“New images of the Middle East/ images of the New Middle East” is a commission by international artist and composer Guy Manoukian for a concert in Beiteddine, Lebanon. The concert took place on August 8th, 2009 at the palace with over 4000 attendees and an orchestra of over 85 musicians including the Armenian Philharmonic Orchestra.
Beiteddine Festival is one of the oldest and finest festivals in the Middle East and is held in a 200-year-old palace in Beiteddine, built by emir Bashir Shihab in a little town 45 kilometers south-east of Beirut. Over the years the beiteddine festival has hosted international artists such as Liza Minelli, Elton John, Charles Aznavour and others.
The project is to create visuals, edited footage, and algorithmic animations to respond to the music of Guy Manoukian. His music represents fusion of eastern and western instruments, traditional and electronic, seeking to modernize sounds of the Middle East.
The project is done in collaboration with Daniel Hai, and Cem Adiyaman. Thanks Meiver De La Cruz.
A reinterpretation of a traditional chandelier in which the crystals and lights form the underlying rigid structure for transient, flowing arms. The disappearing and reappearing body of the chandelier is defined by a fabric contour which weaves through a channel of suspended hoops. The system is actuated by a single driving motor unwinding a spool of custom ribbon. The speed of the motor is calibrated to match the prescribed pattern of the ribbon and define the timing of the piece. The effect is an ethereal lighting fixture which continuously draws and erases itself, in essence, a 4D chandelier.
Ayah Bdeir and Jessica Banks
Chandelier in 4, 2008
Custom electronics, lights, crystals, ribbon, wire, perspex
littleBits is a library of discrete electronic components pre-assembled in tiny circuit boards. Just as Legos allow you to create complex structures with very little engineering knowledge, littleBits are simple, intuitive, space-sensitive blocks that make prototyping with sophisticated electronics a matter of snapping small magnets together.
April 30th, 2009
Eyebeam, NY
www.littlebits.cc
Join us for the launch party and exhibit opening of littleBits on Thursday April 30th at Eyebeam.
6pm: littleSneak - press preview
7pm: littleGeek - talk by ayah bdeir (ie: me)
7:30pm: bigLaunch -party
Please rsvp by April 25th at: rsvp@littlebits.cc. More info here
August 14th, 2008 - littleBits Workshop - Cleartag - Beirut
A bird’s eye view of a little over 3 years of violence, strife, and very bright lights rocking Lebanon, remembered and replayed in 45 minutes of proportionally timed light display.
22 x 30 inches
Electronics on Canvas
produced June 2008
After decades of running her kinky Syrian lingerie store in the Hamidiya souk of Damascus, Teta Haniya comes to America bearing gifts. With over 60 years of Islamic teachings on seduction, and an arsenal of kitschy electronics, Teta Haniya hijacks the western panty, triggering the sexual liberation of the American woman.
Teta Haniya’s secrets is a line of electronic lingerie inspired by a Syrian tradition of hacking electronic toys, integrating them into panties, and selling them in the most casual of fashions at popular ‘Damascan’ souks. The line consists of five Victoria’s Secret panties hacked Syrian-style according to literal interpretations of Arabic expressions of seduction. The biggest lingerie store in the United States isn’t so liberal after all…
Teaching a workshop called Project Walkway led by Norene Leddy with Jessica Banks. The workshop is part of the Girls Eye View program where 8 high school girls come in after school for 6 weeks to learn about electronics and wearables.
The Arab Store is a gallery of arab absurdities captured in satirical, whimsical, facetious gadgets. All gadgets are vintage artifacts hacked electronically to illustrate ludicrous urban legends, heirloom superstitions and crazy habits that characterize everyday life in the arab world, its sexuality, social relations, political instabilities and economic disparities. By exposing funny aspects of everyday arab life, we invite arabs all over the world to join us in our campaign to laugh at ourselves, but also (and more importantly) to present a nonthreatening, charming alternate view of the arab world to a western media that often tends to homogenize arabs and portray them as aggressive people in repressive societies, which we, by the way, respectfully disagree with.
An interactive visualization for a live concert and fundraiser in Vienna on April 21. The visualization will track and display in real-time the the SMS donations of audience members. By: Jessica Banks, Ayah Bdeir, Friedrich Kirschner, Zach Lieberman, and Addie Wagenknecht, with the Ars Electonica Futurelab
