The Library of
Wisdom 


Body as a machine poster

            
                Body as a Machine is a project inspired by Fritz Kahn’s ‘Der Mensch als Industriepalast’ or Man as ‘Industrial Palace’, a piece focusing around visualization of the human body as a piece of machinery. My project is based on translating the complex process of  how the ancient  Great Library of Alexandria operate and accumulate their knowledge

The Library of Wisdom system of operation is based on the story that in ancient time, when merchant ships came to port at Alexandria, the official will scour the ship of any books on board. Any books or scrolls they found will be seized and the send to the Great library, where the scribes will began copying the manuscript for the collection. The library  then kept the original and send they copied version back to the merchant. Organs, organ systems and cells are translated components of the Library such as the books, which are the input, is translated from the food we consume. Lungs turned into the library parts, Liver became the place where new scholars (blood cells) are being recruited and the whole digestive system is turned into the copying and book-making factory. The composition of this piece is oriented to resemble the position of each organs and systems in the human body.

I use dip pen and brown ink on tea-dyed paper inorder to create the ‘old effect’

from Studio in Graphic Communication Design
Class of 2017.
A CommDe project.





The Brain is function as the Administration centre where all the bureacrats and scholars gathered to
discuss and debate on the knowledge recieved




Mouth and Nose are combined into input, which were represent by the merchant ship coming to the library




Lungs were used as the Library halls flanking the sidecontaining all the collected knowledge that is used withing the Library complex




Heart is the Central platform where all the scholars and acolytes (blood cells) interchange different path to different parts of the system




The Amphitheatre on the left side represent the Liver, where new blood cells are being produced. These cells are represent by the scholars being tutored by senior scholars




Lastly, the whole Digestive system were transformed into Production line of books and scrolls, the original copy were send back up the library halls while the copied version were loaded back on the ship they came from.

Mark





Mi’raj (المعراج)


Paper relief of mystical dreamscape

            
               Mi’raj (المعراج) is a project inspired by the spiritual journey of the same name by Prophet Muhammad, where he ascended into heaven and received his divine revelation from god. From a more secular perspective, one could interpret that we human beings took a similar journey every night in the form of dreams. Within this realm of slumber, theoretically, it is the closest place for us mortal to grasp a glimpse of the divine.

Gouache-painted paper relief
50 X 65 cm
2022 



In the centre lies The Prophet, traveller of dreams



And on the edge of reality sits the Keeper of the Sacred flame, one who kept alive the psyche of men



The Great Primordial serpent, vanquished by the Avenger, he who sat at the end of all thing,
awaiting to unleash total annihilation of the universe.



One of the five keystones of human soul, the Flame of Inspiration maintain the aspect of wonder
in the heart and mind of humankind.



The Muses, composer of the heavenly choir, sat and sang and serenade the order of the universe



Bearer of the sacred gifts, the Magi, come to venerate the coming of The Prophet with their divine gifts
Mark






The frog who desired 


A children book project

            
                The frogs who desired is one of the 9 series of children book, where traditional folk tales told to children in the region of Thailand has been re-imagined within a modern context, combining the traditional narrative with a bigger, more contemporary issues. This work is a collaboration between 9 artists and the METABOLIC MODULES group.

The frog who desired reimagined the story of The frog who wished for a king by the famous Greek storyteller Aesop. The narrative shifted to fit the concept given by the METABOLIC MODULES of ‘community’ and how different groups of people engage with their community and the resourced available within it. Social struggle and the distribution of resources is the main them presented here, while changing the disastrous end of the frogs in the pond, to their cooperation and struggle against the increasingly capitalistic world. 

for ‘Nine Folks Tales’ 
A 2022 project.





















Mark






The House of Wisdom


Islamic Golden Age interactive painting
            
                Our modern history derived mostly from the viewpoint of the western world, which means other perspectives struggle to be represented accurately. One of these stories is that of Islam and Muslims. In addition to the lack of representation in history, the advent of 9-11 and the recent rise of radical Islam had further pushed the discourse presented by the western media that we are barbarous and incompatible with the modern world. The irony is that, between the time of the Greeks and the Renaissance period, lies the forgotten era of the Islamic Golden Age. It was during this time that the great scholars of the Islamic world gathered together beneath the dome of the House of Wisdom to research, adapt, and build upon the foundation of Greek knowledge. From here, the foundation of our modern, western society fixed its roots.

House of Wisdom is an interactive painting project that narrates the forgotten story of the Islamic Golden Age. It provides an alternative narrative of Islam and Muslims that challenges the status quo that Muslims and Islam are incompatible with the modern world. This is achieved by showing the less well-known, yet critical contributions of the Islamic golden age that shape our contemporary world. The project is divided into two parts: the painting and the hidden animated narrative. In order to see the hidden stories, the audience must download the application Artivive on your phone and try to ‘scan’ the painting in order to discover the forgotten stories of the Islamic Golden Age.

For full-resolution image, please click here

CommDe Senior project
Class of 2020


 
Application’s QR Code






The House of Wisdom was established by the two great Caliphs, Harun Al-Rashid and Al-Ma’mun, who sponsored its construction and the translation movement.





Scholars work together to translate ancient knowledge of the Greeks and other ancient civilizations into a common language, Arabic.



This knowledge is then read, fixed, and adapted, resulting in new contributions that has impacted our modern world, Like Jabir ibn Hayyan (left), father of chemistry, and Al-Khwarizmi (right), who invented modern algebra. (Scannable with Artivive)




Al-Zahrawi (right), the father of surgery, who invented many surgical Instruments that are still used in modern surgery today. (Scannable with Artivive)




Al-Haytham (left), who figured out how light travels. Ibn-Sina (middle), who lay the foundation for modern medicine and Ibn-Rushd (right), the father of western philosophy. (Scannable with Artivive)

Mark





QUESTIONS FOR YOUR
MUSLIM FRIENDS


Bangkok Artbook Fair 2019 Workshop project
            
               
    Questions for your Muslim Friends made (คำถามที่คุณอยากรู้แต่ไม่กล้าถามเพื่อนมุสลิมของคุณ) is a book about my own experience as a Muslim kid living in a buddhist-majority Thai society. Within the book, I explained questions that I often get asked by my non-muslim friends and associates

20 Questions divided by my 3 life stages, Elementary school, High school and College. These 20 questions are fitted into 80 pages filled with colourful illustrations that helps explain each question as simple as possible.

A part of Bangkok Artbook Fair 2019 UNUSUAL book workshop














Mark