[2] During the residency period, I researched the history of navigation (shipping) and specifically early Arabic navigation systems (hand and body gestures) that revolutionized nautical orientation. The Book of Curiosities is an 11th-century Arabic manuscript collection that assembles the first cartographic records of the earth. Using a digitized version of these maps through the Bodleian Library, I made freehand sketches that formed a visual score. The spatial installation included several moving panels of fabric, reminiscent of sails, which create different spatial situations during the performance. Inspired by the history of the Silk Road, Arabic incense was burnt and transported through the room.

The rectangular world map from the
“Book of Curiosities” is considered the earliest
preserved map with a graphic scale,
not only in Islam, but also in
the history of European cartography.
The map is reminiscent of its features of
the cartographic systems of antiquity, as well as
of the works of Islamic astronomers
such as Al-Khwarazmi.