نشریه هنرهای زیبا - هنرهای تجسمی
سال بیست و پنجم شماره 1 (پیاپی 81، بهار 1399)

However there are differences between postmodernism and critical theories in their origins, they seek common areas in society criticism. The critical theory is a social theory provided in order to criticize and transform society against the suppression and oppression situations. In addition, the critical theory is used to indicate the power relations in cultural framework which attempts to reach a self-criticism: addressing such self-criticism requires polyphony, and indicated the self-structure. On the one hand, the postmodernism criticizes the modernity in all aspects. The outcome of this shared viewpoint is critically formed in postmodern committed art which is reflected in art with sociopolitical theme and entails marginalized areas such as feminists and black arts. The postmodern critical attitude toward modernity as well as critical theory in society criticism provides a flow of consciousness to revise the social state which is reflected in art. Therefore, the main goal of this research is to study and compare social criticism aspect of critical theories in Frankfort School with the socio-political subcultures art after 1960s which is formed in postmodern discourse and both are addressed in line with social consciousness. Therefore, adapting the postmodern art critical procedure to the critical theory, it is assumed that critical art seeks the social justice by making social awareness for education which is investigated by contemporary art discourse studying. The social criticisms of social justice which follow the philosopher and scholars’ idea witnessed the dislocation in orientation of theories toward artists based on the displacements of paradigms in early 2000; that is, art attitudes and thought patterns which are particularly addressed in opposite manner with power and authorization system varied from the 2-D imaginative arts space of conceptual and installation arts. Therefore, it is necessary to investigate the art recognition as a part of social effectiveness and awareness. The basis of critical analysis on art works in sociopolitical dimensions is the critical theory. This research introduces critical arts in socio-political arena as the main reason for change of social awareness in postmodern age by providing an analysis on this theory. The results can be explained based on art examples analyses in social area using the sociopolitical expressions as: the critical art is the reflection of critical theory in sociopolitical attitude and political art area following which yields the art social and contradictory expression with postmodern characteristics among which the opposite voice via awareness for social justice by deconstructing the power structure in postmodern discourse can be fully mentioned. In addition this process has been changed to social manifests in contrast to political hegemonic systems and power criticism by socio-political positions as a critical form and art in executive forms. Therefore, postmodern art is a set of social actions among the network systems which form awareness on society and subsystems and are completely comparable to the critical theories based on which the art ideas and though patterns as particular oppositions to power and authorization system in this discourse are formed.

One of the common elements of textual language is the element of "narration", so that narration as a means of expression has served different literary and artistic forms. The historian uses the narrative to express the message in the film and the painter in order to express the events of history, the views and the hearings. In fact, each of the linguistic types uses the narrative as an adjunct to its own purposes. In the English language, the term narrative is used to describe any narrative that has an incident, personality, quotes, speech, and actions of characters, whether it is a discipline or a prose. Jaap Lintvelt is one of the contemporary thinkers who takes narrative as a common expressive tool in different types of literary and artistic works. The important uses of narration is in any literary genres and in different kinds of art. He, in his book, "Aspects de la narration: thématique, idéologie et identité", considers each narrative constituting three position-takings; narrator position, actor position and audience position. The conflict between narrator and actor shapes two types of narratives: similar narratives and dissimilar ones that each include some subcategories and follow a certain pattern of narrative. This theory has only been used in the literary context; however this article tries to examine narrative types and Jaap Lintvelt’s structural project at the same time in poetry and illustrated the stories of Prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon him and his progeny). The method used in this project is descriptive- analytical and date-gathering is relied on library and poems of famous poets such as, Attar Neyshabouri , Zholideh Neyshabouri and Rainer Maria Rilke. Also this paper depictions of the books, Jami 'al-tawarikh (The Compendium of chronicles) Rashid-al-Din Fazl Allah Ṭabib Hamadāni, vizier to the Mongol Il-khans Ḡāzān (r. 1295-1304) and Öljeitü (Uljāytu; r. 1304-16), Majma' al-Tavarikh Hafiz-i Abru or ʿAbd-Allāh Nur- b. Loṭf-Allāh b. ʿAbd-al-Rašid Behdādini (also Ḵᵛāfi or Haravi; 833/June 1430) ,Siyer-i-Nebi al-Darir ,(Ottoman Turkish: سیر نبی‎) is a Turkish epic about the life of Muhammad, in which the moment of descent of first divine verses by Gabriel to prophet Muhammad(Peace be upon him and his progeny), is described and visualized. The hypothesis of this project is a way of approving Lintvelt’s theory that does not confine narrative to literary texts, but it can be used to examine various arts including illustration. According to the theory, the result obtained from this research shows that, The poem “ Call of Muhammad” written by Rainer Maria Rilke is the narrator of the story world of heterogeneous (narrator ≠ actors), type narrative auctorial and narrative perspectives or the angle of view is "look-back" or "zero angle". Narrative perspectives in Attar Neyshabouri and Zholideh Neyshabouri’s poems are zero and at first, the lines are heterogeneous and auctorial but in Continuance it changed to the same story the narrator's world with narrative active type. In all illustrations, narratives are heterogeneous with narrative active type and narrative perspectives are the "look out" or "outside view".

The human figure has been a common subject of visual arts. Many cultures represent human figures in different ways, giving rise to objects that have been made using a huge variety of materials and manufacturing techniques. Some figures appear in realistic execution and others in stylized or abstract one. Comparing objects made by different artists of the same culture reveals how figurative art often reflects cultural influences. People of different cultures choose to portray the human body in different ways. Such figures often exhibit not only different styles but also different poses. The posture of a figure or its stylized presentation may mean something significant to people of a particular culture, or it may reflect the personal preference of the artist or the patron. In different cultures the human body is treated in varied ways as a means of cultural expression. One of the important periods in the history of Persian painting is the Qajar era in which human figure in arts would take a significant position. Most famous of the Qajar artworks are the portraits that were painted of various Persian Shahs and courtiers. Qajar painting contains various themes the best of which is manifested in the Royal Portraiture. The prominent artworks of this school are those of rulers and princes mostly executed in certain principles. Such works from the court realm could be generally divided into three categories: standing, sitting and equestrian. Here it should be noted that the sitting portraits are of particular characteristics from the viewpoint of physical structures and poses. This matter later would be manifested in the field of folk portraiture and painting as well. The manifestation of the royal portraits in another field of portraiture, i.e. folk (sometimes called “non-royal” or even “low”) art, brings up some questions as follow: What are thestylistic similarities in the royal portraits of the Qajar period in comparison to those of the folk paintings? How are the postures and gestures of figures, especially in sitting poses, reflected? The results of the research demonstrate that Qajar courtly and folk portraitures, with human figure and idealization factor in the center, are indicative of a single style manifested in two themes. Here, figures are personalized and the subject stabilizes its presence on the work. In folk portraiture, sitting poses, mostly kneeled, are distinguished by characteristics such as the subject's distinction, individualization and personalization, while other courtly features such as muscled arms, broad chest and slim waist are left out so that the kingly aspects of works decrease. Furthermore, Qajar portraiture offers a new definition of the human form and figure in painting. In the present article, two main fields, i.e. royal portraiture and the religious folk art, have been studied. Meanwhile, the poses, postures, positions and physiques of portraits in each field have been analyzed. For this purpose, the structures and visual features of the works have been categorized. Then, the continuation of the royal style and its manifestation in folk portraits and other non-royal works has been examined.

The preservation of the authenticity of artworks in the art history and contemporary era has been always important and necessary. In the present era, the return to the traditions of the past has made it necessary to understand the concept of originality in relation to topics such as inspiration and adaptation in the art visual works. Reading past works in the artist's minds reveals their impact in two different ways, one is an inspiration (unconscious influence) and the other is adaptation. In inspiration, the artist without prior intention is affected by the elements and practices of his predecessors, and repeats their form and style work in their artwork. In the second figure, the artist, having full conscious of the origin of the method, engages in it. Of course, these readings sometimes question the notions of authenticity of artwork. Therefore, the importance of understanding the concept of authenticity in relation between two topics such as inspiration and adaptation in the works of visual arts is important and significant. From ancient times to today, we have seen the many artists’ works of the past to this day using various adaptations and references. Of course, the scope of these adaptations is not just limited to visual arts, but we have also seen valuable adaptations in literature, theater and scriptwriting. It is also important to note that, given the fact that any valuable traditional artist in his past finds, the achievement of superb creativity, if not based on innate genius, requires familiarity with artistic tradition and the form inherited by the artist. That is the way to significance the role of inspiration shows. This article aims to explain the position and role of authenticity in visual arts in answer to the main question of whether the artist that inspired and adapted from other visual artworks, can preserve authenticity of artworks. Another issue that is addressed here is the role of artist's individual creativity in the authentication of work. Considering the results of research about the inspiration and adaptation of art works and art history, if artists achieve a new personal and creative statement in accordance with the principles and knowledge, they do not cause destructive effects on authenticity while the new work preserving the authenticity of the earlier work. It can also count as a new authenticity and a genuine artist's expression. In the contemporary era, the division of the artwork’s authenticity into absolute and relative authenticity can allow understanding and preservation of the authenticity’s concept in view of the present age’s complexities. In addition to, an artwork that introduces familiar and well-known issues is not authentic, however the art work that expresses the new perspective and initiative on a subject or content count authentic. Therefore, in the present article, it has been tried to mention the role of inspiration and adaptation concepts separately by introducing samples of some artists’ works and the discussions in relation to the authenticity of the artwork. Research methodology is descriptive analytical method with library studies and using Internet resources.

France and Belgium are the pioneer countries that are so popular in producing famous and fabulous bande dessinees and the early works of these French language countries which illustrate the first and basic features of this art format are those that relate to 20th century. So, the word "bande dessinee" in this article indicates the 20th century`s bande dessinees. The main question of this research is "what are the most important visual resemblances and differences between French and Belgian works?" Actually, by studying significant aspects of some famous and important works of each country and comparing those with each other, we achieved to these similarities and differences. As a matter of fact, French works precede the Belgians so they are kind of source of inspiration for the second country. It means that they obey the specific rules in bande dessinee that at the first time French artists and writers have decided to choose and use them in a useful manner in their bande dessinees. Of course they have their particular aspects too and that is the thing that makes a few differences between these works and the French ones but the number of similarities is more than the number of differences. As a result, there have to be so many similarities between bande dessinees of these regions and because of that it is very interesting to know that sometimes it is so hard to distinguish accurately these artworks from each other and so many times people make a mistake about the source of them. They think of French works as Belgians and Belgian works as Frenches and the true reason relates to what   has mentioned above. It means that Belgium started its activity in making bande dessinee right after the time that France had passed this way before and by valuable experiences which have been obtained through the time had reached to many specific and exclusive features for its own works and in fact France was the one which had defined a unique identity for the art format with its French name bande dessinee in the world and Belgium was the one which pursued France`s way and reached to the goals. Eventually the Belgian bande dessinees have improved faster and better than expected and got more fame and importance as the country of bande dessinee than French ones. To put it in a nut shell, Belgian bande dessinees by troubleshooting the French works had this chance to learn a lot before starting its own way in writing and illustrating bande dessinee  and of course Belgian artists and writers honestly tried very hard to get the weaknesses and strengths of this experienced art format according to French bande dessinees and also they tried to be so faithful to the basic and classical principles and rules and finally they achieved to the goal which is making bande dessinee a popular and beloved art format in the all over the world and make themselves well-known and popular as the country of bande dessinee.

Masoudieh Mansion-Garden was built in 1295 A.H. (1878 A.D.) In the middle of Mansion-Gardens located in the Dowlat neighborhood and in the north of Dar-al Khelafe Naseri (Tehran in the time of Naser al-Din Shah) by order of Masoud Mirza, known as Zell-all Sultan (The Shadow of the Sultan), who was the oldest son of Naser al-Din Shah Qajar. The palace was constructed by Reza Gholi Khan known as Seraj-al Molk as the foreman of the construction workers. This mansion is consisting of an exterior (Beroni), interior (Andaroni), and different other parts which is located on the western side of Nezameyeh Garden and south of the entrance hall of the Negarestan Garden. The complex was at the disposal of the Ministry of Education from 1924 until 1998 and until then is at the disposal of country’s cultural Heritage Organization. Different arts of the period, like tiles, woodcarvings, inscriptions, and others were used in this mansion by the most prominent artists of that era. The inscriptions of this mansion, all of them written in Nasta‘liq style of calligraphy as the most common style of inscriptions in Qajar era, in addition to their artistic quality, are the representations of the building's history through the content of texts. Among all the seven inscriptions of this mansion, just two of them were signed by the calligraphers. The first signed inscription of the Masoudieh is the main sidewalk entrance inscription with the sign of Abdolhussein Zarrin-Qalam as the calligrapher at 1295 A.H. The other inscription with a signature belongs to about forty-eight years later when this building was purchased by the government in order to be used as the ministry of Education and was signed by Abol-Ghasem as the calligrapher and Haji Hussein Kashi-Saz as the tile maker on the entrance of carriage door in 1924. These inscriptions of the mansion were implemented in different contexts and styles like tiles, wood mosaics, Stucco, carvings on the stone, and calligraphy behind the glass. The aim of this study is to investigate the role of inscriptions as decorative elements, the style of calligraphies, and their attribution to Abdolhussein Zarrin-Qalam or other calligraphers of the time, as well as the meanings and connotations of texts and poems. The research methodology is qualitative based on data collection and library studies. In this research, we first investigated the field through photographing and documenting the inscriptions of the Masoudieh mansion, and based on visual and written documents; we proceed to read the inscriptions through a comparative study of others’ works. Although there was not enough evidence of other works of Abdolhussein Zarrin-Qalam as the main calligrapher of the inscriptions, we could find two manuscripts of this artist. Through comparative studies of this building’s inscriptions and Zarrin Qalam’s manuscripts and other contemporary artists like Mirza Gholamreza and Mirza Amo, based on the type of calligraphy, composition, and date of these inscriptions, the probability of assignment of other unsigned inscriptions of the palace to Abdolhussein Zarrin-Qalam was concluded.

Given the importance of the issue of death and resurrection in the Islamic worldview, the issue of burial and how to do it in Islam has a special place. This has made it possible to stay in stone with many signs and symptoms from various historical periods in a wide range of geography in Iran. One of the places where a significant number of stone strata of the Islamic period have been left is Ahar, which has made the museums of the city one of the richest collections of the country's rock formations. These gravestones cover the period from the Ilkhanid to Qajar period, which were moved to the museum at the same time as the Pahlavi era and the beginning of the urbanization of its main places (cemeteries in the city as well as surrounding villages). The stone graves, which are decorated with various types of geometric, vegetarian, human, animal and inscription, are associated with the religious beliefs and beliefs of the people of this region and show direct evidence of the beliefs of their time. The present study intends to study the gravestones on the stone grounds through a symbolic approach through field studies and library studies. In this regard, an attempt has been made to answer a fundamental question in this research: What are the implications of the Ahar Museum's astronomical motifs in terms of themes and symbolism? According to the studies, the designs on the stone estates of the Ahar museum were related to the symbolic religious beliefs and in some cases, by choosing a narrative scene, the deceased was depicted in life. The cemetery can be seen as the architectural manifestation of people's attitude to the phenomenon of death. In different cultures, there is a different encounter with the dead, and after Islam, Iran is the place where the burial of the dead is carried out and the death and grave, and further, the cemetery is of particular importance. The construction of the monument in the Islamic era began as a manifestation of beliefs and practices related to the protection of the dead, along with other religious monuments, and proceeded almost parallel to it. The various methods of constructing the monuments, structurally influenced by various cultural and material factors, are in line with the religions and beliefs of the society. Although the issue of sacred ordinances in Islamic jurisprudence has different opinions, but the presence of a large number of these buildings in many Islamic countries indicates the particular status of this structure in the Islamic society. In Iran, during the Islamic period, the tomb buildings dating back to the fourth century BC, with the advent of various local dynasties in the east and north of Iran, continued throughout the subsequent Islamic periods. The important point in relation to this structure is the relationship between their structural and decorative features with the deceased person; that is, ordinary people have a more significant reputation than simple mantles and prominent people.

Decorating of buildings in brickwork is a dominant factor of decorating in Seljuk period. Brick buildings are of the style and privilege of the Seljuk period. Decorative bricks in between two bricks are generally made with plaster and mold, to imprinting, from around the 4th century AH it is known as the brick ended plugs, the Decorative holes or seals motifs. Ribat Sharaf is one of the major buildings of the Seljuk period in terms of brick decoration, which is referred to as the Iranian brick-making museum.  One of the Seljuk monuments which, despite the use of such a caravanserai, has a huge ornamental decoration in its heart, is the royal estate. It has two mosques and three altars, two of which are preserved, and beautiful decorating stucco in altars and mosques make it one of the rare caravansaries. The diversity of use of gypsum manuscripts in the decoration of this building can be considered and the aim of the article and can be considered as a very valuable topic for clarifying a period of history in order to use the same ornaments in the Seljuk territory that are many and sometimes different climatic distances. In this building, the use of decorating between vertical spaces of two bricks, which we are named stucco relief motifs, in the main elevations of that is quite evident, and the main spaces like the scenes and porches they are the most important parts used to decorate with the decorative motifs. The main entrance door, whereas it has a large variety in using of the stucco relief motifs, but in the comparison between the stucco decoration of the main entrance hall and the entrance to the second courtyard; the second one uses the full stucco coating technique and have many variety to make various designs on it. But decorative stucco is a part of a decorative design that. During a predetermined process, consciously focuses on the simple design of a stucco relief motif into a more complex design of combining the motifs together and then to combining that with brickwork along with could ultimately prepare a beautiful view to watching eye to accept the many decorations that are molded in special spaces such as mosques. The purpose of the research is to analyze the variety of decorative decorations called decorative or bricks in different spaces of the building. So, the questions in this research are; what are the shapes in Ribat Sharaf and how have they spread? The research method is descriptive-analytical and data collection is done by using library resources and field studies. The findings show that Ribat Sharaf's brick ended plugs have a great variety. Seventeen motifs were identified and documented in various places of Ribat, among which eleven are geometric and six of them are herbs. Geometric designs are based on geometric shapes and some of the ancient Iranian motifs such as Chilipa, which is type of the shapes that has four and rarely three branches, and plant designs are the continuity of lotus and Acanthus of the Sasanian period.

For many years, the two great civilizations of Iran and India have repeatedly shared their cultural traditions throughout history. This article, illustrates the book of the cooking NimatNameh in India, that illustrated by Iranian painters, deals with the effects of the painting in the school of Turkmens in Shiraz on this manuscript. The Ni‘matnāma is a late fifteenth-century book of the recipes of the eccentric Sultan of Mandu (Madhya Pradesh), Ghiyath Shahi, collected and added to by his son and successor, Nasir Shah. It contains recipes for cooking a variety of delicacies and epicurean delights, as well as providing remedies and aphrodisiacs for the Sultan and his court. It also includes important sections on the preparation of betel leaves as well as advice on the logistics of hunting expeditions and warfare. The text provides a unique and tantalising account of rarified courtly life in a fifteenth-century Indian Sultanate region. There is only one known copy of the Sultan’s Book of Delights in existence and it isheld in the Oriental and India Office Collections of the British Library. The manuscript is illustrated with fifty elegant miniature paintings, most of which show the Sultan, Ghiyath Shahi, observing the women of his court as they prepare and serve him various dishes. The book is fascinating in that the text documents a remarkable stage in the history of Indian cookery whilst the miniatures demonstrate the influence of imported Persian artists on the style of the Indian artists employed in Ghiyath Shahi’s academy. It now bears the title Ni‘matnāma-i alDīn Shāhī. The work consists of recipes for food and drink, for the preparation and distillation of perfumes and essences and also for aphrodisiacs and remedies for illnesses the first few miniatures are painted in a distinctive Shiraz (Southern Iranian) style but, increasingly, the later illustrations show the indigenous styles of book painting found in Central and Western India. They are important as the earliest known example of miniature painting in an Islamic Deccani style. In addition, the text itself is a very early example of written Urdu. For the first time a facsimile of the original text is reproduced for a scholarly audience. Norah M.Titley, the British Library’s retired curator of illustrated Persian manuscripts, has translated this exquisite book. The problem in this study is: how can the reading of the sign language system of the School of Turkmen School in Shiraz be read on the illustrations of the cooking book paintings in India with a semiosphere approach? The purpose of this paper is to examine the influence of the timurid painting in contrast to Indian painting in NimatNameh manuscript the method of research is descriptive-analytical with the approach of cultural semiotics of Lutman. The result of the research suggests that the remaining version of Sultan Ghiyath-ed-Din's period represents the presence of Iranian painters and painters in Shiraz at Shah Mandu's court.

Installation of sculpture in Iran’s urban spaces and especially in Tehran-as the capital of modern art of Iran- became prevalent from the Ghajar period and after the Islamic Revolution has continued with a growing pace. Urban sculptures have verity of thematic, content and formic styles and amongst them sculptures with the feminine subject contain special sensitivity from the structural and thematic points of view because of the special attention to women and the feminine figurative statues throughout the whole history of Iran and the world as well. As abundant motives and sculptures of goddesses and motherhood goddesses and feminine figurines have been discovered in different excavations all over the ancient sites around the world, revealing the importance and value of women through the whole history. In the contemporary society as well, the artists and their clients, each with their own attitude and techniques and structures have approached the woman subject and actually demonstrated part of social dominant culture and ideology in regard of woman or tried to induct concepts and identity according their opinion. According to the above mentioned content, consideration of feminine sculpting is not only a new and baseless and insubstantial subject, but also seeks precise attention and study. Hence, this research after an abstract explanation of value of woman through the Iran’s history, is observing and categorizing feminine sculptures installed in Tehran between 1976 to 1996 A.D. thematically an describes some of their formic and content specifications to answer this question that what qualities of the woman subject has come to attention of sculptors and their clients and which dimension of identity and existence of woman has been of the most emphasis and attention and also which ways are used by artists to design and demonstrate female figurines in accordance with Islamic Iranian culture and ideology. The results of the research reveals that investigating the feminine urban sculptures can almost to a great degree lead to understanding the dominant attitude in the society regarding position and role of woman in every society as of in design and construction of the urban feminine sculptures of Tehran, the theme of motherhood, such as the whole history of feminine sculpting, has obtained the most approved identical aspect of woman and other identities and aspects of women such as social aspects like portraits of distinguished and famous Iranian women has been considered less by artists and their clients. Also, formalistic investigation of these art works show that because of religious, legislative and cultural limitations in an Islamic country for exhibiting feminine figurines and also today’s attitude regarding female nudity, which unlike the old periods in history, is equivalent to pornography, sculptor artists have used tricks in design and construction to justify and legitimate installation of works in the public places. The research method used in this research is descriptive-analytical research method and library and field research are used in collecting information and images to categorize theme and content of art works, for describing their specifications and analyzing and describing them qualitatively.

In 1842, three years after its announcement in Paris, photography, as a gift, was brought to Mohammad Shah Qajar’s palace by both England’s and Russia’s legations. It was later put into the hands of Naser al-Din Shah Qajar (r. 1848-96) and his courtiers as an object for entertainment and was used vastly. In Iran, we could regard photography as a tool, which was brought to the court unintentionally and without any previous inquiry from the king or royal family, although there could be the ideological and colonial goals for introducing the camera to Iran’s court by European states intentionally. The camera stayed for years in the palace and in the shah’s hands, the courtiers’, and other Qajar nobles’ and consequently too many photographs were taken and archived.  The photos` archive of the Qajar period is undoubtedly one of the largest visual treasures and an important part of Iranian history. If we consider this archive as a visual atmosphere, then it is possible to discuss ontological issues regarding it or analyze the essence and circumstance of this visual atmosphere from a critical point of view. If this visual atmosphere is named Visuality then we can ask what kind of visuality, why and how it was formed during the Naseri period, what functions could this visuality have had in the past, or even in future? We can regard visuality as a visual synonym for discourse. Foucault considers discourse as violence or a violent procedure that we frame phenomena (e.g., history) to study them. This procedure or method is the only way to legitimize historical events and to interrogate history. Such a position in relation to the history of photography in Iran can be considered as a fundamental study in this field; something that has been neglected almost in scholarly work on Iran’s history of photography. Genealogy as a historical methodology can make a suitable framework for this paper. The author justifies a possibility that the visuality of photography in the Naseri period is politically formed and articulated, albeit in the context of the traditional concept of politics. There were some reasons, such as the camera in the hands of the most important person in a country; taking the first photographs there; the establishment of the first house of photography in the palace for fixing the photography on a structure called government and palace; being formed in politics; and connecting with power relations. Yet we should consider politics and government based on their traditional concepts, and that is why the author can talk about the formation of political visuality in this period. Of course, one should not miss the political-orientalist view that can maintain its political, social and cultural functions even till now. Indeed the foreign photographers have paid more attention to the social subjects and generally the eastern-Iranian man; in other words, the view of orientalist is completely obvious in the documentary social photos taken by them for rulers, curators and later for those scholars whose job was to study about Iran.

“Design” is referred to the process in human`s mind that results in creating a concept from solving a problem. Nowadays, academic design education has been improved considerably and research in this area entered a new era. The necessity of training to help the designers understanding and then implementing systematic approaches in the process of design is now very well appreciated in academia. Therefore, scientifically approaching the design matter and training experts to address this shortcoming for a wide range of professions is urging. This paradigm shift has caused some sort of complexity in the thinking process of designers. As the result, this has become an attractive subject in design methodology researches. In the current study the impact of academic studies on the problem-solving process of a design student`s mind has been investigated. In order to cover all aspects of such impact, an experimental study was designed and conducted to explore the essence of the concepts and skills that design students in University of Tehran acquire during their studies. Due to the obscure stimuli and responses, the study of thinking can be very challenging or in some cases not feasible. Therefore, to achieve this goal, protocol analysis was adopted in this research to study the thinking process for a number of cases. According to the literature, protocol analysis is an empirical observational research method developed to explore and analyse human behaviour. This method can be used to make a comprehensive understanding of the processes taking place in a designer’s mind. A protocol is referred the subjects` behaviours recorded in the course of time. With advancements in psychology and developing psychologically methods, verbal and thinking behaviour became an interesting subject where preparing verbal reports was begun. Thinking aloud which is the basis of the verbal reports in the protocol analysis, reveals the processes taking place in the subject`s mind during design. In this case the experiment was then conducted using protocol analysis on two junior students and two recently graduates, followed by the final study on two subjects. The junior student`s problem-solving behaviour was compared with the one recorded for graduate student. The differences were then categorised into three factors including time, problem addressing, and design phases. The junior subject was found to be more creative and has a freer mind in developing ideas. However, addressing the problem and describing the details were difficult for him. He showed to be more concerned about the general idea while, the graduate acted more systematic in problem-solving. The graduate subject became so involved in details that lost her focus on creativity. The results were discussed and represented in more details in the latter sections. It was concluded that academic design education, may affect designer`s thinking resulting in concentration on methodology and process-driven approaches causing a loss in creativity. The hypotheses however need to be investigated further in future studies. At the end of the report, the research constraints and future suggestions were also presented.