Liminal Poetry
An exploration of Pouya Jahanshahi's liminal character: as a migrant from Iran who has lived in various locations and has those places on his mind at all times – and relate these to the "weather" phenomena as a common denominator amongst these places.
I collaborated on this project with Professor Pouya Jahanshahi, a Graphic Design Faculty and Graduate Program Director at Oklahoma State University. This project was completed as a part of an exhibition that took place at the Clayton Stapes Gallery at Wichita State University titled 'Liminal Poetry' in Mar. 27—Apr. 28, 2023. In this specific installation for the exhibition, Pouya wanted to explore his liminal character: as a migrant from Iran who has lived in various locations and has those places on his mind at all times – and relate these to the "weather" phenomena as a common denominator amongst these places. In Phase (I), I created a code-based graphical system using processing language, for real-time pattern generation using weather data of these locations, by accessing all three places' weather data. The theme envisioned discrete graphics of 'Temperature,' 'Wind,' and 'Humidity' of all three locations. Each location also had a dedicated collage of all three types of data being displayed at once, giving a focused picture of that location's weather. In Phase (II), I was tasked with reflecting the weather fluctuations to another level: that of Typography. Pouya shared unique typographic forms and structures as possible trajectories. These were to be applied to the city abbreviations as T H E (Tehran) T U L (Tulsa) L A (Los Angeles), focusing on the form and function of the glyphs. To accomplish this, I extended the application of weather data and composed a more nuanced influence of horizontal shifts of the shapes of the glyphs at hand (i.e., form) while maintaining their legibility (i.e., function). In conclusion, the visuals created convey more than just weather readings, but more as an artistic reflection of complex data, coming together to expose a narrative of a migrant sole who resides in a "liminal" space: while at any one instance, he may be in one location and experiencing the wind, and at another location moments later feeling the humidity. From a broader perspective, the geographical locations are only metaphors. The postulation here is that an individual will indulge and learn from every life experience and collectively carry a harmonious, concurrent portrayal of all places in a journey that changes at every instant. This project is the first of its kind, merging live stream weather data with symbolic representations of weather aspects, applied to the expression of migration narrative.
gandhar.vamburkar@gmail.com
