OMTA /
Omer Golan
Tal Golan

In our work we study the connection between human experience of the arts and the social aspects of artworks, often by exploring different levels of interactions with the viewers, on the line between passive to active. We think of our work as Socially Aware Art – our projects are site-specific in the sense that they respond to their surroundings, both physical and social, by creating mediated environments in which participants can communicate (one-to-one, one-to-many, and many-to-many), both synchronously and asynchronously, and participate in reciprocal message exchanges.

We always think about the positioning of our audience, about their motivations within specific types of media environments that we create for them, and always with regards to the dynamic of interaction through the engagement with concepts that can be politically challenging, intellectually or emotionally stimulating, or simply raise awareness to a new kind of aesthetics experience.

Often we place the viewer within the artwork, at first, to review viewers reaction to themselves as artworks, and then, when their involvement is more physical, we make them “work” for the experience, to act, as if they are performers on a stage when they notice that other viewers in the exhibition watch them interact with the art on the wall. From our previous works we learned that people are infatuated by their own image, especially when it becomes a part of an artwork. Participating in the artwork makes their experience more personal and direct, they often shed their emotional and intellectual barriers and allow themselves to get involved in uninhibited manner.

What we aspire to achieve in our works is the pre-intellectual experience. We believe that a great part of the functionality of art for humanity is the pure essence of effect on the affect that can be evolved into layers of thought of the mind and intellect. We aim to alter normal individualistic “white cube” experience by utilizing knowledge from multiple disciplines to provoke socially-aware encounters among visitors. The visitor’s experience is the focal point of our creations. Our installations act to invite people to exercise cooperation and social power, as well as experience new forms of group communication, common to the Information Age. Interaction between space and people is mediated through low and high technologies, mixed media tools and intuitive interfaces.

Residency/Fellowship

Immigration / Emigration 2015/2016

Website

omta.co

Location

Brooklyn, NY USA