Notes of a dirty not-too-old man

by Yousef Khatib

Here I am, once again, ditching a pile of unfinished projects, texts, drawings and models and creating a new file and folder to overwhelm my morning with a random concept. Let’s hope I finish this one. Notes of a Dirty Not-Too-Man as opposed to Bukowski ‘s notes, is a series encountering episodes; from reality to the virtual, to reality again -I like to define old as non-compatible and non-symphonic to the norms of the majority- a series of prints engineered from textual and pictorial memories produced in and collected from Palestine, Jordan, England, America and Greece that explore rancour, obsession, extremism, attachment, and love on the other hand.

“A compass on a body; engraved and drawn on an arm, is similar to a compass in a captain’s hand upon a ship. Noah hadn’t have a compass. Yet his way had found him. Compass is a representation of Earth: where yet the way to be found and explored. Language, on the other hand, is a representation of inner sounds yet to be spoken and expressed. “ (Yousef Khatib 2014:7)

The body of the book is structured as an unfolding set of essays; a dispersed series of different textual and pictorial sections that critically and theoretically reflect upon and address the displacement of oneself. The book does not follow any numerical system since there is no hierarchy in its structure; alternatively, the essays are colour-coded, and can be read in any sequence whatsoever- and in different combinations.

“The family tree of the Greek deity suggests that Chaos is the ancestor of all the gods and goddesses who mythically brought Order to earth. This metaphysical phenomenon of chaos as the origin of order is somehow physical! Theoretically and historically yet conditionally and exceptionally, revolutions, demonstrations, intifadas, and other socio-political resistance forms have been the mothers of democracy(s), justice and welfare around the globe. In both conditions of chaos and order, architecture and urbanism have claimed their share both in shaping and reflecting the very nature of societies, not only as tools of a political hierarchy but also as autonomous agents… Exarchia is very similar to my hometown Ramallah, Palestine. Both are Mediterranean territories, thus both have analogous climate, colours, scents, sounds, flora, landscape and geography… The two cityscapes, for me, have become entwined, in a similar way to that explored in Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino.” (Yousef Khatib 2013)

This book dissects and delves into the Salvaging/Scavenging process of self. The critical argument put forward attempt to rethink several phenomena and redefine complex conditions within the contemporary life through deconstructing the meaning of space on different scales; from the scale of furniture pieces and houses to the scale of urban networks and cities. This project-as-thesis activates the transformative possibilities of art’s full complexity through placing the activities of salvaging and scavenging within the design research and discourse. Various and intertwined spatial phenomena are unfolded throughout the colour-coded essays so as to reveal design research concepts and characteristics.

(Yousef Khatib is a Design Architect, author and graduate of Birzeit University in Palestine. He can be reached at [email protected])

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