PERSONAL ICONS
A SLICED MAP PIN REPRESENTS TO ME A DISPERSED COMMUNITY THAT ORIGINATED FROM ONE PLACE BUT IS NO LONGER BOUND TO IT.
I asked my Lebanese designer friends who have lived,
or are currently living, away from Lebanon, to represent in a pictograph their interpretation of the concept of post-geography and this phenomenon of living between different time zones.
Thanks to Myriam Arab, Amani Boudargham, Mo Saad, Clara Ghandour, Lynn Abdouni, Grace Salem, Mia Azar and Mayssa Moubarak for their time and their creative input.
Nour Tabet
Baltimore, USA
//BECAUSE
//dispersed geography
//not bound to one place
//digital RGB colors reflecting relationships that are artifically extended through technology
Amani Boudargham
Florence, Italy
//BECAUSE
//overseas
//electronic connections seem cold ones to me
//skype color
Amani Boudargham
Florence, Italy
//BECAUSE
//arrows=movement
//constant dilemma of going back, vicious cycle
//cold versus hot color
Mo Saad
New York, USA
//BECAUSE
//brands define who we are
//irony!
//pre-immigration: Starbucks provides glimpse into who I want to be
//post-immigration: An urge develops to reconnect through Arabic coffee
Mayssa Moubarak
Montreal, Canada
This is a representation of a rotated cedar tree, similar to the “play” button: life goes on. Life doesn’t pause when you leave your country, you move on and so does your country and everyone in it. It also looks like a fast forward button: post-geographic is rapidly growing and moving. Everything is moving in a fast forward motion, it used to take us months to get news about our country, nowadays it takes a couple of seconds before we get a notification on facebook. This icon also highlights the fact that we are away, it’s pointing towards somewhere outside the box, outside the nation. I wouldn’t put my icon in a box. It shouldn’t be surrounded by borders, just like the post-geographic phenomenon.
Clara Ghandour
Toronto, Canada
//BECAUSE
That’s how I feel my relationship with Lebanon is reduced to.
Mia Azar
London, UK
//BECAUSE
//time zones affect communication between the people
//the lines resemble a distorted map, a distorted geography
//connections turn cold, impersonal
Lynn Abdouni
Pittsburg, USA
//BECAUSE
//bain Marie smells divine
//base should always be boiling
//post geographic Lebanon still at a critical stage. Paradigms still rapidly shifting
//la vie en rose
Grace Salem
New York, USA
//BECAUSE
//leave to be free while always looking back
//trying to run back somehow
//the colors carry a drowning feeling of malaise
Myriam Arab
Doha, Qatar
//BECAUSE When Lebanese people immigrate they:
//hold on to a certain perception of their country
//recreate what they once knew
//create a community they can relate to
//keep on claiming Lebanon is green
