MIRZA MAS’ODVisual Designer
About
Projects
Zero.Dawn
Archaeologies I
[Meta]Morphosis: Insecta
CTRL+ART+DEL
Transient Workers Matter 2
U.C.S
Citizen Apparel
Viral
Various Works
Posters
Photography
Contact
Download CV
MIRZA MAS’ODVisual Designer
About
Projects
Zero.Dawn
Archaeologies I
[Meta]Morphosis: Insecta
CTRL+ART+DEL
Transient Workers Matter 2
U.C.S
Citizen Apparel
Viral
Various Works
Posters
Photography
Contact
Download CV
Archaeologies I:
Aerials Of Unrealised Civilizations
2024Speculative ArchaeologyVisual Storytelling Book DesignTypographyCultural Narratives
"Then perished all flesh that moved on the earth... Then life reappeared and life once again flourished... Times blend together, veiled by Legend, and Elam is situated halfway between the Dream and Barbarism."
– Sophie Khan, Travel Journal, Villa Medici, 1993
How do cycles of civilisation shape our understanding of the past and our visions of the future? This question inspired Archaeologies I, a project exploring the intersection of archaeology and speculative futures.
Using generative AI, I created 72 unique visual constructs of hypothetical archaeological sites. The number 72 is deliberately chosen, echoing the ancient astronomical observation of Earth's axial precession - a 72-year cycle known to many early civilisations. Each image correlates with discrete moments in this precessional cycle and Sumerian numerical systems. The result is a series of ersatz aerial perspectives of excavation sites, serving as orthographic projections of imagined archaeological loci.
This project emerged from my fascination with ancient history and its interplay with speculative futures. It poses the question: How do our perceptions of past civilisations, their rises and falls - often aligned with celestial cycles - influence the form of our world today? And how might these cyclical narratives, deeply embedded in our understanding of time and space, shape our imagined futures?
References
Hodder, I., "Entangled: An Archaeology of the Relationships between Humans and Things" Renfrew, C., "Prehistory: The Making of the Human Mind"Gibson, W., "The Peripheral"
Stephenson, N., "Anathem"
Latour, B., "We Have Never Been Modern"
Haraway, D., "Staying with the Trouble: Making Kin in the Chthulucene"
Kansa, E., "OpenContext: Linked Open Data for Archaeology"
Shanks, M., "The Archaeological Imagination" Barad, K., "Meeting the Universe Halfway: Quantum Physics and the Entanglement of Matter and Meaning"