HUMSS - Noa Roei

Invasive Species: on Borders and Boundaries in Artistic and National Imaginaries

In my contribution to the FRIAS colloquium I will present my current and ongoing research on the project “Invasive Species,” an immersive media installation by emerging artist Emi Sfard (2017). The installation comprises of two interactive media projects created with the help of 3D computer programs that can be updated in real time. The one, subtitled “Welcome to Palestine,” displays an idealized oasis with palm trees, a water spring and stone dwellings designed in the style of oriental romantic paintings from the late 19^th century. The other, entitled “Conquest the Wilderness” offers the possibility to virtually wander around a hyper-realistic rendition of a typical Israeli forest. Both works relate in different ways to Israeli landscape imaginaries. To this extent, the installation addresses and complements established critical debates on Zionist arboreal iconography and historiography. It does so, uniquely, through a focus on the moment of arrival, in ways that complicate one’s idea of frontiers and their transgression.  The project’s force, I wish to show, emerges in part from its refusal to remain within the picture plane, implicating spectators in the depicted images through gaming technologies, and so interspersing questions of national boundaries (addressed representationally and semiotically) with those of the borders of the gallery space (addressed performatively and experientially).