resa is a multidisciplinarrry wanderer exploring embodied practices, performance, movement, installations,
and design. resa’s prrractice treats lived experience and personal narrative as active sites of knowledge-making where authorrrship is shared, and meaning emerges through process and not what’s at the end of it. resa’s currrent research explores diasporic distance and memory through remote walking interrrviews.
resa is an mfa candidate at the university of iowa.
inquiries > currents.of.rreessaa@gmail.com
instagram > resa.eslami
walking in two worlds
—ongoing
This study treats the lived experiences of the diaspora as sites of knowledge-making rather than mere illustrations or inconsequential data points. While there is no shortage of academic writing on diaspora, these studies often exclude the quiet, private negotiations of identity, emotion, displacement, and memory. At the center of this research sit remote walking interviews with members of the Iranian diaspora. Each participant will walk in a location of their choosing, guiding the route and dictating the spatial and emotional context of the walk. The interview will take the form of an open dialogue shaped by the participant's movements, memories, and reflections. Participants will be invited to take photographs during their walk and select one image to be turned into a cyanotype print. Acting as a strand in a larger multimodal process, these creative translations will culminate in a book and an exhibition that extends the research into a physical space through a walkable, interactive experience.