Research

During 2019 faculty in the College of Arts and Creative were actively engaged in the dissemination of both research and creative practice through publications, participation in a wide variety of conferences and group and solo exhibitions.

Publications by CACE faculty included the article “Emirati Memories: Documenting Architectural Modern Heritage in the United Arab Emirates,” co-authored by Marco Sosa and Lina Ahmad and published in the ANANKE 86 Journal; Lina was also a co-author of the article “Negotiated matter: a robotic exploration of craft-driven innovation” in Architectural Science Review. Sabrina DeTurk published the monograph Street Art in the Middle East with I.B. Tauris.

CACE was well-represented at two major art and design events in spring 2019, with Patrick Lichty and Elisabeth Stoney presenting papers at the College Art Association Annual Conference in New York and Isaac Sullivan and Janet Bellotto exhibiting work during the Venice Biennale. A group show of CACE faculty and student work, “Emerge III: Converging Lines” was also organized in Venice to coincide with the opening of the Biennale. CACE was honored to have HE Noura Al Kaabi visit the exhibition to meet with several of the students whose work was featured.

In 2019, CACE faculty also had an active presence at important regional events, including SIKKA Art Fair, Dubai Design Week and Abu Dhabi Art. Lina Ahmad, David Howarth, Patrick Lichty, Karim Musfy, Omid Rouhani, Tina Sleiman and Marco Sosa were among those who presented talks and workshops while Matthew Conboy showed work at SIKKA and Sabrina DeTurk curated an exhibition of CACE student work at the same event.

Several faculty members presented their research at international conferences during the year. In the UK, Sabrina DeTurk gave a paper at the Museums in Arabia Conference (London) and Marco Sosa presented his research at the Gulf Research Meeting (Cambridge) at a workshop co-organized by Sultan Sooud Al Qassemi, founder of the Sharjah-based Barjeel Foundation. In keeping with CACE’s interest in and support of the scholarship of teaching and learning, two faculty presented papers at art and design education conferences: Lina Ahmad at the Education, Design and Practice Conference in New York and Stefan Messam at the Motion Design Education Summit in New Zealand.

Our visual arts faculty were also active in international exhibitions during this period, in addition to the exhibits in Venice mentioned above. Ioannis Papavasileiou showed his work in Athens at the Barrett Walls exhibition space, at Spazio Art T24 in Rome and at the Pingyao International Photography Festival in China. Naz Shahrokh participated in an exhibition in New York at the Painting Center and locally, Naz’s work was also featured in the XVA gallery during the SIKKA art fair. Janet Bellotto had gallery shows in Venice and Toronto while Isaac Sullivan’s performances and installations were seen in venues ranging from Dubai to Russia.

CACE research clusters and centers in areas ranging from digital fabrication to art, architecture and cultural heritage also support a wide range of interdisciplinary projects by faculty in CACE, other ZU Colleges and outside institutions. The research and creative culture in CACE is a vibrant one, embracing a diversity of approaches and outcomes and continues to expand as the College develops.