By archiving and facilitating projects related to new media arts, organizing talks and workshops, publications and events such as presentations, symposiums, and exhibitions, New Media Society acts as a hub and mediator for several emerging project spaces across the country. Discovering, archiving, and preserving the artworks generally categorized under the umbrella term New Media as well as publication and knowledge production are our key tasks to provide the most needed platform for the ever-growing scene of new media in Iran.
Description of the Project (what, who, when, and where. )
NMS is a platform for researching and promoting new media arts in Iran. NMS’s approach is as inclusive as possible to maximize the outreach to incorporate and initiate cooperation with existing infrastructures and resources inside the country as well as the network of artists and professionals in the diaspora.
NMS wishes to promote interdisciplinarity and create a context for practices that stand at the intersections between art, science, and technology, geared towards video art, sound art, and new media. It also aims to bridge the gap between new media artists and their potential enthusiastic audiences.
NMS is designed to create an open-source archive of new media and a study room/meeting place for artists, researchers, and scholars residing abroad. By creating such a space, it provides them the opportunity to share their experiences and expertise with students and artists living inside the country.
Due to the absence of academic opportunities and the lack of educational infrastructure in Iran in the field, there is an increasing number of artists moving out, mostly to western countries, to study or work and in many cases to reside. In such circumstances, NMS provides a platform that incorporates and links the intellectual resources for Iranian artists living all around the world.
We look forward to supporting in different areas, such as design and promotion, building an audience as an online/offline hub for new media society, artistic and education programs–inviting a team of experts to design the structure and guidelines for the archive, and articulate their findings through an online bilingual portal.
We also have created a project room which is a multi-purpose venue for producing cultural outputs, social awareness, and public engagements within the society. Furthermore, our rotating screening programs and workshops in collaboration with local initiatives help artists and audiences living in small cities to engage and participate without the need of coming to the capital, Tehran.
Events and Activities:
Since New Media Society was found, it has initiated and organized three seminars with international participants in Tehran: Limited Access Forum on Video, Experimental, and Documentary film with guest speakers from Iran, Austria, Switzerland, USA, Poland, Sweden, and Belgium (Dec 2014); Summer of Sound which included special programs such as listening sessions and performances dedicated to sound art, noise and music (August 2015); Luminous Void which was a program in exchange with Ireland and included exhibitions, screenings, talks, panels and performances on the topic of expanded cinema (September 2015).
As NMS’s first annual report indicates, in addition to its regular programming, it has held sixteen sessions in collaboration with various initiatives and art spaces. Thus, it has focused on various themes and topics such as New Media Art History, Sociology and art, Animation, Architecture, photography, music and sound art, archives, experimental film, and internet art. Furthermore, It has also organized side projects such as workshops on interactive art and programming, art in the public spaces, and six video programs in Vienna, Rome, Stockholm, Tehran, Isfahan, and Istanbul.
History
New Media Society was founded in summer 2014 in Tehran to establish a platform for audiovisual and media arts in Iran. It aspires to act as a hub and mediator for the emerging project spaces across the country. Its focus is on archiving and facilitating media art-related projects. To do so, it is the organizer and host to talks, workshops, publications, presentations, symposiums, and exhibitions. Its long-term goal is to publish, translate, and produce related material. Its long-term goal is to make, translate, and publish valuable content out of these activities. Besides, NMS commits to researching and archiving the already existing material to fill the missing space of an archiving center.
Aims
New Media Society is a research platform for promoting new media arts in Iran. NMS’s approach is to be as inclusive as possible to maximize outreach, include and initiate collaborations with existing infrastructures, a network of artists and professionals.
NMS seeks to create an open-source archive of New Media, a study room, an equipped workspace, and a meeting room for artists, researchers, and scholars. It aims to bridge the gap between new media artists and their potential enthusiastic audience.
NMS wishes to promote interdisciplinary approaches and create a context for practices that take place at the intersections of art, science, and technology. It moves towards video art, sound art, and new media. By organizing collaborative educational projects, the society as a hub/mediator focuses on empowering smaller projects across the country and tries to voice their activities on an international scale.
Another goal of the NMS is to reverse the one-way stream of art and knowledge export from Iran to other countries. It aims to encourage immigrated Iranian artists and researchers to share their experiences and expertise with students and artists living in Iran. Despite the limited academic opportunities in Iran and the shortage of infrastructures, there is an emerging scene of young artists who are experimenting and practicing new media. Also, there is an increasing number of artists and specialists who immigrate temporarily or permanently (mostly to western countries) for educational and professional purposes. NMS hopes to be the platform that reconnects the intellectual resources of Iran — Iranian artists and professionals—inside and outside of the country.
NMS welcomes collaborations in design and publication to extend its network and build a larger audience to enhance art and education programs. We are open to working with designers, writers, and art professionals for research, translation, and publication. We are hoping to create structures and guidelines for our past contents, on our online bilingual portal.
Our project room is a multi-purpose venue for producing cultural outputs, social awareness, and artist engagements within the society. The screening programs and workshops in collaboration with local initiatives are to help artists and audiences out of Tehran to engage and participate in their communities.
In our curated residency program, we welcome international artists, thinkers, and professionals as temporary residents and workshop instructors to elevate the scene and quality of our programs.
Website
NewMediaSoc.com is a bilingual portal for NMS. The purpose of this portal is to reach out the public with open calls, resources on various programs, archival material, and reports on NMS activities. New Media Society is also committed to publishing catalogs, readers, and booklets for its seminars and exhibitions. It also has an active weblog to promote and spread the activities in Tehran and other cities around Iran. NMS intends to prepare a platform for academic publications on the topic of new media arts.
New Media Projects
New Media Projects is in downtown Tehran and acts as a meeting point for artists, researchers, professionals, and enthusiasts. It provides a research and study room with facilities such as a Wi-Fi-connected working space, library on Media arts, international and Iranian books, catalogs, and journals. It is also the home of the Iranian Media Art Archive. It is a project to organize, classify, and preserve and present the pre-existing Iranian video, sound, and film archives. This collective is presented by curating various programs and open studios.
The next phase of the project is to make the archive available as an online index on our website in addition to our offline library which is accessible on our viewing station in Tehran and partner project spaces.
Online Portal for New Media Society in Iran will be a forum for artists, scholars, writers, translators, and knowledge producers to connect and share ideas, calls, reviews, and publishing entries from domestic and international projects.