Abstract

Mondrain In Action

Ling Siew Woei, Roopesh Sitharan

The emergence of Western aesthetic study has its origin from the Renaissance period whereby a shift in epistemology occurred. This shift shattered the unification of the physical and metaphysical universe of ancient time, thus restricting the foundation of knowledge to the world of sense and sensible experience -the empiricism. Indeed, this lead to our modern sense of existence in the world- interfacing the external environment covered with our physical senses. Concurrently this shaped the "I" that enables a viewer to objectify himself - "looking at" or "a receiver of". With the new immersive technology, a shift has occurred once again as the viewer becomes the "view itself" instead of "viewing at". Mondrain in Action is an artwork formulated based on these ideas, in an attempt to explore the epistemology of eastern cultures and philosophy, focusing on Malaysian traditions. The work tends to blur the boundaries between the viewer and the viewed through the immersive environment of the Internet and VRML. Adapting the works of Piet Mondrain "Composition with Red, Yellow and Blue" - a pure abstractionist painter who sees the nature in the most simplify form through the use of color and texture, the work transforms the piece from 2D contemplative object to immersive 3D environment. It also tends to critique High Art shaped by the Western ideology of aesthetic study that sometimes tends to isolated a viewer by demanding specific requirements and background knowledge in understanding a piece of art.