Ayah Bdeir: The Electronic Fashionista
Ayah Bdeir uses her technological know-how and fashion sense to break down cultural barriers. She took time out of traveling to promote her new work ‘les annees lumieres’ to speak with Dia.
You studied Computer Communication Engineering at the American University of Beirut. How did you transition from that to art?
“I always knew I wanted to be an artist or designer. But in my school they made me feel like I owed it to myself to do engineering, because I was good at math and sciences. At AUB in CCE, I tried to approach the design department and take design classes on top of my curriculum, but they didn’t accept. They said I could not handle the load and their classes were just for design students. My obsession with mixing the arts and technology remained in my head until I found the MIT Media Lab, which felt like a mirage! I applied and went for grad school, and there decided to use technology as a medium for artistic expression.”
I was in the audience in NYC when you displayed your MIT senior project, the robotic veiled that turns in to a “deux pieces” belly dancing project, and were awed by the cleverness and the creativity of the project.
How did the seeds of it come about?
“Arabia was one of the first pieces I made in MIT. I had recently moved to the states and was always asked why I didn’t look like an Arab, or why I wasn’t veiled. I started researching images of Arab women in the US media and was shocked and entertained by how polarized they were: the voluptuous sensual belly dancer versus the subdued woman in a burka. That year, I was invited by Location One, a gallery in Soho, NY, to take part in week long open exhibition where fashion designers and costume artists were commissioned to produce pieces for a show, all the while themselves being on display at the gallery. I embraced my geekness and used the tools I knew—motors and electronics—and combined them with fashion.
The first time the piece was shown it got a lot of attention and press interest. The second time coincided with the violence over the prophet Mohamed cartoons and a journalist from the Boston Globe came up to me after the fashion show and said “I really would have loved to feature your piece but we are afraid of the backlash.”
You are an engineer and a designer. How does one skill set influence the other?
“I think the way engineers and designers are taught to think have a lot in common actually. Both want to solve problems, both are taught to prototype, iterate, experiment. I don’t feel that there are different phases or skill sets that clash in any way in my process. Of course every once in a while in the beginning of a project, the engineer in me foresees all the obstacles and problems down the line and gets discouraged, but I learnt to shut the little voice up and just go with the flow!”
What does the term electro-fashion mean to you?
“When I first heard about electro-fashion, or wearable electronics, I was at MIT and learnt about this new field that consisted of embedding and integrating electronics and computation into clothes. The field had emerged from the US army wanting to create “smart” outfits and avoid all heavy monitors, batteries, computers etc. A whole field emerged of smart fabrics: jackets with embedded sensors in them, shoes with lights, and the field has been increasingly booming. But in 2007, on one of my visits to Damascus, I remembered the little shops in Souk el Hamidiya that sold electronic lingerie. I remembered that electro-fashion isn’t so new after all, senior Syrian women outside of Damascus have been producing electronic fashion for years, hacking electronic toys and integrating them into underwear that lights up, that buzzes, flutters, that flies. That spurred my piece with Luma Shihabeldin called “Teta Haniya’s secrets”. The piece is a line of lingerie made by the fictitious Teta Haniyam, a Syrian grandmother that travels to the US to liberate American sexuality.”
Fascinating! Thanks very much for your time.
For more information visit www.ayahbdeir.com
Ahmad K. Minkara
Dia Magazine