Lebanese University

B1, Institute of Fine Arts

Installation Art: A Mode of Production

Theories and Techniques in Major

Executed by Sara Jammoul

Directed by Youssef Nehme

2021-2022
What is installation art and how was it discovered?
Installation art is a term generally used to describe a
three dimensional large scale piece of mixed media
constructions located in an interior or outer space, as the
word install means placing something inside something
else.
It’s often site specific as it’s designed to have a
relationship with its spatial environment, whether it’s a
temporary or permanent installation, on an architectural,
conceptual, or social level.
You can distinguish an installation from other forms of
spatial or land arts through its high level of intimacy
between itself and the viewer. The viewer is a key
element in any installation exhibited.
The viewer stares at this large scale body or fragments
for hours, walking through and around it, it can trigger all
senses together as well, unlike the traditional form of art
hanging on a wall.
It is one of the highest levels of interactive
conceptualism.
The ideas behind an installation, and the responses it
triggers, tend to be more important than the quality of
its medium or the way it was executed.
Because of its flexibility, it was influenced by computer
art such as software developments in video, film
projection, as well as theater, architectural and interior
design.
Early start:
Installation is strictly associated with
conceptual art and tracing the steps all
the way back to Marcel Duchamp’s
innovative approach of presenting
ready-mades, especially the
controversial urinal piece called The
Marcel Duchamp's Fountain, 1917
Fountain, 1917.
Other early influences that are
considered to have made way for this
immersive form of art
include the Dada
exhibitions held back in
First international Dada exhibition,1920
the 1920s, various
assemblage pieces which filled entire spaces
like Kurt Schwitter’s Merzbau, Lucio
Merzbau by Kurt Schwitter
Fontana’s spatial environments, and the assemblings and
writings of the avant
garde artist Allan
Kaprow particularly a
book he published in
1966 resulting in a
bomb labeled as
installation art in
1970.
Allan Kaprow,Yard,1961

These series of events led to a crash in market as the

viewer started perceiving art as an idea rather than an
object in the late 1980s.
Types of installation art:
Gallery-based installations:
Often occupy an entire room or gallery space that the spectator has to
walk through in order to engage fully with the work of art.
Can comprise traditional and non-traditional Media, such as painting,
sculpture, readymades, found objects, drawing and text. Depending on
the number of objects and the nature of the display, installation spaces
can range from cluttered to minimal.
The first form of installation and still the most mainstream for a lot of
emerging artists and amateurs.
Interactivity-based installations:
Interactive art installations are generally computer-based and
frequently rely on sensors, which gauge things such as temperature,
motion, proximity, and other meteorological phenomena that the
maker has programmed in order to elicit responses based on
participant action. In interactive artworks, both the audience and the
machine work together in dialogue in order to produce a unique
artwork for each audience to observe.
Environment-based installations:
Using only materials found in nature, such as flower petals, seashells or
tree branches, rocks, even sand and water, artists construct amazing
large or small eco-friendly artworks installed on or from land. These
artists aim to work in harmony with the natural environment rather
than disrupt it. This means they deeply consider the impact that they as
individuals have on nature and do not sacrifice its health or wellbeing in
order to create work.
Digital-based installations:
Video installation: video installation is ubiquitous and visible in a range
of environments—from galleries and museums to an expanded field
that includes site-specific work in urban or industrial landscapes.
Popular formats include monitor work, projection, and performance.
The only requirements are
electricity and darkness.
One of the main strategies used
by video-installation artists is
the incorporation of the space
as a key element in the
narrative structure. This way,
the well-known linear cinematic Electronic Superhighway by Nam June Paik
narrative is spread throughout the space creating an immersive
ambient
Sound installation: Sound installations sometimes use interactive art
technology (computers, sensors, mechanical and kinetic devices, etc.),
but they can also simply use sound
sources placed at different points in
space (such as speakers), or acoustic
instrument materials such as piano
strings played by a performer or by
the public.
The difference between a regular art
installation and a sound installation Janet Cardiff's Forty Part Motet (2001)
is that the latter contains a time element, which gives the visiting public
the option to stay longer to explore the development of the sound over
time.
Light and tech installation: While they are
multimedia audiovisual installations, lighting
is generally central to these immersive
experiences, which can involve 360°
projection, backlighting, refraction and
reflection, and lighting tools such as lasers
and LEDs.
Currently, this is largely in the realm of art
and entertainment, but the immersive
experience has implications for future
interiors.
Installation artists that made history and pushed
the genre to its limit:
The Weather Project by Olafur Eliasson
Rain Room
Yayoi Kusama, All the Eternal Love I Have for the Pumpkins
Yayoi Kusama, Infinity Mirrored Room – The Souls of Millions of Light
Years Away, 2013
Doris Salcedo Noviembre 6 y 7, 2002
Urs Fischer,You, 2007
Forms in Space…by Light (in Time) by Cerith Wyn Evans
All links entered and referred to between june 20th, till june 28, 12 pm
https://imma.ie/what-is-art/series-1-1970-now/installation-art/
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tallations%20are%20generally,responses%20based%20on%20participant%20acti
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