You Monument

Front Cover

YOU

MONUMENT

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Who are you?

Intro

You are the universe, you are everything but you are also nothing. I believe as humans we our energies are all connected on a different level in ways we cannot perceive.

Everyone has their own beliefs but a the core of all religions we are slaves to a power greater than us that is unachievable.

When I was given the opportunity to let my imagination free and create an idea for a monument, I was asked who is important to me? Who do I idolize or people idolize and what great contributions has this person contributed to me.

As I sat and pondered about who I idolize I could not think of just one person. So instead of taking the orthodox route I chose you. You might have you doubts about yourself and you might be a regular person but you are a part of this universe, you are the universe experiencing itself. I like to think of people as a puzzle pieces and if one person throughout the human races existence did not exist, we would not be part of the exact same reality. So as you flip through my zine I want you to feel gratitude as you are a piece of the story of this perceivable reality.

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Picture taken by Florence Henri.

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The thought process...

7.8 Billion people inhabit this world. Humans have been around for approximately 300,000 years, and our population has been growing exponentially since then. Humanity as on big civilization has been evolving and changing the world for 300,000 years and every single human that has grazed the earth has had an impact towards the evolution of our being. Every single person that has or will touch this world each has a story, A consciousness, feelings, and dreams and aspirations. We are all working towards becoming better and making this world better as we push our limits and make a stride towards a brighter future chasing a Utopian society. I want to make a monument that represents us! Everyone on this earth no matter what color, race, or sexual orientation. I believe we deserve it after all, we have achieved so much for the time we have been here, we went from hunting and eating with tree branches to a society with an economy, cultures, vehicles, and even grocery stores. We have it so good because of us, because of the minds of history that have shaped our modern world, through hardships and pain that were made consciously to better humanity.

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What will the monument look like?

I want to make a large monument, kind of like the Statue of Liberty in New York. This monument will be a human body, not male nor female and I want it made of different metals to represent the different races of humanity, I want it to stand very tall, and strong. The body will be holding a book in one hand and the other arm will be point to the ski with the index finger pointing up, the book will represent the knowledge we have discovered and obtained and the finger pointing up will represent the direction in which humanity will be going, up! The Face will be made completely out of mirrors or another reflective material. I chose a reflective material such as mirror because what do you see when you look at a mirror? Your reflection, and I want the face to represent who ever is looking at the monument as it represents us all.

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Locations: You Monument will be in the center of the George Mason University campus near the Johnson Center on the main plaza with the brick laid floor.

The second location I would pick is Dubai, United Arab Emirates, I feel like this city is becoming a very well-respected city in the world and Dubai is also home to the tallest building in the world. Therefore, the monument that is supposed to represent the human civilization should stand in one of the most extraordinary cities on earth.

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Concept:

Back Cover

Farouk Al Alousi