Avoid emm all! In the times of Corona
The generation which has grown up playing Pacman is now living it in a way. The current situation of social distancing is reminiscent of that yellow character which is running away from touching or colliding with other entities of the stage. This creative response is a stimulation of our social behavior in the face of the virus. How one steps outside and finds themselves in the midst of a variety of invisible enemies – even the simple act of going to work becomes a threat to one’s immunity. The world outside is full of floating germs – like ghosts. Movement becomes a challenge, and everyone else is playing the same game, but each stands as their own Pacman, and in someone else’s reality, I become the ghost.
This game’s interactivity engages the player into an immersive experience that resembles their current reality. As the pandemic forces us into a lockdown state, it has become a novel experience none of us were trained for. Needs like utilities and groceries right down to the simple need for getting a breath of fresh air are such that one cannot simply shut their doors to the world outside. The objective of this game is to observe the trends and patterns of the threat that Coronavirus poses, and to navigate the route as best as possible. As you play, you become conscious of maintaining your distance from the objects that threaten you. Moving smartly and playing the game with anticipation of achieving essential targets is the only solution. Reality and virtual reality amalgamate into one. The objective and the experience remains the same, whether you navigate the game literally or through the screen.
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"In Karachi live birds who fly from trees" |
Emerging Artist Prize - Karachi Biennial 19
Dimensions: 11 x 5 x 1.25 cm (each) (Total 1500 editions) Medium: HDEP, PVC, Latex & Water, 2019. |
With the rise of urbanization, cities like Karachi grow larger, bringing an increase in the interaction between wildlife and urban ecosystems. Often perceived as the antithesis of nature, cities are an existing archive of what was and what is – they themselves are the proof of the damaging impact of their incessant societal demands and their disregard for nature. The horizon of Karachi silently testifies the change it has faced in the past two decades; it is an erratic and disordered horizon interrupted by high rise buildings, tangles of wires, mobile towers, and the backdrop of a polluted environment, where once was an ordered horizon comprised of an urban system existing within nature, with visible trees and the backdrop of a blue sky.
My concern regarding the environmental destruction that arises from the need for social and urban improvement is focused around communication. With tangible and intangible dangers, our need for communication has become an invisible enemy for wildlife, specifically for birds. What began as a jungle of hanging wires rapidly transformed into large urban areas being comprised of high rising mobile towers that pose a number of threats to birds: death by collision, exposure to harmful radiations, lack of natural nesting places, and interference of mobile towers with the Earth’s natural geomagnetic field for navigation that birds use.
My work is a representation of this scenario of communication being a tangible yet invisible enemy for birds. Using the ring toss game, a relic that derives from the past of what was, I will attempt to depict what is. Nostalgia will be used as a medium to evoke the collective consciousness of the people, without compromising on the active enjoyment one attains from playing a game. The aim is to engage the audience in an immersive experience so that the activity of playing can be transformed into an activity of realizing and learning. The close, handheld interaction will bring to realization the idea of how close at hand this disturbance in nature is occurring.
My work is a representation of this scenario of communication being a tangible yet invisible enemy for birds. Using the ring toss game, a relic that derives from the past of what was, I will attempt to depict what is. Nostalgia will be used as a medium to evoke the collective consciousness of the people, without compromising on the active enjoyment one attains from playing a game. The aim is to engage the audience in an immersive experience so that the activity of playing can be transformed into an activity of realizing and learning. The close, handheld interaction will bring to realization the idea of how close at hand this disturbance in nature is occurring.
Physical venue of a video game
In today’s age of smartphones and digital technologies, arcade games are considered obsolete. Available at any moment via apps, computers, and game consoles, there is hardly any need left for arcade game consoles. This has led to the end of video game culture that once was considered the height of entertainment and recreation.
In Karachi’s urban setting, due to the city’s dichotomy of the old and the new, there lingers a hint of the video game culture that once existed. In underdeveloped old city areas like Lyari and Kharadar, one can still find kids engaging in the physical activity of playing arcade games. Looking at them play these games is like stepping back in time. It makes one realize that the loss of arcade gaming culture has more consequences than just the recreational loss. Children nowadays no longer interact with their gaming opponents in the same physical space, which has made them unsocial and apprehensive. They are far more confident in their personal space, playing a game on a smartphone than they are interacting with other children. Even in multiplayer games, the virtual space dominates between the children, which is less constructive for their social and cognitive development.
This piece is reminiscent of a culture that has met its end. It evokes nostalgia for those who have experienced this culture firsthand, all the while emphasizing the importance of socially interactive recreational activity like that which arcade gaming once provided.
In Karachi’s urban setting, due to the city’s dichotomy of the old and the new, there lingers a hint of the video game culture that once existed. In underdeveloped old city areas like Lyari and Kharadar, one can still find kids engaging in the physical activity of playing arcade games. Looking at them play these games is like stepping back in time. It makes one realize that the loss of arcade gaming culture has more consequences than just the recreational loss. Children nowadays no longer interact with their gaming opponents in the same physical space, which has made them unsocial and apprehensive. They are far more confident in their personal space, playing a game on a smartphone than they are interacting with other children. Even in multiplayer games, the virtual space dominates between the children, which is less constructive for their social and cognitive development.
This piece is reminiscent of a culture that has met its end. It evokes nostalgia for those who have experienced this culture firsthand, all the while emphasizing the importance of socially interactive recreational activity like that which arcade gaming once provided.
PONG
Games are constructed precisely for a reason, to depict the structure of a civilization or a society. It comprises of multiple layers of social values, ethics and fundamental behaviors of human nature. Under the theme of microcosm this work is well-constructed, plotted and symbolic illusion of reality, basically works to sustain the system by fulfilling the wildest desires and prejudices of the viewer.
The work PONG is an exact replica of the 1972 arcade game, ‘Pong’ after which it was named. It followed the same two-dimensional graphics as the original game of table tennis but instead of the typical 1 and 2 numbering for each player, Pakistan and India took its place. Audience members could play the two-player game by inserting two coins and this attracted all age groups. Games are replications of reality in some form or the other; pinning two against each other will obviously raise the competitive levels as their can only by one winner. Similarly, labeling Player 1 and 2 as Pakistan and India, one recalls the constant and sometimes childish dispute between the two countries. Be it cricket matches or denied visas, the hostility between the neighbors is high and evident. It is true that many, especially the youth, have tried to push away prejudice and offer olive branches to the other, but many still exist with blind enmity for the opposing side. I was trying to manage to entertain my audience while bringing to light one of the most prevalent issues, all while using an item iconic to those who’ve experienced the pre-online era.
by Jovita Alvares, ArtNow - Microcosm
The work PONG is an exact replica of the 1972 arcade game, ‘Pong’ after which it was named. It followed the same two-dimensional graphics as the original game of table tennis but instead of the typical 1 and 2 numbering for each player, Pakistan and India took its place. Audience members could play the two-player game by inserting two coins and this attracted all age groups. Games are replications of reality in some form or the other; pinning two against each other will obviously raise the competitive levels as their can only by one winner. Similarly, labeling Player 1 and 2 as Pakistan and India, one recalls the constant and sometimes childish dispute between the two countries. Be it cricket matches or denied visas, the hostility between the neighbors is high and evident. It is true that many, especially the youth, have tried to push away prejudice and offer olive branches to the other, but many still exist with blind enmity for the opposing side. I was trying to manage to entertain my audience while bringing to light one of the most prevalent issues, all while using an item iconic to those who’ve experienced the pre-online era.
by Jovita Alvares, ArtNow - Microcosm
Story Box
A box which tells a story, but what story does it tell us? A story about storytelling, a story about a box or perhaps a story about something that has nothing to do with a box or story? And what kind of box is it? Is it a box with a lock protecting the story inside? Or is it a box we would find in a mosque, a church or a temple to collect support for people in need? Note by @sundasazfer
This work is an interactive sound piece that operates like a storyteller whenever money is inserted, replicating the act of charity in which the reward is in the form of a cassette story/cassette kahani. It was exhibited at the residence of Dutch ambassador, Ms. H.E. Jeannette Seppen as part of the 'At Home' exhibit curated by Sundus Azfar in 2017, Islamabad.
This work is an interactive sound piece that operates like a storyteller whenever money is inserted, replicating the act of charity in which the reward is in the form of a cassette story/cassette kahani. It was exhibited at the residence of Dutch ambassador, Ms. H.E. Jeannette Seppen as part of the 'At Home' exhibit curated by Sundus Azfar in 2017, Islamabad.
100 Dead Fish - 2017
The beautiful and restless Karachi has such diversity that at times it seems like the city is in total chaos. But it isn`t. I am interested in the diversity of cultures, lifestyles and towns within this gigantic metropolis. For me, the possibilities to create Social Sculpture can be found in social gatherings and when I think about the largest and most diverse gathering spot in Karachi, I always end up at the sea! The Sea View beach is a focal point where we can witness one of the densest gatherings where people come from all over the country. I see people who have come to witness the mesmerizing face of Mother Nature and the coast becomes a thin borderline between nature and the man made. However if one goes to the sea of Karachi, there isn`t just a realization of the beautiful seascape – there is also the recognition of the immense sacrifices nature has to make to accommodate all the inhabitants of this huge city. We have continuously been dumping the waste of this city into the sea, which has created tragic consequences in the form of death and destruction of aquatic species that live in the ocean. My site to intervene in a social gathering is Sea View as I am interested in in creating a happy yet disturbing picture in a surrealistic visual at this site. Working with both organic and inorganic materials to dig deeper into this concern, I see this possibility to use the shore of the beach as my canvas and people as potential creative individuals who can start a dialogue for awareness about ecological concerns and our behavior towards it.
Seascape
How many versions did we produce over the period of time of a single remembering which took place in a distant past? It’s like if we produced magic! Because we created a new thing every time or a unique piece of story with least effort in the process of making. This work juxtapose drawings from my childhood upon recent photographs I took of a familiar place, The sea-view. Idea is to visualize the gap between past and present; how childhood memories harden and transform in the process of growing up.
The empty sofa is loaded with history
Maybe we just aren’t there to witness, but time must exist before and after us. Why bother about something which is ever changing and trans-formative in nature. We aren’t remembered through our versions of reality. We will be seen through others' version of reality after we die. There are two things: one is myself and my self-awareness, which is my version of reality. Second is how we are perceived and communicated through others' perspectives and understandings. These multiple versions of a single identity are far more complex than they seem.
That Yashica reel camera of yours! 📷
Thank you dear mother for archiving our day to day happenings of childhood days. What you did will always remain important visual evidence of my self-identity. These pictures of our childhood act as pebbles of remembrance against fading memory creating a narrative which develops into a sense of identity. The sequence of these narratives depends on the act of recalling. One day I was enjoying going through old archives of familial photographs, especially my childhood pictures which my mother used to take very frequently. I realize that the drawing room setting of one of those photographs is still the same, an existing place which is still the same since childhood. Without my mother photographing these moments, my childhood existence would have been a forgotten reality.
This work is an attempt to investigate how technologies of representation and personal memories of time allow self-presentation and function as a productive means of self-knowledge. Thank you Ammi (Mother) for doing all this!
This work is an attempt to investigate how technologies of representation and personal memories of time allow self-presentation and function as a productive means of self-knowledge. Thank you Ammi (Mother) for doing all this!
Love Letters
Objects are not blank carriers onto which humans project prior psychic dramas, but rather place crucial importance on the precise materials from which they are made, their social, cultural and historic reasons for being and the way we interact with them through our senses. These things belong to the time when I had that one pen with 4 colors, and tried to push all the buttons at once, went on the Computer just to use Paint... it was the age when we used to think that the moon followed our car, we restart the video game whenever we knew that we were going to lose. These letters are a result of Eid (Festival) greeting card exchange between my siblings and cousins. This series was an attempt to archive those joyful juncture of expressing sentiments.
Stairs
Yeh wo jagah hai jis par kabhi
Khailay thay hum tum
Mil kar sabhi ♥️ Inspired by the lyrics of Bachpan, Kaavish.
True form of ART is in living, engaging. When it gives meaningful expressions, stories, memories and patterns of everyday life.
Khailay thay hum tum
Mil kar sabhi ♥️ Inspired by the lyrics of Bachpan, Kaavish.
True form of ART is in living, engaging. When it gives meaningful expressions, stories, memories and patterns of everyday life.
Surroundings
The things made us who we are today, the Stories we never want to lose. These tales sometimes transcends form a single memory of an individual to the “collective” memory of “individualities” making a social identity we all shares in a society. Without these collective stories which we all share, the culture of a distinct society would lack vivacity, without the cultural context the stories would lack significance. The specific belongings and surroundings which helps us to derive memories, seems to maintain these social contexts to generations.
Objects
The Dream is to holding onto the things we love, the things made us who we are today, the things we never want to lose. Without the objects the stories would lack vivacity, without the stories the object would lack significance. Objects are not blank carriers onto which humans project prior psychic dramas, but rather place crucial importance on the precise materials from which they are made, their social, cultural and historic reasons for being and the way we interact with them through our senses. It’s with this interaction that we can recall our memories. Essentially creates our own portal to the past.
Memories make objects become alive, making them more interesting, more relevant and imbued with meaning. Everyone has an object with a story. Its not about its aesthetics or monetary value, it’s chiefly about the narrative wrapped up in the
object.
Every individual that interacts with an object add his or her own interpretation and meaning. The interlinking of these memories and views give the object a new identity, a soul almost, something that sums up the essence of an object. The object ceases to simply be a thing but becomes something of significance. Taken together, the images of the objects, the memories they evoke and the stories of their collection take the viewer on a journey where the common place is transformed into the remarkable and where the stuff of history is highly personalized.
Memories make objects become alive, making them more interesting, more relevant and imbued with meaning. Everyone has an object with a story. Its not about its aesthetics or monetary value, it’s chiefly about the narrative wrapped up in the
object.
Every individual that interacts with an object add his or her own interpretation and meaning. The interlinking of these memories and views give the object a new identity, a soul almost, something that sums up the essence of an object. The object ceases to simply be a thing but becomes something of significance. Taken together, the images of the objects, the memories they evoke and the stories of their collection take the viewer on a journey where the common place is transformed into the remarkable and where the stuff of history is highly personalized.
A moment of happiness... the scent of the Rainy Day… a song in the loneliness …the taste of a bubble gum, these are memories that make up the ongoing experience of our life. It is our collective set of memories -- our "memory" as a whole that makes us who we are. They provide us a sense of self, tie our past with present, provide a framework for the future in a profound way and make us feel comfortable with familiar people and surroundings. Memory is not a "thing" you can touch or hold to physically. It doesn't exist in the way things exists – what I experience or remember today will gradually Disappear over time.
My work focuses on the happenings of the time, or of the past which is interlinked with my identity and my existence. I began to dug into pictures from family archives & saw a magical possibility to translate the raw material of my life time experiences into tangible objects. These physical remnants function as souvenirs, precious artifacts providing me with material proof that I was there & this is me. These images helps me to connect my ever changing experiences to the outgoing or forgotten history, which I want to preserve.
My process is inspired by the nature of memory itself. I see this as a sort of tiny filing cabinet full of individual identities, folders in which information is overlapped and stored away… finding it more like a neural supercomputer wedged under my scalp. But sometimes I pounder that memory is far more complex and elusive, what seems to be a single memory is actually a complex construction. -- And that it is located not in one particular place in the brain but is instead it is a system triggering a brain-wide process. It begins with encoding, then proceeds to storage and, eventually, retrieval. If you think of an object -- say, a pencil -- your brain retrieves the object's name, its shape, its function, the sound when it scratches across the pages of the sketch book. Each part of the memory of what a "pencil" is comes from a different region of the brain. The entire image of "pencil" is actively reconstructed by the brain from many different areas.
Memories is a concept that needs to explore… recall and then refers to the process of remembering. Firstly as mentioned, to explore I used torch light, then went through numerous possibilities/solutions to create the recall moment in which I did worked with movement sensors, ultra sonic sensors, photo-sensitive & laser sensors to render my instincts in a visual form and throughout my work process I only beginning to understand how the parts are reassembled into a coherent whole.
Arsalan Nasir Hussain
My work focuses on the happenings of the time, or of the past which is interlinked with my identity and my existence. I began to dug into pictures from family archives & saw a magical possibility to translate the raw material of my life time experiences into tangible objects. These physical remnants function as souvenirs, precious artifacts providing me with material proof that I was there & this is me. These images helps me to connect my ever changing experiences to the outgoing or forgotten history, which I want to preserve.
My process is inspired by the nature of memory itself. I see this as a sort of tiny filing cabinet full of individual identities, folders in which information is overlapped and stored away… finding it more like a neural supercomputer wedged under my scalp. But sometimes I pounder that memory is far more complex and elusive, what seems to be a single memory is actually a complex construction. -- And that it is located not in one particular place in the brain but is instead it is a system triggering a brain-wide process. It begins with encoding, then proceeds to storage and, eventually, retrieval. If you think of an object -- say, a pencil -- your brain retrieves the object's name, its shape, its function, the sound when it scratches across the pages of the sketch book. Each part of the memory of what a "pencil" is comes from a different region of the brain. The entire image of "pencil" is actively reconstructed by the brain from many different areas.
Memories is a concept that needs to explore… recall and then refers to the process of remembering. Firstly as mentioned, to explore I used torch light, then went through numerous possibilities/solutions to create the recall moment in which I did worked with movement sensors, ultra sonic sensors, photo-sensitive & laser sensors to render my instincts in a visual form and throughout my work process I only beginning to understand how the parts are reassembled into a coherent whole.
Arsalan Nasir Hussain
Childhood
While drawing, sometimes I see myself afraid to draw and very confused about art and sometimes it seems there is much more than drawing, but deep down someone wishing that I could draw better. Trapping into things that are totally absurd, and has become a never ending quest. But I remember it’s never being the same way.
There was a time when I had that one pen with 4 colors, and tried to push all the buttons at once, went on the Computer just to use Paint… it was the age when we used to think that the moon followed our car, we restart the video game whenever we knew that we were going to lose. It was kind of fun to do the impossible.
These memories of my childhood took me back in to the old school bags, where I found a treasure old drawings & books. Those drawings are nothing, but a way which fascinates and takes me into the joyful juncture of expressing my sentiments without any fears. For me Life is tense and puzzled enough. Instead of striving for a unique surprise each day in art practice I go for hope, curiosity, and love
There was a time when I had that one pen with 4 colors, and tried to push all the buttons at once, went on the Computer just to use Paint… it was the age when we used to think that the moon followed our car, we restart the video game whenever we knew that we were going to lose. It was kind of fun to do the impossible.
These memories of my childhood took me back in to the old school bags, where I found a treasure old drawings & books. Those drawings are nothing, but a way which fascinates and takes me into the joyful juncture of expressing my sentiments without any fears. For me Life is tense and puzzled enough. Instead of striving for a unique surprise each day in art practice I go for hope, curiosity, and love