Are we standing
on solid ground?

Performative Object | Spatial Narrative | Absence

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An interactive design project that reflects on the hidden impact of underground resource extraction. While the ground is usually experienced as a stable surface, beneath it lies a layered and dynamic world marked by both natural processes and human intervention. When resources are removed, what remains is an unseen void, a space shaped by absence.

This work explores that hidden space by translating it into a form that can be held and encountered through the body. Using sections from an extraction site, I created a three-dimensional model of an underground cavity and scaled it to fit within a human hand. Through the tactile process of molding it in clay, the distant and unreachable becomes intimate and personal.

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The resulting figurine refers to ancient relationships with oil while also reflecting on contemporary dependence on natural resources. By holding the object, participants are invited to sense what lies beneath them and to reconsider the ground not only as surface, but as a layered record of human action and transformation.