10 Questions with DINO Ahmad Ali

Born in 1985 in Syria, DINO is a visual artist who graduated from the Faculty of Fine Arts in Damascus, specializing in visual communication. In 2014, he obtained a master’s degree in Digital Issues and Technology from the University of Paris VIII. In 2018, he defended his Ph.D. in Science of Information and Communication at the University of Paris VIII, under the title: “The conception of visual information and the spectator’s role in an interactive optical illusion installation”. He received the first prize at the exhibition The relationship between traditional Islamic art and contemporary design, at the National Museum of Damascus, in 2010, and the first prize for video art at the «Young Artists Contest» organized by Kozah Gallery in Damascus, Syria, in 2008. Since 2005, DINO has dedicated to creating the art of optical illusion through installations and interactive artworks. DINO Ahmad Ali has been living and working in France since 2011.

ahmadali.fr

Interactive Colours | DESCRIPTION

His work focuses on two main elements: the interactive relation between the artwork and the audience and the human eye's visual capabilities. The circumstances of delivering optical information and movement will be essential elements that use the optical illusion art to create interaction between the artwork and the spectator.

In producing these artworks, he merges two techniques. The first is interactive installations that depend on the Anamorphosis principle. The second is numeric printing, in which black and white contrast and visual shapes are repeated. As for the inciting topics, they are related to humanitarian issues. Most notably imposed censorship of ideas, immigration, and detention.

His new project, Interactive Colours, focuses on the material and its color to produce interactive optical illusion artworks formed by three colors: blue, red, and yellow. He relied on the accuracy of the material's juxtaposition and the inability of the human eye to perceive that juxtaposition correctly, to find new optical color spectra, which do not exist physically, propagate on the observer's retina and move according to his movement in front of the work. This interaction between the spectator and the work creates a kinetic-sensory dialogue with the artwork.

Interactive colours, Spectrum 104, Polyester and vinyl on plexiglas, 100x50 cm, 2021 © DINO Ahmad Ali

INTERVIEW

What is your artistic background, and how did you start experimenting with images?

I graduated from the Faculty of Fine Arts, visual communication department in Damascus in 2007. I became a teaching assistant at the university for one year. Then I traveled to France to continue my art studies, and I obtained a Master's degree and a Ph.D. focusing on optical illusion and the spectator's interactive role within the artwork.
I have executed interactive and experiential installations. I have also participated in festivals and biennales, including at the Institut du Monde Arabe, Paris; National Museum of Damascus; Horizons Festival, Manchester; Oslo World Festival; Santorini Biennale and the Venice Biennale, with artwork related to the optical illusion.

As for experimenting with the image, I started the moment I got into university. I have worked with all sorts of images, whether animated or in motion (Video art and animation) or static images (Photomontage, Photography). In addition to painting, drawing, and what is related to the optical illusion.

During my second year in college, I started working on ideas related to the Anamorphosis technique. I was interested in that technique in particular. It got me motivated and curious, so I started artistic/scientific research that led me afterward to be more interested in all the optical illusion techniques, in addition to the spectator's role within the optical illusion artwork. My curiosity and enthusiasm concerning the subject continue until this moment. Even if I worked/am working on/with other artistic ideas using variable techniques (requested by the concept of the artwork or the working material), optical illusion art is still the one that has a great space in my mind, thoughts, and experiments.

Why are you an artist, and when did you first become one?

I will answer the second question then the first. If "Artist" means someone of value or someone creative, only people can decide if I am an artist or not. If "Artist" means an artisan who considers art as a full-time profession, I believe that I am one. That is what I do from the moment I wake up till I go to sleep. What made me choose this profession or domain is its capability to transform imagination into reality, an Image, and any means we can interact by and with, visually and sensually. In addition, art is related to all life aspects, social, philosophical and humanitarian, etc. It has indefinite shapes and probabilities that turn the artist into a productive creature.

Can you talk about your creative process? What is your artistic routine when working? What actions or rituals help you to get inspired or motivated to create a new artwork?

Generally, the creative process starts with an idea. I get it through a motive, probably a visual motivation - for example, a situation, image, natural phenomena, scientific phenomena, or anything visually dazzling like the light, transformations, and transitions. The motivation makes me think, doubt, or ask a question. It might move me somehow or wake images that were sleeping inside my visual memory.

I search for what's behind this visual motivation, everything related to it, and why it moved me. After intellectual, philosophical, and sometimes scientific research phases, I start technical and artistic research. That includes the experimenting stage, using my tools and skills, developing ones if needed. Till I finally reach the final form that expresses my idea and transforms it into an artwork. I note my commentary, draw many sketches and develop them during the research and experimenting phases. Those sketches and comments turn physical at the end.

Weekly, I plan the research and execution. Two days to research and experiment, and three to four to execute. I take one day off; maybe it makes me find motivational ideas for projects. The rituals that nurture me with motivation are probably related to meditation, walking, raising my eyes to observe what is going around me, what nature looks like, how things move or stay still.

Nature is rich. It is full of motivational ideas, especially those related to the optical illusion. Each living creature has elegant mechanisms and ways to sense the world around him visually. He appears, disappears, protects himself, and develops his techniques. Many living things have multiple visual receptors. They see colours we do not see. Even nature itself has so many images, textures, and ways to express life. That is important to me artistically. I watch documentaries about nature, creatures, and animals, knowing more about their world. Watching those things is one of my visual-reading subjects, besides searching for new scientific and technical inventions, technologies, and discoveries.

Interactive colours, Spectrum 601, Polyester and vinyl on plexiglas, 60x60 cm, 2021 © DINO Ahmad Ali

Interactive colours, Spectrum 602, Polyester and vinyl on plexiglas, 60x60 cm, 2021 © DINO Ahmad Ali

Your work is centered on optical illusions. Why did you choose to work with optical illusions in the first place? Do they represent something in particular for you?

The optical illusion artwork is similar to reality, for each image holds more than one truth, and we can see it from different angles. It makes brian ask. Is what we see real or an illusion? How do we see this? What are we seeing? All answers have a sort of rightness and truth. Besides, optical illusion speaks directly to the eye as a physical organ, not just as a source of vision.

Because it is related to the spectator's instantaneous memory and the instantaneous physical body, optical illusion works cling to the current moment, the present moment of seeing the artwork and interacting with it. Each time you change position, you will reveal a different face, and your eyes will react differently to what you are looking at right now, at this moment. Most of these works, especially the abstract ones, lead us to carefully observe the work we are looking at, bypassing digging into memory, the past, and the future. For that, I see that optical illusion works create visual pleasure rather than visual illusion.

In your work, you focus on two different elements, "the interactive relation between the artwork and the audience" and "the human eye's visual capabilities." How do you choose them? Are they related in any way? And if so, how?

The optical illusion is related to the vision system and the weak points within the eye. At this stage, the spectator interaction is present with his own eyes. The extra element that I am adding, in addition to the previous one (particularly in the interactive Colors project), is the spectator's body movement interaction. That affects how he views the work (what he sees depends on his movement and the viewing angle). That creates a complete interaction (body and eye interaction) with the work and makes the audience the one who is creating the artwork.

Let's take works from the "interactive colours" collection as an example. Each piece contains around 750 vinyl colours (Blue, Yellow, Red, and Black). The vinyl colours snipped as lines, placed in careful juxtaposition on two distant levels. Because of the repeated contrasted juxtaposition of colours, the spectator will not perceive that juxtaposition correctly. Their eyes will visually mix those juxtapositional 750 vinyl colours and see a colour spectrum that does not physically exist. When the spectator's body moves (the vision distance and angle changes), his eyes will see other colour spectrums. In this case, the work has moved depending on the spectator's movement. We can understand, by this example, that those two elements are related (eye and body movement), for they exist in the same creature, which is the audience.

Although simple, your works are complex and layered. How much planning goes into each artwork?

The artworks within the "Interactive colours" projects have various phases and expression tools. Different products for each phase express the concept, and each work within each phase needs its own execution time - the manual artwork phase (the tableau principle), the installation artwork phase, and the immersive art phase. (In addition to other future phases that reflect the concept of "interactive colours" depending on different artistic tools and domains).
I will talk about the first phase because I have almost finished. Each piece within the collection is different in size, shape, and effect it delivers, in addition to the colour spectrums it produces. I set about ten days to execute each. There are some artworks that I start then return to after a while. Since the beginning of the project, I have executed 23 pieces besides working on other artistic projects.

Interactive colours, Spectrum 602, Polyester and vinyl on plexiglas, 100x50 cm, 2021 © DINO Ahmad Ali

What does your art aim to say to the viewers? And what do you think differentiates your message from those of other artists?

My message to the audience is: enjoy, relax, strip away visual clutter and the information stuck in your brain and retina, and let your eyes rest. Every artist has an original and authentic message. All those messages complete each other. My aim is to create visual pleasure that takes the spectator away from his memories and the collective memory. That takes him away from his past and future. A pleasure related to the present moment, to now, to how our body works, our brain asks, and our eyes see, so we enjoy.

Do you find that the shift to digital exhibitions and art fairs has helped you promote your work?

Any gathering, digital or physical, is necessary to deliver the artwork to the audience. Digital platforms have helped me with my "2D projects". However, it did not help with "Interactive colours" because of technical problems. My work is not a static collection of images. They are closer to installations. They require physical attendance to be well understood. Most digital exhibitions do not accept works in motion. They request static images only.

Interactive colours, Spectrum 103, Polyester and vinyl on plexiglas, 100x50 cm, 2021 © DINO Ahmad Ali

Have you ever thought about going digital and shifting to NFTs and digital art?

I have mentioned that I worked on various and different projects, Digital and Physical, and Physical. However, I always tend to mix both digital and physical. I did that in "interactive colours".
I do prefer it when the audience exists physically to see the work and interact with it. For what is related to NTFS, I do support referencing and intellectual rights. However, I love online creative commons that are open to everyone with nothing in return.

And lastly, what are you working on right now? Any exciting projects or exhibitions coming up soon?

I work on various projects. One of those projects is "interactive colours". The second project is interactive street art, converting black garden fences and many street fences around buildings into interactive, colourful works. Another project that I am working on is creating an interactive visual illusion installation in a public space. With this project, the spectator would be able to go inside the installation.

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