[click on image to enlarge]

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.

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