What You Should Know About Fez

Fes or Fez (Arabic: فاس‎ [Fās], French: Fès) is the second largest city of Morocco after Casablanca, with a population of just over one million. It's the capital of the Fès-Boulemane region. Fes, the former capital, is one of the country's four "imperial cities," the others being Rabat, Marrakech and Meknes. It comprises three distinct parts, Fes el Bali (the old, walled city), Fes-Jdid (new Fes, home of the Mellah) and the Ville Nouvelle (the French-created, newest section of Fes). Fes el Bali is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Its medina, the larger of the two medinas of Fes, is believed to be the world's largest contiguous car-free urban area. The University of Al-Qarawiyyin, founded in AD 859, is the oldest continuously functioning university in the world. It has been called the "Mecca of the West" and the "Athens of Africa"

The Al-Qarawiyyin Mosque

With a reputation for being one of the largest mosques in Africa and one of the world’s oldest universities, the Al-Qarawiyyin Mosque in Fez, Morocco, is simply one attraction that can’t be missed. This beautiful mosque, which dates back to the 9th century, is also a noted place of worship.

Many see Al-Qarawiyyin as being the perfect example of how theMuslim faith combines thespiritual with the educational. Certainly Muslim saints and scholars have been congregating in the mosque’s ornamental courtyard for more than 1,000 years. Even the very foundations of this majestic monument have a story to tell. According to history, the mosque was founded by a princess by the name of Fatima Al-Fihri – the daughter of a wealthy Qayrawani immigrant. Both Fatima and her sister were highly educated and displayed noteworthy religious devotion. Upon her father’s death, Fatima inherited a large amount of money. Instead of spending this on enriching herself, she chose to enrich the people that surrounded her by using it to build a mosque suitable for her community. This is not only an example of how education and religion merge in this small corner of the globe, it sheds light on the esteemed role that woman can play in the Islamic community an aspect of Islam that is often misunderstood.

A little presentation

This video is a small presentation of my final project. It is a collaboration with students from InHolland University.We will be discovering the Qarawiyyin Mosque in all its aspects in order to come up with all the great stories and history this place has to offer...

What is a Communication Brief ?!

THe creative brief—a template for public relations projects

A Creative Brief is an important tool that provides a connection between an organization’s marketing goals and objectives and the creative strategies being employed. Used correctly, it can ensure that a creative project is based on clear expectations, defined objectives and a means to measure the success of the creative work (brochure, Web site, signage, etc.)

Using a basic outline from the design world, the following template can help you develop a creative brief for outlining, monitoring and measuring your public relations projects.

1. Define the objectives. What must the public relations accomplish? Sign-ups, reservations, increased sales, donations, attendance, media coverage, media attendance, new volunteers?

2. List the tactics to be used. Event, news release, radio interview, e-blast, news conference?

3. Define the target audience. Start with who you want to utlimately reach; then identify the media and venues to reach them.

4. What is the key message? This is critical. It must be newsworthy. What issues do we address? Does this tie to a national event or topic? Does it make people want to think something or do something?

5. List the specifics that must be included. The W’s of PR: who, what, where, when, why.

6. Include supporting info. Legal information, Web address, contact info, history, quotes.

7. What do you want from the PR? Introduce something, educate, increase sales, increase social media followers, defend a position?

8. How will you measure success? This is key. Go to number one and decide how you will measure each of your established objectives.

Politic and Thom Yorke's Lotus Flower being my Politic

I really don’t understand why I absolutely have to do this to my thought process. It’s throwing me off completely. I don’t know if it’s a good or bad thing. I certainly don’t have a whole library of concrete ideas and artwork to back up my opinion on this, but I’m very disoriented and need to write about it. I’m angry because I’m currently being pushed in a direction that is far from my comfort zone. I know that you’re going to think that bringing myself out of my own element is good for me, but it’s really just the first step of the process for me and it’s making me react this way. “You’re on the right track but where’s the politic?” “You’re on the right track but where’s the politic???” “You’re on the right track but where’s the politic?” Three times is bad enough, but it also took around three or four different people to say it to me. It’s hard for me to hear this, as I don’t like delivering concrete messages through the photographs I take or the things I make. I don’t have an answer for everything. I came into this field to find out that I wasn’t going to get many answers either. So, how can I give you a message if I don’t have the answers? I know this might sound terrible to a whole lot of you… But I don’t understand politics. I don’t understand what’s going on in my country or yours. I do understand… the gist of it. I just don’t understand the rest because in the long run, the situation never changes. Okay a new president has been elected, but the same process happens again and someone new rules all. I don’t mean to offend anyone if I have, just know that I have some sort of a point to my argument. I don’t understand the rules, rights and legislations which brings me to a stop to tell each of you that this puts me in an awkward situation in which I don’t understand how political choices in America or in Lebanon or in Egypt affect my life in Dubai. This doesn’t rationally sink in. I know that these choices being made are affecting my family and me, I just don’t understand how. I am simply not an academic in that area. This is entirely my fault, as I don’t like to watch the news or read about it. It is beyond me too how I can’t pick up a newspaper. But this brings me to how change is important. When situations are constant and I keep hearing the news repeat itself profusely like a broken record, I get immune to it and it doesn’t affect me. The news is a total personal antibiotic; it just makes my immune system stronger. I know that all of this fluff sounds super painful to some of you, but that’s okay. What I’m trying to say is that I’m not one to incorporate this politic in my work or my thoughts. It’s too systematic and cold for me. What about the rest of the liberal arts? And what about not being so opinionated and imposing your opinions onto others? What about Music? Deeply reflecting on sounds. Writing? Putting two to three words together just to ‘make sense’. What about Philosophy? Poetry? Everyone has politic in his or her life and I understand this. It shapes you up. A big part of mine just so happens to be about emotions, sensations, thoughts, and my goodness Radiohead’s newest video for their new song Lotus Flower. Yes this video is a politic to me. I’ve been following Thom Yorke’s work for as long as I can remember and I never expected him to ever do anything like this in any of his videos. The media really likes to let you think you know somebody by selling that person to you as a polished conduct. But once I saw Thom Yorke in this low budget video, I flipped. How can one man’s face and hands completely change instantaneously? I didn’t recognize the man anymore. The video would be stupid and absolute shit if it were someone else dancing in there. He was so fucking raw. I thought I knew him until I saw him dance like that. I was lost for words. This type of footage is so simple and has been done over and over again but it was Thom Yorke. He made it! It was his crazy human condition in this piece. He looked so frail. Till this day, I don’t understand how someone could express themselves as they moved like that and suddenly become so different to me. He changed! It’s not constant and I love it. I’m almost really angry with him for leading me to believe that he was someone else. Thom’s lazy eye made it apparent that it was infact him but he looked so different at the same time. It’s like he was a friend that had deceived me and I think that’s what had bothered other people too, the deceit. It’s unbelievable. During the first time that I had watched it, the video was very disconcerting and I was very disoriented as you will be when you watch it for the first time. But just give it a chance. I can’t stop watching it now. In conclusion, this video has an inaccurate and immense effect on me. I know that if I continue to make more artwork and grow, something about this honesty has to be in the lines of the work I make, this honesty that affects me or you shitloads, this ‘Lotus Flower’ that is becoming a politic in my life. Emotions, sensations, Thom Yorke’s performance piece… That sort of sensibility for these intangibles is what makes me love this place. They make me never want to leave this place. I’m dreading 2012. I don’t know if it will happen or not, but the very thought scares me. I hope that shit never happens. I want to leave willingly. But that’s another story.

Oh and here's the video just in case some of you would like to see it ...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cfOa1a8hYP8

My blog is a part of my Visual Communication class... and this course is about raising students’ awareness of the image evolution in the modern era, the aesthetics and production aspects of visual communication. The objective is to help students develop adeptness in reading and interpreting images. We will explore some of the psychology behind what we see, and ethical and cultural issues associated with visual
communication. We will study the major concepts of modern art, from Impressionism to
Contemporary Art, crucial for the development of the 20th century image society. We will also examine technical and stylistic aspects of the media through which we experience the world.

We will be looking at ways of understanding visual images in a variety of contexts
including print, motion pictures, still photography, graphic design, television and video,
computers and the internet. Some of the questions we will explore include: How and why
do we see? What stylistic conventions do different media adopt to influence our attitude?
What role do images have in intercultural and cross-cultural communication? What is the
relationship between the image and the reality it seeks to represent? How are persuasive
images produced? Who controls the images we see today? What is the relationship between
image and technology? And finally, we will discuss the cultural implications of visual
communication and the contribution of images to the promotion of a culture. (Professor S. Kocergine)

 Understanding Visual Communication

1) The power of images
 visuals often carry a powerful meaning
 visual symbolization: colors, shapes, and design elements have them; symbolic, connotative meaning can evolve and mean different things in different cultures


2) Visual Evolution in Business Communication
 Becoming more visual due to advances in technology and changing audience expectation
 visual literacy: ability to create and interpret individuals


3) Visual Design Principles
 All aspects of a visual design must set audience expectations
 Fundamental Principles: consistency, contrast, balance, emphasis, convention, and simplicity


4) Ethics of Visual Communication
 Power of visuals= responsibility to communicate ethically
 Ethical guidelines
 Consider all interpretations and misinterpretations


5) Provide context
Don’t hide negative information that runs counter to your argument
Don’t exaggerate what supports argument
Don’t oversimplify complex situations
Don’t imply cause/ effect relationships without proof


6) Avoid emotional manipulation
Careful the way you aggregate data