How art and technology shape our perception of the world (S1E2)
Art has always been a powerful tool for expressing ideas, emotions, and perspectives that might be difficult to articulate in words. It has the unique ability to move people, spark conversation, and challenge our assumptions about the world around us. With the rise of multidisciplinary design and new technologies, artists and designers now have even more ways to bring their ideas to life.
But what role does art truly play in shaping our perception of the world? How can we use these innovative tools to inspire change, promote social justice, and address the most pressing global issues affecting us: poverty, hunger, terrorism, education, sanitation, climate crisis, gender, racial and other dimensions of inequalities, etc.? How can design and technology be used to create powerful audio-visual experiences that reflect on key events affecting the state of our world?
In this Season 1 Episode 2 of The Art in STEAM podcast, we are joined by Maryam Aboukhater — a Lisbon-based multidisciplinary designer and artist with a penchant for human rights and social activism. Maryam brings to life her perception of the world around us by directing music videos and creating mesmerising audio-visual live projections.
Listen to the full episode on Spotify, Amazon Music and Apple Podcasts.
[Femmes Designers] So, what drove you to explore projection tech and activism in your work?
[Maryam Aboukhater] Well, I guess it comes from where I’m from. I'm Lebanese-Palestinian, but I grew up in France. And I'm also American, by papers. So I was trying to explore my identity and what it means, how it felt to become a woman (I was younger) and the limitations between the body and the mind, you know, how the mind is completely expanded in how we're restrained in our bodies. And this was the first performance work I did for my thesis. So the only way that I could find to express this was through video and performance art and projecting it so that people felt how I was feeling. And I found that this medium was quite successful.
[FD] Can you describe more the technology behind it and what you hoped to get from the audience? What kind of impact?
[MA] Well, it came more from me and a need to morph and push the limits with my body and mind, but also to question others, to make them have this feeling of coming of age a bit, of growing. And so, I used video and sound and subwoofers so that the installation would shake. And I think that worked really well because you could feel that you were in my body. And I did two explosions as well.
[FD] And the explosions were about…?
[MA] It was a metamorphosis. The installation was called Instar: it's how, through life, we always change even though our body is the same, right? And it was visualising this change that was happening.
[FD] Just like a caterpillar.
[MA] Just like a caterpillar.
