Laila Shereen Sakr Explained

Birth Date:November 18, 1971
Birth Place:Alexandria, Egypt
Education:PhD in Media Arts and Practice from University of Southern California, M.F.A. in Digital Arts and New Media from University of California, Santa Cruz, and M.A. in Arab Studies from Georgetown University
Occupation:artist, theorist, and lecturer
Known For:Creating the award-winning media system, R-Shief (Arabic for 'archive'), and for predicting the fall of Muammar Gaddafi in Libya in August 2011 using Twitter analytics.
Website:http://vjumamel.com

Laila Shereen Sakr (born 1971), known by her moniker, VJ Um Amel, is an Egyptian–American digital media theorist and artist. She is the founder of the digital lab, R-Shief, Inc.,[1] an Annenberg Fellow, and Assistant Professor of Media Theory & Practice at University of California, Santa Barbara,[2] where she founded the Wireframe digital media studio.[3]

She holds an M.F.A. in Digital Arts and New Media from University of California, Santa Cruz, an M.A. in Arab Studies from Georgetown University.,[4] and a PhD in Media Arts + Practice from the University of Southern California's School of Cinematic Arts.[5]

Work

With a background in documentary film and web development, her current practices include system design, cultural analytics, computational art, video art, and immersive cinema. She is known for building R-Shief, "one of the largest repositories of Arabic-language tweets"[6] and for her predictive analytics of the fall of Qaddafi in Libya in August 2011.[7] This work emerged from her doctoral research and development. For the practical component of her doctoral dissertation, VJ Um Amel archived rare social media collections from the Arab uprising and Occupy movements from 2010–2014. She collaborated with a team of engineers to innovate trending, semantic, sentiment tools that analyze Arabic and seven other languages using machine learning. From the analytics processed from the archives, she created 3D games, documentary video, video remixes, computational drawings, data visualizations, and digital performances.

Her media work has been shown in solo and group exhibitions and performances at galleries and museums including the San Francisco MoMA, National Gallery of Art in Jordan, Camera Austria, Cultura Digital in Brazil, Kirchner Cultural Centre in Argentina, Tahrir Cultural Center in Cairo, Fridge Art Gallery in Washington, DC, and 100 Copies in Egypt, among other venues. At UCSB, she co-founded Wireframe, a new digital media studio that supports critical game design and digital arts practice.[8]

She is Co-Editor for the open access journal: Media Theory, and also for After Video published by Open Humanities Press. She collaborates with MIT’s Global Media Technologies & Cultures Lab as a Researcher. At UCSB, she is Faculty Affiliate in the Feminist Studies Department and the Center for Responsible Machine Learning, and serves on the advisory, executive, and steering committees for UCSB Digital Arts & Humanities Commons, Center for Middle East Studies, and Center for Information Technology & Society. Her current book project theorizes “glitch” as an experience of revolution and counterrevolution that occurred across the Arab world and reveals the indispensability, the promises, and the limits of digital communication across borders and languages.[9]

Her journal articles appear in Middle East Critique, JCMS Teaching Dossier, Networking Knowledge: Journal of the Media, Communication, and Cultural Studies, Parson’s Journal for Information Mapping, Thoughtmesh: Critical Code Journal, and Feminist Debates in Digital Humanities.

Life

She was born in Alexandria, Egypt to Egyptian parents.[10]

Awards

Publications

Reviews

Notes and References

  1. Web site: R-Shief. r-shief.org. en-US. 2017-10-27.
  2. Web site: University of California, Santa Barbara - Film and Media Studies: People. April 22, 2020.
  3. Web site: VJUmAmel. vjumamel.com. en-US. April 22, 2020.
  4. News: UC Santa Cruz Digital Arts/New Media. laila shereen sakr's danm thesis project, r-shief, lauches official website. October 27, 2014.
  5. Web site: University of Southern California – Media Arts + Practice: People. October 27, 2014.
  6. Miller. Greg. Social Scientists Wade into the Tweet Stream. October 27, 2014. 6051 pp. 1814–1815. Science. September 30, 2011. 333 . 1814–1815 . 10.1126/science.333.6051.1814 .
  7. Web site: Rose Gottemoeller Assistant Secretary, Bureau of Arms Control, Verification and Compliance. From the Manhattan Project to the Cloud: Arms Control in the Information Age. U.S. Department of State. October 13, 2014.
  8. Web site: VJUmAmel. vjumamel.com. en-US. April 22, 2020.
  9. Web site: VJUmAmel. vjumamel.com. en-US. April 22, 2020.
  10. News: Friedman. Jon. Twitter's window on Middle East uprisings. October 12, 2014. MarketWatch. May 18, 2011.
  11. Web site: إنتاج "المجال العام" في المجتمعات العربية: المشاركة. Arab Council for the Social Sciences. September 12, 2014.
  12. Web site: EAO Outstanding Achievement Award Recipients. Egyptian American Organization. September 12, 2014.
  13. Web site: Laila Sakr. Humanities, Arts, Science and Technology Collaboratory. September 12, 2014.
  14. News: North-Hager. Eddie. Fellows forum covers events in the Middle East. September 12, 2014. USCNews. September 20, 2011.
  15. Shereen Sakr. Laila. A Digital Humanities Approach: Text, the Internet, and the Egyptian Uprising. Middle East Critique. December 16, 2013. 22, Issue 3, 2013. Special Issue: Special Issue: The Arab Uprisings of 2011. 247–263. 10.1080/19436149.2013.822241. 145129154.
  16. Book: Shereen Sakr. Laila. Mediating the Arab Uprisings. January 11, 2013. Tadween Publishing. 978-1939067005. October 27, 2014.
  17. News: Shereen Sakr. Laila. Studying Social Streams: Cultural Analytics in Arabic. October 27, 2014. Jadaliyya. October 31, 2012.
  18. News: Shereen Sakr. Laila. Egypt's Presidential Elections and Twitter Talk. October 27, 2014. Jadaliyya. May 26, 2012.
  19. News: Shereen Sakr. Laila. The Materiality of Virtuality: Internet Reporting on Arab Revolutions. October 27, 2014. Jadaliyya. December 19, 2011.
  20. News: Miriyam Aouragh . Shahid Buttar . Elijah Meeks . Laila Shereen Sakr . Collateral Damage: #Oslo Attacks and Proliferating Islamophobia. October 27, 2014. Jadaliyya. August 9, 2011.
  21. Shereen Sakr. Laila. The R-Shief Initiative: Proof of Concept. Parsons Journal for Information Mapping. I. 2. October 27, 2014.
  22. Shereen Sakr. Laila. "On Becoming Arab," "Give," "Human Skin". Mizna. 2004. 6. 1. October 27, 2014.
  23. Shereen Sakr. Laila. Media-Making Madness: #Arab Revolutions from the Perspective of Egyptian-American. The Official Weblog of Henry Jenkins. February 21, 2011.
  24. Shereen Sakr. Laila1. From Archive to Analytics: Building Counter-Collections of Arabic Social Media. Archival Dissonance: Contemporary Visual Culture and Knowledge Production. I.B. Tauris/Ibraaz. September 2015.
  25. Shereen Sakr. Laila. Katz. Kimberly. On Developing a Teaching Module on Arab Social Media. JCMS Teaching Dossier . 2016.
  26. Shereen Sakr. Laila. Juhasz. Alex. Ev-Ent-Anglement: Reflexively Extending Engagement By Way of Technology. Bodies of Information: Feminist Debates in Digital Humanities. Losh. Liz. Wernimont. Jacqueline. 2017.
  27. Shereen Sakr. Laila. Security or Uncertainty: Stabilizing R-Shief Twitter Analysis during the Jasmine & Egyptian Revolutions. ThoughtMesh: Critical Code Journal. February 5, 2011.
  28. Shereen Sakr. Laila. The Virtual Body Politic: A Networked Political Mobilization of Information Patterns and Materiality. Networking Knowledge. 8. 2. May 2015.
  29. Shereen Sakr. Laila. Techies on the Ground: Revisiting Egypt 2011. Cyber Orient Online Journal of the Virtual Middle East and Islamic World. 13. 1. 2019. 43–61.
  30. News: Michelsen. Leslee. In Cairo, Artists Use Pixels, Cyborgs, and More to Examine Technology and Belief. Hyperallergic. March 9, 2020.
  31. News: Khallaf. Rania. The Sound of a Glitch. Al-Ahram Online. February 25, 2020.
  32. News: AUC's TCC Hosts Three Exhibitions on Art and Technology. Albawaba: Your Gateway to the Middle East. February 13, 2020.
  33. News: Losh. Elizabeth. "#Intersection" Hashtag. Bloomsbury Academic. February 1, 2019.
  34. News: Malatesta. Irene. Data Bodies and Tech Activism with VJ Um Amel. Medium. May 28, 2018.
  35. News: Understanding Social Movements through Social Media's Big Data. CCAS Newsmagazine. March 31, 2018.
  36. News: Logan. Jim. A billion tweets turned into virtual reality. University of California News. July 27, 2017.
  37. Iskander. Adel. What's Trending in Social Media on the Middle East?. Status Audio-Journal. 2-4. May 1, 2017.
  38. News: Willis. Holly. Fast Forward: The Future(s) of the Cinematic Arts. Columbia University Press. May 2, 2016.
  39. News: Lindsey. Ursula. Scholars Re-Examine Arab World's 'Facebook Revolutions'. Chronicle of Higher Education. May 9, 2015.
  40. Iskander. Adel. R-Shief's 5th Anniversary. Status Audio-Journal. 1. 1. October 30, 2014.
  41. News: Good. Andrew. The Middle East finds its voice on social media. USC News. August 29, 2014.
  42. News: New Texts Out Now: VJ Um Amel, A Digital Humanities Approach: Text, the Internet, and the Egyptian Uprising. Jadaliyya. February 4, 2014.
  43. News: Stuhr-Rommereim. Helen. A year in review: When history becomes art. October 27, 2014. Egypt Independent. December 29, 2011.
  44. News: Ungerleider. Neal. "The People's Skype" and Occupy Wall Street Hackathons. October 27, 2014. Fast Company. December 12, 2011.
  45. Web site: Gottemoeller. Rose. Remarks: From the Manhattan Project to the Cloud: Arms Control in the Information Age. U.S. Department of State. October 27, 2014.
  46. Miller. Greg. Social Scientists Wade into the Tweet Stream. Science. September 30, 2011. 333. 6051. 1814–1815. 10.1126/science.333.6051.1814. 21960603. 2011Sci...333.1814M .
  47. News: Attalah. Lina. VJ Um Amel hits 'the social' in media. October 27, 2014. Egypt Independent. June 27, 2011.
  48. News: Losh. Liz. Digital Learning and the Arab Spring. October 27, 2014. DML Central. June 23, 2011.
  49. News: Chlala. Youmna . Youmna Chlala . Interview with VJ Um Amel. October 27, 2014. ArtTerritories. June 22, 2011.
  50. News: Friedman. Jon. Twitter's Window on Middle East Uprisings. October 27, 2014. MarketWatch. May 18, 2011.
  51. News: Schenkar. Dylan. VJ Um Amel Remixes A Revolution. October 27, 2014. The Creators Project (blog). March 1, 2011.
  52. News: Losh. Liz. Not Your Mother's VJ. October 27, 2014. Virtualpolitk (blog). February 25, 2011.

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