Tasmeem Doha 2013, a biennial international design conference organised by Virginia Commonwealth University in Qatar (VCUQ) in partnership with the Qatar Foundation and Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art, gets under way today.
The conference with the theme “hybrid making” will take place at three separate locations: VCUQ, Mathaf and the Hamad Bin Khalifa University Student Center. The conference, which is open to the public, runs until March 17.
The conference will explore the role played by art and design in the transformation of Qatar and how the country has become a pre-eminent centre for arts, a popular tourism destination and home to 18mn people in a very short time. The conference will explore hybridity within the acts of making, building and sustaining a contemporary society, engaging with art, design and other interventions that have been conceived, designed or fabricated in Qatar.
Mathaf will host the 13 designer-led student laboratories during the conference. The Tasmeem hybrid making laboratories are full-scale explorations done through the very act of making. During the first five days, groups made up of 20 to 25 students and faculty, led by invited international designers and artists, will design and create full-scale semi-permanent structures, performances or other interventions. The outcomes of the labs will remain on view at Mathaf until March 31. Visitors can walk through the laboratories during the production phase or view the outcomes throughout March.
The Tasmeem hybrid-making workshops which take place at VCUQ are interdisciplinary and collaborative workshops. These are designed to produce viable end products by the conclusion of the workshop. Over five days, groups of 15 team members comprising faculty and professional artists and designers, will collaborate to create innovative end products. These products, or makings may be in the form of academic papers, videos, full scale semi-permanent structures, performances or any other form determined by the workshop teams.
All of these activities will be summarised and framed by the two-day symposium at the Hamad Bin Khalifa University’s Student Center on the last two days of the conference. The conference will include a series of exhibitions and presentations by artists, designers and architects who have realised their projects in the country, or have led workshops and labs during the active phase of the conference. The exhibitions will run until March 31.

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