Wednesday, December 3, 2008
Nation on the Move
In Minoo Moallem's Nation on the Move, Persian Carpets function as both literal objects of textual analysis and also metaphors for how objects of transnational exchange are produced, marketed and consumed. Along the way, they accrue a multiplicity of meanings and provide glimpes into complex citcuits of labor, ideology and imagination. The interface for the project is simple making for a playful metaphor for the weaving process its self as users are invited to make connections between nodes of information, artifacts and analysis is dense with allusion. Among the most powerful elements of this far fetched exploration are the author's own research materials, which remind us of labor and lived experiences of the woman who actually make the carpets. Their stories and experiences are rendered through images, conversations and testimonies that ground the analysis of broader circuits of distrabution and consumption.
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1 comment:
Pithy, to the point. (Maybe more of a prayer rug than a carpet?) This has an impact as a review, but, again, I'd like to hear more of you, from you.
It sounds as though the more conventionally documentary work was more effective, engaged you more than the interface. Was it too simple? What were its limits, or what, if anything, did it reveal. Also, maybe it is an imprecise word choice but how is the exploration "far fetched"? Is that a pun? What do you think of this mode of presentation as opposed to a more conventional article or documentary film?
Again, this is effective, but I was hoping to hear more from you, especially as I was missing a report on the an article the last go round.
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