Parastoo Anoushahpour

Then On From There

Then On From There is a practice-based research project situated between the space of the screen and the stage. It interrogates conventional notions of filmmaking, narrativity, and spectatorship in the gallery context, using a combination of collaborative, structural and tactile processes. This thesis revolves around four individual video works that explore what constitutes narrative in expanded media by investigating the role of traditional devices of plot, tension, and character development. These works, in turn, produce a form of experimental narrative that is multi-layered and self-reflexive. My research, then, contextualizes these projects through the lens of early 1970s structural/materialist film theory and participatory theater, while engaging contemporary discourse surrounding collaborative art practice and the notion of “expanded cinema.”