The Cultural Context and Its Influence on the Design Output of the Middle East - Research Paper Example

Introduction The line between the culture of a people and its direct influence on the marketing strategies used by companies that produce goods for it is thin. This research is a detailed investigation of how the culture of Middle Eastern society influences visual communication in the Arab world. Its central premise is to critically analyze whether the cultural implications are weighty. The design process can be defined as a method of thinking creatively and strategically, with input from research, to develop solutions to problems. Aspects of human behaviour and culture influence our design decisions. This philosophy can be applied across different creative fields and cultures, transcending the background of designers and encouraging them to think globally. Cultural aspects should only act as a guideline for further research in order to test their validity. In order to proceed with this investigation we have to understand what we mean by cultural behaviour, and how it can influence the design process. How is it viewed by the rest of the world? How can exposure to Middle Eastern design change that? In a nutshell, this paper aims to discover whether Middle Eastern culture and mainstream religious views affects visual communication in the region, to what extent and how. To do this, it is important that we review the sources of cultural art in the society, how it has evolved and the way it influences the designers and the world at large. Cultural background of the Middle East The following is a preliminary study of the Middle East region from a historical, political, economic and cultural perspective in order to provide a background for the discussion of cultural context and its influence on the design output of the Middle East. The Middle East can be defined as a region comprising of countries and states across North-east Africa and western Asia. It can be divided into a number of different areas and incorporate a wide variety of cultural influence. A discussion of the distinct regions and their relative cultures is beyond the scope of this study. Therefore, the focus of this paper will be the ‘Gulf Region’ of the Middle East, in particular Saudi Arabia. Its cultural influence on the wider Middle East is significant, owning to its size, population, economic power and religious importance, as the birthplace of Islam. The Middle East is the cradle of civilisation, and if one disregards its ancient history or detaches it from its modern times, the context somewhat remains obscure. It has a rich heritage which most have strived to embrace and reflect in their designs. This is due to factors such as culture, politics, geography, economics, and history that have continued to influence the religion. The notion that the cultural activity of the region’s people dates back to the earliest civilisations establishes the moral duty of a designer to carry on the ‘wealth of culture’ to the rest of the world (Meggs 1983). The early society developed many crafts during successive civilisations. It is these crafts that, centuries later, have been modernised and professionalized by designers to suit local acceptability and international consumption. (Meggs 1983). Pattern Design Islam, as a religion or culture has controlled the entire Middle East region since the 17th Century. Its distinctive visual language has continuously influenced Middle Eastern design through its architectural forms, Islamic geometric patterns and Arabic calligraphy, a natural result of the religion's belief in Aniconism. Geometric shapes and pattern design are important aspects of Islamic decoration. The use of geometric shapes and pattern design by artists and designers from the Middle Eastern has grown greatly. Modern decorations of surfaces, whether walls or floors, pots or lamps, book cover or textiles the world over have an influence of the Islamic culture. Carpets and wall hangings, pictures and murals and even utensils produced in the gulf have traces of these patterns (Darius 2006). Geometric designs are popular with many abstract designers. As Islam spread from one region to another Islamic artists combined their passion for geometry with their existing traditions, by creating new and unique Islamic art (see figure N). This art expressed the logic and order inherent in the Islamic vision of the universe. The development of this new art, may have been due to the discouragement of images in Islam on basis that it could lead to aniconism the proscription in Islam against the creation of images of sentient living beings. The most absolute proscription of image is of Allah, then depictions of Muhammed (PBUH), followed by the other Islamic prophets. The Islamic negation of anthropomorphic art is both absolute and conditional. It is absolute with regards to all images that could be worshiped, and it is conditional with regards to forms of depiction of the living bodies. It is discouraged in the Hadith, which are the sayings of prophet Muhammed. However, this Hadith can be interpreted in different ways. In general it has been understood as condemning those with purely blasphemous intentions, and therefore Islam can be seen to tolerate anthropomorphic art forms on the condition that they do not create the illusion of living being (Allen 1988). According to Lapidus (1988), basing the work of designers and artists so much on the culture of religion has limited their creativity and as a result, their output suffers from visual monotony. This has reduced international consumption especially in the West where Islam and its culture is not widely popular. It is the sole influence of Islam that has limited these designers as they shun other forms that are viewed as vulgar and a promotion of social immorality. Arabic Calligraphy Arabic calligraphy, also known as Islamic calligraphy is the artistic practice handwriting in the countries sharing a common Islamic cultural heritage and the Arabic language. The practice is a traditional art form based on Arabic language script, which was used by all Muslims in their respective languages. In the earliest days of Islam writing was unstructured and the proportions of the letterforms were not formally defined. Due to the strength of oral traditions in poetry and literature, written texts were not widespread until the beginning of Islam (17th century AD). In the early stages of development calligraphers each had their own style, and written Arabic came to rely in its visual appearance to convey the meaning before the words were read, the shape of the script held as much meaning as content. Muslims view calligraphy as a religious and sacred art form. This is due to the revelation that calligraphy is holy, sacred and religious in the holy words of the Quran to Prophet Mohammed in the 7th Century by Gabriel. As Islam spread, clarity in the script became increasingly important; however, beauty and artistic elements were still a fundamental part of the art form. In the 10th century the calligrapher Abu Ali Ibn Muqlaq combined and systemised the scripts using his knowledge of geometry. He produced a comprehensive system of rules for writing calligraphy, using standardised proportions. Arabic calligraphy developed at the peak of the Arab cultural activity and, until now was considered the highest achievement of the Islamic applied arts. This sequence of evolution in the expression of language has been labelled as an important cultural milestone. It has been identified with the growth of culture and is therefore a significant part of the region’s heritage. With its status as the highest form of visual expression in the Arab world, calligraphy is still widely used today. However; young Arab designers have begun to develop a more modern approach to traditional calligraphic practice. Their cultural background becomes the basis for creating contemporary compositions and dynamic artwork. During recent years calligraphy has also gained recognition across the globe, inspiring artists across many creative fields. The use of calligraphy now goes beyond Middle Eastern designers to be embraced as far afield as Asia and Africa. It has been used widely from abstract patterns to body art by different cultures. This on its part has seen the development of Arabic calligraphy designs due to their appeal and aesthetics. For example, decorations in African cultures such as the Maasai culture’s red ochre. Arabic calligraphy and pattern are closely related, as can be seen in the work of Safi Jamal-alail. Jamal-alail is a photographer, designer, and architect whose work has inspired many young Arab designers. In one particular piece takes each of the 29 Arabic letterforms, and transformed them into Islamic shapes commonly used in Islamic patterns such as hexagons and octagons. Simplicity and excellence are integral to Islamic pattern design and these shapes feature repeatedly because of its basis in mathematics and symmetry. Figure 0 illustrates one of his most famous works, in which he transforms the Arabic letter “m” into an octagonal shape, and combines it with an internal Islamic pattern. It is likely that Middle Eastern designers’ works will continue to be inspired by and to use elements of Islamic patterns and calligraphy far into the future. However, it is equally important that young artists continue to explore other influences and find new ways of combining traditional practises with modern concepts (Lee 1987). The Influence of Colour One aspect of visual language that can have significant effect on both a design and its audience is colour. Colour psychology suggests that the use of colour is the greatest influences on the choices made by consumers. According to Terry (1988), colours have different connotations in different cultures the world over. For example, colours may have a variety of associations within North American culture alone, while the same colour can mean something different in Japan or the Middle East, where colour meanings are frequently much more specific and defined. It is important to understand how colour associations vary from culture to culture, and within different possible audiences, when developing colour palettes for a design scheme. For example, red evokes feelings of danger and caution and some also consider it the colour of evil due to its Christian associations with the devil. The colour orange is associated with mourning and loss, however, in Egypt, yellow is most closely associated with mourning hereas- it is more widely connected to happiness and prosperity in other countries in the Middle East. The associations with yellow in the Middle East are closely related to those of Western cultures (Iram 1995). For the majority of the Middle East the most important colour in terms of culture is the colour green, this is because green colour represents strength, fertility, luck and wealth. Wealth is also synonymous with the colour purple. While in Egypt, the definition of purple also extends to include virtue. Brown however, carries associations of earth and comfort; while Black has somewhat contrasting but symbiotic meanings – representing rebirth and mourning, evil and mystery. Both purity and mourning are associated with the colour white as well. In Iran for example, that definition expands to include holiness and peace, and in Egypt wearing white is a symbol of a person’s high-ranking status. Different theories view the use of colours different. However, the human mind regardless of the cultural background is relatively similar (Kramer 1993). The feelings that a colour evokes in one person should be closely related to the other. The effects that colours have on an individual are more defined by sex and age than culture. For example, it is easier to relate light colours to the fair gender and youth than men and the aged. Women are more receptive of colours like pink, red and yellow as men prefer darker colours like shades of grey, brown and black. This is depicted by the choice of different marketers in production of similar brands of different colours. For example, mobile phone makers use pink, light green and white to market their products to ladies. Men will naturally prefer black and silver. Shirt designers could use green and pink for youths and black and brown for older men for the same shirt design. According to Lee (1987), this argument is far more agreeable than that that colours and their preference and reception are culturally defined (Zoghbi et al. 2011). The Middle East Today Today, the Middle East is caught between many worlds and beliefs, facing increasing tensions between tradition and modernity, religiosity and secularism, exhibitionism and veiling, among other issues, as it struggles to maintain it's identity in a rapidly changing world. Each of these aspects play a major role in informing the nature of Middle Eastern culture. In the modern era of globalisation and the increasing presence of multi-national corporations there are extreme disparities in wealth between different social classes. While the rich enjoy the luxuries of internationally catered brands, those who can’t afford their lifestyle suffer the consequences of extreme poverty, creating the social tensions that contributed to the uprisings in a number of Arab states in 2011 (Gharem 2012). In the Gulf region, some scholars believe that emerging cities are currently undergoing a massive transformation comparable to that of the twentieth century while under foreign occupation. However, this time the changes are fuelled by global capital and neoliberal economic policies. On an external level, this change has taken an urban form; the main players are real estate conglomerates and this phenomenon is best observed in Dubai, home to the tallest building in the world. In the case of the Gulf in particular, these major cities are also viewed as recipients of modernity and globalisation as well as focal points for an Arabic-Islamic identity. Through their mega-projects, they are to a degree, setting them apart from the wider Middle Eastern context, deliberately constructing a separate and independent identity for them (Jurji 1956). However, one of the main concerns with this approach is that officials in the Gulf are turning towards western architects and planners to plan, design and shape this new identity. The ‘new Middle East’ is based on Western conceptions of what the cities should look like. Arabs have disappeared from contributing to the design of their daily environment. Aspect of the problem is the absence of academics and scholars from any discussion pertaining to design theory. Archaic institutional rules, which among other things, actively discourage scholars from writing books, as well as the lack of any significant research library has led to the absence of the Middle eastern city from a global discourse (Elsheshtawy 2008). Middle Eastern scholars argue that those who want to gain a better understanding about the real structure of the Arab community must examine issues ranging from the widespread influence of religion on society. One can attain better understanding of Arab cultural structure by focusing on their lack of security, Arab nationalism, the influence of religion, male-dominated social and political hierarchy, political repression, social and psychological alienation, as well as many other barriers. Like every other culture in the world, Arab culture has no choice but to integrate with the globalised world. However this process seems likely to cause conflict, rather than accord, because the cultural values that have shaped the process of globalisation seem largely paradoxical, even contradictory, to prevalent values in Arab culture (Boutros 2006). The West see the issues caused by globalisation as the refusal of the Arabs to accept modernity, the Arabs see it as the destruction of their traditional and cultural values and the westernisation of their peoples, while the Arab youth see it as an attractive escape. Reading on the subject, it seems there are many opposing views between Western and Middle Eastern perspectives. While some viewed globalisation as a threat to cultural identity, others have developed ways of taking advantage of it. Although some have found it crucial to hold on to their identity, others have seen the benefits of ‘mixing in’. This idea is prevalent among the young people of Arab societies, who believe that mixing both cultures seems a favourable solution (Al Ahmad 2007). However this approach has proved to be somewhat difficult to implement in many cases. According to Al-Issa and Dahan (2011), the Middle Eastern city is a living chaotic structure that is constantly transforming and physically defining culture’s chaotic nature. The relationship that urban space and its inhabitants share in traditional Middle Eastern culture is like a cycle. Each part plays a role in shaping the meaning to the other. The irregularities in the geometry of such city, would seem to the foreign eye (designers and people) as unorganised pattern, however, once one experiences and understand the symbioses between the social dimension and the physical space, the underlying meaning and order of the chaotic structure start to appear. Moreover, the globalisation and cultural identity is a common discourse in the region of the Middle East, and has been a critical issue. There is a common western scepticism about the Arabs and globalisation, stating that integration seems to entail conflict among Arabs, because of the cultural values that are being held by the globalisation process seem hugely paradox, to prevalent the values in the Middle Eastern culture. (Ayssar 2002). In summary, the Middle Eastern culture has a great influence on the designs that its designers produce based on the wide and rich heritage of the people. The line between the culture of a people and its direct influence on the marketing strategies used by companies that produce goods for it is thin. Cultural aspects should only act as a guideline for further research in order to test their validity. It is impossible, and actually wrong for the designers whether contemporary or not to overlook the cultural background. Arts of the Middle East must carry traces of the region’s culture as trademarks of their origin. However, designers need not burden their products with cultural elements; they need to think outside the box while keeping their heads inside the box. This is to mean that they should design local products with a global outlook. Contemporary designers could be limited by culture and religion but that should be an incentive for them to work even harder and to stretch their creativity. Aspects of human behaviour and culture influence our design decisions. This philosophy can be applied across different creative fields and cultures, transcending the background of designers and encouraging them to think globally. This paper has detailed an investigation of how the culture of Middle Eastern society influences visual communication in the Arab world. It has majorly analyzed critically whether the cultural implications are substantial. Bibliography Al-Issa, A, and L, S. Dahan. (2011) Global English and Arabic: Issues of Language, Culture and Identity. Oxford: P. 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