Transcendence [1.0] / The Saudi Art Council
21,39 AlObour Exhibition
(Jeddah, KSA) - GoldMoor Mall Exhibition Space

Debut audiovisual interactive installation. A key moment where the New Media Art scene was peripheral locally. 
Transformed footsteps into harmonic shifts and featured an Arabic narrative exploring perception and presence in space. Curated by Dr. Effat Fadag.

Original Gallery Description:

Transcendence is an endeavour by Nasser Alshemimry to explore the relationship between the self and space. In it, viewers are invited to enter into a space where contact microphones are installed beneath the floors. 

Through taking footsteps, audience members witness an audible presence in a particular situation, with a dynamic and transformative sound evoking a feeling of progress and motion and a hidden message narrative. Here, the artist set out to create a sound piece influenced by the audience so that it participates in shaping the sound as it is played out. In Transcendence, Alshemimry attempts to instigate a heightened awareness of the viewer to their environment, thereby increasing their listening attention. In doing so, the work breaks the audience’s immersion in the sounds of daily life, allowing them to be active participants in the creation of a sound piece. 

The result is an interaction with sound triggered by the audience for attention in disarray,  with interested observers examining the space they occupy and interacting with the installation. 

Nasser Alshemimry is a Saudi audio-visual artist whose alias, DesertF!sh, reflects his Najdi roots and life on the Red Sea coast. Based in Jeddah, his practice moves between sound, generative visuals, interactive systems, and computational image-making. Through his studio “Desert.Dream Audio Visual” he develops immersive works and provides technical direction for artists and cultural institutions, bridging the languages of composition, code, installation, and spatial experience. After initially serving the contemporary art scene as a consultant for technologically complex artworks, Nasser began producing standalone audiovisual installations that examine perception, memory, and the human encounter with machines. Since his debut at the Saudi Art Council’s 21,39 exhibition in 2019, his work has been presented by Misk Art Institute, Ithra, Noor Riyadh, the Royal Commission for AlUla, the Saudi Pavilion at Expo 2025 Osaka, and Diriyah Art Futures’ inaugural exhibition Art Must Be Artificial. Works such as Transcendence, Sympathetic Strings, Inner Light, Digital Anemone, and his early StyleGAN projects explore responsive environments, biomimicry, machine vision, and the shifting image of Saudi identity through computational systems. His current research revisits early AI image synthesis as a form of cultural mis-recognition and latent-space archaeology. Through images of Al-Balad, AlUla, and Saudi material culture, he treats generative systems not as neutral tools, but as unstable archives: machines that remember, distort, and reassemble cultural forms. His work seeks a precise balance between technical experimentation and poetic residue, where sound, gesture, image, and heritage become signals within a larger field of transformation.