Ali Eslami

🔴 Homā's Phantom - 2023 (Video excerpt of collected moments) On view until May 2024 @nieuweinstituut as part of REBOOT:Pioneering digital art [w/ @lima_media_art ] Inspired by the mythical "Homā Bird" of Iranian legends, "Homā's Phantom" establishes a new connection. This bird, renowned in tales, is said to never come to rest, living its entire life flying invisibly high above the earth, and never alighting on the ground. In this surreal construct, the labyrinth house soars above the sky, carrying within it the intangible essence of Homā, intricately woven into its very being. Engineered through modular designs and techniques, the mansion weaves together patterns and compositions reminiscent of the tapestry of Persian architectural legacy. Sound Design - @shahin_entezami Powered by @unrealengine

Line of Sight - A Repository of Codes Line of Sight is a collection of experimental poetry by Ali Eslami that explores the interplay of emotions and memories. Written as codes representing the author’s thoughts during his mandatory military service in Iran, these code-poems invite readers to decode and piece together a fragmented self. Emerging from Eslami’s background in virtual reality and film, this collection is a response to a deep-seated need to express the inexpressible. Through a combination of poems, codes, ASCII pictograms, and absurdist stories, Eslami captures the struggle of existing between two worlds—the diasporic reality of life between present-day Amsterdam and the evocative echoes of Iran’s past and present—narrated through dual voices of introspection and projection. Details Pages: 86 First Edition: 80 copies available ISBN: 9789090390741T Dimensions: 210 × 146 × 7 mm Paperback - Available for sale at 📚 Athenaeum Boekhandel Spui @athenaeumboekhandel 📚 San Serriffe @san.serriffe 📚 Boeki Woekie @boekiewoekie Acknowledgments This work was conceived during my second year at the @rijksakademie residency in Amsterdam (2022-2023). My heartfelt thanks go to Natasha Soobramanien, Kirsty Bell, Melvin Moti, Maria Barnas @mariabarnas , Metahaven @metahaven , Antonio Vega Macotela, Sung Hwan Kim @cheeksdocoy , Tirdad Zolghadr, Pieter Verweij, and Molly Palmer @purplewildlife for their generous guidance, inspiration, and support throughout this period.

✨ FALSE MIRROR - Legacy Edition is available now for download! ✨ link in bio or here 🔗 alllesss.itch.io/false-mirror After 5 years of development and iterations, False Mirror has been a host of many different endeavors and finally, I managed to put it all together in one package so everyone can experience it for free🫰🏽 False Mirror is an open-ended VR project started in 2017 using @unrealengine the aim was to explore and carve a virtual inner space without an emphasis on results but a mere process. This simulated world is an accumulation of many overlapping and layered interactive systems that are not necessarily compatible and fluent. 🖥️ It is important to note that False Mirror is a Virtual Reality project for PCVR and is best experienced with Oculus/Meta headsets. However, if you do not have a VR headset, you can still explore the project as a Bird 🐦 entity using a gamepad. Lastly, I would like to extend my gratitude to all the wonderful individuals who have contributed to the project's development and growth over the years. Thank you! 💜 PS. I might release it on Oculus Store as well in the future but for now ITCH is the way to get it. #falsemirror #vr #itchio

É com Ali Eslami que damos início a Divine Time, um novo ciclo online de conversas sobre tecnologia sagrada e temporalidades alternativas. Da filosofia iluminista iraniana à construção de mundos como prática epistémica, esta é uma conversa sobre a criação de conhecimento através da presença, e não do argumento. Eslami desenvolve uma prática que trata o virtual como campo de experimentação, explorando como diferentes sistemas, técnicos e conceptuais, moldam a percepção e a construção de mundos. O seu projeto de longo prazo, ‘Eshraq’, abrange simulação interativa, cinema e instalação imersiva — um cosmos modular onde não se limita a observar, mas possui, lança feitiços e habita ciclos narrativos. Parte jogo, parte ritual, mas inteiramente único. Artista iraniano sediado em Amsterdão, Ali Eslami é uma das vozes mais consistentes no campo das práticas imersivas contemporâneas. Foi distinguido, entre outros, com o Prémio Wendy-Gutman (2025) e o Prémio Cremer do LWL-Museum Münster (2023). Para assistir gratuitamente em gnration.pt ou no nosso canal de YouTube (link na bio). Divine Time conta com curadoria de Zaiba Jabbar, fundadora da HERVISIONS, uma plataforma e estúdio de arte digital sediado em Londres. __ #gnration #divinetime #alieslami @hervisions_ @dg.artes #rtcp #rpac

A primeira sessão de Divine Time, novo ciclo de conversas online do gnration, recebe o artista iraniano Ali Eslami. Através de realidade virtual, simulação e cinema, Eslami desenvolve uma prática centrada na construção de mundos e na investigação das relações entre memória, computação e experiência humana. Com curadoria de Zaiba Jabbar, fundadora da HERVISIONS — plataforma de arte digital sediada em Londres, focada na intersecção entre arte, tecnologia e cultura e na promoção de práticas emergentes —, Divine Time inaugura um ciclo dedicado às intersecções entre tecnologia, espiritualidade e imagem em movimento, explorando a forma como cinema e videojogos reconfiguram perceções de tempo, corpo e consciência. 15 abr · 21:00 · online · gratuito · m/6 Para assistir em gnration.pt ou no nosso canal de YouTube (link na bio). __ #gnration #divinetime #alieslami @hervisions_ @dg.artes #rtcp #rpac

RESIDENT | Welcome, Ali Eslami! Our new Mondriaan Fonds resident kicked of his residency this week. The Dutch-Iranian artist has worked primarily in the digital domain in recent years. At Make, Ali will explore how digitally generated objects can function as sculptural elements within installations in the physical world. ⁠ ⁠ ///⁠ ⁠ RESIDENT | Welkom, Ali Eslami! Onze nieuwe Mondriaan Fonds-resident startte zijn werkperiode deze week. De Nederlands-Iraanse kunstenaar werkte de afgelopen jaren voornamelijk in het digitale domein. Bij Make wil Ali onderzoeken hoe digitaal gegenereerde objecten in de fysieke wereld als sculpturale elementen in installaties kunnen dienen. ⁠ ⁠ 📷 @ruudhermans ⁠

Live Coding Sessions #10 will dive into Narrative Spaces: exploring how virtual worlds can be built and navigated live in front of an audience. We're honoured to welcome Ali Eslami @alless0 and Shahin Entezami @shahin_entezami performing together live. With ESHRAQ - a modular computational model in Unreal Engine - they construct and navigate speculative worlds in real time while image and sound continuously reshape each other 🔁 * link in bio for tickets * #narrativespaces #livecodingsessions #unrealengine #livecoding

Two new posts on ESHRAQ. I’ve documented a recent shift in the project: from simulation toward cinema and building the first story loops inside the system. The entire blog has also been redesigned. I’ve started an email newsletter as well. You can subscribe here: 📩 ESHRAQ.io/about

ESHRAQ ,2025 (work in process) @emerging.exits ⁣ 𝘛𝘸𝘰-𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘯𝘦𝘭 𝘷𝘪𝘥𝘦𝘰 𝘪𝘯𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯, 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘱𝘶𝘵𝘦𝘳-𝘨𝘦𝘯𝘦𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘪𝘮𝘢𝘨𝘦, 20 𝘮𝘪𝘯, 10 𝘮𝘪𝘯, 𝘴𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘥, 𝘭𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵𝘣𝘰𝘹, 3𝘋 𝘱𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘴𝘤𝘶𝘭𝘱𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘦𝘴⁣ ⁣ 📷 Installation views ⁣ Photos 1-4 by Aad Hoogendoom⁣ ⁣ Thanks everyone who came to see the show! ✨⁣ Thanks again to @sjakoo & @marijnbril for making it happen along with the rest of the team ❤️⁣ ⁣ —⁣ With ESHRAQ, the artist asks what the 12th-century Persian philosopher Shahab al-Din Suhrawardi might create if he had access to computers. Suhrawardi’s philosophy, called Illuminationism, saw reality as layers of light, where true knowledge came from direct, intuitive experience. The work translates these ideas into digital worlds using game systems, simulations, and cinematic storytelling.⁣⁣ ⁣⁣ It begins at a digital reconstruction of the ancient Ziggurat of Ur, where luminous airships release modular structures and agents—“souls” waiting for embodiment. ESHRAQ becomes a metaphysical laboratory where Suhrawardi’s ideas are reimagined as interactive, living systems beyond Western frameworks of philosophy and world-building.⁣⁣ ⁣ Through cinematic sequences, dynamic simulation, and layered narrative, ESHRAQ stages encounters between mythic beings, political histories, and speculative architectures. The wandering voice of a “Mythic George Bush” soul recalls events around the Ziggurat, while a fictional Amsterdam museum sequence follows an agent through surreal routines in art spaces and hidden vaults.⁣ ⁣

“Worldbuilding, especially in digital formats — such as video games, animation, or even science fiction literature — is overly saturated with Western perspectives. As someone with roots in the MENA region, I want to tap into ancient and collective memory to create something fundamentally inspired by those narratives.” — @alless0 The artist Ali Eslami (@alless0 ) presents his work ESRAQ (2025) in Emerging Exits. His artistic practice explores memory, computation, cognition, and emotion through speculative thinking and worldbuilding, drawing from non-Western philosophies such as Suhrawardi’s Illuminationism. With ESRAQ (2025), he imagines what the 12th-century Persian philosopher Shahab al-Din Suhrawardi might have created if he had access to computers. Eslami works across interactive simulations, VR, film, writing, installations, performances, and lectures, investigating the shifting relationship between form and function in the creation of virtual worlds — merging poetic engineering with immersive experience. How do the ontologies and philosophies of digital worlds shape us, and how do we shape them? “I see ESRAQ as a kind of metaphysical laboratory, where architectural fragments, mythical beings, and cultural memories are reconfigured within modular systems.” → View ESRAQ (2025) live in Emerging Exits, open from this Friday onwards again in the monumental Diogenes Bunker (Arnhem). We have limited tickets available - book your timeslot now via the link in our bio! Upcoming Saturday, you can visit Emerging Exits and also join the event EXIT #3: Transmission, a presentation, panel conversation and Q&A about how to receive, understand, and transmit signals that have long been buried and hidden beneath the norm. With Radio Echo Collective, curator/writer Hannah Pezzack and artist Silvia Gatti. EXIT #3 is free to attend, but we kindly ask you to reserve your spot via the link in our bio. 🎥 @zinmong #emergingexits #alieslami #ESRAQ #exhibition #diogenesbunker #arnhem #exit #immersive #simulation #vr

𝗔𝗹𝗶 𝗘𝘀𝗹𝗮𝗺𝗶 𝗼𝗻𝘁𝘃𝗮𝗻𝗴𝘁 𝗲𝗲𝗿𝘀𝘁𝗲 𝗪𝗲𝗻𝗱𝘆 𝗚𝘂𝘁𝗺𝗮𝗻-𝗽𝗿𝗶𝗷𝘀! Op vrijdag 17 oktober wordt de allereerste Wendy Gutman-prijs uitgereikt aan filmmaker en immersive media-kunstenaar @alless0 . De prijs, ingesteld ter nagedachtenis aan Wendela Scheltema, bekroont een maker die grensverleggend, verbindend en vernieuwend werkt binnen het documentaire of immersieve domein. De Iraans-Nederlandse kunstenaar geldt als een van de meest vernieuwende makers in het veld van immersieve kunst. Zijn werk beweegt zich tussen VR, interactieve simulaties en fysieke installaties, en creëert poëtische ervaringen waarin de grens tussen het echte en het virtuele vervaagt.

𝐄𝐒𝐇𝐑𝐀𝐐, 𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟓, 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐤-𝐢𝐧-𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐜𝐞𝐬𝐬⁣ 𝘛𝘸𝘰-𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘯𝘦𝘭 𝘷𝘪𝘥𝘦𝘰 𝘪𝘯𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯, 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘱𝘶𝘵𝘦𝘳-𝘨𝘦𝘯𝘦𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘪𝘮𝘢𝘨𝘦, 𝘴𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘥⁣ 𝘓𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵𝘣𝘰𝘹, 30 𝘱𝘪𝘦𝘤𝘦𝘴 𝘰𝘧 3𝘋 𝘱𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘰𝘣𝘫𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘴⁣ ⁣ With ESHRAQ, the artist asks what the 12th-century Persian philosopher Shahab al-Din Suhrawardi might create if he had access to computers. Suhrawardi's philosophy, called Illuminationism, saw reality as layers of light, where true knowledge came from direct, intuitive experience. The work translates these ideas into digital worlds using game systems, simulations, and cinematic storytelling.⁣ ⁣ It begins at a digital reconstruction of the ancient Ziggurat of Ur, where luminous airships release modular structures and agents—"souls" waiting for embodiment. ESHRAQ becomes a metaphysical laboratory where Suhrawardi's ideas are reimagined as interactive, living systems beyond Western frameworks of philosophy and world-building.⁣ Through cinematic sequences, dynamic simulation, and layered narrative, ESHRAQ stages encounters between mythic beings, political histories, and speculative architectures. The wandering voice of a “Mythic George Bush” soul recalls events around the Ziggurat, while a fictional Amsterdam museum sequence follows an agent through surreal routines in art spaces and hidden vaults.⁣ ⁣ 💖 Many thanks to these amazing souls who made this work possible.⁣ ⁣ 📍 On view as part of @emerging.exits 3 𝘖𝘤𝘵 - 2 𝘕𝘰𝘷 - 𝘋𝘪𝘰𝘨𝘦𝘯𝘦𝘴 𝘉𝘶𝘯𝘬𝘦𝘳, 𝘈𝘳𝘯𝘩𝘦𝘮⁣ Curated by @marijnbril & @sjakoo ⁣ Sound design & Music - @shahin_entezami Research Assistant - Will Scarlett⁣ Graphic Design - @danial_alemasoum 3D art assistant - @beelzee.bob Voice Actor - @zehracecilia Thanks to @purplewildlife & @shreddy_shredder ⁣ Powered by @unrealengine ⁣ Supported by⁣ @afk020 , @amartefonds and @mondriaanfonds