The Landscape as a Radical Archive: Empty Quarter Desert “Rub Al Khali”

This project curates a set of textual and visual materials including books, historic maps, and photographs to be viewed as an archival collection that is a necessary intervention to environmental knowledge. It is designed as an expedition for people to encounter ecological, social, economic and political narratives within the Empty Quarter desert. The aim is to challenge the prevailing notion of deserts as empty. It is a journey from the seen desert landscape as a vast empty land into the unseen fullness of the desert.

Along the road trip route, the viewer will experience the desert as an agricultural land, a site for natural resource extraction, a commodified landscape, and a fertile land for city building. The road trip route is an archive that will unfold gradually at every stop to allow the viewer to engage with a set of artifacts including book chapters, artworks, historic imagery, and maps. These artifacts will present hidden stories from the past or prompt projections into the future in order to transform the way we perceive, interact and intervene in arid environments.