Immersio: Mengukir (2022)

Commissioned by Filamen and Yayasan TM to write the exhibition text, artwork descriptions and artist bios.

Since the Covid-19 pandemic, many people have begun to question how we view art and what constitutes an art experience. Without the physical artworks presented but virtually promoted, there is a growing appreciation towards analogue, experiential art.

Returning after 2 years, Immersio opens with the theme ‘Mengukir’ (to carve in English), exploring how new media forms and digital technologies carve new opportunities to create more meaningful and accessible relationships between people, Malaysia’s cultural heritage and the world. As the title Immersio suggests, the exhibition focuses on the nuanced characteristics of the ‘immersive’ thus placing visitors front and centre – encouraging active, two way dialogue and positioning them not as an audience but as participants.

Immersio: Mengukir features new commissions and projects by local artists Pamela Tan, Cheong See Min, Farhan Fathee, Haris Abadi, Jun Ong, Joshua Teo, Tanoti, Pangrok Sulap, Titik Buta, White Bones, Supercodex, and a lot more. The exhibition includes weekly talks and workshops by Filamen, EDT, Maitree, In Transit, Nak Seni, and NFXT. 

Immersio: Mengukir considers what it means to be human when technology is changing everything, from making our lives more convenient while making us feel increasingly disconnected to contributing to inequality gaps and conflicts. Through pioneering use of tech – 3D projection mapping, algorithmic visualisation and open source VFX software – the artists push the viewers to deconstruct the given binaries between natural and artificial, arts and sciences, physical and digital, traditional and technology. Taking place at Muzium Telekom which traces the history of telecommunications in Malaysia from the 1870s up to the present, Immersio: Mengukir equally pays homage to the country’s achievements in digital infrastructure.

With digital media, immersive art installations and public events which visitors can interact with and participate in, the festival-style exhibition takes place all over Muzium Telekom and gives visitors the tools to reflect on how we may navigate our evolving world – to learn, unlearn and relearn from the past. While Immersio: Mengukir may feature materials of the future, the enduring subjects of the exhibition are rooted in Malaysia’s diverse cultural heritage and biodiversity – the exhibition traces a trajectory that is often ignored and suggests there is more to new media than projections and flashing lights. 

Immersio: Mengukir asks big questions: What does it mean to be human in an increasingly blurred reality? What is consciousness? To what extent can digital technologies preserve and innovate our cultural heritage? How can art and technology support the combating of environmental and climate change?