Curators/Designers and the Images
that Motivate Our Imaginations
November 10, 2018

Uzma Z. Rizvi brings together the three Artistic Directors, Prem Krishnamurthy, Emily Smith, and Na Kim for a short conversation about their long game when it comes to design and their curatorial
premise for the Fikra Design Biennial.
She hosts a game with them in which they will respond to queries with images of their own.

Pedagogy and the Future of Design
November 10, 2018

Bringing together global educators, UAE-
based creative organizations and design incubators, this panel asks how we might envision the future of design. Can design have an impact on the world? What is the role of socially responsible design practice on the future of design? To answer, problematize, and contextualize
locally, regionally, and globally, a conversation takes place between Dr. Elizabeth Tunstall, Dean of Design (OCAD, Canada), Corrine Gisel & Nina Paim (Common
Interest, Switzerland), Mitch Sinclair, Creative Director (Palmwood, Dubai) and is moderated by Dr. Danah Abdulla (Brunel University, London).

De-Centering English
November 10, 2018

We would need to move to a space of gesture and performance if we would want to imagine a de-colonial, critical graphic design. We would have to allow expression to erupt into poetry and storytelling as
a way to contest normative forms of design. When different languages are
involved, world-making becomes plural.
For De-centering English, three designers
come together to make sense of how the visual might be interpreted without relying on the structures that uphold linguistics.What multiplicity of forms emerge from such conversations? How do we map this diversity of overlapping margins?

Optimism and Futurity
November 10, 2018

History and the future happen in the quiet moments in between, in the everyday. Moderated by Uzma Z. Rizvi, curators Alia Al-Sabi (Department of Graphic Optimism)
and Hala Al Ani (Department of Flying Saucers) talk about what it means to curate, imagine, and work within the archival impulses of nation building, and the speculative future of the now. This conversation is held in the public area: the conversation is public
and embedded in the everyday.

Karak Conversations at the Fikra Graphic
Design Biennial
November 10, 2018

As the day progresses and nears its culmination, karak is served in the Department of Mapping Margins, where Prem Krishnamurthy, Emily Smith, and Na Kim (Artistic Directors, Fikra Graphic Design Biennial)
and Salem Al-Qassimi  (Founder and Principal, Fikra) talk about the Biennale and hold an open plenary discussion with the audience.

Departments