Our title is inspired by the ongoing struggle of Gazans to represent the genocide with dignity, integrity, and purpose, under close surveillance and suppression. During this war the biggest challenge is that of the restrictions placed on the virtually connected global community. We have slowly realised that the inconspicuous “I agree” button we click upon daily; has severe repercussions. The innocuous-sounding “cookies” stored on our computers, have taken away our personal information, preferences, money, and sold it to third-party businesses that do not work in our best interests. This has not only affected our autonomy, job prospects, and opportunities during this War on Gaza, but has also taken away our right to choose our own ethics, values, and beliefs. It has repeatedly shown us the power of the few over the many.
Modern slavery will not look like humans chained to ships. It will be us, our children, and grandchildren clicking on dozens of “I agree” buttons every day, giving away their legal autonomy, their money, their personal information, their democratic voice, and their ethical choices; with algorithms deciding on the kind of information available to us, and artificial intelligence categorizing us according to foreign aligned standards. To equip ourselves for this information war we need to remind ourselves of the power of art, design, history, and law. This small piece of land and the scale of barbarism unleashed against it has been the most transparent display of disproportionate power, resources, and hatred. However, it has raised important issues in our current lives.
DRIVING QUESTIONS
How is design the most powerful tool in propaganda?
How do digital choices we make affect the narrative of “truth”?
How can we combat psychological warfare waged through the media?
SEMINAR SPEAKERS
Ramsey Hanhan is the Palestinian-American author of Fugitive Dreams: Chronicles of Occupation and Resistance, a literary memoir that illustrates, through personal stories, five decades of the Palestinian experience and his immigrant journey in America. He was formerly a physics professor noted for computer models that describe and predict complexity in nature. Hanhan holds a Ph.D. in Engineering from the University of Michigan and currently resides in Maryland, USA. Mr Hanhan was in Palestine on the 7th of October and will give us a first-hand account of the beginning of the war.
Salima Hashmi is the most renowned artist, curator, and contemporary art historian. Professor Hashmi was the founding Dean of the Mariam Dawood School of Visual Art and Design at Beaconhouse National University, Lahore. She taught at the National College of Arts, Lahore, for 31 years and was also Principal of the College for four years. She has written extensively on the arts. Her book Unveiling the Visible- Lives and Works of Women Artists of Pakistan was published in 2002. Memories, Myths, Mutations – Contemporary Art of India and Pakistan, co-authored with Yashodhara Dalmia, was published by Oxford University Press, India in 2006. She has edited The Eye Still Seeks – Contemporary Art of Pakistan for Penguin Books, India in 2014.
Tahir Kamran is a notable Pakistani historian and former Iqbal fellow at the University of Cambridge, as professor in the Centre of South Asian Studies. He has authored four books and has written several articles specifically on the history of the Punjab. Dr Kamran established Khaldunia Centre for Historical Research in Lahore. The Centre publishes academic books. Under the auspices of the Centre, he leads a team which edits a semi-annual scholarly journal, Pakistan Journal of Historical Studies. The journal, which primarily focuses on histories of emotions and animals, is edited in Pakistan and published in the USA by Indiana University Press, Bloomington. Dr Kamran has been a visiting fellow at Southampton University, the SOAS and at the University of Cambridge. He remained associated with Government College University, Lahore as chairperson of Department of History and the Dean of the faculty of Arts and Social Sciences of the University till 2018.
Rai Muhammad Saleh Azam has 20 years’ of experience in the practice of law and has worked with leading firms like Azam & Rai, Walker Martineau Saleem, Advocates & Legal Consultants, (a solicitors firm established 1868, now merged with Penningtons Solicitors LLP), and Az Zaman, Advocates & Legal Consultants. Mr Azam advises on the investment climate and regulatory framework in all major investment sectors of Pakistan. He has been ranked as a leading lawyer in Pakistan in the field of Corporate/M&A by Chambers Global and Chambers Asia Pacific. Mr Azam is currently involved in important legislative drafting assignments for the Government of Pakistan and is Legal advisor to the Punjab Information Technology Board (PITB), Government of the Punjab.
9th december 2023
The seminar began by Rashid Rasheed presenting his Research and Publication Centre in Lahore as the host for the inaugural seminar of ERA.
Then author Ramsey Hanhan spoke about his experiences of living under the colonial setting of the West Bank in Palestine. He read passages from his book Fugitive Dreams and then illustrated his first hand encounter with the onset of war in October 2023 from within Palestine.
Salima Hashmi recited the Urdu version of Mahmoud Darvish’s poem “A Poem that is to be Read with a Sad Voice”. She then recited Faiz Ahmad Faiz in both English and Urdu, and it left a very emotional response with the audience.
Next Dr Tahir read excerpts from his recent paper. He then went onto discuss what we as Pakistanis can do by revisiting the concept of the nation-state. He firmly encouraged the younger generation to exercise their rights in the road to democracy.
Rai Saleh Azam presented solid steps to avoid being censored. He gave a comprehensive view of the data war that is currently running against the course of historical, catastrophic events. His answer to the problem of data privacy was in first and foremost educating ourselves about data laws and information privacy designed both to protect, survey and control us.