Alya__the walls will kill us all

 slides 

Abstract: 

‘the indulgence of spoiled tree-huggers who lack a proper cause’, Edward Said. that is how I used to perceive people speaking about climate change while human beings are being slaughtered. until I found an article by Naomi Klein that made me look at the bigger picture.

Middle East suffers a lot of environmental issues that both shouldn’t and couldn’t be ignored. Heat, and lack of water resources as well as the complete dependence on fossil fuel. but what evoked my interest the most is war and how it affects the environment.

When the word war is mentioned we imagine  fire,  blood and rubble. but in addition to that we should also pay attention to burning – or even intentionally cut- trees in Palestine, or polluting rivers in Iraq. so I made this piece to put more attention to that part of war destruction. in a mixed media piece. that might potentially turn to a mixed reality piece.

Concept, design questions, goal:  

the piece is on Geopolitics and war and how it affect environment and human alike. I wanted to explore different mediums to express the idea of mixing the seen and unseen, by using physical and non-physical (virtual or light which takes the shape of projection). as an interpretation of what we see and don’t see in war. to make a comment, to make people who weren’t aware of that -just like me- realize how bad it can get.

Research: 

“What effects borders has on us middle eastern?”

That’s how I started my research, to realize the number of animals and plants that went distinct after digging the Suez canal. which made me more concerned about the huge wall between Iraq and Saudi that has no actual reports or articles about it’s effects other than using it to control human flow ( for Jihad purpose ) during Iraq invasion. Going back to digging canals, Saudi Arabia has made unofficial statements about digging a canal between Saudi and Qatar as an effect of the political conflict between both countries. not only that I find it childish act but it will definitely affect the wild life flow in the area, not to mention the unnecessary expenses and the long lasting sociological crack (literally).

Naomi Klein’s article “Let Them Drown” addressed different points that I tried to transfer in my piece. most importantly, is the concept of صمود or as she wrote sumud. which means resistance, durability or (‘to stay put, to hold on’). to not leave one’s land no matter how bad the struggle and resistance gets.

Audience & experience: 

The piece is for all people, all ages and genders and from all backgrounds. it will speak more to people who have interest in either politics or environmental issues. although I imagine that different people can relate to and interpret it in a different way.

Technical Production: 

I used Artec during the 3D scanning process. and then Unity to build the environment. after that when the direction changed I used Adobe Premiere to edit and then moved it to Unity after I failed to present it as I intended. video

Prototyping & testing: 

The making process was very exploratory. My strategy was to figure it out through making, and that what led me to the 3D scans to make a mixed reality experience. Unfortunately, later I had to change the direction due to the time and resource limitation. so I worked on a mixed media piece that has both physical and virtual ( projection/ video ) component.   I am still hoping to push the piece further before presenting it in Alto.