Madeleine Effect
01.03.2025
The "Woman, Life, and Freedom" movement has had a significant influence on the public sphere in Iran since the death of Mahsa Amini in September 2022. Iranian authorities tried to suppress the widespread protests and many people risked their safety taking part in it. Not only mass protests did
Iran witness but a great many individual acts of resistance against the regime. The authorities responded to it with violent repression and intensified censorship.
Iran witness but a great many individual acts of resistance against the regime. The authorities responded to it with violent repression and intensified censorship.
Walls in the public spaces of Iran embody this struggle between resisting individuals and the state’s censorship. All over Tehran and its neighbourhoods, people adorn walls with the slogans of the movement: "Woman, Life, Freedom", while the Islamic Revolutionary Guards erase these slogans or replace them with counter-slogans. Every day in different locations the words of resistance appear on
the wall and less than 24 hours after their creation they become whitewashed by the authorities. The black-and-white remnants of these erased words have become a new facet of the movement.
I wanted to depict the essence of the movement and took a 360 shooting in the neighbourhoods of Tehran. In my previous VR installation "The Waste Land", I used this footage to recreate the experience of a female character who lost her eyesight during the protests. In this project I ask the
following question and try to visualize it: How would Tehran look if censorship became translucent and every whitewashed slogan illuminated walls in Tehran? I believe that the return of the censored messages to everyday life would give an impetus for alternative political imagery which would serve as a
ground for the following political resistance. In this project, I want to present an alternating imagery of public spaces making slogans, chants, demands, and fantasies of Iranian protestors visible and heard.
the wall and less than 24 hours after their creation they become whitewashed by the authorities. The black-and-white remnants of these erased words have become a new facet of the movement.
I wanted to depict the essence of the movement and took a 360 shooting in the neighbourhoods of Tehran. In my previous VR installation "The Waste Land", I used this footage to recreate the experience of a female character who lost her eyesight during the protests. In this project I ask the
following question and try to visualize it: How would Tehran look if censorship became translucent and every whitewashed slogan illuminated walls in Tehran? I believe that the return of the censored messages to everyday life would give an impetus for alternative political imagery which would serve as a
ground for the following political resistance. In this project, I want to present an alternating imagery of public spaces making slogans, chants, demands, and fantasies of Iranian protestors visible and heard.
Writing on the walls creates risks of harsh persecution and it is inevitably accompanied by censorship, whereas Augmented Reality allows for creating an alternative vision of Iran beyond the state’s control.
My idea is to create an AR installation which will transform familiar public landscapes in Tehran into a submerged utopian space which will accommodate the repressed voices. It will be available via mobile
app for users and everybody will be able to experience a virtual cityscape of Tehran using the AR app.
I perceive the medium of AR as a powerful tool for transcending political oppression and censorship.
This app will create a more safe opportunity for political expression and imagery. If anybody can be punished for writing on a wall, nobody will be punished for looking at a wall through a mobile screen.
Currently, Iranian underground artists, for instance, in theatres and music collectives, are being threatened by the morality police and suffering under harsh repressed conditions. For this reason, creative endeavours which transcend the repressive discourse but preserve the relative safety of artist and their audience have significant meaning in the Iranian context.
My idea is to create an AR installation which will transform familiar public landscapes in Tehran into a submerged utopian space which will accommodate the repressed voices. It will be available via mobile
app for users and everybody will be able to experience a virtual cityscape of Tehran using the AR app.
I perceive the medium of AR as a powerful tool for transcending political oppression and censorship.
This app will create a more safe opportunity for political expression and imagery. If anybody can be punished for writing on a wall, nobody will be punished for looking at a wall through a mobile screen.
Currently, Iranian underground artists, for instance, in theatres and music collectives, are being threatened by the morality police and suffering under harsh repressed conditions. For this reason, creative endeavours which transcend the repressive discourse but preserve the relative safety of artist and their audience have significant meaning in the Iranian context.
