Malaysia Digital Artwork: Issues and Trend in National Integration

Abstract

Malaysia is a country where its people are diverse. Generally knowing the origin of Malaya is made up of Malays. The result of the British intervention on Malaya made Malaysia a country covered by various ethnicities. At the same time, to create a stable atmosphere between ethnic groups requires the hard work and the exact same ethnicity. This paper discusses visual artworks in forming a bond between ethnicity and digital media based artworks produced by Malaysian artists based on current issues of national integration in Malaysia. The discussion in this paper is solely focused on a collage digital artwork entitled Al-Kesah. This artwork contains some elements of national integration through the images it contains. The reading and interpretation of this artwork is to use a post-modern approach in contrast to the old approach of modernism. The new approach to the interpretation of this artwork will open up a larger context and indirectly open up new and exciting perspectives.

The Role of Computer Technology as Expanded Media on Visual Art, in Malaysia: A Literature Review

“…While Ismail Zain was also an early pioneer of digital art in Malaysia and is known for some of the earliest digital works produced, he used a Macintosh computer to create digital collage works in the 1980s, and his work has been exhibited both locally and abroad [35,36]. He is known and renowned as a Malaysian artist for his contribution to developing contemporary art in Malaysia in the context of expanded media.…”