Background
The first experimental comics workshop in 2003 took place among other workshops in a one of kind educational event in Egypt that took place on a daily basis for a whole month every summer in the Faculty of Art Education – Helwan University in Cairo, from the year 2000 till 2010.
This main event started under the title “The Experimental Media Workshop Program in the Faculty of Art Education”. The program was revolutionary in nature since it focused on teaching approaches to new media art like video art, sound art, experimental animation, experimental comics, artists books, conceptual photography, pinhole photography, performance and graffiti. Those disciplines have never been taught before in Egypt and this workshop was responsible for bringing to life a new generation of media artists that make up a large part of the contemporary art scene today in Egypt.
The idea was the brainchild of artist and art professor Shady El Noshokaty who organized the main event for ten years. The admission for the workshop was free for all art education students and even students from other schools. El Noshokaty selected a group of art professors and artists to teach each workshop for the duration of the month. I was chosen to teach the experimental comics workshop since this was the topic for my masters dissertation and my field of expertise. All the participating artists and professors taught for free for the duration of the ten years since there was no budget from the school for such an extra summer curricular activity.
The Idea of the First Workshop
The idea for the first comics workshop originated during an experiment with two fellow German artists in 2002 where one of us would send the first page of a non-verbal narrative and the second artist would continue a second page based on the events of the first one and then send it to a third, and the improvised plot lines progress according to each artist. We ended up having a narrative that has one beginning and several multi-linear plot lines with different endings for each.
The main project for the first comics workshop was a twist on the previous idea and was titled “The Crossroads” . It began with the students designing five different characters with very distinctive characteristics, each with it’s own plot line and those plot lines would start to intersect as with the dynamics of social interaction in real life. The students decided how each character would Interact with the other. This time having five different starting points and one ending where all characters meet at :“The Crossroads” creating a multi linear narrative with five beginnings and one end. Characters were allowed to break the fourth wall and wander outside of the constraints of the frame giving the passage of time in the story a more abstract feel.
The workshop wasn’t just about working on the project but the students were given a series of lectures and presentations about the history and theory of comics and visual narrative. At the end of every working session there was a critique of the day’s work. At the end of the month there was a group exhibition for the outcome of all the workshops. The whole experiment got very positive reviews from most peers.
