Illustrating immigrant stories
Inspired by her own experience and challenges as an immigrant, Maryam Khaleghi Yazdi , professor of graphic design at UMD, is working to share other immigrants’ stories. Using interview recordings as her source material, Khaleghi brings immigrant stories to life through animation, mixed media, drawing, illustration, sculpture, and textiles.
Her current project, Say Sew , is a series of large mixed media quilts. Made up of 78 tableaus, each representing one person’s story of immigration, this project is a series of large mixed media quilts. When exhibited, each quilt will be interactive, so when audiences touch it, they will hear the recordings of those immigrants narrating their own stories, in interviews recorded by the journalist collective, Newest Americans .
Khaleghi chooses interactive art because of how much it engages people. Composed of rich visuals and textures that mix textiles, clay, drawings and other media, the piece invites the audience to touch and listen as well as look. Coming into the exhibition, they may be unaware of the vulnerability of life in an immigrant’s experience.
Art is a universal language. It can be understood on some level by anyone who is committed enough to engage with it. Thus, it transcends the literal language of cultures and country and strikes an emotional and intuitional chord in the viewer.
I’m receiving stories from different immigrants, illustrating them, and connecting them with interactive design, to let other people know about our experiences.
Maryam Khaleghi Yazdi, assistant professor, College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences
By providing a rich and engaging experience, her work can help raise up these stories, and build empathy around the immigrant experience. It’s art, and it’s research to expand perspectives.
Maintaining quality of life
Dr. Arshia Khan’s robot, Pepper, will ensure that people with early stage Alzheimer’s disease stay independent longer.
