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n thingfest 2017 SVAD’s annual event, NothingFest, is yet another proud moment enabling BNU’s brightest products to display their immense talent and dynamism and the vast expanse of their fertile imagination. For BNU, it presents an opportunity to exhibit to the world the richness of our founding principles that espouse the delivery and active promotion of a holistic, high quality, enlightened liberal arts education which equips our graduates to not only acquire a more empathetic appreciation of global developments but also empowers them to exploit the resulting opportunities. A Liberal Arts education is rooted in learning and absorbing socio-economic realities and values. Its foundations lie in ethical thinking and convergence of ideas that ow from an exposure to widely varied, yet specialized, academic disciplines. It is our rm belief that those graduating from universities today should have the technical, creative and social skills that endow them with the capability to connect with the outside world with condence. Shahid Haz Kardar Vice Chancellor Beaconhouse National University The core of SVAD’s vision is to stay abreast of contemporary thought with a broad-based approach to education and knowledge dissemination. Hence, it has undertaken various projects that go beyond conventional classroom set up; redening pedagogical systems to creatively address present-day educational needs. Projects such as Humnawa by Textile, Fashion & Jewelry Department, Stories We Tell by Visual Arts and Art Education Department and Hamari Hariyali, Hamari Kamai by Visual Communication Design Department are examples of endeavors by SVAD that have not only fostered community engagement but have also won International awards for their strategic relevance and signicance. NothingFest is a project in the same direction that liberates SVAD students from prescribed 'art and design' curriculum for a week, introducing them to a variety of ideas from a diverse range of disciplines, ensuring active participation through interactive formats and playful thematic premise. Rohma Khan, the Director of the rst edition of NothingFest brings together distinguished people from a wide array of specializations. Sociologist to physicist, scientist to activist and musician to philosopher, all under one platform to explore the theme of "Nothing", through a series of talks and talk-shops eventually encapsulating everything; encouraging holistic, cross-disciplinary dialogue generating innovative thoughts and new ideas. Rashid Rana Dean Mariam Dawood School of Visual Arts & Design Arts and visual culture in the contemporary era, as well as in the annals of history, have been constantly evolving with its practitioners striving to stimulate and seduce the world they inhabit in new and meaningful ways. Being engaged in an increasingly pluralistic environment, the challenge of perceiving and responding to the ux of information and technology calls for global citizens, at large, and artists, designers and educators, in particular, to nd new ways of experiencing and imparting knowledge and information. The shift from traditional aesthetics demands for innovative pedagogical practices for the teaching and understanding of art and design. The School Of Visual Arts and Design (SVAD) at Beacon- house National University has led the way for artists and designers in Pakistan to realize their creative potential, cutting across national and cultural boundaries, fostering a unique vision that enables signicant contribution to the visual world. Being at the forefront of nding innovative ways of imparting quality education, SVAD has come up with an exclusive week-long program of exploring the notion of “Nothing!” Nothing as a concept can yield to various possibilities of looking at the mundane, hackneyed and banal concepts of “everyday” in a new aesthetic realm. The avalanche of information we live in currently demands a different kind of processing system; a system that can be selective of the sensory perceptions, where the human mind can be in control of the on/off switch. Practicing “nothing” could help become aware of these processes of mind. This could also be related to the conscious development of low latent inhibition, whereby one treats familiar stimuli the same as new stimuli, harnessing a creative and imaginative outlook on the mundane. Larry David, the man behind the most popular sitcom of the 90’s, “Seinfeld” is said to have based the entire show on nding material for comedy from the everyday/nothing. Shahrukh Khan, reecting on his father’s life often quotes him: "Jo kuch nahin kartey, wo kamal kartay hain” (Those who do nothing, do wonders!), which sought relevance in the famous quote by Benedict Cumberbatch, in the Imitation Game played by Alan Turing: “Sometimes it's the very people who no one imagines anything of who do the things no one can imagine.” How does this happen? How does observation of mental trafc lead to meditation and catharsis? This week of experience and interaction at SVAD, BNU will open up a discourse on the above. Looking at the world and life from this vantage point is the acknowledgement of the fact that the root to wisdom begins from a wandering and wondering mind. As Socrates said: "I know one thing; that I know nothing." Rohma Khan Director NothingFest 2017 | BNU-SVAD DAY 01 24TH APRIL 2017 MONDAY DAY 01 24TH APRIL 2017 MONDAY HINGF RASHID NOT EST 20 RANA 17 OPENING REMARKS ROHMA 12:00 noon KHAN Slass Auditorium NOTHING NG WI NO TALK 1 K "Know that you know 12:30 pm nothing" - This Socratic thought Slass is the acceptance of a belief that Auditorium every meaningful journey begins in a realm “unknown”. While most people spend their entire lives trying to buy security from the unknown, some stare into a blank future, embrace uncertainty and aspire to create value where there is none. This session grapples with what drives entrepreneurs to choose the uncertain path, accept high levels of risk and plunge into JUNAID unseen and unknown territories with conviction and dreams - as they IQBAL dare to create everything out of nothing. HER EXCELLENCY, DR. BRIGITTA BLAHA SHAHBAZ TALKTALK 2 TASEER 12:302:00 pmPM Slass Auditorium Auditorium TH E IM In the PO RT TV series "The Crown", AN C E the character based on Queen O F Elizabeth is conicted between staying N O detached and neutral in certain political T H I situations or taking action based on her personal N biases. As she grapples with this dilemma, she is G N told by her grandmother 'To do nothing is the hardest E S S job of all. To be impartial is not natural. People will I N always want you to frown or smile - and the minute you D I do, you will have declared a point of view. And that's the P L one thing, as sovereign, you cannot do.' O At times, doing nothing may be an appropriate course M A T of action in diplomacy. I C Dr. Brigitta Blaha, Austrian Ambassador to R E L Pakistan, will be addressing the role of A T I nothingness within her area of expertise as O N she speaks about her vast experiences S with diplomacy across the globe. DAY 01 TALKSHOPS 01 24TH APRIL 2017 3:30 - 5:00 MONDAY M CE AND OHALLA SPA LIV G- In ES DR. AMEN IN IN H T everyday usage, nothing LA JAFFER O H N O is generally conceptualized as R an absence. But why use this concept E only as a negative? While nothing can be understood as the absence of things, our universe is not composed of things alone. Thinking in spatial terms, nothing can be the area 01 between things. And this space, though devoid of things, is not empty at all but contains the many ROOM relations between things. Applying this understanding to neighbourhoods and bazaars can 406 lead us to rethink the importance of this nothing-space. This presentation will explore nothing-space in the Mozang area of Lahore and demonstrate its signicance for dening the spatial, social, and political order of this dense locality. OTHING-GLAS E N S: O TH PE H NI UG N O Drawing on G R A H T Shakespeare - King Lear, L IT E primarily, as well as Hamlet - and R MINA MALIK A 20th century literature (Walcott, Pinter, R HUSSAIN Y etc), this talk-shop will examine how the D Nihilist/Thanatos impulse has driven O O 02 character and creator alike; how nothing R I became part of the modern condition and N T how writers have dealt with that in their O ROOM T texts. This will be followed by a theatre H 405 E activity at the end - using Peter Brooks' D A R idea of the empty space to K generate a creative something out of nothing. ENCING N PERI OTH EX ING “You N ES SLASS S need to learn how to -N O select your thoughts just the T A same way you select your S clothes every day. This is a power A C SHAHNAZ you can cultivate. If you want to O N MINALLAH control things in your life so bad, work C E on the mind. That's the only thing you P T 03 should be trying to control.” Elizabeth B U Gilbert. This will be an engaging T R session of talks and meditative E A exercises that will make you L I T experience happiness Y through nothingness. NG THI NO T: This THING-GLA C NO SS: A will be an interactive HE OP ’S T EN T H I E workshop on the UG N L O G fundamentals of theater exploring R A IRAM H T L the theme of Nothingness. In this IT E SANA R session, the participants will use the A R 04 tool of theater and develop 3-5 minute Y skits as outcomes of the session.

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