BFA - Visual Communication Design, Thesis Project
Read Between The Lines
A project on the historical narrative and its counter narrative.
All that has been altered in your memory.
A person’s history defines what he or she is in the present.
Their past experiences impact present behavior and predicts their future. In the same way a country’s history defines a nation.
But how does one remember or forget, how does one know what a book tells is correct, or what the media shows is absolute? What do you remember of your history and can you be sure what you remember is not manipulated?
Their past experiences impact present behavior and predicts their future. In the same way a country’s history defines a nation.
But how does one remember or forget, how does one know what a book tells is correct, or what the media shows is absolute? What do you remember of your history and can you be sure what you remember is not manipulated?
Not knowing the actual cause of coming into being, not knowing if it was sad, bloody or happy might lead to a misguided notion of self.
Remembering is not the matter of problem; it is how we are made to remember and what is made imperative to remember.
In Pakistani context, our institutions have given us a one-dimensional version of a historical narrative and have discouraged counter narratives.
What if you were told that you were actually meant to be of a different culture or conviction than what you practice or live in now, would you easily believe? Would you change a belief and disregard all that you remember? What if you were told that the ideology you hold so dear and would die for has been manipulated?
Pakistan’s history has many important narratives and consequently some promoted versions of them. My project attempts to examine one very important instance of the manipulated past and its effects on our present by juxtaposing two versions of an important narrative in our cultural lives.
In Pakistani context, our institutions have given us a one-dimensional version of a historical narrative and have discouraged counter narratives.
What if you were told that you were actually meant to be of a different culture or conviction than what you practice or live in now, would you easily believe? Would you change a belief and disregard all that you remember? What if you were told that the ideology you hold so dear and would die for has been manipulated?
Pakistan’s history has many important narratives and consequently some promoted versions of them. My project attempts to examine one very important instance of the manipulated past and its effects on our present by juxtaposing two versions of an important narrative in our cultural lives.
I took forward Quaid-E-Azam and his 11th August Speech as a counter narrative to the present narrative which we live in. How we have changed and manipulated what has been told to us and have made it out present narrative.
An experiential Walk through
The viewer experiences the above in the first half of the walk through, where in the spot light he/she reads the created narrative which sadly has become the real one.
A book is where the Institutions begin engraving the narrative they want us to believe.
The layers of Quaid depict how WE the majority have painted the Quaid we want to believe in, starting from the smallest layer which is a photograph of the young Jinnah in his true form as per history tells and ending with the Jinnah which the majority has painted as to fit with their belief.
Ending with a poem which questions what we have done to our historical narrative and what will we be leaving behind .
What has been Hidden
As the viewer would switch off the spot light the UV ( black lgiht) would turn on, illuminating the text ( counter narratie) which was not visible in the spot light. So literally Read between the lines.
Give aways in the form of cubes where on all sides you see the same outline of Quaid, but when in black light you see the different versions we have created or would like to create
My project not only highlights how we blindly accept the narrative which is told to us, it brings into emphasis through the narrative and counter narrative how we have done everything against to what Quaid-E-Azam wanted.
In Quaids speech he talks about equality and justice for all citizens of the state whereas we treat the minorities with utter disrespect only the majority lives in peace in Pakistan?
The white color in our flag represents the minority, we have but surely forgotten that and will continue on the path of the blind. Is this the narrative we want to leave behind us?
