Mehdi Shiri is born in one of the small cities of Iran, Hamedan in 1989. He started to learn about the basics of drawing and animation with the help of his two elder brothers. Since his living place was located among the trees and gardens, he was always searching and training his viewpoints toward natural colors and events. He made a small animation titled “Nano” when he was 9 years old. He attended the Fine Arts school in Hamedan and started drawing caricatures as he won numerous awards in the international festivals in Republic of Czech, China, Bulgaria and Iran between 2006 and 2007. His love for the animation grew further during the same years and he traveled to Tehran to collaborate in a number of animation projects. After 3 years and collaboration in numerous series as the concept artist and art director, he traveled back to Hamedan in order to continue painting in his own style. He exhibited his works in Homa art gallery by 2014, and he took part in some other group exhibitions. By 2016, he exhibited his paintings titled “Life” and a short animation with the title of “Still Life” in Delgosha art gallery. Then he reached for a more personal and experimental view over animation, he worked on his paintings during these dates. In 2017, he became acquainted with the New Media Society after taking part in the Limited Access Festival, it made him think about organizing some research meeting sessions in the context of animation and experimental cinema. “Still Life” animation has been screened in different exhibitions, festivals, and events, including Edge of Frames. Shiri was appointed as the jury for the creativity section of Globe Silent festival in the United States.
Amirali Ghasemi is a Tehran-born artist, graphic designer, and curator who currently lives and works on the move. He graduated with a BA in graphic design from Central Tehran Azad University in 2004, his emphasis having been on research into digital art history. In 1998, he founded Parkingallery, an independent project space in Tehran and then built on this by setting up Parkingallery.com, an online platform for young Iranian artists, in 2002. His photography, videos, and designs have been shown at a range of international festivals and exhibitions, winning him awards and recognition. As a curator, he has directed a host of exhibitions, workshops, and talks for Parkingallery projects. He co-curated "Urban Jealousy", the 1st International Roaming Biennial of Tehran (2008-2009) and 5 editions of the Limited Access Festival for Video and Performance (2007-2013). This was followed by his involvement in myriad projects for institutions, project spaces, and universities in Germany, the Netherlands, Serbia, Great Britain, Egypt, Turkey, the United States, Brazil, Canada, France, Sweden, Belgium, China, and India. Ghasemi has been a guest lecturer many institutions and Universities around the globe. He was selected as the guest curator for the CCBRUGGE in 2010 and Devi Art Foundation, India in 2012. Along with his independently curated programs, such as The Invisible Present, (Brazil, USA) and Part of me ( France- Tehran), he served as a guest organizer, programming the video art section for the Rotterdam Film Festival and Göteborg International Film Festival in January and February 2013.
Ghasemi works with photography, video, installation and interactive projects, as well as writing about the local arts scene and contemporary Iranian art for a number of magazines and besides works on his book an introduction to the history of video art in Tehran. His long-term curatorial project, IRAN&CO consists of an ongoing exhibition and a collective archive devoted to the representation of Iranian art beyond the country’s borders.
In summer 2014, Ghasemi co-funded New Media Society, a network-based research platform, and library.
He recently joined the art in context postgraduate program at UdK Berlin and recently spend his time mostly in Tehran.
Maryam Katan(1989) is an animation artist and researcher based in tehran. She got her MA In animation from tarbiat modares university with the focus on animation and new media intersections, animated installation and embodied animated performance.
Her works with animation, film and audio-visual installations has been screened and exhibited in Tehran, toronto, vienna, london berlin, istanbul and ... .
She studies and research on the fields of experimental animation, visual music and abstract animation, animated Gif, alternative screening, live performance and animated documentary.
She is currently working as the editor of experimental animation part in cinema animation quarterly and also as a board member of "Animation; experiment" collective.
Recently she is seeking reanimating and motion intervention as an act of resistance.
Born in Tehran, Iran in 1989, Bahar Ahmadifard is a freelance writer and English- Persian translator/interpreter, her specialty being literature and visual arts. She completed both bachelor’s and master's degrees in Photography at Tehran University of Art in 2019 with a thesis titled" Recurring Concepts in Contemporary Critical Discourse on Iranian Photography".
Her recent translations include co-translating Loitering with Intent by Muriel Spark and How Fiction Works by James Wood. She's been also working as project coordinator in New Media Projects since 2018.
1994 | Shiraz - Iran
BA in painting from Tehran University of Art and MA student in animation directing in Tehran University of Art.
She has participated in more than 12 group exhibitions and several visual art festivals. In 2017 she was awarded the 2nd place in 6th Damoonfar Biennial and in 2019 she was nominated for best film photography in Nahal Student Short Film Festival. She has got admission from CALARTS in MA of experimental animation in 2017 and was awarded Lilian Disney’s scholarship.
Currently she is a member of ASIFA Iran. She has collaborated with Cinema Animation journal as author and translator. She works in her own studio on personal projects as well as collaborating with multiple directors and advertisement agencies in various areas.
Besides painting, she makes short animated films using combinations of different techniques and mediums. In her works she is exploring the transition between realism and illusion.
Fatemeh Hosseini-Shakib is an animation and media researcher and lecturer born in Tehran, Iran 1971. Having completed her PhD in animation studies in the UK (UCA, Farnham) in 2009, Fatemeh was a Lecture in Animation Theory at the Animation Department of the University for the Creative Arts at Farnham/UK from 2007 to 2009 before her return to Iran to work as a lecturer in animation theory/aesthetics at the Animation Department, Faculty of Cinema and Theatre of Tehran Art University, Iran. She has served as the Head of Animation Department (2015-2018) and is the founding member of ‘Animation; Experiment’, part of the Iranian New Media Society Collective. http://newmediasoc.com/. She has also been a Jury Member for a few Iranian Animation Festivals, including TIAF (9th Edition of Tehran International Animation Festival – 2015). Besides her teaching, research and supervision of MA animation Thesis and Practical final film projects, Fatemeh is a scriptwriting and R&D consultant to some Iranian animation studios.
Fatemeh’s main research interest is aesthetic realism in animation within social and historical contexts and its relation to the evolution of techniques and technologies especially in CG animation. Another ongoing preoccupation and research is Iranian animation; making sense of and documenting its rapidly changing history.
Fatemeh is currently the ASIFA Iran Representative, a Member of the Editorial Board of the Journal of ANM (animation: an interdisciplinary journal), Sage Publications Ltd. Since 2010 (edited by Professor Suzanne Buchan) http://www.uk.sagepub.com/journals/Journal201763#tabview=boards and a member of the SAS (Society for Animation Studies), Academic Member since January 2003.
As a researcher, she has presented research papers in academic conferences, with the SAS conference and elsewhere. Some of her publications (mainly Chapters in Books in English) include:
- Hosseini-Shakib, Fatemeh (2020- under Publication) ‘Aardman Early Shorts of 1980s and the Social Realism Tradition’ in Annabelle Honess Roe (Ed.) Aardman Animations; Beyond Stop-Motion, I.B.Tauris
- Hosseini-Shakib, Fatemeh (2017) ‘Puppet as Not-Puppet: the Notion of 'Puppet' and its Many Connotations in the Works of Barry Purves (the case of Screen Play)’ in Franziska Bruckner, Holger Lang, Nikica Gilic, Daniel Š uljic, Hrvoje Turkovic (Eds.) Global Animation Theory: International Perspectives at Animafest Zagreb, Bloomsbury
- Hosseini-Shakib, Fatemeh (2016) ‘Iranian Animation’ in Jahed, Parviz (ed.) Directory of World Cinema: IRAN, Volume II, Bristol, UK: Intellect
- Hosseini-Shakib, Fatemeh (2012) ‘The Image of Children in Iranian Cinema’ in Jahed, Parviz (ed.) Directory of World Cinema: IRAN, Volume I, Bristol, UK: Intellect
- Hosseini-Shakib, Fatemeh (2009) "Modernity: Keep Out of Reach of Children." In Sadria, Modjtaba (ed.) Multiple Modernities in Muslim Societies. Geneva: I.B. Tauris & Co Ltd, for the Aga Khan Award for Architecture
- da Costa. C and Hosseini-Shakib, F (2006) ‘Making Past Perfect Sense in Clay’ Britishness/Englishness in the Works of Aardman Studio’ in CARTOONS [The international Journal of Animation], Vol.2 - Issue 1 - Summer 2006, Published by John Libbey in association with ASIFA.
Somayeh Khakshoor is an independent artist, working mainly in the field of moving images. She received her M.A. in Animation from Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran.
Nairy Eivazy is an independent artist and researcher based in Tehran, her work mostly falls into the field of mixed media animation and inter-media practices. She received her M.A. in Animation from Tehran University of Art in 2018.
She finds the concept of memory gathered in the material objects and emotions they evoke interesting, and her current work focuses on documenting the nonverbal stories of individuals embodied in various objects, belongings, and footages with an archival research method. Also, in the sharply divided politically polarized world we live in, for her, material objects have the power to cut across lines of age, gender, and cultural differences.
Born1987Tehran-IRAN.BA : sculpture.MA : Animation direction. She is a member of ASIFA Iran and AIS (Association of Iranian Sculptors). She has participated in several group sculpture exhibitions in Iran and USA and also many international film festivals in Iran, USA, Canada, and Europe. She has been a jury member of Globe film festival in USA and Les film de la tioles in France. She recieved the Golden award for the best screenplay in 9th Tehran international Animation festival 2015, Grand Prix for the best film in Mister Vorky festival Serbia in 2017, Habitat theme in Festival do minuto Brazil 2017 and Best one minute animation in Brazil 2017 and also nominated in several festivals including Limelight in London-UK in 2017 and Emerging lens in Canada 2017. Her work is also published in AVIFF (Cannes Art film festival) catalog, France 2016. Author and translator in Animation Quarterly since 2016. She had lectures in Globecst 2018 and SAS (Society for animation studies) at Art university of Tehran 2015. She has directed many short animations for personal projects, clients and commercial purposes since 2014.
Ava Sanayei was born in 2000 in the city of Tehran and graduated from Niayesh Art School with a diploma in Graphics, and currently studies Painting BA at Payam-e Nour University in Tehran. Besides her Visual Art Projects, she is busy with experimental animation. Ava is a member of Animation Experiment Collective and collaborates with Limited Access from its 8th edition. She is a founding member of Kaan Group together with Nairy Eivazy which focuses on multimedia/Participatory projects with Children and Young Adults and has organized a number of Educational workshops in cultural centers in Tehran. Her works has been shown in "( : ) in motion" at Platform 3 in Tehran and Matn Gallery in Isfahan.
Farzaneh Yazdandoost is a PhD candidate of film and media in Cambridge school of creative industries, ARU. After graduating in Graphic design, she pursued her studies in Animation and wrote her MA thesis on the affinities between stop-motion animation and German Expressionism Cinema. She also directed a short based on “The Doll behind the Curtains” a story by Sadegh Hedayat and the findings of her thesis. In doing so, she aimed to investigate the capabilities of digital technology to simulate physical materials and environment. Currently she is conducting a research on the specific approach of Suzie Templeton and Wes Anderson towards employing physical materials in stop-motion puppet animation, as they can be experienced in the everyday life and result in making reference to physical reality. In 2019 she gave a presentation on a part of her research under the title of “Arbitrary Movement in Puppet Animation” in Society for Animation Studies annual conference in Kings College of London, following by a workshop she set up on the same topic in Cambridge School of Art for BA students in Film in January 2020. She is currently working on an animated documentary “My Name is Farzane” experimenting arbitrary movement as a mean of expression in stop-motion animation.