Transmission and Reception in New Media Art: A Conversation with Muhammad Toukhy through the virtual project The Pond of Person A (2025)

Transmission and Reception in New Media Art: A Conversation with Muhammad Toukhy through the virtual project The Pond of Person A (2025)

In the screen surrounded generation, how can we reach the artwork in New Media? Many web based artworks have been seeking the way to show the work and the way to present the artwork provoke the question how to understand the audience’s participation in the artwork which is in the virtual space. In the online exhibition The Pond of Person A, art researcher Bowie Bo Gyung Kim (hereinafter referred to as BK) , who specializes in digital media, and multimedia artist Muhammad Toukhy (hereinafter referred to as MT) collaboratively investigate new modes of perceiving technology-based art. The virtual project showcases Toukhy’s work KISMET (2024), presented since April 18, 2025, at the online platform of H/F Gallery, part of the New Media Caucus, a collective dedicated to new media art.

(BK)1. Artwork Description
Tell me about the artwork KISMET(2024).

MT:
KISMET is an interactive experience that explores the idea of constant input - the notion that the world is never silent, that waves of information, sound, and presence are always moving through space, even when unnoticed. It reflects on the invisible yet persistent currents of communication that shape our environments, whether through physical vibrations, digital signals, or human voices. In KISMET, the act of listening becomes a way of witnessing. The space itself responds to even the faintest input, which is a reminder of how nothing is actually static. The work invites the user into a relationship where presence leaves an imprint.
The piece consists of an oceanic 3D space, with a ring of glowing pillars at its center that rise and fall in response to sound input captured through the user's microphone.
KISMET was developed as part of a larger project created in 2024, in collaboration with artist Sharon Rose Benson. Sharon and I initially began our collaboration by creating a film together - she wrote it, and I shot and edited it. The film was later shown as part of a group exhibition at the Crypt Gallery in London, where Sharon also performed a live work. During the development of the broader project, I started working on this interactive platform using a game engine. I wanted to create a piece that would echo the voices inhabiting the gallery space itself.
After the show ended, I was left with this software work and began exploring what kind of life it could have outside the context of the original KISMET project.
When you first suggested uploading the virtual project online, I was curious about its potential as part of a virtual exhibition. At the same time, I felt hesitant because for me, the piece was deeply tied to the physical experience of space. Bringing it back onto the screen required rethinking its context and meaning.
One major shift in this new edition was that it no longer simply existed as a digital file running on a local computer, or as a copy that could be downloaded. Instead, it became anchored to a specific online location: the KISMET_LIVE domain. In hindsight, this shift elevated the work. It brought back a sense of physicality. It wasn’t just an .exe file anymore projected in a gallery; it was the gallery space itself.

Translating KISMET into its web version also brought a lot of technical challenges. Unity, the game engine I used, doesn’t natively support microphone input in web builds. I had to develop custom plugins and implement workarounds to make it functional, but it worked!
In my earlier conversations with Sharon, we inevitably discussed how the work relates to the ongoing genocide in Gaza, particularly the vital role of the press. More than 170 journalists and media workers have been killed since the beginning of the war in October 2023. This reality reminded us that even amid deliberate attempts to blind the world, reality remains present. KISMET became a kind of wish, that no matter what, something is being picked up and registered, somehow, somewhere.

(BK)2. Physical space vs. Virtual space
As a virtual project, I can't help but reflect on audience behavior in both physical and virtual spaces. I'd love to hear your thoughts as an artist who has experienced both.
2.1 As a curator, I noticed key differences between physical and virtual exhibition spaces. Virtual exhibitions require active audience engagement, and without the willingness to participate, the experience can be entirely lost. Even for those who enter, multiple steps are often needed to reach the artwork. Despite these challenges, I believe virtual art experiences remain essential. How can we describe this situation or what is the further idea on that?

MT:
I’m also aware of the risks involved in online exhibitions. People who aren’t particularly tech-savvy might not even try to engage. Many simply don’t have a natural orientation in digital space, and that’s a real problem. The question of inclusivity and accessibility is important here. Then again, it’s not as if the white cube has ever been truly accessible either.
But more to the point, I think virtual spaces create a very particular way of “consuming” art. No one sees you, at least in theory. In a physical gallery, there is always a certain level of self-awareness. You follow social codes and cues, perform interest, behave as though you’re engaged. There is a lot of acting involved.
In virtual space, it’s more like the Ring of Gyges. When no one sees you, you can do whatever you want. That anonymity holds the potential for a more raw and unfiltered encounter with the work.
Still, I think KISMET complicates that. As a user or viewer engages with it, they receive feedback. There is a feeling that the work is, in some way, listening, because it is. That presence shifts the experience again.

2.2 What do you think about the effect of the ‘flying’ navigation in virtual space on your artwork?

MT: It definitely makes the experience more interactive. Flying adds a new way to move through the space. We’re not just walking around like in real life, You can go up, down, or float through areas, which gives a different feeling. It lets people see the work from angles they normally couldn’t. That changes how they understand the space and makes the whole thing feel more open and dreamlike.

2.3 I heard that this artwork was presented in physical space, the Crypt Gallery in London. Can you explain the difference of ways to expose your artwork that you felt between the two spaces?

MT: The gallery is actually in St. Pancras Church in London. It’s a cavelike, very echoey space, which worked really well with how the work visualized sound. In the physical show, like I mentioned, you just installed the work once on a local computer and it stayed there, reacting to the sounds inside the gallery. The new version isn’t just a file on one computer but anchored to the KISMET_LIVE domain, so it’s always there and accessible from anywhere.

(BK)3. Active vs. Passive participation of the audience in virtual artwork
KISMET is fascinating in how it absorbs unnoticed surroundings—echoing ideas of media archiving—while its light pillars visually encourage the audience's active participation. Thus, KISMET invites both active and passive participation.

3.1 What do you think about the synchronization between sound and the light visual effect in KISMET? and What kind of effect do you think this synchronization creates for the audience?

MT: For me, it brings up ideas of physical experience and realism by syncing the two together. It is a way to reconnect what is happening on the screen with what is happening in reality. The synchronization serves as a reminder that the digital space and the real world are connected. Even small sounds have a visible effect.

3.2 How can we compare hearing sound through the auditory sense versus seeing sound as a visualized form?

MT: I often think about how senses overlap, especially when it comes to sound. In KISMET, sound becomes something visible. The glowing pillars rise and fall in response to live microphone input. Hearing and seeing are both ways of receiving, shaped by the body and the environment. I do not think of them as separate. Our brains constantly weave different senses into a single experience, even though our bodies treat them as distinct channels, because that’s how are bodies were made to survive. Imagine if touch, taste, and sight were processed by the same neurons without distinction. You wouldn’t know if something you felt was actually something you saw or something you tasted. That would be crazy. In KISMET, I wanted to explore how sound could shape space and presence. I was thinking about how something ephemeral, like a voice or a noise, could leave a mark in the environment.

(BK)4. Individuals in virtual space
This part might be a deeper point. On our island, the audience navigates alone—they face no one but themselves, reflected in your artwork. Yet, their movements are still shaped by their sense of belonging. This makes me curious about how society functions within virtual space.
4.1 Do you think a virtual space can form or constitute a society? and what methods are used to structure society within virtual space? (For example, forming communities through virtual avatars or functioning as an infrastructure…)

MT:

Absolutely, I think virtual space can form a kind of society. It just works differently. Instead of laws and borders, it’s built through presence, shared symbols, avatars, and, of course, interaction.
Hakim Bey talks about this in Temporary Autonomous Zone. He says the TAZ is like a temporary uprising that creates a space of freedom, then dissolves and appears elsewhere. That’s how a lot of online communities work.
Take early Minecraft servers. People built towns, made rules, took on roles, even formed economies. It was temporary, but while it lasted, it was real. People remembered it, talked about it, carried parts of it into the next space.

4.2 Within a virtual environment, are individual actions merely isolated, or can they still be considered social—given that individuals respond to and engage with the surroundings in virtual space? (Even if the user acts alone, without interacting with other users?)

MT: The space itself is shaped by collective design, shared references, and expectations. So even if you’re not talking to another user, you’re still responding to something others have built, imagined, or left behind. That’s a form of dialogue. You’re in conversation, just not necessarily in real time.

4.3 Which aspect of the relationship between the individual and society do you aim to convey more clearly through KISMET?

MT: Once a space is online, it already becomes shared. It is a place where people from different places can come together, even if they never meet directly. But what is interesting for me is that KISMET might also feel a bit like a confession booth. You can interact with the program, you can say something or make a sound, and no one else will know. Only the system knows. That privacy creates something very personal.

That is also why I chose to place it inside a watery environment. Water feels like an abyss. It is a place where you can throw something, like a message in a bottle, and it might sink and disappear, or it might float and reach someone else. You never fully control it.

I think this reflects something important about society too. What connects me to another person is not necessarily what we say to each other. It is the fact that we both carry things we cannot fully share. Just knowing that we each have our own hidden parts creates a bond between us. KISMET tries to make that quiet connection feel real.

About Interviewee and Interviewer
Muhammad Toukhy (b. 1999 Palestine) is a multidisciplinary artist. His work draws from personal and collective narratives of his homeland, using them as a foundation to create immersive digital works, sculptures, and installations. Toukhy’s practice blends the political with the fantastical, building worlds that invite viewers to reimagine history and question the boundaries between memory and imagination.

Toukhy uses digital technologies as a means of creating fantastical representations of experience. These technologies enable him to explore the tension between reality and myth, creating new ways to reimagine history, resistance, and cultural resilience. Through his work, he challenges colonial legacies, offering alternative narratives that transcend linear histories and amplify indigenous ways of knowing and being.

His work has been exhibited in both local and international venues, including Ta’ar Gallery in Tel Aviv, Crypt Gallery in London, Umm el-Fahem Art Gallery, and Wannsee Contemporary in Berlin, among others. Toukhy is an alumnus of Residency Unlimited in New York City and has received several awards, such as the Excellence Grant Award from the University of Haifa (2021), the Al Markez Gallery Prize for an Outstanding Exhibition (2021), and the Walid Abu Shakra Grant for Excellence (2021).

Bowie Bo Gyung Kim (b.1991, South Korea) is an art researcher living and working in New York. Bowie holds an MA in Art History and Criticism from Stony Brook University, where she focused on internet-based artwork from the early 1990s, and an MFA in Fine Art from Hongik University, where she explored imagined landscape collage painting in her own artistic practice. Currently, with a focus on audience participation in artwork, she is investigating the audience’s embodied agency in virtual space by expanding her research to include virtual cognition and awareness. She is working at Residency Unlimited as a Research Coordinator from 2025.

About the New Media Caucus and H/F Gallery
New Media Caucus
The New Media Caucus (NMC) is an international non-profit association formed to promote the development and understanding of new media art. We represent and serve: artists, designers, practitioners, historians, theorists, educators, students, and scholars. Recognizing new media art to be inherently interdisciplinary, multimodal, and evolving, we support and advance a wide range of inquiry to catalyze further evolution of the field. The NMC is committed to extending and sustaining the diversity of our community, board, and membership, to promote an environment of equality, inclusion, and respect for difference. We prioritize inclusion as an ongoing collaborative process of growth that we continually address, both within the Caucus and in our field. In addition to being an independent arts organization, the New Media Caucus is an Affiliate Society of the College Art Association.

H/F Gallery
Header/Footer Gallery is a digital exhibition space hosted on the New Media Caucus Web Presence. New shows will be curated every 3-4 months. H/F utilizes various NMC platforms to highlight the work of our members, allowing us to promote the creative output of our members by situating their work in thoughtfully curated exhibitions that take place across our entire web presence. As of Spring 2022, Header/ Footer is curated by Rene G. Cepeda.