I’ve posted videos you can view below. Click on the image above the description to link to the corresponding video.

still from KhaliKoobeh, digital video, 2009.
KhaliKoobeh is created in the style of a Persian music video using composited images from the Texan suburbs where I grew up. Singing the only 5 words I remember in Farsi (very good, why, grapes, goodbye), I explore not only the idea of being an outsider to both cultures, but also the power of language as a divisive or unifying device.

stills from ItaliaIrania!, digital video, 2009.

ItaliaIrania!, 2009, digital video, total running time:  5:30
ItaliaIrania! is a short film created in the style of a television fusion cooking show. Through inhabiting my parents to cook a meal together as a family, I draw from childhood memories and personal emotional states to reconfigure an emotionally void media format while exploring the notion of how culture is iconized via its food.

still from The Djinns Will Eat You, digital video, 2009.

The Djinns Will Eat You, 2009, digital video, total running time: 1:15
The Djinns Will Eat You is a horror movie trailer set to the Persian black metal band Zantoor.  It explores the idea of interior/exterior space.

click here for a rough cut of one of the videos i’ve been working on. i’m singing the 5 farsi words i know…lemme know what you think.

things i’ve tried:

ROSES: made out of xmas paper with green tinsel pipe cleaner stems covering armature wire

PERSIAN RUG: need to continue on with this and buy a brighter red fabric to match roses & samovar

SAMOVAR: cardboard design, diet coke cans cut and laid flat over cardboard

BACKGAMMON BOARD: get Monopoly & Candy Land laser cut….LIFE?

CALLIGRAPHY: red colored pencil on 90’s printer paper

TEACUPS: design persian teacups to have mom make…teapot….candy bowls?

things not working:

INLAID WOODEN BOX: got pencil case laser-cut, the plastic didn’t work…need plexiglas, but is too time consuming for time left

THINGS I’VE TRIED:

-ROSES: made it out of xmas wrapping paper, armature wire for the stem wrapped in green tinsel pipe cleaner…need to make 9 more. what will the vase be??

-PERSIAN RUG: made the center swatch out of couch upholstery, keep making

-BACKGAMMON BOARD: made out of Monopoly & Candy Land board games (paper prototype phase), need to buy these boards online, make laser designs, get laser cut

-CALLIGRAPHY: markers on spiral notebook paper…how will this be displayed, in a notebook or framed on the wall. if framed on the wall, does it make sense to be on spiral notebook paper or typing paper?

THINGS I WANT TO TRY:

-SAMOVAR: made out of Diet Coke & Sprite cans

-ROSE WATER BOTTLES: made out of isopropyl alcohol bottles

-INLAY WOODEN BOX: made out of plastic pencil cases (buy these online)

-BOWLS OF CANDY: send designs to mom to make…Dr. Seussian

-TEA CUPS: send designs to mom to make…Dr. Seussian

-PILLOWS: ??

FILMS:

-make all storyboards

-start sketching with video

to be revised as things get completed or have to shift:

feb 19: production schedule written, 1-2 prototypes of objects for installation completed

feb 26: script/storyboards for one film, 2-4 more prototypes

mar 5: one film completed and edited

mar 12: one object fully completed, start looking for spaces to install

mar 19: second film shot

mar 26: 2-3 more objects fully completed, have a place to install

apr 2: third film shot

apr 9: outline for paper done, walls start being built, another object completed, start editing

apr 16: walls built, decorating space, continue editing & writing, start interactivity

apr 23: write paper, finish editing, finish interactivity

apr 30: write paper, hand in, complete everything

may 7: present.

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front view. exterior space to represent suburban waiting room. assimilation world. iranian courtyard. interior space to represent idealized iranian space.

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top view. check installation mockup for ideas on how the interior space will be decorated.

click here to download the SketchUp file.

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for my thesis, i’ve decided to create an idealized, imaginary version of iran. in the various articles i’ve read about iranian-american immigrants, they usually create idealized versions of their homeland in their head that have no basis in time and space.  having never been to iran, but being half-iranian, my perceptions of the place are defined by my father’s stories, memories from childhood, and media imagery.  since i grew up in suburban texas, i want this place to be created through the lens of suburban america.

as of now, i want this installation to have two parts: an exterior space that serves as a kind of suburban waiting room (this represents the exterior assimilationist world, generic and judging. it also serves as a courtyard in iranian architecture). the interior space will be my idealized version of iran, fantastical and dream-like. i’m thinking of it as an iranian pee-wee’s playhouse…sort of.

i want to create several large sculptural objects, which i have written a list of (i need to narrow this down), in my deliverables post. i also want to create a series of short films, which will be playing on the televsion, that will represent my identity formation. these will be in different common television formats: a cooking show, a commercial, a PSA, a soap opera. they will be short scenes from my memories growing up shown in the consumable media format i used to help shape my identity in the suburbs. the viewer of the installation, will have a large remote, which they will use to switch between these videos.

this collage i created above was made from a series of google image searches in which i typed in whatever visual assets were in my mind and then collected a whole variety of images. i put them together here to show a mock-up of what i’m thinking of creating for the interior space of the installation.

this is the color palette i want to work with for my installation>>>rich persian fabrics and suburban subdued hues.

Deliverables:
-Large Samovar (made out of kitchen pots & working, even if faked): 5 ft tall, teapot with rose on top…
-Bowls of candy (candy is real) (bowls will be made my mom, but designed by me)
-Tea cups (made by mom, designed by me)
-Large vase of roses (made out of xmas wrapping paper)
-Large, oversized rose water bottles (isopropyl alcohol bottles unlabeled, or coca-cola bottles with hand-made labels and rose-water in them)
-Pillows (with satin pillow covers…made by me? Suburban couch pillows?)
-Persian rug (created out of fabrics that are what look like suburban couches- cutting out the patterned fabric and pasting it in the same shapes as a rug)
-Backgammon board made out of monopoly board, clue board or candy land..?
-Persian boxes with geometric patterns made out of plastic pencil-cases
-Calligraphy framed- cheap frame done with crayola markers
-Sugar cubes in a bowl
-River of tea (consumable, for drinking)

Not sure, but want to try:
-A draw bridge of spaghetti and meatballs on a plate: a dinner setting with a placemat and and rose petals schlacked
-Fancy lacey fans made out of yarn and popsicle sticks
-Fort out of couch pillows (the jins- persian fabrics)

Films:
-Dealing with nose jobs- an ad for a acne cream with a girl with a nose-job bandage
-Student activism PSA
-Who do you want to be when you grow up PSA? Images of me in veil, putting on wig/cheerleader costume, doctor, engineer, artist, activist
-Dad doing a persian cooking show
-Dad pouring rose water over my head as I leave for college: soap opera, fuzzy filters
-Home videos
-Getting snacks at a baha’i function: awkward teen show
-Grandma dying: cop show…?