Aisha Deemas, Deputy Director of Executive Affairs at Sharjah Museums Authority sits in conversation with Dr Azra Akšamija and Professor Felix Beck to explore the use of everyday material such as recycled clothing in artistic practice. With ‘Design for Good’ as inspiration, Dr Akšamija’s recent installation, the T-Serai–Textile Systems for Engagement and Research in Artistic Impact– is a textile art installation in the form of a portable cultural shelter inspired by the tent traditions of the MENA region. Together, Aksamija and Beck discuss sustainability as a guiding principle in narrative-telling through their individual practices.

T-Serai will be on exhibit at the Sharjah Museum of Islamic Civilisation. This talk is part of the Jameel’s ‘Conversations on Practice’ series of artist-led presentations and is held in collaboration with the Sharjah Museums Authority. 

Dr Azra Akšamija is an artist and architectural historian, Director of the MIT Future Heritage Lab and an Associate Professor in the Department of Architecture and the  MIT Program in Art, Culture and Technology. Her multi-disciplinary work investigates the politics of identity and memory on the scale of the body (clothing and wearable technologies), on the civic scale (religious architecture and cultural institutions), and within the context of history and cultural flows.

Felix Hardmood Beck is an Assistant Professor of Practice Design at NYU Abu Dhabi and has worked as a designer and user-experience professional for renowned German design and architectural studios. As design director, he conceives and develops innovative designs for engaging experiences, objects, interactive installations and media environments through physical properties of objects and materials and the use of narrative technologies.