[-empyre-] Transitions: "New Media and the Middle East"

[Isak Berbic]

On the use of "fictional futuristic worlds in order to address a present reality":

I think this, perhaps prevailing, strategy of fabricating a narrative of reality (which in turn seems fictional, delusional, or futuristic) has to do with the turbulent state of affairs in regions of conflict. The inadequacy of media, institutions, scholars, the film industry etc. has brought on an interest by artists to bring forward particular accounts that link into larger narratives. This seems to be a current approach taken by many artists in Eastern Europe, Middle East and Asia.The conditions of the constant destruction of documents and archive materials has produced an absence of historicity. As a result artists incarnate a new old history that comfortably sits in par with old old history, without any concern of doing injustice to "facts" - since we know that they are true and accurate (as they are fabricated). I believe that through this the binary of fiction and nonfiction is complicated, where we may arrive to the proposition that a certain
 fiction contains the possibility of having had really happened. 

Isak Berbic


From: larissa sansour <lsansour at hotmail.com>
To: empyre at lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au
Cc: 
Sent: Monday, February 7, 2011 7:09 PM
Subject: Re: [-empyre-] Transitions:  "New Media and the Middle East"


 
I found your observation, Isak, of the
natural gas explosion in Sinai and Ed Ruscha quite interesting. It reminded me
of what you said earlier in relation to your work, that “mythology and
mystified interpretation universalizes the act of interpreting, lifting it
above history and political context”. It is quite peculiar and contradictory
when it comes to the Middle East that mythologized perceptions of it and the
insistence on its geographical and political context are simultaneously
present. I am intrigued by your work “Using Ruins” as it seems to be addressing
the same concern for universalized interpretations in its use of “delusional
positivism”, in order to underline the intricacies of its own contextual
narrative. I find this quite interesting as I often resort to tactics of
fictionalizing the Middle East by using universal language such as film, pop,
gaming and music. In a way, it seems to be one of the most poignant ways of
accentuating the opposite. Many artists from the Middle East are starting to
use fictional futuristic worlds in order to address a present reality. I am
curious to hear your take on that. 
Date: Sun, 6 Feb 2011 13:49:08 -0800
From: isakberbic at yahoo.com
To: empyre at lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au
Subject: Re: [-empyre-] Transitions:  "New Media and the Middle East"


Watching the Sinai natural gas pipeline explosion burning on the television yesterday I couldn't help but think about the similar images of vigorous flames shooting out from the ground in the videos from the Gulf wars. Much of those videos however, having mostly been recorded by soldiers in the desert, appear somewhere more distant, within an empty landscape and without any evident sense of place. Yesterday’s flame however is cradled by several date palm trees, a telecommunications post with a white building structure in the foreground.

Coincidently I began to think about some old images by Ed Ruscha. Having recently visited the RSTW exhibition in Abu Dhabi (RSTW, From the private collection of Larry Gagosian) I encountered some of his Californian palm tree photographs as well as variations on his fire works. Ruscha’s images abbreviate detail to the basic shapes and signifiers much in the way low quality video does to moving images. As I looked at the television screen broadcasting the flame, It was as if Ruscha’s palm trees and his burning gas station compiled into one single event on the Sinai.

In reference to this post some new images have been added to: http://isakb.blogspot.com/

Isak Berbic
February 7th, 2011

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