Bringing together diverse works by more than forty Arab New Media artists, Maknana: An Archaeology of New Media Art in the Arab World offers a unique and unprecedented exploration of the region’s engagement with contemporary technologies as tools. The presentation identifies when Arab artists sought to work with the medium of their time, thus creating cultural and aesthetic currents that could interact and converge. It also explores the permeability and non-physicality of the resulting works.

The Arabic word maknana translates as “mechanization” in English, and it inspired the premise of this exhibition. Vast and diverse, the region presents a complex landscape for the reception and integration of new technologies. Arab artists have repurposed such innovations to cut through two strata of art history: one of New Media art, as defined and practiced by the West, and the other of modern art, settled through training and scholarship in the Arab World.

This exhibition both celebrates the creative achievements of Arab New Media artists and positions them at the forefront of global discussions about the role of technology in art and society.

Automation

When artists depict machines or their components, they often blur the boundaries between inanimate objects and living beings. Here, Arab New Media artists present infrastructures, collaborations, exchanges across geographies, low-resolution files, and endless trails of ephemeral and digital archives. These works not only engage with the machine’s capabilities, but also reflect the broader sociopolitical landscape of the Arab World and its readiness to take on New Media as art. Some showcase a direct engagement with machines, while others allow the machine to generate on behalf of the artist. Ultimately, they reveal a dynamic engagement, or fascination, with automation.

Autonomy

New Media art can embody autonomy, where the medium becomes a manifestation of power, a declaration of independence, or a space for repatriation and emancipation. This theme captures the essence of breaking through, rebelling, resetting anew, or establishing connections with machines and New Media art. In addition, the rapid pace of digital technology has granted visual artists control over the production, distribution, and reception of their work. This newfound autonomy has fostered a participatory landscape in which artists and audiences engage in dynamic dialogue. New Media art experiments have also reset boundaries, benchmarks, relational markets, and political and censorship sensitivities.

Ripples

New Media art reflects either rhythmic patterns or the distance between peaks on a wave. It encompasses the interaction of ripples from different waves, symbolizing gatherings or institutions within movements and illustrating the dynamic interplay of influences. Arab New Media artists investigate the tools and technologies of image-making and sound-making at different phases of operating analog or digital, living war or peace, and dealing with guests or enemies. They also leverage changing political situations or the pouring of resources into their local art scenes, conducting interviews, collecting elements of visual culture, endorsing digital images, and linking compelling narratives.

Glitch
New Media art celebrates the aesthetic of error and imperfection, thereby representing resistance against normative standards. The Glitch signifies the flashes or signals of errors in automation that challenge the spread of norms in environments where resources are depleted, scarce, or questioned. However, such an erratic episode is neither an error nor a malfunction; it is a functioning ecology of a different aesthetic willing to be normalized. From mundane surveillance footage to outputs of discontinued computer software, works in this section follow what happens when artists compel narratives within charged contexts.