Wondering and Witnessing: Artistic Methods as Phenomenological Spatial Tactics

Abstract

This essay serves as an experimental space in dialogue with my artistic practise, with the intention of creating witnessing and wondering reading experiences for both Arabic and English readers. Where Arabic is tactically included as a disruptive gesture within the English text and functions as a spatializing mechanism. I integrate the Arabic text within the English text by a methodology of sewing. Sewing the text means that the Arabic does not function as a direct translation of what is written in English, nor does it complete or further the English text. It is a self-contained fabric that patches the body of this essay. This sewing methodology may produce a power dynamic between the English text, representing the dominant academic and theoretical form of knowledge, and the Arabic fabric, which adopts a subjective approach to knowledge production. However, I perceive the Arabic fabric as an extension of my body; it is a fragment of myself spreading over the space, reclaiming my subjectivity, embodying my anger and exploring it as a disruptive gesture. This fabric is meant to not only create a witnessing and wondering experience for both the institution and the reader but also challenges academic theoretical knowledge by enacting a form of knowledge rooted in lived experience. It transforms the essay space by activating it differently; the text will be influenced by the different linguistic politics of Arabic and English which change the organisation of the essay space due to variations in punctuation and alignments for each text—Arabic writing and reading proceeds from right to left, while English follows a left-to-right direction.