Alsajanjal – Textures of Words

Language is defined as meaningful symbols and signals that follow a certain frame which is used to express a person’s ideas and perceptions. Language is used as a way to communicate words, ideas and thoughts; texts, speeches, gestures and voices are all types of language.

Human Being’s adopted spoken language (spoken, audio) as a way of communication and expression, words were composed of audio units, not characters, and these units transfer the ideas and commands in the form of sound. Spoken words have a strong effect as it was accompanied by the emergence of human appearance on Earth in primitive times as the basis for communication between members of the group. And due to the spoken language stories, novels and myths have been passed on through generations and have also facilitated communication between human beings which in turn has evolved into a specific culture for each group, which has been inherited as a result of life and social networking through the spoken language.

The written script is a language based on words and its usage in a particular context that explains certain ideas and thoughts. Writings need not be limited to certain incoherent words they could be used together to form sentences, paragraphs or even letters which lets people express the thoughts inside them. And in some cases, the words alone can’t deliver a meaning or a certain emotion and cannot paint the desired picture unless you listen to these words in the framework it was developed in, and for example the Lullaby, a child cannot accept the idea of reading the words of a lullaby that is repeated in succession manner without listening to them in their tone or framework.

So, written and spoken language mix together to become the most important channels for exchange of ideas between human beings. Therefore, the meaning of written script cannot be understood at times, unless if reading it interprets the same meaning as hearing it in the same frame requested.

Noor Al Bastaki

Alsajanjal

Alsajanjal
By Anas Al-Shaikh

The word “alsajanjal” means mirror. It is said to be of Latin origin and has been Arabized. This word was mentioned in pre-Islamic poetry, specifically in the “Mu’allaqat” of Imru’ al-Qays, among others [1].

The focus of the exhibition is on the concept of “language” as a system of conventional symbols by means of which human beings, as members of a social group and participants in its culture communicate.

Through language examination, we try to find out if the language is really considered “as a great mirror of the human mind” as German Philosopher Gottfried Leibniz said, or on the contrary, it is completely independent, and as humans, we are constructed through language and are unable to think outside its sphere, thus all “facts” we believe in are relative and may be illusive and are only created by language, or as Jacques Derrida said: “There is nothing outside the text”.

Derrida’s expression leads us to ask the following: was it possible to invent the concept of art and artist and find art theories and movements away from language? Or did language make the eye able to see, perceive and construct its own visual culture? Are we, after all, a simple mirror of the language and subjected to it? Are we mere tools used by language to express itself?

The exhibition also examines the impact on the Arabic language of economic and cultural globalisation, technology and communication revolution in addition to all forms of means of publication and information as well as various consumption patterns and “material” modernisation in our societies.

It examines to what extent all these factors have weakened the Arabic language and estranged the human being from his or her Arab identity, particularly in Gulf countries where citizens have become minority groups in their countries.

For political, economic, ideological and cultural purposes, these minorities have to be “subjected” and accept a new demographic fabric to suit a project aiming to turn the Gulf into a cosmopolitan region with diverse cultures, identities, languages and nationalities, where Arabic language and Arab culture are secondary and marginalized. This has created a feeling of confusion and discomfort within peoples of the region, who do not know if they have to opt for confrontation to defend their identity (language, culture, history and faith) with legal and illegal means, or accept to completely adapt and yield to these changes, or try and find a “difficult and complex” form of agreement that will inevitably cause the individual to fall into contradictions.