Manchester School of Art MA Show 2012
Fri September 28 - Fri October 05
An exhibition of work by Art, Design, Media & Architecture postgraduate students
Yatie Aziz
Recolonisation
Desertification is defined as, "Land degradation in arid, semi-arid and dry sub-humid areas resulting from various factors, including climatic variations and human activities" (UNCCD, 1997). It is not just a physical problem but also a social one. With 3 billion people and 1/3 of the world's land area affected, desertification is ranked as Top 10 major global environmental issues, along with climate change and rising sea levels (UNCCD, 1999).
The causes-effects of desertification are accumulative through human and social activities, which have become separated from the biocentric systems that maintain a dynamic balance in the landscape; uncontrolled activities such as the generic construction of infrastructure, uncontrolled urban sprawl, large-scale agriculture, unbalanced demographics, excessive soil loss, climate-change, removal of vegetation cover, destruction of habitats, species depletion, deterioration of water quality and reduction in available quantity, leading to unpredictable droughts.
Emulating the stigmergic behaviours of Ant Colony, 'Recolonisation' is a process in reversing desertification by looking at nature for answers. Ant Colony principles of traces, decentralised & self-organised networks and mass collaborations are utilised to stimulate interventions at local levels subsequently reinforcing and building on positive actions leading to the spontaneous emergence of coherent and systematic development at larger-scales. 'Recolonisation' process consists balanced crossover strategies of 'Physical vs. Social', where environmental and socio-economics conditions are curated through the vision of time.
