Earlier this month, Dr. Michael Rao, president of Virginia Commonwealth University, made a bold statement: it’s time to move “beyond” the educational model developed by Oxford University in the High Middle Ages. Rao was speaking at the opening of “أغرب إدراك: Aghrab Idrāk: Thresholds of Perception,” a an official Venice Biennale collateral exhibition presented by VCUarts at Palazzo Cavanis in Venice. Indeed, “Aghrab Idrāk” is a rare show for a university, a sort of proof of concept for a new way of teaching the arts. Related Articles An interdisciplinary program, VCUarts Qatar organizes its offerings through creative research labs that mash up not just creative practices like graphic arts, textile design, audiovisual engineering, typography, and illustration, but also disciplines like anthropology, computer science, and engineering. The result is labs like Sonic Jeel, which focuses on sonic cultures; the Anthro-tech Atelier, which combines anthropology and design; and xLab, which designs typefaces and electronic displays built for Arabic scripts. It’s an unconventional structure, but one that was developed to serve VCUarts Qatar’s scale: the university hosts only …