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.

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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.

here are a few…

finishing school : here is the Today It’s Voluntary website : this group created a performative installation that educated the public on how quickly “free” people would voluntarily waive privacy rights, releasing their personal information and allow unwarranted physical searches of person and property. All, in the name of “protecting freedom” in the “new normal” post-9/11 era. Also, their Bio-Tag project raises awareness of dangerous toxins present in the physical environment through the deployment of searchable word “markers” made from natural materials. Patriot Library is another.

the yes men

institute for applied autonomy : this group, amongst other things, tracks commercial planes that take people the US Government want to torture abroad to torture them.

center for tactical magic

shop dropping : taking grocery items, relabeling them with photos, putting them back on the shelf.

julia scher and her Security by Julia series

tone of my thesis:
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[imgs from sara rahbar & google image search]

also, this week i created a workflow calendar (scary! we only have 12 weeks left or so!). to view it, go here.

SemioTech was founded by Amy Khoshbin and Michael Clemow in 2007. Our work explores the fields of perception and “Expanded Performance” through the application of varying technologies on the performing arts.

The Perceptual Expansion Space/Suit, Dream Squawk, & Semiotech’s other wearable Performance tools were presented at the Dance Across the Board Conference yesterday, Jan 31st. We gave a lecture/demonstration on the suit & other projects we’ve been working on. Dance Across the Board (DAB) is an interdisciplinary platform for graduate students in New York City and surrounding areas to present work and works-in-progress on dance and body-based performance.