An Interesting Direction

I love the focus that a fixed "theme" provides when designing and am still waiting expectantly for the theme of the 2012 Fils et Metier Expo in Varaignes, France. So, I thought I would take an earlier theme, from the 2010 Expo which was simply "30", and see where it lead me compared to those who exhibited in 2010. http://www.filsetmetiers.com/expos.php
My first thought was, why couldn't it have been "20" as the title 20/20 vision came to mind, so how about 30/30? 30 degrees North, 30 degrees East? Where is that? Well actually it's in the desert in Egypt! So not much material to design around there...how wrong can you be? Totally! Because I discovered there is a 15 year old project called The Degree Confluence Project whose aim is to visit and photograph every degree intercesection of latitude and longitude in the world that is either on or in sight of land. Amazingly nearly all have been visited and photographed, including 30N 30E. Coincidentally, there was also a 4WD club in Egypt called the 30-30 Club whose aim was to get to this pont by vehicle and their tradition was to add a piece of petrified forest wood to a pile they created, and often to leave a message in a bottle...so it's not just desert, as you can see.

Here is the picture they took.

30N 30E, 54km SW of Izbat Kafr Dāwūd (al-Buhayra), Matrūh, Egypt

EARLY THOUGHTS
I already have an outline design. The main cloth pattern will need to evoke the shapes in the sand caused by the wind and maybe the sand particles themselves; fortunately, the regularity of sand crystal shapes make them fairly easy to replicate.
The tyre tracks are also a feature I want to get into the main cloth. The cairn of petrowood? The messages?I want to "add" that in some way; maybe a 2 layer weave, maybe as a sculpted layer onto the cloth.......

I will have to change the colours though...need something more vivid so a desert sunset is probbaly more appropriate...here is a pic. of sunset in the North Sahara... I love the orange!

Sunset in the Northern Sahara Desert


I am also looking now at using "Sand and Desert" as a theme or maybe the Degree Confluence concept, for a series of wall hangings and sculptures. I did look at the intersection 20/20 (20N 20E) and it's in the desert in Chad and has not been visited by the project - unsurprising considering the decades of religeous and civil war in the region. Maybe I will choose another....wherever you live, you are never more than 80km from a degree confluence...unfortunately, my adjacent intercections are a drainage ditch beside a road and an empty field- how uninspiring is that!