“Desert”, a word in English that has the same spelling with the word meaning “abandoned” and referring to a type of barren landscape, seems to be a tricky topic choice for this creating assignment. Hence, the first step that I took was to write down just the word “desert” and record whatever comes to my mind. When I looked at that word and closed my minds, I soon reminisced from my mind the experiences when I was with my friends under the starry sky of the Abu Dhabi deserts; and from that, I connected other memories and thoughts I had when I was in the UAE.
The results seem rather far-reaching. However, they provided me with many thoughts and insights about the notion of “desert”, both physical and metaphorical. In order for me to implement easily, I hence decided to make a small desert out of old newspapers to symbolize the desert’s timelessness and relation to ancient means of timekeeping through sand. Next, I decided to add oasis and coins to symbolize the deserts’ nature of a place of possibilities, hidden treasures, and in a broader sense, creation, just like the word “sandbox”.
The first step of this work is to create a base for the “sand” to sit on. The base also let the sand to have a wavy trend like sand dunes.However, it is quite difficult to find newspaper nowadays so old wastepaper with words are used instead.
The u-disks inserted into the “sand” symbolizes technological advancements. For example, they can be interpreted as buildings (whose concrete requires sand), or civil engineering-related fields. We can also look at it from a material or electrical point of view (also related to the use of sand). The flash and ICs in the disks are mainly made from silicon while the quartz is obviously made from quartz. Both of which are derived from silicon dioxide, which can be basically regarded as sand with higher purity. I found this interpretation quite interesting.
The oasis are made from blue packaging and actual plant leaves. This symbolizes the intrinsic and eternal element of hope in each and every desert. We can also say from the use of actual leaves and packaging that as our society progress in this constant spiral of destruction and creation just like how desert buries everything that comes before it into a crude state and turns them into essence for the next cycle of creation, what advances is not just technology or wealth, but also respect for and integration with our gorgeous and perfect nature around us.
The background was inspired when I look into my clothes through a mirror. This shirt was from Expo 2020 Dubai with its main theme “Connecting Minds, Creating Future” printed in calligraphy of Arabic, a language spoken in the vast deserts. This line further stresses the desert’s contribution in creation and unseen possibilities in advancements for a higher common cause.
