Fractured Narratives

A Series of Experimental Works by

Marzieh Emadijavazm

Seyedsina Saadatalhosseini

 

 

 

 

We have been collaborating on a variety of projects since 2018. This series of works is a component of an ongoing experimental project centered around the manipulation of images using projection techniques. Through the process of projecting a magnified image onto a compact screen and documenting the results, we began to analyze and interpret different patterns of visual focus and surrounding circumstances.

 

In 2020, we participated in the "Amateurinnen" project, which was a partnership between the Department for Art and Digital Media of the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna and the Austrian Film Museum. Using the identical projection technique, we incorporated keyboard keys such as backward, forward, pause, and play to control the order of the Archival footage, resulting in a notion that juxtaposes with the central idea of *Sissi Gaidos' original video on cosmetic treatment. The desired outcome transitioned from superficial therapy to a recurring and unforeseen method of torment.

 

Through this experimentation, we are primarily interested in examining the dynamic interaction between gaze and archival materials and its consequences. During the course of watching, gathering, and presenting historic material, there is a possibility of distorting and simplifying the original content.

 In 2022, a feminist revolution has started in Iran. During this uprising, demonstrators took numerous videos using their mobile phones, resulting in a distinctive type of archiving. Anonymous videos were uploaded on a regular basis across multiple platforms. These primarily pixelated and unsteady videos undergo an additional level of reduction. Certain news agencies opt to emphasize particular, less savage videos, frequently use watermarks, captions, or pixelation to conceal the bloodshed or aggressive material. Given the expansive nature of the internet, it is possible to monitor the archived data that was accessible during a particular time period. Within a span of one to two weeks, a significant number of violent materials depicting the Regime's brutality towards demonstrators became increasingly scarce on the internet, eventually vanishing from many platforms and search engines due to their violent nature. These platforms, which store historical events, have now become mechanisms that diminish and reshape archived content.

 

In line with this approach, our objective for the final installation was to produce a gaze that accurately reproduces the process of reduction and abstraction. We utilized a wooden panel, an aspect ratio of 16:9, spanning 2.20m in length and 1.24m in width, which had a square cutout measuring 14cm on the center. This cutout was covered by a sheet of transparent paper, serving as a screen. By vertically hanging the screen and projecting violence content footages of the revolution onto its inner surface, the front side displays a small square of abstract forms, while the back side portrays the entire image of brutality captured in the videos, representing the misrepresentation and censorship of violence in a historical event.

 

 

 

 

 

 *Archive of the Austrian Filmmuseum