The Archive: Visual Culture in the Middle East

Friday, April 5, 2019
Chagoury Health Sciences Auditorium, LAU Byblos Campus

While Middle Eastern art and architecture studies have proliferated as areas of scholarly investigation and discussion, perspectives on graphic design and visual communication of the Arab Middle East remains a greatly untapped area of examination. Challenges reside and particularly extend from archives or the lack thereof. How can one write a history of the development of graphic design with the limited archival documents? Is there a particular research method for writing graphic design history in the region? These are a few questions that are addressed at the The Archive: Visual Culture in the Middle East symposium.

Jointly organized by Professor Yasmine Nachabe Taan and Professor Melissa Plourde Khoury, the symposium emerges as the Lebanese American University launches a new course “Graphic Design in the Middle East” to build knowledge and become its own form of archived material. While further contributing to opportunities for research, and teaching related material to Middle Eastern graphic design and visual communication, the symposium, that will take place annually, brings together scholars, authors, designers, researchers and thinkers to engage in fruitful discussions building upon current collections of information and investigate untapped research areas. This knowledge would hence, extend beyond and be distinct from more conventional studies on Western design canons.

This symposium will be held on LAU Byblos Campus, at the Chagoury Health Sciences Auditorium.

There is no conference fee, but advance registration is essential. To register for this event, click here.