Artists participating in significant events in the Kingdom display their works using augmented, virtual, and mixed-reality techniques with the help of an immersive experience design company.
To help raise the profile of Saudi Art on the global stage, technology and traditional practices are being combined.
MIDWAM, based in Jeddah, has been promoting public and private-sector brands at festivals such as Noor Riyadh, MDLBEAST, and the AlUla Dates Festival.
Khalid Al-Muawad, co-founder and chief executive officer of MIDWAM, says that “We look at the entire scene and take it from a human-centric approach and look at what can attract and engage a person toward that industry.”
In its collaboration with Noor Riyadh, the company collaborated with four Saudi artists to apply a hi-tech perspective to their creations.
Mohammed Al-Sanie, a contributing artist and senior member of MIDWAM’s production department, adds that “In our line of business, or even when working with artists, we usually consider technology as an enabler or as a tool. It shouldn’t be the star of what we’re doing, it should be a tool that we utilize.”
Al-Sanie’s work as a new-media artist is primarily influenced by the 1980s, retro science fiction, and the synthwave electronic music genre to explain the present and future through the past.
“Dreams in Color,” one of his pieces, is an outdoor LED installation that depicts an alternate version of Riyadh through video loops displayed on a screen framed by wood, cladding, and Styrofoam scaffolding.