Rise +
Shine also has an alternate
title: Parvaneh. The cultural significance behind this
other
title is more crucial compared to the “nice” title
of Rise + Shine. Parvaneh means ‘butterfly’ in
Persian/Farsi – the butterfly symbolizing the free
spirit in Persian poetry. Jakoby’s stress upon
this free spirited notion is successful through the expression
of movement by her images that are always in flux, moving
randomly in and out of the computer screen. The abstract
form is not easily recognizable to a butterfly’s
but this does not really take away its free spirited-ness.
Nevertheless the fact not many people are familiar with
Persian words, ‘parvaneh’ will not completely
convey the free spirited-ness; thus the meaning of
the art is culturally chained to those who understand
its
alternative meaning, while other viewers are left to
visually interact with the image movements.
The images are themselves digitization of flowers and
other natural materials, as Jakoby has supplied in
the interview. In the Islamic culture (which includes
Persia,
India, Iran, etc.) flowers are connected to the notion
of Paradise, also known as the divine garden in the
Quran, their holy text. With these flowery images,
Jakoby does
not intend to bring up issues of “typical western
stereotypes of feminine imagery”* but instead to
communicate a sense of visual poetry “using minimal
means to convey the most meaning.”* It is obvious
from Jakoby’s manipulation of the images that she
seeks to apply minimal means by using simple outlined
forms and repeating them (so that they will seem familiar
after awhile) to reduce visual clutter-ness. However,
since the Net art is situated on a web space called girlfish,
feminist implications has potentially been set in motion;
the audience could assume that Jakoby’s aim was
to comment on feminine issues especially with the delicate
shapes of her images.
Now if we backtrack a little to Jakoby’s aim to
express her personal interest in the Islamic culture,
she asserts that because the images have been broken
down into simple pixels, these pixels remind her of the
Islamic tiling patterns (http
link:).
How so? Well since Islamic tiling patterns carry a reminiscence
of the mathematical and geometric processes behind their
creation, it is linked to the fact that Rise
+ Shine is a “totally computer generated”* art piece – computers,
of course, driven by mathematics and therefore its creations
derive from it. Despite Jakoby’s claims, it is
difficult to distinguish these “pixilations” from
mere design patterns that one might assume the artist
has used; that is, because of the smoothness of the edges,
these images do not immediately scream pixilated. This
is because through our experiences with paint/picture
programs, the average computer user would have a preconceived
understanding that pixilated images are extremely blocky
and rigid.
On a broader outlook, with Jakoby’s multi-cultural
background and upbringing, she has been exposed to many
notions about different cultures. She believes that “the
way we perceive art is something that is definitely shaped
by our culture,”* which echoes true in her art
from the way she has allowed viewers to be separated
between the ones who understand the meaning of the title
Parvaneh and those who do not. Jakoby also believes that
her Net art has “a lot to do with cultural identity
and branding”* by firmly displaying only images;
and this illustrates her belief that the Islamic culture
should not be “branded as ‘anti-image,’ but
[the culture] is in fact just more conscious about the
use of images.”* On the other hand, because Jakoby
feels that “our cultures are all very closely related
to each other,”* it does not truly matter what
cultural upbringing one has had; in the end we view art
in a similar fashion/ideology thereby making an allusion
to the existence of a global culture whose growth has
been aided by the nature of the Internet.
Rise + Shine also works as a global contemporary piece
because according to Jakoby, it was conceived shortly
after 9/11, hinting its response to the events of and
following that day. Especially now with the world bombarded
with all sorts of commentaries and opinions about the
current situation in the Middle East, we find ourselves
swamped with information and needing to take a step back
to view the situation more simplistically. Because of
the nature of Net art, the digital typography of Rise
+ Shine has both strengthened and weakened the way it
can be viewed on a global scale. Viewers who find themselves
immediately reminiscing the Islamic motifs and memories
of wanting simplistic ideas without subjective commentaries,
will map out a sort of new “community” of
people with similar ideologies unrestrained by their
physical locations on the globe. However Rise + Shine’s
image-only structure can also lead to frustrations in
understanding the piece during times of peace and the
reversion to more quiet times when the global society
does not have much weighing on their minds.
In conclusion to the interview, Jakoby proposes that
her next project with girlfish.net is to project some
of the pieces on huge screens in a “real space
context,”* not truly removing them from the Internet
(which she believes has already helped reach a wide range
of people because of its “free, open access”*
nature); but perhaps to install some sort of significance
onto an already existing community.
Footnotes:
1http://www.vpl.vancouver.bc.ca/branches/LibrarySquare/
bus/newmediawhat.html
* Quotes taken from the interview with Roya Jakoby
Written by: Lian
Choo
|