The future is blurry, we made countless macro & micro mistakes, we know the storm is inevitable, we watch science fiction or we don’t…The future was never bright as it was promised for some parts of the world is still as nonexistent and discriminatory as if it wasn’t pictured at all and never predicted. See through eyes, laser guns, and flying objects became killer drones, 3D printing – both an environmental threat as well as a cure for ventilator shortage. The colourful plastic future once was pictured dreamy and chic but no one told us about the dust to come. (New Media Society, 2020)

Join the New Media Society with curator Amirali Ghasemi and artists Anahita Hekmat and Niyaz Saghari for a conversation about the impact of the crisis on the contemporary visual arts in Iran and its diaspora and a speculation on future visions. Bahar Ahmadifard and Amir-Hossein Khorshidfar from Poetica Project contribute with a presentation about their ongoing investigation on possible futures of the literary arts.

The discussion follows the screenings curated by the New Media Society and is inspired by the ongoing curatorial research project Dustopedia (Ghobar-Nameh) that examines time, past and future through the theme of dust whilst exploring the unknown futures of the archive.

Note: due to copyrights you will not find the videos from Jaleh Nesari, Niyaz Saghari and Anahita Hekmat in this video. Watch Anahita Hekmat’s video ’10 Years is the Best’ here.

New Media Society in Tehran is a collective and an alternative space founded in 2014 with a focus on new media and curatorial innovation, while engaging with social transformations in Iran through art and education. Within a framework of social practice they create a context and hub for emerging, participatory projects that take place at the intersections between art, science and technology.

Amirali Ghasemi is a curator, media artist, and a graphic designer based between Tehran & Berlin. Before co-founding the New Media Society, in 1998, Ghasemi initiated Parkingallery, an independent project space in Tehran and extended it in 2002 with an online platform for young Iranian artists. He curated a number of exhibitions and programmes such as The Urban Jealousy, the 1st International Roaming Biennial of Tehran (2008-09), the Limited Access Festival for Video and Performance (2007-11), CBRUGGE (2010), The invisible present (Brazil, USA) and the video art section for Rotterdam and Goteborg film festivals.

Anahita Hekmat is a new media artist living and working between Paris and the Bay area. Her artistic research focuses on the influence of individual and collective memory on our understanding of “place”, especially in the context of contemporary mobility and new forms of connection to the land, immigration, and digital culture.

Niyaz Saghari is an Iranian born, Bristol-based filmmaker. After graduating from Film Directing from the Art University of Tehran, she continued her studies with an MA in Animation at Newport. She works in animation, and directs short documentaries and experimental films. Her work focuses on urban life inspired by her homes in Tehran and Bristol.

Bahar Ahmadifard is a freelance writer/translator and art project coordinator at the New Media Society. Her focus is on interdisciplinary studies in literature and the visual arts. She graduated with a BA and MA in photography at the Tehran University of Art with the thesis titled Recurring Concepts in Contemporary Critical Discourse on Iranian Photography.

Amir-Hossein Khorshidfar (b. 1981) is a writer and literary journalist. Khorshidfar’s debut book for adults (notwithstanding a number of children’s books he had previously published) is the short story collection Life Goes on According to Your Will. Widely praised by critics and awards, he has published two more books: the short story collection Betting on a Race Horse, and the novel The Tehranis.

Poetica Project is an independent, self-funded literary virtual community and online journal, bridging diaspora writers and committed to a Global South discourse. Poetica e-book is a parallel section assigned to publishing the works of independent writers, critics, poets, and literary translators. More than 12 open access ebooks have been published since autumn 2019, among them Identité inachevée / Adonis; Avec Chantal Chawaf and Abdolrahman Munif in conversation with Faisal Darraj.

Image: Dustopedia (2020). Courtesy of New Media Society.