Formation of Substantial Motion Research Network

March 28, 2018

Welcome to the Substantial Motion Research Network!

Substantial Motion Research Network(SMRN) is an international research network for scholars and practitioners interested in the cross-cultural exploration of media art and philosophy founded by Laura Marks and Azadeh Emadi.

Since the publication of Enfoldment and Infinity: An Islamic Genealogy of New Media Art in 2010, Laura heard from many artists and scholars. They all share interests in the meeting points between contemporary media art and philosophies and traditions considered non-Western. In addition, they also share a sense of being quite isolated in their research. Being the first scholar who contacted Laura, Azadeh put forth the idea to bring all of the scholars and artists together to share, and develop projects.

The name “Substantial Motion” was chosen by Azadeh in honor of Mulla Sadra Shirazi’s concept of the intensive change an entity undergoes in divine time, rather than chronological time.

The plan for this network is to provide a platform for all the members to share their work in progress with each other for feedback. They can upload work to this website, either password-protected or open to the public. Built on a secure and well-maintained server located at Simon Fraser University, the platform will host monthly meetings, in which members will present a work in progress for discussion. Members will also be allowed to post work using Dropbox Pro, and have both members-only sections for interaction among members and public sections so people can see the works.

The long-term goal of SMRN is to hold a symposium and exhibition in Vancouver in 2021 to share the results with the public. There can also be a couple of journal issues edited to share members’ findings.

Most of the current members deal with Islamic art and philosophy as they speak to contemporary media, but some network members are interested in other links, such as Chinese and Indian philosophy. SMRN is expecting the growth of its network and exciting outcomes produced from the thinking collision and cooperative works among its members.