So this morning the Lebanese were exploding with happiness and love. 3 of them went to heaven. Tomorrow is Valentine’s day. It’s been 2 years now. What a cruel cruel thing, to transform the day of love to a day of mourning and sadness. Love turns into the promise of death and the veil comes down and leaves no hope for the future. It is not just the loss of one individual that is sad, but the loss of hope for everyone.

A long time ago they said: Make love, not war!

Is it possible to get rid of this hatred, and to love one another again? Is it possible to forgive and to move forward? To reconcile our differences and try to build a future together rather than apart?

And if we all agree to this, how can we do it? This blog is about Arabic typography. This blog talks about Arabic fonts and typeface design. How is this related to the conflict? Can there be a relation between love and war and type?

Edward Said spoke at my graduation ceremony at AUB in 2000. He said this:

“I think we are in that quite complicated situation today and so I want to speak to you about how as recent graduates of the American University of Beirut you have a special role to play in what I would like to call not the clash of civilizations but rather the dialogue of civilizations, that is, a peaceful but critical dialogue between equals, rather than a belligerent screaming match between the more powerful and the less powerful.

…

It is the role of understanding that first enables us to ask questions like who am I? And what is my relationship to my background and tradition, and what is my relationship to others? These are questions not only to be asked by philosophers or political scientists but are the responsibility of every citizen, no matter what profession or expertise he or she possesses. In other words, you can’t hide inside your profession and say, I’m a doctor or an engineer, and all I want to do is get on with my work. In this part of the world we have suffered too much from the attitude that simply leaves politics and society to the politicians whereas educated professionals either pursue a career or make money, leaving the main decisions to people who have governed us for too long, undemocratically, despotically, and with a great deal of contempt and cruelty.”
(Full text here: http://www.aub.edu.lb/activities/public/2002/graduation/ed-said.html)

So wise and so true. If we all try to build bridges, establish connections, find meeting points, then maybe…

Arabic typography is not just about the aesthetics of the Arabic script and its realization onto paper or screen. Arabic typography is all about the commincation that is not happening, the books that have not been written, and the papers that are not being read. It’s about the reality of nations that are sinking into a quagmire, torn into pieces, and a region that is set to explode during our watch.

Last year in the Franfurt bookfair, there was this presentation about “what Arabs read” that I had attended. The result was that they are not reading much. Is this the fault of the script? Not for sure, we need to test. Does the script play a role in making the language inaccessible to some? Same thing. Does the quality of the poorly designed fonts affect the display of information. I’m betting on yes.

So how can we promote this dialogue of civilizations? A bridge is very tough to build, but if each of us lay one brick, in the right place, and with the right direction, then maybe we can get somewhere. I’ll try one now:

EXPLOSIONS fortell of WAR.

WAR is fueled by HATRED.

HATRED is the lack of LOVE.

LOVE is about open COMMUNICATION.

COMMUNICATION needs DIALOGUE.

DIALOGUE needs LANGUAGE.

LANGUAGE when written needs the SCRIPT.

SCRIPT in media is TYPOGRAPHY.

TYPOGRAPHY to exist needs TYPE.

TYPE in this case is ARABIC.

ARABIC TYPE, finally, is my blog!
Leaving the explosions behind and going all the way to Type. I think I like this road better.

Posted by nadine on Wednesday, February 14th, 2007 at 12:16 am.