Eclectic Projects Drawing in Social Space FOUR AZ OOR 3 Apr 2023 – 31 Jul 2023 Back DISS4_c Walking, Drawing, Mapping: a collaboration across Art and Geography The fourth project extended the partnership to the University of Nevada Reno, working with Moroccan artist AZ OOR, and testing the design of Drawing in Social Space outside an urban context. AZ OOR posed questions to the group, such as: What is a line? What does it mean to draw from above? AZ OOR cited a concept developed by Moroccan sociologist Paul Pascon, that explored the difference between ‘water from the sky vs. water from the state.’ AZ OOR’s aim was to raise consciousness of maps as a means of controlling and organising the world. The arid climates of Marrakech and northern Nevada enabled participants to specifically explore mapping as a means to manage access to water. Through walking, drawing, mapping, talking, participants related the history of water management in Marrakech, to the relationship between two Nevadan lakes that are connected by the Truckee river: Lake Tahoe and Pyramid Lake. Tahoe is a popular tourist destination; Pyramid is on protected indigenous land. Working across disciplines, a variety of methods were explored to collect, record and measure information, and these revealed complexities to do with conservation and reparation. These became the basis for comparative discussions and creativity. AZ OOR (Noureddine Ezarraf ) (b. 1992) is a multidisciplinary artist and poet based between Aghmat and Marrakech, Moroccan. He also works as part of Qanat Collective. With a background in political economy, his research explores the hydro-politics in rural Morocco. For him, the geometries of water distribution offer a matrix to investigate the transformations of time, agri/cultures, rituals and social relations. Through a multidisciplinary and hybrid practice, his work spans from research into the institutes interconnecting architecture and proxemics with the politics embedded in listening, to the iconologies and rhetorics of tourism as an hyper-colonisation of spaces and territories, especially in the context of Morocco. The final stage of the project – creation of the zine – is being developed between AZ OOR and two graduate students from UNR: Bobby Lee from Art and Betta Manalo from Geography. Thank you to all involved: Kate Berry Professor of Geography Kelly Chorpening Professor and Chair of Art, University of Nevada Reno. Adam Csank Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of Geography at UNR Mikayla Dimulias, BFA Graphic Design student Alejandra Griswold, BA Geography student Cryssa Jaggers, BFA Graphic Design student Bobby Lee, MFA student Art Monica Maccaux, Associate Professor Graphic Design, UNR Betta Manalo, MA student, Geography Rick Parsons, Director of the Holman Arts and Media Center, UNR Lake Tahoe. Hannah Potts, BA Geography student Jacob Rosenbaum, BA Geography student Hannah Saitz, BFA Graphic Design student Kylee Santos, BFA Graphic Design student Holly Strasser, BA Art and English student Paul White Associate Professor Geography, UNR Scrapbook “What is a line? The Euclidean line, is a fictional idea, used in the physical world. Lines, leading to the grid are intrinsic to order and composition. How can they be played with, to understand, to unlearn?” AZ OOR, Artist