Refactor
The installation of Refactor was held in the fall of 2016 in cooperation with Mojdeh Art Gallery and Iranshahr Gallery at the location of Iranshahr Gallery. This audio-visual installation was the interaction and collaboration of two artists named Nikzad Arabshahi and Vedad Famurzadeh. In addition to years of artistic work in various media, both artists have also conducted academic research in the field of inter-disciplinary, intra-disciplinary and interactive research, and in fact, the result of the same research has been presented as an interactive exhibition. The installation of Refactor is the experience of mixing and juxtaposing two media, i.e. sound and image, which are formed through a volumetric structure of this interaction, and the meaning is the result of this interaction and improvisation of sound.It should be mentioned that being multi-media, measuring the amount of sound rhythms on the formation of the movement of the painter's hand, along with the space, are also factors that make the perception of meaning difficult, because using several non-verbal languages together creates multi-sensory perception in the audience and invites them to interact. The auditory and visual experience each have their own special syntax: time is presented linearly in auditory experiences, while in painting and visual experience, the emerging image is presented to the audience all at once, and the interaction and combination of these two expressions creates the concept of time in a linear and duration order: the duration is the result of the audience's reflection in both experiences at the same time. The codes hidden in the refactor installation are recreated, made and broken with each audience, and it is from these breaks and re-creations that meaning is created. But the meaning itself in this exhibition is something that is always in progress and is obtained in an interactive and dynamic process with the audience. Therefore, apart from the two artists, the gallery space and the interaction with the audience and their presence are the three strategies for producing meaning, and from this point of view, such an installation is very important. (Sohrab Ahmadi)
The increasing influence of technological progress on culture and social relations in the current century is not a new issue; Artistic language is also influenced by technology and its moment-to-moment transformations, and at the same time, the expectations and views of art audiences are also changing. This fact prompted Mojdeh Art Gallery to step on a new path by introducing creative artists in the field of new media.
What the audience is confronted with in this show is the first step of Mojdeh Art Gallery in this path, and this important step was made possible with the cooperation and support of Iranshahr Gallery management. Cooperation between galleries and cultural-artistic centers and private sectors in order to realize new ideas, rarely happens in Iran and sometimes it is accompanied by difficulties. It is hoped that this effort will be the beginning of a successful experience in the cooperation of galleries with each other and with other institutions, so that a wider cultural and social field can be formed in the light of that, for the realization of large and dynamic cultural and artistic projects.
Mojdeh Tabatabaei
Refactor
At the beginning of the 20th century, the idea of connecting sound, color and visual elements fascinated artists more than ever; From the piano with colored keys of Alexander Scriabin to the meeting and friendship of Arnold Schoenberg and Wassily Kandinsky. But it was only with the help of technological advances in the second half of the 20th century that it became possible to connect and interact simultaneously with image and sound in a work of art. What is called audio-visual today is the exchange between the world of images and the world of sound with the mediation of digital language.
The digital language itself provides the possibility of translating all kinds of signals and we can convert any raw data into image or sound. This is a new phenomenon, but before we ask what this new possibility that transforms sine waves through mathematical mapping and thus translates electromagnetic waves and acoustic waves, we must ask this Which cognitive ability and perceptual ability does this new possibility challenges? Can only those with a neurological disorder known as " synesthesia" experience a mixture of senses? Or is the problem in the structure of our cognitive system, which is embodied and includes all senses together? If we put aside the attempt to find symbolic meanings, what is the immediate and sensory experience of the initial encounter with listening?
The listening experience is a comprehensive experience that arouses all the senses at the same time and redefines the space. In response to the question that hearing belongs to our hearing or our visual sense, it should be said both at the same time. In listening, it is not possible to separate sound and image without disrupting the nature of listening, and this is a measure itself to recognize this media. In the art of listening, sound and image no longer have a simple relationship, but a new language is created to encode and decode, reveal and then re-concealment, and recall every fleeting moment that reveals itself to us as the real thing. This new language, which is formed by combining space, sound and image, has become a medium for the possibility of a new form of conversation.
About the Project
The project in front of you is an experience in this field of conversation. This artwork mixes image and sound together, and in this mix, each plays the other. The visual part of this project is an extension of the painter's previous painting experience, which now has a new role in his mind. This project is an illustration of this new mentality, and that is why it is called "Refactor".
The central core of this reflector is the code that came from the workshop of evaluations and rereadings of the painter's mental patterns; Part of the achievements of this revision became mathematical algorithms, whose successive effects on each other made a dynamic network of code sets that can, without the need of control, draw in the moment like a painter. The application of this code is to recreate the image formation process and control the quality of their realization on the surface of the visual platform.
The visual platform in "Refactor" is an interwoven volume-image-sound that tries to redefine the space through an arrangement of repetitive images and sounds; The images that are beyond the solid bed of the white walls of the gallery, among the three metal structures, tear the transparent surface of several iron mesh sheets one by one and reproduce along the space so that a volume-image appears in the middle of the sound. The painting turns into sound and disappears before our eyes.
There is no voice in advance; Sound must be created. The connection of sound and image originates from this need. The mathematical algorithms of the painter's mind come to life in new mathematical algorithms that are imprinted in the sound artist's mind. The movement of the painter's hand, the combination of color, playfulness and excitement are the input parameters and driving force of the sound synthesis of this new life. Only two important choices are pre-thought for the sound: the microtonal intervals taken from the forgotten musical intervals of Qutb al-Din al-Shirazi (1236 – 1311), and the designed relation of noise and the sinusoidal signal. The movement of sound in each visual object intensifies the movement of the painter's hand and the movement in space represents the relationship between the visual objects.
