Professors Nikki Arnell and Kim Vickrey were together awarded a Middle East Studies Grant in 2014. Please see below excerpts from these proposals and the reason for this site and its blog.
BACKGROUND & PURPOSE
The role of the ASU Middle East Studies Committee (MESC) is to encourage an awareness and understanding of issues and people of the Middle East. Each year, the committee awards parts of its budget, the income from an endowment given to ASU by the Saudi government, to ASU students, faculty and staff for study and/or research in the Middle East. The Committee welcomes grant applicants from all disciplines and from all ASU-Jonesboro colleges.
QUALIFYING AND APPLYING
The committee seeks proposals identifying specific areas of academic interest and a detailed plan by which the applicant will conduct the study or research. In addition, student/staff proposals must include a description of how the study will benefit the applicant and faculty proposals must include a well-defined plan of how the faculty member will disseminate the research findings.
PROPOSAL ABSTRACT SUBMITTED TO COMMITTEE
"Our proposal aims to gain awareness and understanding of current visual communication issues displayed by a culture that co-exists in both Eastern and Western worlds...This information will also be shared with ASU students via a daily blog recording a dialog between the two professors, as well as a panel discussion upon return."
Our proposal aims to gain awareness and understanding of current visual communication issues displayed by a culture that co-exists in both Eastern and Western worlds. Istanbul, in particular, is a progressive, secular urban area thriving amongst the artifacts of its deep and varied history. This proposal for two graphic design professors in the city will consist of different, though complementary, tracks of studies with one common outcome.
Both lines of research will be held in conjunction with the 2nd Design Biennial, sponsored by the Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts in Istanbul, Turkey. The Biennial is a two-month event held throughout the city from October 18 through December 14. Through various exhibitions, workshops, seminars, and platforms (schedule to be announced in October 2014), the Biennial will provide a common foundation of study for both graphic design professors Nikki Arnell and Kim Vickrey.
Associate Professor Kim Vickrey will engage in visual design dialog with advertising/ design firms and academic institutions, as well as independent study in the historic and culturally rich museums located primarily in the Sultanahmet district of Istanbul. Invitations have been extended to The Turkish Society of Graphic Designers, The Istanbul Design Center, and Yesim Demir, Vice President of the International Council of Communication Design. The research will be shared as a visual design collection of text and imagery presented in a fine art book. Upon acceptance, the book will be exhibited and presented in juried activities focusing on global perspectives in visual communications.
Assistant Professor Nikki Arnell is interested in Turkey’s cultural blend of the modern Western aesthetic and its thousand-year-old Ottoman legacy. Many cultures throughout Europe and the Middle East have adapted and changed over time, yet Turkey made a conscious and abrupt decision to change in the early part of the last century. Now, less than a hundred years after this commitment to change was made, Arnell will investigate which aspects of commercial design identity have retained the earlier cultural influence and which are fully Western. She will focus on the intentional use of earlier scripts and design aesthetics in logo design and what informs that strategy. This research will be used in international design conferences and journal publication at both the regional and international levels.
This information will also be shared with ASU students via a daily blog recording a dialog between the two professors, as well as a panel discussion upon return. Both will also include images from Turkish culture, specific lines of research, and of the Design Biennial.
Both lines of research will be held in conjunction with the 2nd Design Biennial, sponsored by the Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts in Istanbul, Turkey. The Biennial is a two-month event held throughout the city from October 18 through December 14. Through various exhibitions, workshops, seminars, and platforms (schedule to be announced in October 2014), the Biennial will provide a common foundation of study for both graphic design professors Nikki Arnell and Kim Vickrey.
Associate Professor Kim Vickrey will engage in visual design dialog with advertising/ design firms and academic institutions, as well as independent study in the historic and culturally rich museums located primarily in the Sultanahmet district of Istanbul. Invitations have been extended to The Turkish Society of Graphic Designers, The Istanbul Design Center, and Yesim Demir, Vice President of the International Council of Communication Design. The research will be shared as a visual design collection of text and imagery presented in a fine art book. Upon acceptance, the book will be exhibited and presented in juried activities focusing on global perspectives in visual communications.
Assistant Professor Nikki Arnell is interested in Turkey’s cultural blend of the modern Western aesthetic and its thousand-year-old Ottoman legacy. Many cultures throughout Europe and the Middle East have adapted and changed over time, yet Turkey made a conscious and abrupt decision to change in the early part of the last century. Now, less than a hundred years after this commitment to change was made, Arnell will investigate which aspects of commercial design identity have retained the earlier cultural influence and which are fully Western. She will focus on the intentional use of earlier scripts and design aesthetics in logo design and what informs that strategy. This research will be used in international design conferences and journal publication at both the regional and international levels.
This information will also be shared with ASU students via a daily blog recording a dialog between the two professors, as well as a panel discussion upon return. Both will also include images from Turkish culture, specific lines of research, and of the Design Biennial.