I attempted to write my first 1000 word article for an art journal in Muscat ,which was too academic perhaps.The objective of the article was to educate readers about new media.Whether the article will be accepted or not , will have to wait and see.....
Since the time Marcel Duchamps
challenged the scope of art with the use of a readymade ceramic urinal in his seminal work “Fountain”( 1917), artists have been empowered to define what can be and what cannot be termed as art. Artists
have always used unfamiliar and complex tools and techniques to fuel their
imaginations. As a result of the invasion of our lives by electronic devices
and media, art is undergoing a fundamental transformation and the advent of
technology is exerting an increasingly powerful influence on artistic
procedures. Through a vast array of installations, videotapes, television
productions, films ,soundscapes and performances, new age artists have reshaped
the perceptions of the temporal image in contemporary art.
The twentieth century has
brought in new technological devices that operate invisible, highly efficient
branch networks. The computer code has taken over our everyday lives.Television
and computers have given birth to the two main art forms of video and digital
art, another recent revolution that threatens to transform our age old
relationship with the real world. A computer based simulated environment
enables its users to inhabit it and interact with it.
New media art refers to the intersection of new technologies in contemporary
art.It deals essentially with electronic media and comprises of a range of
associated areas like installation art , some that are even constantly changing
form, video art and performances. Taken in totality, new media art must be
viewed as a specific art movement that incorporates technologies and forms
which simultaneously pay attention to thematic content and conceptual
strategies.
Installation art: does not restrict itself to any specific medium, thus
helping to create a visceral and conceptual experience in a particular space. A
range of diverse materials are used in
installation art such as everyday objects or natural found materials video,
sound , computers and even the internet. Rather than focusing on only specific
or isolated objects, installation art considers the viewer's entire range of
sensory perception to create a three dimensional experience. Like most art
forms, it is essentially expressive, conveying a feeling, an idea, a mood or
such and unlike most art forms it encompasses the adjacent space as an
extension of the work. The work and its location is unified and the former can
be interpreted in the context of the site which could be within the four walls
of a gallery or in an enclosed public spaces like institutions, commercial
spaces , domestic environments or even outdoors.
Video Installation: The projections used in earlier theatrical productions
consisted of static shots. Video recordings focus on conveying movement. This
can appear to be real or induced where viewers are invited to animate or to go
on their own imaginative journeys. Artists have often approached the television
set like any other object or material as a device to be turned into a video
sculpture or incorporated in a picture. The idea of video sculpture is derived
from the television set's specific characteristics as an object and as a unit
that is easy to move around. Video art has no sequential narrative or definite
closure. It is essentially a painting in motion and has to be viewed as such. The
great visual richness of video and the numerous opportunities it affords for
building up of images make it a perfect tool for essaying the ever changing contemporary world.
Sound Installation is when sound is recorded and manipulated to generate an
interactive experience for audience. These sounds could be of human voices or
natural sounds or artificially manufactured sounds. A sound installation is
usually site specific but it can sometimes be readapted to other spaces.
It can be made in either closed or open spaces, and the context is fundamental
to determine how a sound installation will be aesthetically perceived. A sound
installation has the time element, which gives the visiting public the
possibility to stay a longer time due to
a certain curiosity over the development of the sound. This temporal factor also gives the
audience the excuse to explore the space thoroughly due to the dispositions of
the different sounds in space.
Performance
Art is a genre in which art
is presented "live" usually by the artist but sometimes with
collaborators or performers. It has four elements to it-the human body, time,
space and the audience. Performance
art borrows styles and ideas from other forms of art, or sometimes from other
forms of activity not associated with art, like ritual, or work-like tasks or
even sports. Although
performance art takes the form of live action, it has the potential to reach to
large public audiences through documentation of the performance.
Recently we witnessed the exhibition “Place of Silence” in Stal Gallery(February 2015) Muscat, in which six Omani artists from different art disciplines offered commentaries and narratives on urgent social and political issues using new media techniques like videography, performance art and sound recording. The artists demonstrated an openness to adopting new influences in global visual culture and technology. This exciting exhibition generated a great deal of interest by introducing viewers to varied art forms .
My installation “Shadows of the Wind” in Bait Muzna Gallery (May-June 2015),is an experiential piece, installed in a small room ,the Art Box space in the gallery, in which different media (soundscapes, shadows and light panels) have been used , to generate a comprehensive experience related to the loss of an era. Audiences are lured into the installation and are immediately transported into a realm of make believe, comprising of raucous music, colorful vignettes and shadowy silhouettes. The aim is to capture the sounds before they disappear. You can look at old photographs and old maps and that gives you someway of getting into the past, but through sounds and through a sense of drama, people can really immerse themselves in the environment.
New Media is still at its infancy in Oman. Some artists are embracing these innovative media to challenge the conventions of traditional forms of visual art such as painting and sculpture and to further their artistic expression by experimentation .Old school practitioners however might disagree with these trends and might reject them as a invalid forms of artistic expression. It will be a while before more and more artists push their limits, explore the nature of this genre and subvert the formal structure of conventional art forms.
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