Phygital art: This futuristic fusion of physical and digital worlds is at home in Dubai

Phygital art: This futuristic fusion of physical and digital worlds is at home in Dubai

Gone are the days when interacting with art often meant a static viewing experience as you walk across the halls in a gallery. Our 2022 reality sees more of – A portrait that responds to your emotions, smiling back. The ambient music also balloons or softens based on the data from your brainwaves. This is the ‘Monalisa 2.0’ by Raghava KK, multidisciplinary artist and storyteller. The painting of a cosmic landscape, with a blue building rising from crimson dunes into a cloudy sky. It isn’t complete though – until you view it through an augmented reality app and see a shifting animation superimposed on the canvas in front of you. This is part of the ‘COSMODREAMS’ project, by Marina Fedorova, figurative artist and painter. This is ‘phygital’ art – a hybrid, inextricably linked fusion of the digital and physical worlds in one artwork that is the latest medium in the global artist arsenal. And, the space has accelerated like never before in the wake of the pandemic and the digital-NFT boom. Pablo Del Vaal, digital curator of Art Dubai, the Middle East’s leading international art fair, where both Fedorova and Raghava KK had exhibited works this year in March, says,