Media Overload was a digital interactive installation designed by me and programmed by Mina Nabil in 2007. The project was a part of a group exhibition titled “Occidentalism – Contemporary Artists From Egypt” curated by Karim Francis and shown in Swiss Hotel featuring 19 artists showcasing works that explore the complicated relationship between East and West, driven by the question “How do you see the West?” The selection of artists extended across different generations and various camps within the local art scene, with a range of works that made use of a diversity of media and approaches. The media overload installation was a part of a main project by artist Shady El Noshokaty titled “Stammer” of which three artists other than myself participated in, the late Ahmed Bassiouny, Magdi Mostafa and Hossam Hodhod.
The installation is a space enclosed in transparent plastic sheets of which a projection of moving popular western media images bombard the viewer and appear as if they’re floating in mid-air but the viewer is in control of what to interact with and what not to by the use of a common computer mouse. The enclosure creates an immersive digital interactive environment very reminiscent of a video game especially that the interface has a stress counter instead of a score board and it consisted of several levels like any video game moving the viewer from one stress level to another.
