Maham Momin

Play It By Ear, Part 1: Publication

My thesis work focuses on traditional Pakistani folk music (Qawwali as a case study) and its role in and effort to return to Indigenous ways of thinking, communicating, and creating. I am offering Qawwali as a means of decolonizing both our design practice and our ways of life, by studying movement, sounds, and words. This publication is a collection of written pieces exploring the possibilities of Qawwali both as a first-time listener and as a frequent listener. It outlines the knowledge that informed all the other sections in this thesis project and creates an alternative material form to print publications. Creating a textile publication means that there would only be one copy printed, which would then get passed from person to person, to wear as a shawl, scarf, blanket, or any other way they chose. This is in an effort to return to community as the primary relationships in our day-to-day lives. I used detailed halftone designs, collaged together on one side to speak to non-linear time, where everything past, present, and future exist all at once. And for the other side, I typeset all the articles into a spiral so that the form could exist eternally and could continue to be added to by layering more rings to the outside while also speaking to Sufi whirling.To read more about my process, click on the link below!