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A 442 Hz.
“A 442 Hz” is a digital single screen installation by Egyptian media artist Sameh Al Tawil

Description
Musicians holding different instruments emerge in front of the steadily focused camera from beyond the screen of the film (hors-champ) and into the limelight of public attention. A small orchestra of Egyptian musicians begins to take a seat, pitch the sound of their instruments and allegedly prepares for a performance in front of the spectator.

The image is plunged in a death-blue cast that enhances its sculptural form. Three minutes into the digital film it seems this is no rehearsal session but an abruptly beginning performance in its own right, intentionally missing out on the organic test sound of A 442 Hz whilst plunging into an array of sound deliberations. Since the 2011 Egyptian revolution the interrelation of art in public, primarily in virtual spaces, and politics has created a new paradigm of digitally enhanced artistic agencies.

Media technologies, mobile media in particular and virtual counterspace, for one, have not only paved the way for a rhizomatically perceived political movement and structure of the upheavals across the Arab world since 2011, but they have also mirrored and finally enacted the political demands and actions of the people in real-time. This rhizomatically ‘medial’ form and perception of the insurgency in an art context is conceptualized in virtual passages of new media art and the decisive role digital technologies and social networks have played during the revolutionary processes. Al Tawil’s film installation eventually epitomizes the contrapuntal sound of disparate individual ‘players’ in rhizomatic structures of political performers and their digital impact in the visibility of events. The intentionality of gestures of incoherence and dysfunctionality culminates in indulgent, self-satisfied facial expressions of the musicians at the end of their performance. The one minute time span of testing sound, pitching instruments for an orchestra is transformed to lived time, the duration on tension and lasting inconsummerability. Al Tawil conceptualizes the disruption of political events, civil structures, and global repercussions through sound as a medium of sensual allurement and intuition. His digital film work critically reflects on the history of performance in video art and the politics of new media art in post-revolutionary Egypt.

Exhibition/s
The film has been premiered on the 5th Cairo film festival 2013, at Medrar for Contemporary Art, Cairo, Egypt. It has been exhibited for the second time within "Sixth Floor" group exhibition 2013 in La Viennoise hotel Cairo, Egypt 2013.

Artist Biography
Sameh Al Tawil سامح الطويل was born in Cairo, Egypt in 1978 and spent his youth in Medieval Cairo before moving to Munich, Germany when he was 22. Al Tawil is one of the most recognized new media artists from the Middle East who has gained international recognition for his works which trace the political and human rights notion through a Middle Eastern lens. He holds a BA from the Faculty of applied arts in Egypt, Diploma of Fine art from ADBK, Munich, Germany, Free media art histories study by Danube university Krems, Austria.

Sameh Al Tawil’s work tackles notions of freedom, religious and artistic identity through film, performance, digital installations and storytelling. Al Tawil’s frames Egyptian culture through the lens of self criticism and vice versa. Mixing truth and digital fiction, Al Tawil has since 2011 staged digital recreations of the clashes between the different Egyptian communities during and after the 25th January’s revolution.

In 2019, Sameh Al Tawil premiered his latest project “Ask Google” in Sharja Islamic art festival.The large interactive projection mapping installation, Where viewers are able to search google about Islam and get visual feedback in form video mapping on walls and ground in real time.

In 2017, Sameh Al Tawil premiered “Not For Sale” video installation project in Galerie Der Kuenstler, Munich, Germany, the project explores the idea of borders, boundaries and lines which are crossed when people traverse physical, psychological and symbolic spaces. Since 2000, Al Tawil had shows at the Galerie Der Kuenstler, Pinakothek der Moderne and Fine art academy Munich, Germany. Verpackerei Goerisried gallery Germany, PROGR Gallery Bern, Switzerland, AMAZE festival South Africa, Cairotronica festival Egypt, Digifest Cairo, Egypt.