MonaNasser

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Mona Nasser

Visual Artist, Experimental Calligrapher, Futurist

Creative Portfoilio

Mona Nasser

Visual Artist

Experimental Calligrapher

Futurist

I am a visual artist, experimental calligrapher and futurist. I founded an interdisciplinary creative collaborations called MetaFuturism.

My work is embedded and connected to enquiries that I build in other parts of my life as an interdisciplinary researcher, clinical epidemiologist, aviator, yoga teacher and my training in dentistry and astrophysics.

I am a visual artist, futurist, and dance improviser, using drawing, calligraphy, painting, and sculptures as my medium. I engage with individuals in re-imagining the future by using science fiction stories and immersive workshops. At times, my art practice has become more than an adjunct to my main research projects - it has opened up new lines of inquiry in my research or helped me approach my research projects differently.

I lead an interdisciplinary collaboration called MetaFuturism Lab. The members co-create new storylines and experiences for alternative futures, bringing their personal, social, and professional backgrounds into the narrative to foster societal and cultural diversity. I also contribute to other interdisciplinary projects.

connect with Me

Poetry of lines

As an Iranian, calligraphy and poetry were always key parts of my upbringing and lifestyle. We read poems written in beautiful calligraphy for the winter and spring equinox as a way to make wishes or predictions for our futures. We played poetry games to connect and enjoy life. Being an immigrant in Europe sometimes brings challenges on how to connect with people from different cultural backgrounds and communities. I used poetry and calligraphy as a medium to explore and depict the diverse nature of connections that I have built over the years. I selected meaningful poems for myself and asked others to share with me.

The lines that create a simurgh (an ancient Persian mythological bird) - a blend of calligraphy, lines and poetry, 2022, Acrylics on canvas

What defines who we are? How does the culture and context in which we are born shape who we are? How do the minor and major events in our life shape who we are? How does our history shape who we are?

I am Iranian and have lived in the United Kingdom and Germany. I have close friendships with people around the world, including Canada and the Philippines. In all these places, I have friends who are so close that I see them as my closest friends and sometimes even like siblings. As I spend more time outside Iran, I feel the urge to reconnect with my own culture. Every time I hear news from Iran, it is shocking how something so far away in distance can hit you so deeply in your soul. Sometimes, it feels like the history of my people echoes across time and affects who I am.

I have come to realize that who I am is not just defined by looking inside myself, but also by looking at the reflection of who I am in those around me.

Graphic illustration for a talk on human rights and professional responsibilities in Health and education by Iain Chalmers https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/j.1600-0579.2007.00475.x

Second edition of the book - Making an Entrance: Theory and Practice for Disabled and Non-Disabled Dancers Paperback by Adam Benjamin.

“Asiatische Weissheiten” by Georg von Turnitz. Publisher: Heyne Verlag (April 1984). Translated from German to Persian.

حکمتهای آسیایی نوشته گئورگ فون تورنیتس (نویسنده) منا ناصر (مترجم) انتشارات قله. ترجمه از آلمانی به فارسی

Illustration for a poem – for the Vekalat Journal - a Journal on Law, Culture and Literature published in Persian – Winter 1382 (Iranian Years), No 18.

تصوبر سازی برای شعر و نکته: آزادی در نقاب خواب

Graphic Illustration for Books and Journals

Dance improvisation workshop run by Adam Benjamin. Photo By Krista Radzina

Goftego

This a series of work that I have done that I call "Goftego" which is a the Persian word for "conversation" or "dialogue". In these series, I experiences with different dialogues - some internal and some external. This includes the "lines of music" and "lines of dance improvisation" that I use dance or music as an element of a conversation. This includes drawing as someone is singing to find a language between us. Recording myself to dance, watch and record myself drawing to it and continuing the cycle. In other cases, I ask my audience to give me poems, photos, etc to shape my calligraphy.

The lines of music

The lines of music 2022, calligraphic pen on paper

I worked together with Rob Figueroa on bringing together music improvisation and drawing improvisation. He sang and I draw at the same time. We explored and experimented how the life interaction affected his singing and my drawing style.

The Gifted lines - Calligraphy is an aesthetic depiction of words and writings. We choose certain lines, shapes, and movements based on how we interpret or experience beauty. I hypothesized that one contributor to this concept is the shapes and lines that we see in our lives, nature, and surroundings. So, in a social experiment, I asked people to share photos of shapes and lines or poems that influenced or inspire them them to inspire the lines of my calligraphy.

he hidden poem in the road , 2021, Calligraphic pen on paper

The drawing (the one on the right) is based on a sketch that Emily Savage-Smith send me. The note she made was "It is based on a sketch I made hastily a few months ago (copy also attached) of Merton Lane as it comes off the High. What used to be the Eastgate Hotel (now I think a Travelodge or something like that) is on the left, and the Ruskin School of Drawing and Fine Art on the left. I very much like the way the street curves in and out. "I decided to use those lines to write a poem from Ibn Sina

دل گر چه در این بادیه بسیار شتافت / یک موی ندانست ولی موی شکافت / اندر دل من هزار خورشید بتافت / آخر به کمال ذره ای راه نیافت

I chose Ibn Sina as my first publication with Emilie was on Ibn Sina and she has been invaluable in mentoring me of different aspects of the historical methodology.

The work is inspired by a photo of northern light that that a friend send me. I chose a Persian poem from Hafez for it

نفس باد صبا مشک فشان خواهد شد

عالم پیر دگرباره جوان خواهد شد

ارغوان جام عقیقی به سمن خواهد داد

A friend gave me this line that represents so many things in our society especially after Covid - so I took it the wrote the word safe in Farsi with it and on both sides Covid in Farsi.

The photo that was the basis of the calligraphy was a photo taken by the artist/sailor Cat Young - it is a photo of the mass of boat. I felt it’s appropriate to choose a German poet and it’s three lines from one of my favorite short poems from Goethe

Glückliche Fahrt

Die Nebel zerreißen,

Der Himmel ist helle,

….

Schon seh ich das Land

The calligraphy is based on a photo taken by Rob Figueroa and a Japanese poem that he gave me.

寒い冬

そろそろ終わる

桜さく

Difficult Winter

Is almost surely over

Bloom, pretty flower.

Kit (instagram @xn_ze_ro) and me were exploring some potential collaborative ideas and the first one was to find a different way to express and visualize personal hormone levels data that @xn_ze_ro collected [56, 1115, 1212, >1500, 991, 934, 312] in a calligraphy. The sketch represents different faces with the numbers in them representing how are hormone levels shape part of who we are everyday.

I have done a series of creative experiments with dance practices. This includes a video piece during pandemic that intended to to demonstrate a re-thinking of relation to our own surrounding during pandemics and how to combine and explore memories in real and virtual space and how the virtual space became part of the memories that we have from our own home.

This video demonstrates that journey and exploration

I made this video as part of a dance video workshop with Charlie Stellar. I took the footage with my iPhone 7Plus. The video was put together with KineMaster. The music is a well-known Persian song entitled "Andak Andak" performed by Shahram Nazeri.

It also includes a series of work in which there is a conversation between my drawings and dancing. I would record a dance improvisation, use it as a starting point of drawing (which is also videoed) and then to use the video to develop another dance improvisation. Its a conversation of two embodied expression of cognitive activities and finding and exploring their similarities and differences.

The photos were taken by myself (positioning the camera) or the staff of Plymouth Dance.

A calligraphic sculpture of a poem 2022, polymer clay

A calligraphic sculpture of a poem 2023, clay

A multi-dimensional sculpture

2020, polymer clay

I work on a series of sculptures that attempts to explore how the dissection of the body (or the wholeness of the body) is seen or described in different dimensions. How would we be able to imagine and represent how worlds and creatures would look different in different dimensions? The specific sculpture intends to demonstrate the view from the four-dimensional world's point of view, focusing on the mouth. The key inspirations for these sculptures are two books – Flatland (by Edwin Abbot) and The Three-Body Problem (by Cixin Liu).

Seeing beyond the two dimensions

I created a video piece during pandemic that intended to to demonstrate a re-thinking of relation to our own surrounding during pandemics and how to combine and explore memories in real and virtual space and how the virtual space became part of the memories that we have from our own home.

This video demonstrates that journey and exploration

A photo of the preparation for the MetaFuturism workshop in Torbay Hospital

Photo taken by Daniel Rose

Outline of a government AI system - designed by one of the participants of the creative robotics MFL workshop organised at University Arts London - Photo by Mona Nasser

Interdisciplinary Creative Collaborations

The methodology for the workshop has been developed and refined by a group of researchers known as MetaFuturism lab. The current members and updates of the workshops are available either here

www.metafuturism.net

Photos of Final performance co-created by participants at the end of MetaFuturism workshop, London workshop . Photo Taken by Mona Nasser

MetaFuturism Lab

This is an artistic collaboration founded and led by me. MetaFuturism is a methodology developed by a multidisciplinary team, titled the MetaFuturism Lab (MFL), which includes artists, scientists, designers, astrophysicists, humanitarians, and international development experts. The MFL members co-create new storylines and experiences for alternative futures, bringing their personal, social and professional backgrounds into the narrative to foster societal and cultural diversity.

Workshops/ Performances and Exhibitions

·Torbay Hospital 2018 - A documentation of the workshop was prepared by Nicholas Peres
·Three workshops in Transtech office at University of Plymouth
·Workshop at EDGE Conference (Farnborough, UK) – 10 March 2020
·International Space University – ISP20
·Workshop with SEADS members
·Clinical Trials in interplanetary missions, International Space University (SHSSP21)
·Rhode Island School of Design workshop
·Meta-futurism workshop as part winter school of Royal Institute for Theatre, Cinema & Sound in Brussel, Belgium (Jan 2022)
·Clinical Trials in interplanetary missions, International Space University (SHSSP22) (virtual conducted twice one in European and once in Australian timzone) (Feb 2022)
·SEADS/MFL people workshop
·Meta futurism workshop as part of the wearable technology hackathon organised by University of Philippines Open University (Oct 2022)
·Interdisciplinary support network workshop (Nov 2022)
·LARP MFL workshop (Jan 2023)
·Meta-futurism lab workshop (along with Demelza Woodbridge) for primary school children in London (3 March 2023)
MFL virtual workshop with BioArt Coven (19 May 2023)
Collaborated on a Speculative Architecture Workshop in UP in Philippines (28 Oct 2023)
Creative Robotics MFL Workshop, University Arts London, 7 Nov 2023
Smart cities,Energy Transition and Metaverse - virtual MFL workshop, 23 Nov 2023

Biomodd [BRG 13)

The Biomodd installation for the Saint John’s Hospital was created with more than 150 participants from Bruges and the SEADS (Space Ecologies art and Design) network, in close collaboration with Musea Brugge. It was built out of construction materials that were recycled from the numerous art exhibitions in the city from the past 20 years. In this way, the installation bridges the rich historical past of Bruges with artistic visions about the future of our world.

More details are available on SEADS website.

I was part of the Biocomputing working group preparing for the BIOMODD [BRG13].

Exomoon

Exomoon is an exhibition that is under development between SEADS and Theatre Neumarkt. It brings elements of co-creation in an artistic installation by SEADS members, and the performance aspects of Theatre Neumarkt, to develop an immersive experience of a trip to the exomoon.

The exhibition happened in September 2023.

I was a contributor of the project.