Nerd Funk
Ali Eslami, Mamali Shafahi
2019 / 9’ / Netherlands, France, Iran
‘nerd_funk’ is a digital identity existing on Instagram, following the contemporary digital culture. In this Chapter based VR Installation, Users will explore the new reality that emerged out of social media.
In the current climate of the Internet we have reached an irreversible state in our social life and inherently the way we think and comprehend our reality. It’s a situation we have all dived into, floating and yet struggling to find ourselves in it. To investigate this phenomenon and allow others to investigate it with us, we decided to create a virtual identity called nerd_funk, a collective formed by its artists (Ali and Mamali) which exists on Instagram and follows a portion of contemporary digital culture.
Through the lens of this profile, the user will set out on a journey that represents an archive of collected moments and stories shared by others, bringing the user into an interactive journey composed and directed on the basis of nerd_funk‘s Instagram stories feed.
instagram.com/nerd_funk
Ali Eslami (b.1991) is an Iranian Artist based in Amsterdam. His work deals with long-term, practice-based research that builds and grows through speculative thinking and world-building.
His work engages and plays with temporal and spatial investigations of memory, human cognition, and emotions. Often results in the form of poetic engineering as journeys to seek the potential that lies in the blurred lines between the real and unreal.
His engineering background and passion for video games nurtured an obsession with cybernetics and computation and continue to build his curiosity towards the shifting roles of form and function that create virtual worlds.
Often utilizing various mediums such as VR, Film, Writing, Installation, and performance lectures. In 2016, his VR project won the IDFA DocLab Award for “Best Immersive Non-fiction”. and in 2020 the Golden Calf for Best Interactive at Nederlands Film Festival with fellow artist Mamali Shafahi for Nerd_Funk project.
Mamali Shafahi is a filmmaker whose artistic practice ranges from sculpture to installation, from performance art to video installation. His work conveys his deep fascination with the impact of emerging technologies on life and art: he examines the relationship between the past, present, and future with emerging technologies. Shafahi also likes to put his audience to the test by reversing the roles of artist and spectator in order to see just how far the audience will dare to go in the position of protagonist.
Mamali Shafahi’s art has been showcased in numerous exhibitions at international institutions such as the Palais de Tokyo in Paris, the SMART Project Space in Amsterdam, and Paris’ Cité internationale des arts. His works have also been presented to the public in various biennials such as those held in Athens, Tehran, Istanbul, and Berlin.