Show HN: Persian poem illustrator (weekend project)(samanbarghi.com)
samanbarghi.com
Show HN: Persian poem illustrator (weekend project)
http://samanbarghi.com/sher-negar/#/
4 comments
Nice, it would be nice to see those pieces. I guess you are looking to study arabesque (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arabesque_(Islamic_art), which includes calligraphy and patterns.
"In the first mode, each repeating geometric form has a built-in symbolism ascribed to it. For example, the square, with its four equilateral sides, is symbolic of the equally important elements of nature: earth, air, fire and water. Without any one of the four, the physical world, represented by a circle that inscribes the square, would collapse upon itself and cease to exist..."
I have limited knowledge on the topic to be honest, you might find this one related though: http://www.amazon.com/Islamic-Architecture-650-1250-Richard-...
I used the digital canvas as a medium to project what I had in mind with added randomness to make it dynamic. Although the persian/islamic art, I was exposed to in childhood and teenage-hood, helped me with the idea but I was not trying to connect it to any particular known art. It would be great if you can provide some pointers to both Pali and Thai scripts/art, so I can study them and probably expand the project on them. I had some other ideas for the project, but unfortunately since arabic/persian fonts cannot handle spaces and words becomes a series of disconnected letters I could not fully implement them. e.g. I cannot make verses follow a specific path due to that problem.
Wow those pictures are really interesting, specially the first one. I have seen how they do this with Chinese calligraphy but seeing the Arabic calligraphy is surprising. Thanks for sharing :) I am sure you had fun taking those shots.
"In the first mode, each repeating geometric form has a built-in symbolism ascribed to it. For example, the square, with its four equilateral sides, is symbolic of the equally important elements of nature: earth, air, fire and water. Without any one of the four, the physical world, represented by a circle that inscribes the square, would collapse upon itself and cease to exist..."
I have limited knowledge on the topic to be honest, you might find this one related though: http://www.amazon.com/Islamic-Architecture-650-1250-Richard-...
I used the digital canvas as a medium to project what I had in mind with added randomness to make it dynamic. Although the persian/islamic art, I was exposed to in childhood and teenage-hood, helped me with the idea but I was not trying to connect it to any particular known art. It would be great if you can provide some pointers to both Pali and Thai scripts/art, so I can study them and probably expand the project on them. I had some other ideas for the project, but unfortunately since arabic/persian fonts cannot handle spaces and words becomes a series of disconnected letters I could not fully implement them. e.g. I cannot make verses follow a specific path due to that problem.
Wow those pictures are really interesting, specially the first one. I have seen how they do this with Chinese calligraphy but seeing the Arabic calligraphy is surprising. Thanks for sharing :) I am sure you had fun taking those shots.
I can provide photos of the restaurant pieces in a day or two... maybe send me an email? Thanks for the leads. I think what I really was looking for was a pan-traditional typology with semantic notes... maybe it doesn't exist, and your project can become one? If so I'm interested to help.
I just found http://thepiratebay.se/torrent/7969063/Persian_and_Arabic_Ca... which looks promising.
Pali is the scriptural language of Theravada Buddhism, which dominates Burma/Laos/Cambodia/Thailand/Sri Lanka. The Tai regions (eastern and historically northern Burma/far southern China/Laos/Thailand, bits of Vietnam, historically part of eastern India) used to have some geometries related to calendrical systems, some of which my former associate wrote up over here: http://pali.pratyeka.org/#Five (that page also has good explanations of basics).. you can see some related images I have shot in southern China at https://plus.google.com/photos/106883718971909092529/albums/... .. and for the magical ward populist stuff in Thailand http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yantra_tattooing and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khatha .. I also have a good deal of Berber patterns recorded from Doiret, Tunisia at https://plus.google.com/photos/106883718971909092529/albums/...
I just found http://thepiratebay.se/torrent/7969063/Persian_and_Arabic_Ca... which looks promising.
Pali is the scriptural language of Theravada Buddhism, which dominates Burma/Laos/Cambodia/Thailand/Sri Lanka. The Tai regions (eastern and historically northern Burma/far southern China/Laos/Thailand, bits of Vietnam, historically part of eastern India) used to have some geometries related to calendrical systems, some of which my former associate wrote up over here: http://pali.pratyeka.org/#Five (that page also has good explanations of basics).. you can see some related images I have shot in southern China at https://plus.google.com/photos/106883718971909092529/albums/... .. and for the magical ward populist stuff in Thailand http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yantra_tattooing and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khatha .. I also have a good deal of Berber patterns recorded from Doiret, Tunisia at https://plus.google.com/photos/106883718971909092529/albums/...
That would be great, my email is: saman<dot>b<at>gmail<dot>com. I am not aware of such collection, and sure I would be happy to collaborate with you and expand on this.
That sounds like a promising collection.
Thanks for the pointers. But wow, the Thai magical ward shapes matches my mental image! In an older version of this project with PHP, I even had the same idea as spire shaped verses! I need to find more resources on this. This is really interesting, thanks a lot. The calendrical system looks nice too. You got a great photo collection :) Although the last pointer points to another album I guess? I can't find any Berber patterns and it is pointing to Tattouine photos instead of Doiret.
That sounds like a promising collection.
Thanks for the pointers. But wow, the Thai magical ward shapes matches my mental image! In an older version of this project with PHP, I even had the same idea as spire shaped verses! I need to find more resources on this. This is really interesting, thanks a lot. The calendrical system looks nice too. You got a great photo collection :) Although the last pointer points to another album I guess? I can't find any Berber patterns and it is pointing to Tattouine photos instead of Doiret.
If you want to see some lovely examples of this in Arabic, along with just a genuinely beautiful book, you might like to look at the graphic novel Habibi - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Habibi_%28graphic_novel%29
For what it's worth - there are some valid criticisms of the book and it's depictions of Arabic culture and history, but it's still lovely look at.
For what it's worth - there are some valid criticisms of the book and it's depictions of Arabic culture and history, but it's still lovely look at.
Nice project :) The Nastaliq is displaying fine but with Nazanin font, characters are not connected and are displayed incorrectly. Chrome 35.0.1916.153 under OS X Mavericks.
Also, any plans on publishing the source?
Also, any plans on publishing the source?
It seems almost as if some pieces here are inspired by a popular Thai love of 'magical' wards rather than anything remotely connected to Islamic traditions ... generally with a strong showing of circles ringing a Pascalesque triangle and inscriptions in Pali written in Khmer (Cambodian) script and probably have nothing to do with Mughul or Persian traditions. In the same vein as, for example, the hamsa / hand of Fatima in Maghreb countries.
Incidentally, there's a Chinese/Arabic calligraphic tradition that's dying out that you may be interested in. It takes either Arabic or the relatively line-heavy, complex Chinese characters and applies traditional Islamic (probably in no small part Persian) styles to their interweaving. A not so great example online that I shot previously... http://pratyeka.org/ennin/2006-05-10-huaian/ (part of the retracing of a Japanese Buddhist monk's journey through China 1000 years ago I did half of, years ago, with a crazy American) or http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-nYF7e1Kd9sE/Tj6mau7h8uI/AAAAAAAAAE...