challenges conventional perceptions of art and design, inviting viewers to examine in new and thought-provoking ways. She was one of the co-chairs of the Tasmeem Doha Art and Design Conference in 2019.

As a dedicated educator, she teaches Time-based media and storytelling. Hadeer empowers her undergraduate/grad. students to utilize XR technologies to create immersive and engaging works. She bridges arts, new media processes, and storytelling to introduce her students to emerging technologies that will shape the future of art and design. Her teaching philosophy is rooted in the belief that students' creative potential can be unlocked by fostering their unique perspectives and approaches to new media art. Her students explore and produce video art installations, 360 short films, photo sequencing, and more.

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THIS SERIES IS PART OF THE AFIKRA PODCAST NETWORK
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ABOUT AFIKRA
afikra | عفكرة is a movement to convert passive interest in the Arab world to active intellectual curiosity. We aim to collectivel...