Audio recording 3: a student discusses cultural adaptation. On academic scholarship from Pakistan, a student speaks with her Qatari/Egyptian friend about the differences between Qatar and Pakistan. Both girls speak with enthusiasm about participating in a wedding in Pakistan for a dear friend and sister. Among other things, they describe the similarities and differences in food and the way food is consumed. The student from Pakistan describes her personal adaptation to Qatar and what overlaps and gaps exist between the two cultures. She identifies the strategies she has observed or developed to bridge differences in languages, cultures, and academic disciplines.
I was most struck by the student’s variety of observations regarding how to survive in a new cultural context, and this adaptation is what I attempted to translate into my image. At one point, she described how gesture becomes the sole medium for communication. I asked this student if I could photograph her hands. Using her gesture to indicate a direction became my way to translate the young woman’s coping strategies and her observational facility.
I then overlaid a series of lines across the image, which becomes a maze from which the eye seeks escape. The few gaps or interruptions to the direction and uniformity of the lines are my response to her form and gesture. The parting of the lines responds to the directional or grasping potential of the fingers. Where the lines overlap her arm, they become a decorative pattern like a henna or mehndi worn by women at weddings and other celebrations in Pakistan.