During my B.F.A. in photography at the University of Tehran, I have tried various imagery techniques, ranging from analog photography to printmaking. However, at some point, I felt that the idea of the image in the information age has gone rogue. Therefore, I decided to put down my camera for a while and turn to my computer. In the time of instant access and constant availability of images, how our sense of time, and more importantly, our collective memory, is affected by the media time, became particularly important to me. Eventually, I reconnected with photography throughout digital media. My interest in Digital Imaging and my decision to continue my education in this field is the outcome of my profound interest in exploring underlying structures of production and circulation of images in the digital age.
Working on several projects gave me the chance to become better acquainted with the process of turning conceptual ideas to project realization. While I was working on a project in the National Museum of Iran, I got familiar with digital memory. Suddenly I found out that there was a war going on among Iranian social media users about presenting a narrative about the modern history of Iran. Then, I created a series of GIF images in order to explore how traumatic irritations of the human sense of remembering can be studied towards the concept of the glitch digital media storage technologies.
When I was working on the mentioned project, something catastrophic happened in Tehran: Plasco building, an iconic landmark of the modernization of Iran, collapsed in front of thousands of citizens/users who were sharing this event on their social media. This event influenced my final thesis, entitled ‘Aesthetic of Failure: An Experimental Approach to Glitch and Errors in Digital Imagery.’ It consists of an installation that showcases my attempt to represent the nature of recording and then remembering in the digital age.
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Realizing projects from initial research in the field of digital media demands technical knowledge and understanding of media philosophy at the same time. Thus, my practices have consisted of both exploring such topics conceptually and digging into the nature of the digital images by developing programs, creative coding, and the usage of various digital imaging techniques.
The Digital Imaging M.F.A. at Pratt institute provides an ideal climate for me to develop my cross-disciplinary artistic practices. I am particularly interested in pursuing a designated emphasis in digital imagery, post-digital aesthetics, and memory studies. Ultimately, this M.F.A. will be of particular relevance to my career plans, which are to continue my artistic practices in digital media and to write criticism and publishing about Art and media in the age of information.
