Creative Disturbance

Theater as a Mode of Dissent

Mohammad Yaghoubi is a multi-award-winning playwright, director, screenwriter, and theater instructor. He is also  the co-founder of Nowadays Theater which is a non-profit theater company in Toronto, Canada. In this podcast, our conversation revolves around the issue of theater and what Yaghoubi believes is the inherent correlation of theater with politics, ethics, truth, and freedom. Inspired by Greek tragedies which were heavily dependent on philosophy and litrature as their indispensable attributes, Yaghoubi contributes to a theater where the human situation is taken seriously, a form of theater that abstains to surrender to pure aesthetic inclinations. Having been disappointed by those thinkers, such as Russian theater practitioner Konstantin Stanislavsky, who consider theater as an autonomous form of art detached from philosophy, politics, and society, Yaghoubi characterizes theater as a mode of dissent. In this sense, Mohammad Yaghoubi recognizes theater as an inherently socio-political phenomenon which casts doubt over apparently unquestionable axiomatic principles which have constructed social norms and shaped our understanding of the truth. Through engaging in theater either as a playwright or director, Yaghoubi attempts to raise questions about claimed eternal truths and so-called realities imposed upon the individual. His primary concern as a playwright is to lighten the shoulders of his audiences of the burden of these forced truths and historically accumulated narrations.

Dr. Lisa Yaszek joins Poe Johnson to discuss the early women of science fiction, her own experiences as a woman scholar of science fiction, Afro-Futurism and its ever-changing resonance for academics and people of color, and the role of feminism within science fiction.

In the first of a two-episode series, Andy and Derek look at a variety of recent crime comics.

Nathan Gates is an artist currently based in Johannesburg. He holds a Master’s degree in Digital Arts from The University of The Witwatersrand where he also lectures part-time. His work focuses on the domestication of knowledge brought in part by the growing ubiquity of digital technologies and its accompanying technological modes of thinking.

In his practice he explores the relationship between “Agency” and “Structure” as this tension operates in everyday life, critically examining the nature of one’s capacity to act in a highly organized environments, both politically and socially. Though various modes of physical interrogation he examines to what degree agency (the ability to choose to act and be), is indebted to its fabricated physical and social environment and to what extent it can be considered autonomy vs. adaptation or making the most of circumstance. In a process based practice often incorporating found objects, ideas and gestures all as equal counterparts, he aims at opening up modes of mindful experimentation and knowledgeability that for the most part seek to make productive use of error and failure. As Fak’ugesi Resident Gates investigated the wireless networks and their presence as public space. Through the residency Gates produced work that interogated the role of network names as a site for public interactivity, giving agency and control to the public through these names and their use. In this podcast she speaks to residency curator Tegan Bristow about his work and experiences on the residency.

This podcast is a conversation with contemporary Iranian sculptor Aban Salehi regarding her award-winning sculpture “Zarvan” in the Versus Sculpture Festival 2015 in Tehran. By referring to the ancient Persian myth of Zarvan, god of time in ancient Persian deities,  Aban Salehi intends to criticize the long-held foundations of viewing the world through good and evil forces as a dominant narrative of Iranian culture which leaves no room for shades of grey.  In Persian mythological texts,  Zarvan is a divine being who engendered equal-but-opposite twins, Ahura Mazda and Angra Mainyu which are characterized as the symbols of good and evil in the universe. Based on ancient mythology, these two non-reconciliatory forces of good and evil are the driving forces of the universe eternally engaged in an endless battle. The divinity Zarvan is also recognized  as the god of eternal time and space who is a transcendental being emancipated from temporal passionate desires in Persian Mythic narratives. Aban Salehi’s black and white sculpture “Zarvan,” symbolizes the eternally abysmal fight between the forces of light and darkness, Ahura Mazda and Angra Mainyu. Through an intertwined assimilation of demoniacal black and white shapes illuminated by an external light in her sculpture, Aban Salehi attempts to challenge what she believes is the Iranian society’s prevalent dichotomous understanding of the world which has become even more bifurcated as a result of the current post-revolutionary politics of the country. Through contemporizing a deep-rooted mythical belief in the form of a sculpture, Aban Salehi aims to to cast doubt over her society’s cemented axiomatic principles grounded in dichotomous mythical and historical accounts of what the nature of truth and reality is. Salehi’s personal experience as a child viewing a public execution in Isfahan, Iran has immensely contributed to the young sculptor’s artistic perspective.

Roger Malina interviews future UTD student Padmashree Pandy about her future and discuss various topics in the fields of Art and Chemistry.

Andy and Derek look through the November Previews catalog, highlighting a variety of new titles and upcoming releases.

In this episode Tegan Bristow interviews Fak’ugesi Resident Ling Tan.

Short Description A festival residency which hosted three disciplines hardware (maker), software and arts with the Fak’ugesi Digital Africa Festival in Johannesburg South Africa. Residents comprised of two artists from the UK, Ling Tand and Kasia Molga, and two artists from South Africa, Nathan Gates and Jepchumba. Following the Fak’ugesi Festival, residents present outcomes in a residency exchange at Watermans in London in November 2015.

Residency Theme

The residency is developed in extension of the Fak’ugesi Digital Africa Festival, and the festival itself is about not only the convergence of technology, art and culture, but also the development of Braamfontien in Johannesburg as a new hub for digital media and technology cultures evolving from a vibrant community of young creatives living and working in the area. The residency is an invitation to respond to the environment by exploring it as it stands and to create speculative and digital public engagement in response to this theme: “Futurist Visions of Johannesburg / City: uncovering place and space, physical and virtual responses to ‘now’ for socio-cultural technologies of the future.”

Working together, sharing insights and knowledge while engaging the city and its technology cultures, we invited the residents to bring into being a speculative technological-engagement that asks questions of a futuristic Johannesburg / City.

Andy and Derek discuss this year's batch of Halloween specials and recent horror-themed comics.

Gholamreza Jamshid Moradian is a renowned Iranian sculptor and an authority in wooden sculpture. He has participated in a vast variety of both national and international symposiums and biennales across the world. In 2008, he won the Excellence Award in an Olympic landscape sculpture contest in China.

In this conversation, Jamshid Moradian speaks with me about his ontological approach to art as a transcendental phenomenon, the necessity of art in today’s hectic modern life, the problem of consumerism in the realm of the arts, and touches upon why art should keep pace with the spirit of the age. Regarding the existential necessity of art in today’s conflict-driven world, Jamshid Moradin contends that art has a potential to shed light on catastrophic occurrences around us. Such illumination contributes to the interpretation of such tragic events through evoking and touching upon both the senses and the mental state of art’s audiences. Indeed, art has a capacity to cast doubt over society's cemented axiomatic principles grounded in historical biases that contribute to violence, and can influence the socially-constructed psychological domain of audiences, hence contributing to a deeper understanding of the world and sources of contention.