Today's Edition
SARA ALZAABI (ABU DHABI)
Aletihad spoke with two finalists of the Abu Dhabi Sustainable Digital Art Competition at Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week 2025, about their creative processes and how they use art to raise awareness about sustainability and environmental issues.
Manila Simon, an architect originally from India and now based in Abu Dhabi, has combined her architectural expertise with her passion for digital art.
Her artwork reflects her belief that "art is a powerful tool for raising awareness and addressing social issues".
For Manila, sustainability begins with individuals, particularly within the family unit.
"Change begins within the family, and once that change is established, it can ripple outward to the wider community," she explains.
Through her art, she illustrates the role of eco-friendly practices in creating healthier families, ultimately contributing to a better world.
Manila’s art symbolically uses three hands to represent her family — herself, her husband and their child - embodying the idea that sustainable change begins at home and spreads outward to the community.
She believes that while AI can assist in promoting sustainability, true progress is driven by human intervention.
"While AI can assist in sustainability initiatives, it is the human action that drives actual progress," Manila notes.
Her artistic process involves conceptualising ideas and refining them through digital mediums, which allow for quick adjustments and the ability to share her work with a broad audience.
As an architect, Manila’s design philosophy integrates sustainability with aesthetic value, focusing on minimalist, eco-friendly spaces.
Her approach to both art and architecture highlights the need for a balance between beauty and environmental responsibility.
Aletihad also met Binyang Xu, a graduate of the Central Academy of Fine Arts in China.
Binyang’s digital art project, "Invisible Debt", highlights the hidden environmental and social costs embedded in global supply chains, particularly in the textile industry.
The project was inspired by the real-life struggles of students and teachers at a school in Bangladesh, where polluted river water, tainted by nearby dyeing factories, affects their daily lives.
Binyang’s project aims to raise awareness about the hidden costs of the clothes consumers wear, urging them to think critically about the global supply chain that sustains the fashion industry.
"I want to tell people to think about the hidden costs of their clothes and maybe encourage the regulation of clothing factories and the emissions that are transferred through the global supply chain."
His work explores carbon emissions and how wealthier nations’ industrial activities have lasting consequences on less-developed regions.
