[ISEA2000] Paper: Hasnul Saidon – Contemporary E-artists from Malaysia: Negating Boundaries between Map(s)

Abstract

The contemporary e-Artists from Malaysia are : Alizam Hasan, Anuar Ayob, Faizal Zulkifli, Hasnul J Saidon, Helena Song, John Hii, Liu Chun Hi, Lai Khing Ming, Ling Siew Woei, Tan Sei Hon, Ting-Ting Hok, Suhami Tohid, Syed Alwi. Their range or scope of practice includes video, light, digital collage/print, computer animation, interactive cd-rom, and interactive web art. Study of a map constitutes relationship between human activities with her/his physical environment – a system of scientific representation and visualization of the physical world involving replication, simulation, model, icon, symbol, scale, size, location, distance, point, direction, pattern and contour, etc. It supposedly brings comprehension of both natural and socio-cultural landscapes, providing a ‘guide’ for various forms of human «navigation» as well as ‘negation’. It is a secondary reality that claims to speak the language of fundamental material truth, bounded by «space-time» dimension of a ‘scientifically-assumed reality’. The essay will hopefully provide a justified contextualisation of ‘present encounters’ faced by young e-artists from Malaysia. They practice their arts within the intricate web of the above-mentioned maps, of which the demarcation of boundaries and the relation between the center and the periphery are constantly negated. Hasnul J. Saidon introduces the works of these young artists whilst acknowledging their individual negation as a pathway for the future mapping of Malaysian art scene.

  • Hasnul J. Saidon & Tan Sei Hon, Faculty of Applied & Creative Arts Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (UNIMAS), Malaysia     freespeech.org/eartasean