33 episodes

This is Instant Coffee, your quick fix of everything Middle East. This podcast, brought to you by the LSE Middle East Centre, features 20-minute conversations with activists, artists, journalists and more from the region.

Instant Coffee LSE Middle East Centre

    • Arts

This is Instant Coffee, your quick fix of everything Middle East. This podcast, brought to you by the LSE Middle East Centre, features 20-minute conversations with activists, artists, journalists and more from the region.

    3.10 The Power of Radio

    3.10 The Power of Radio

    How did the radio, a major technological development in the history of sound and music, change the social, cultural and political landscape of the region?

    In this last episode of the season, we speak to audio curator Hazem Jamjoum, and Elias Anastas and Saeed Abu Jaber, two of the co-founders of the Palestinian radio station Radio Al Hara. We find out more about the history of the radio in the region and also it's present – specifically looking at how this new technology was used by imperialists, technocrats, intellectuals and liberation groups to broadcast and connect groups. Through Radio Al Hara's activity, we learn how radio works in similar ways to this day.

    Hazem Jamjoum is an audio curator and researcher with an interest in history of audio and music recording in the Arab world

    Elias Anastas is a co-founder of Radio Al Hara. He is an architect based in Bethlehem, Palestine and runs an architectural studio with his brother Yousef called AAU ANASTAS. They also run Wonder Cabinet, a not-for-profit cultural platform.

    Saeed Abu Jaber is one of the founders of radio al hara. He is a graphic designer and runs a studio called Turbo in Amman, Jordan.

    www.radioalhara.net/ [https://gate.sc/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.radioalhara.net%2F&token=faab03-1-1717625114131]

    • 29 min
    3.9 War Tech and Nationalism in Turkey and Israel

    3.9 War Tech and Nationalism in Turkey and Israel

    This episode explores the link between technology, warfare and nationalism. Turkey and Israel are two countries in the region who have developed their technological capabilities for both domestic and international conflict. We speak to two researchers who have been tracing the use of military technologies and the effect they have had on a sense of nationalism amongst their populations.

    Digdem Solaytin Colella speaks to the regime-boosting effects of drone production in Turkey whilst Sophia Goodfriend provides a more granular analysis of how military technology has transformed a new generation of Israeli soldiers' views of Palestinians and Israeli occupation.

    Digdem is Assistant Professor of Politics and Public Policy at the University of Aberdeen. Her research concentrates on the politics of corruption, mechanisms of state capture and regime survival, autocratic bureaucracies & illiberal governance, and Southeast European and Turkish politics.

    Sophia is a PhD candidate at Duke University's Department of Cultural Anthropology and Fulbright-Hays Dissertation Fellow. Her academic work examines the ethics and impact of new surveillance technologies in Israel and Palestine.

    • 29 min
    3.8 Data for Development with Nagla Rizk

    3.8 Data for Development with Nagla Rizk

    What does the era of 'big data' mean for development technologies in MENA? How can data be used for good, to ensure projects working with vulnerable communities such as informal workers and women are seen and supported? What kind of repercussions does poor data collection have on emerging technologies? How can data-driven research and technology improve prospects for the next generation in the region seeking work, and what does it mean for the future of labour in the region?

    These are some of the questions we posed to Nagla Rizk, Professor of Economics at the American University in Cairo in episode 8.

    Nagla is Professor of Economics and Founding Director of the Access to Knowledge for Development Center (A2K4D) at the American University in Cairo's School of Business. Nagla's area of research, teaching and advocacy is the economics of knowledge, technology and development, with focus on governance of responsible data and Artificial Intelligence, fair work in the platform economy, innovation, gender and inclusion in Egypt, the Middle East and North Africa (MENA).

    • 26 min
    3.7 Living in the Future with Rahel Aima

    3.7 Living in the Future with Rahel Aima

    Writer and art critic, Rahel Aima, who grew up and currently lives in Dubai, talks to us about living in the Gulf, a region rapidly developing itself as the place to be for smart cities and high-tech living.

    Rahel explores a concept she has been thinking about for some time, the Khaleeji Ideology, which meets at the intersection of technology, economy, the environment and nation building, as a way of understanding developments in the contemporary Gulf.

    This episode also features comment from Michael Mason, Director of the LSE Middle East Centre and Professor of Environmental Geography at LSE, who explores the rise of "progressive" urban development projects in the Gulf, and whether technology can be the solution to pressing environmental challenges of our time.

    Rahel Aima is a writer, critic, and editor from Dubai. She writes about art, technology and the Gulf. Her work has been published in Artforum, Artnews, ArtReview, The Atlantic, Bookforum, frieze, Mousse and Vogue Arabia, amongst others.

    Read Rahel's 'The Khaleeji Ideology' here: https://www.e-flux.com/architecture/horizons/498319/the-khaleeji-ideology/.

    • 26 min
    3.6 Art Meaning and Art Making with Nadim Choufi

    3.6 Art Meaning and Art Making with Nadim Choufi

    How can art complicate claims of progress, innovation and the use of rapidly developing emerging technologies in MENA? In this episode, Cima Chehab speaks to visual artist Nadim Choufi about how he incorporates technology into his artwork both as subject matter and as medium.

    In the conversation, they discuss Nadim's own artistic practice, his use of "lecture performances" and the question of whether life is truly enhanced by progress and technology, which is one of the main questions that underpins his work. Nadim also explores emerging art in the Middle East and how technology has transformed a new generation of artists – from digital illustrations to meme accounts.

    Nadim is a visual artist living in Beirut. He primarily focuses on the material histories and futures of innovation and desire, their social and political driving forces, and the visual and literary practices that surround them. He is a 2024 resident at the Jan van Eyck Academy. Currently he is the curator of the film programme of the 2024 festival edition of transmediale and a researcher at Haven For Artists. Previously he was co-Programs Director at Beirut Art Center.

    https://nadimchoufi.com/

    • 23 min
    3.5 Archiving and Mapping Technologies in Palestine and Syria

    3.5 Archiving and Mapping Technologies in Palestine and Syria

    Majd Al-Shihabi of 'Palestine Open Maps' and Sana Yazigi of the 'Creative Memory of the Syrian Revolution' talk to us about how they have centered their archiving processes around maps, and what digital archiving can do for Palestinian and Syrian community-building.

    This episode also features comment from Dr Sara Salem and Dr Mai Taha of LSE, who explore the importance of creative archiving through their project 'Archive Stories'.

    Note: this episode was recorded before October 7, 2023.

    Majd Al-Shihabi is a technologist turned urban planner, turned technologisturbanplanner. Majd is co-founder of Palestine Open Maps, a platform for searching, navigating, downloading and digitizing historical maps of Palestine. Majd was the inaugural Bassel Khartabil Free Culture Fellow which enabled him to start Palestine Open Maps.

    https://palopenmaps.org/en

    Sana Yazigi is a graphic designer and cultural activist. She is the founder of Creative Memory of the Syrian Revolution, a project that documents all types of creative expressions produced since the Syrian Revolution in 2011 until the present day. She is also the founder of The Cultural Diary, Syria's first bilingual monthly cultural agenda (2007-2012).

    https://creativememory.org/

    https://archive-stories.com/ 

    • 25 min

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