aisyalam

I gave my first MMU lecture today, “Origins of Multimedia and Interactive Art in the United States: NEW FORMS, MATERIALS, ATTITUDES,” a very basic presentation that outlined the activities that transpired at Black Mountain College, in Happenings, with Fluxus artists, and Experiments in Art and Technology before postulating some contemporary issues that have to do with the formation of community and the production of multi-layered artistic texts. The situation surprised me in a few ways. When I entered the auditorium, it was nearly full, at least 150 students, and I was greeted by a round of applause. Everything was ready, although I had no light at the podium and had to read the lecture by the glow of the computer monitor. I started off by pacing on the stage, ad libbing about the topic, and casually introduced them to Cage’s prepared piano works, and “4:33” as examples of inventive works that used simple devices and ideas to transform the practice and conception of art. The lecture went smoothly, and I think the website I produced (introduced in an earlier post) helped, although it struck me afterwards how difficult it is to give a lecture on the history of multimedia art when there are few media examples of what I was discussing. Literacy has become so televisual everywhere! Even though I gave them verbal descriptions of performances at Black Mountain, Happenings, Fluxus pieces, etc., it would have been much better to have videos to show, which are pretty much impossible to come by. But to give a straightforward introduction was the assignment, and that’s what I did. I tried to bring the material alive as I could, and declare its relevance today every time the materials allowed me to do so, which was steadily (i.e., there was a good bit of extemporaneous commentary, off the script, spontaneously enlivening the flat prose). Sau Bin, a professor who attended, said he thought it was informative, a handful of students asked questions, and several Iranian students approached me afterwards to talk about the subject further. In fact, one fellow, Ali, made an appointment to come see me this afternoon and brought a friend of his along with him. My meeting with them was incredibly interesting. Ali’s friend, Mohammed, a graduate student here, is a graphic artist who is preparing to write his thesis on Persian digital arts. We talked about contemporary art in Iran (apparently there are many digital artists there), and he asked me to be one of his thesis advisors (which I don’t think I’ll be able to accept). Ali is an undergrad, who is currently working on a film project (“A Short Story About Candles and a Butterfly”); his request was that I read the screenplay, which is not very long, and offer critique. This I will gladly do. I told these guys that I had as much to learn from then as they did from me, and was very pleased that the morning lecture had already led to something expansive for both students and the lecturer!

In the afternoon I did some research for my third lecture (to be held March 1st), “Electronic Resources for Literature and Art,” for awhile, and found a bunch of great sites that I hadn’t encountered before (I’ll post the url for the lecture once it is done). Then I began to work on the missing html file problem I mentioned the other day. I found the files, and then found them unsatisfactory, so went back to the drawing board. Basically I couldn’t make the transition from the shockwave file into html without disrupting the soundtrack. So, I’m re-programming the 25 html files into Flash (no small task), so that the audio runs smoothly. In the midst of this I had a visit from my FCM colleague Belinda (in search of photos from the dinner the other night), who helped by agreeing that it was better to re-do the piece in Flash. So I spent what time I wasn’t meeting with the students setting up all the layers for the piece, and refreshing my Flash chops so that I can get a new version done by tomorrow. Then all of the media files will be in order, and I can concentrate on wrapping up the interface.

Over the weekend I had was inspired by adventures we had in Kuala Lumpur. Saturday afternoon we went to the National Art Gallery on Jalan Tun Razak – a slightly aging but stylish modern building which has a few stimulating installations up at present. On the first floor, paintings, sculptures, and digital works by artists from the state of Terengganu on Malaysia’s east coast, and also an extensive show of prints (digital and non-) called “In Print,” sponsored by the British Council, that features contemporary Malaysian and British printmakers side-by-side. Subjectively speaking, both Amy and I favored the work of the Malaysians, which was more colorful, freer, and technically as good as anything from the UK contingent. The pieces we particularly liked were digital prints on elegantly embossed paper (the artists name was Shairul), and a piece called “The Sky Kingdom” in which the artists does a bunch of self-portraits with a suitcase using the futuristic Putrajaya landscape as a backdrop. Upstairs, there was another cross-cultural exhibition, “Open Letter” featuring works by Asian-Australian artists, some as installations, some videos, some paintings…very interesting blends of influence. Further up, a bunch of beautiful photographic portraits from around the world that are part of the museum’s collection. We went to the museum fairly spontaneously, with no expectation, and were very pleased by what we saw there. When I told this to Sau Bin, who co-organizes a gallery, he seemed surprised, and we agreed that we should make a date to go there together and walk around a bit next time. The other event, Saturday night, was an outdoor performance by a group called Chicken Parts 11 in the courtyard of KLPac, which is in the middle of a large park (Sentul West) slightly outside the city center. CP 11 is a great name for a Malay performance ensemble, and the group was full of vim and activity. When we arrived (slightly late because most of the downtown cabbies had never heard of the place) several musicans were jamming on various instruments on the upper level as a monk-like vocalist made abstract sounds, another guy was lying at the end of a rolled out red carpet on a candlelit lawn, a candle burning on his chest, a video was being projected on one of the walls. Some sort of magical invocation was underway, though I wasn’t sure exactly all about. The flute player pranced around the courtyard, and eventually the prone man burned two large heaps of ceremonial paper offerings that were piled beside him then began to move butoh-style, wrapping himself in the carpet, which led to a tree. The video changed from falling snow to passing clouds. The band noisily droned on for at least an hour, devolving into a wall of feedback towards the lengthy conclusion. I liked the feedback, and also the intrusion of the city sounds (like the 8:40 call to prayer at the local mosque) that accompanied the mix. It has been awhile since we have seen elaborate performance art, so the scene was refreshing and expansive. Our only regret was that we missed our friend Siew Wai’s video, although it was good to see her and talk with her a bit after the performance. On Sunday we spent a couple of hours at the KL Bird Park (supposedly the largest in the world), where we saw a lot of really unusual species we’d never encountered before—chinese ducks and brown herons, various types of ibises, storks, etc.; unfamiliar birdcalls in the shady heat.

Well, another busy week of interface design, lecture writing, and research ahead. 3 lectures in nine days, and self-imposed deadlines to meet in order to be moving onward…