On Digital Colonialism and 'Other' Futures

About

On Digital Colonialism and 'Other' Futures

with Morehshin Allahyari Artist, New York

Presented in partnership with the Wiesenfeld Visiting Artist Lecture Series, the Jacobs Institute for Design Innovation, the Center for Middle Eastern Studies and Stanford University and in collaboration with the Berkeley Arts and Design initiative as part of A+D Mondays @ BAMPFA.

For her talk Morehshin Allahyari will discuss some of her previous projects focused on topics such as 3D fabrication, activism, digital colonialism, monstrosity and fabulation. She will use this talk as a platform to show the possibilities of art-making beyond aesthetics or visualization. She will posit and contextualize “a position outside” that asks difficult questions and suggests alternative methods.

About Morehshin Allahyari

Morehshin Allahyari (b. 1985 in Tehran, Iran) is a media artist, activist, educator, and curator who uses computer modeling, 3D scanning and digital fabrication techniques to explore the intersection of art and activism. Inspired by concepts of collective archiving, memory, and cultural contradiction, Allahyari’s 3D printed sculptures and videos challenge social and gender norms. “I want my work to respond to, resist and criticize the current political and cultural situation that we experience on a daily basis,” she explains.

She is developing a new body of work on digital colonialism and ‘re-figuring’ as a feminist and de-colonialist practice, titled She Who Sees the Unknown. Researching female monsters, jinn and dark goddesses of Middle-Eastern origin, Allahyari devises narratives through practices of magic and poetic-speculative storytelling, re-appropriation of traditional mythologies, collaging, meshing, scanning, and archiving. Continued development of the project is supported by a joint commission from The Whitney Museum of Art, Liverpool Biennale, and FACT, as well as a 2018 Rhizome Commission.

Recent accolades include a research residency at Eyebeam Art +…