INTERVIEW WITH LARA DAWDAR

INTERVIEW WITH LARA DAWDAR

From coloring with crayons to painting with knifes , Lara Dawdar  has proved to be one of the most inspiring painter of her generation.she started as an amateur and ended up in the great hall of the  Alexandria library showing her latest work . She believes in modern art and finding beauty in almost everything and anything , her beautiful soul is vividly seen in her art.

Lara, when did u first start painting and fell in love with art?

Well it started at the age of 5 when my mom bought me a set of hello kitty crayons and box of clay . At that moment I fell in love with colors and drawing I used to run home after school I create colors and designs out of anything I saw. Once I drew a garden using feathers and buttons my mom kept on her cabinet . I saw art in possibility of creation in anything and everything I saw.

Who can you say is your biggest supporter and how much did this support mean to you?

My family always supported me in my art but I can honestly say that my dad supported and motivated me every single day. As a child I would create grand opening for my work in the living room and he would buy all of them and make me feel like the next Michael angelo . I remember one summer I entered an art completion and I lost, I was so upset and I said that I would never paint again but my dad wouldn't let me he pushed me and bought me my first knife painting collection it was a huge challenge for me at the age of 14 to paint using knifes But I couldn't fail and disappoint him so I worked all day and all night to make him proud .

How did you feel when you sold your first painting ?

It was very unexpected as my first painting to be sold was an old painting that I saw many mistakes and flaws in it that I never thought it could be sold so I was shocked to here someone made an offer . I felt appreciated and accomplished .

What do you think of Egyptian art and its future ?

This is an important question as one my main goals is to educate and aware a lot of people to appreciate and make art a part of their culture , of course we cant compare between art here in Egypt and in Europe but for the last 10 years many new artists in Egypt have shown. Their skills in many gAlleries and art shows all over the world so I believe that the future is very bright .

What was the biggest obstacle you faced in your art career?

It was the community I guess a lot of people saw my art as a hobby and couldn't understand it to be my career. They called me lazy and stupid for channeling all my time and effort in painting as if painting is not as important as other careers or not as useful

But i believed in myself and created my own support system .

what’s your biggest dream ? and what you aspire to do ?

I guess other artists might dream of being rich and famous and contribute in the biggest art shows in Italy or Germany but for me my biggest dream would be education. Educating children and adults to see beauty and art in everything and look beyond the ordinary and the seen , I know its hard because people here in Egypt live a very hard life and they struggle almost everyday but the problem is that art is viewed as a luxury not a necessity in their everyday life. 

What advice would you give to other young artists ?

My advice would be plan and dream big ! Dream and aspire to the most impossible task and live every moment in accomplishing this goal. Believe in your work and be confident it and show it and be proud and remember that if you fall no one will pick you up but yourself.

What I love the most about art. It could be found in the most unexpected places.

Khaled el Fakharany(Egyptian)

Robotic Personality

As children we are taught that feelings can only be present in humans or animals but we never considered robots . Khaled el Fakharany saw the possible in the impossible, he believes that humans think they only have the right to express there emotions when in fact the artificial intelligence today proves them wrong.

From the age of 6 when Khaled first received his robotic kit to make a car and he was fascinated and inspired to make his own model, he joined the World Robotics Olympics at the age of 15 and proved himself by making the first robot to detect the user’s mood using a brain activity reader , if the user is sad or depressed the robot automatically cheers him up with finding an item or an object he loves like a teddy bear for a child. He won second place in Egypt and 1st place in the Arabian Semi-finals.

“The deep connection between robots and humans exceeds logic and emotion” he said with great determination before the next competition. Khaled always found new ways to enhance his robots artificial intelligence , in 2013 Khaled entered  an international  university competition called National Instruments while he was still in high school he ranked in 9th place world wide . He made a robotic submarine which can fix oil drillers in the sea without risking any human lives.

“People think a robot is just a stupid piece of metal with no thoughts of its own, a robot is like a child , you feed him data and he develops it to adjust with the circumstances around him “ he explained with great passion.Khaled el Fakharany a 20 year old student in Nile University who invented many robots to help people with basic and complex tasks , such as the robotic painter .

Many workers get lead poison through inhaling paint and toxic gas when painting a ship or even a wall , so the robotic painter automatically measures the barriers needed to be painted and paints it with great technique and without putting any human lives in dangerous circumstances.

Some people attack the robotics industry by saying how it seeks to replace humans in the workplace and in Japan they even replace humans in social gathering and sports , robots now have their own sports league , education, health and even in entertainments business , but Khaled saw the matter in a different way he explained that humans are crucially needed in various aspects and can not be replaced but in many areas we can not allow human error or the risk of human lives. Surgeons use robotic arms in the field of neurology to ensure precision  but the mind and decision of a surgeon can never be replaced. “Robots and humans need to co-exist together, they are both equally needed” said Khaled.

“ I refuse to call any robot as it or a thing , each robot has their own identity and their own way of thinking” Khaled added. In a hospital in Korea they place Humanoids (Robots made to look human) in patients’s bedroom to cheer them up and motivate them to beat cancer, the patients talks about his life and the robot responds like any human being and in fact even better as its programmed to find solutions for any problem any patients face. “This humanoid is very complex as its program has hundreds of thousands of codes to mimic the human brain and human responses , this shows how the brain is the most complicated and magnificent organ in the world” added Khaled.

“Most importantly we must raise our horizon and our imagination to expect the robotic revolution to come” said Khaled with great passion,Khaled believes that one of the main problems we face as a 3rd world country is our ignorance on the importance of scientific research and development , although some people might see technology as a luxury this country can’t afford he discussed how its the only way we can become a fully developed country and this will only happen if the Egyptian people are aware and up to date with the breakthroughs of science that happens every minute .Khaled el fakharany is a true genius in the robotics field he wishes to enhance this field in Egypt and dreams one day of make his country to be the centre of the robotics industry and excel the world in every aspect , he believes in the Egyptian engineers and in their potential to concur the industry with just a little funding from the government and imagination.