Threads of Memories

During my bachelor thesis project, I set out to investigate how to enhance the storytelling experience of a book by exploring non-linearity, navigable structures and web narratives. My proposed multiscreen experience intersects different media, in an attempt to extend the book reading experience rather than substituting it. The result is an interactive space structured around the book’s content, making use of the dynamic exploratory qualities of the digital world. The web platform extends the verbal content visually with the addition of my short documentary, while the mobile platform extends the interactivity of the reader by encouraging a navigable experience around the city with the possibility of uploading their own content to the platform. 

The book I chose to engage with in my project is The Story of Cairo, written by British orientalist Stanley Lane-Poole in 1902. In his book, Lane-Poole describes the city of Cairo as a medieval city resisting the European modernity. He writes that the true Cairene’s ideas “date back from the Middle Ages, like his dress, his religion, his social habits, his turns of speech, his calm insouciance, his impenetrable reserve, his inveterate negation of ‘worry.’” In my short film documentary, I juxtapose Lane-Poole’s words —recorded as a voiceover— with scenes I filmed of the locations and buildings he describes. Interwoven with archival footage, my film compares a historical vision of Cairo seen through the eyes of an orientalist with my contemporary perspective exploring the city I grew up in. Through this temporal juxtaposition, I shed light, more importantly, on the internalised exoticisation of Cairo which I and many Cairenes are victims of.