Sahar Sajadieh. Juried Artist
Ethos
Artist Statement
Tales of the Hair (قصه های گیسو) is my artistic response to the “Woman, Life, Freedom” movement in Iran, my personal-political dance in a dialogue with the wisdom of Persian mythology, and my poetic therapeutic co-creation with generative AI. In Persian poetry, Kurdish rituals, and Mesopotamian literature, hair is a sacred sign of power and beauty, and cutting hair a symbolic act of protest, mourning, and transformation. This work tells the tales of the hair—intertwined in every wave—the tales of resistance inspired by the mythical symbolism of the renowned Persian Sufi poet Attar Nishabouri. In his epic masterpiece, “The Conference of the Birds,” Attar tells the stories of the quest of the world’s birds to find their king, the Almighty “Simurgh” (a mythical creature similar to Phoenix). The literal meaning of “Simurgh” in Farsi is “Thirty Birds,” with “Si” meaning “Thirty” and “Murgh” meaning “Bird.” In Attar’s poem, the birds in pursuit of Simurgh cross seven valleys of self-discovery, after which only thirty birds arrive in the land of Simurgh, where in their reflection, they find the image of Simurgh. By alluding to the power of knowledge, literature, and poetry embedded in Persian culture and history, Tales of the Hair strives to decolonize and reclaim the narratives of the Iranian movement while creating a universal visual poetry about obtaining one’s power as a community through the journey of becoming Simurgh.
About the artists
Sahar Sajadieh is a computational media/performance artivist, theorist, and poet. She is currently a Chancellor’s Postdoctoral Fellow at UC San Diego Department of Visual Arts and an Open Documentary Lab Fellow at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Sahar obtained her Ph.D. in Media Arts and Technology from the University of California, Santa Barbara. Her academic background is in Computer Science (BSc) and Theater (BA) from the University of British Columbia, followed by a master’s degree in Performance Studies from New York University, Tisch School of the Arts.
For Sahar, art practice is a form of activism, a way to challenge the public’s comfort zone and provoke dialogue about difficult, unspoken issues facing our communities. Through digital performance practice, computational art-making, and interactive storytelling, her work playfully examines the underlying problematic constructs of societal interactions and the exploitative systems of power within our technoculture. She is interested in the applications of emerging media, robotic agents, and artificially intelligent systems as means for creative practice and critical investigation. With an objective to reclaim these oppressive technologies that have been predominantly funded by the military or tech giants, she repurposes them as mediums for poetic expression, public intervention, and social empowerment.
Manaswi Mishra is a LEGO Pappert fellow and current PhD researcher in the Opera of the Future group, MIT Media Lab. His research explores strategies and frameworks for a new age of composing, performing and learning music using A.I. He joined the MIT Media Lab in 2019 and completed his MS in Media Arts and Sciences. His work has been published and exhibited in the Boston Globe, Harvard Tech Review, Washington Post, Communications of ACM, Burning Man 2023, IFA Stuttgart, LiveCode Boston / India, etc.
Credits: Creative director, video artist, and generative AI developer (for visual composition): Sahar Sajadieh Sound artist and generative AI developer (for audio synthesis): Manaswi Mishra Narrator: Sahar Sajadieh Farsi Poetry chosen from Attar Neishapouri’s Mantegh-ut-Teyr, منطق الطیر English Poetry chosen from the English translation, The Conference of the Birds, by Afkham Darbandi and Dick Davis Piano Music: Bahare Delneshin, بهار دلنشین (Rouhollah Khaleghi) performed by Mohsen Karbassi