Naeim Sepehri | Soore University (original) (raw)
Papers by Naeim Sepehri
ENQUIRY: The ARCC Journal/Architectural Research Centers Consortium, 2024
Mirror-tile geometric Artwork is considered the last innovation of Iranian artists in the group o... more Mirror-tile geometric Artwork is considered the last innovation of Iranian artists in the group of the fine arts. That utilizes, for the interior architecture and decoration of buildings. The use of pieces of glass-mirrors and Mirror-tile artwork has economic origins and recycling roots. In the beginning, the Glass-mirrors, which had been brought to Iran from Europe, break during transportation. Iranian artists and Muslim Craftsmen found an innovative way to take advantage of these broken pieces and used them as Mirror-tiles. Being wasteful is an act that is abhorred in Islam. In traditional Iranian-Islamic art, the mirror element, besides that has been one subject of aesthetics for decorating the architectural built-space, includes deep cultural concepts that have not been considering for various reasons. This research looks at semiotic signs from an analytical point of view and explaining the use of the Mirror-tile art in Iranian-Islamic architecture by quoting information from the analysis to understand the quality of architectural built-space decorated with the Mirror-tile art. Aim to introduce the real and genuine aspects of mirror art as an influential architectural element through the thoughts of its creators as a result, in this research, first, the concepts related to semiotic ideas are dealt with descriptively, and, with an analytical approach, a connection established between various theories. Mirror-tile art also contains tremendous amounts of meaning - messages that words can never describe. For these craftsmen, that's at the core of their creation. Among the mystics, the inner language is the language of Spirit and Truth, and the tools of that language are the symbol and indication. With the aim of the influence of the Persian mystical thoughts about the mirror, this study cum the available historical and contemporary sources and analyzing them deals with the hidden meanings in Mirror-tile artwork. Reveal its connection with mystical thoughts through Persian literature.
IAFOR journal of cultural studies, Jan 26, 2022
Mirror-tile artwork is one of the most recent and striking phenomena in Iranian Spiritual Art. As... more Mirror-tile artwork is one of the most recent and striking phenomena in Iranian Spiritual Art. Aside from being an aesthetic item for adorning architectural building space, mirrors also exemplify profound cultural ideas. It has been applied in interior design and the decoration of holy and royal buildings with symbolic expressions and enigmatic nature. Initially, it was created using the broken and unused pieces of mirrors as a recycling project. Muslim artisans did not approve of wasting material. They used basic techniques to construct spiritual and effective Iranian-Islamic architectural spaces and ornamentations filled with mystery and marvels. This study is inspired by Giovanni Caputo’s research on the different psychological effects of mirrors, by the mirror phenomenon as an Iranian-Islamic architectural element, and as a psychological effect brought about by architectural components. It attempts to elicit responses from people who have been touched and encountered the phenomenon by asking them to describe their presence and experiences in a mirror-tile decorated environment. The interviews usually focused on two main topics; the first topic is concerned with the participant’s experience quality during their presence in the architectural space; the second is concerned with the way a person interacts with the various elements of the environment. As a result, there are two direct views at the moment of encountering the mirror-tile decorated architectural spaces: the “Close-look” (looking closely at one’s image) and the “Afar-look” (looking from afar, taking in the whole space). Moreover, the light a place and the emotional effects of the architectural built-up space on perception were the most critical factors for participants’ responses to achieve the research’s goal and thus laying the groundwork for future research in these areas.
One of the earliest known symbols of humankind is the mandala. Mandalas have also been used in mo... more One of the earliest known symbols of humankind is the mandala. Mandalas have also been used in most traditional sacred buildings and Islamic-Iranian worship places, mosques, and shrines. Is it just an aesthetic decorative element or affects a person's mental state? The mandala is a symbol of existence and a system based on revelation. These decorations subconsciously draw attention for concentration during religious meditation that is considered to focus and search within oneself.
IAFOR Journal of Cultural Studies, 2021
Mirror-tile artwork is one of the most recent and striking phenomena in Iranian Spiritual Art. As... more Mirror-tile artwork is one of the most recent and striking phenomena in Iranian Spiritual Art. Aside from being an aesthetic item for adorning architectural building space, mirrors also exemplify profound cultural ideas. It has been applied in interior design and the decoration of holy and royal buildings with symbolic expressions and enigmatic nature. Initially, it was created using the broken and unused pieces of mirrors as a recycling project. Muslim artisans did not approve of wasting material. They used basic techniques to construct spiritual and effective Iranian-Islamic architectural spaces and ornamentations filled with mystery and marvels. This study is inspired by Giovanni Caputo’s research on the different psychological effects of mirrors, by the mirror phenomenon as an Iranian-Islamic architectural element, and as a psychological effect brought about by architectural components. It attempts to elicit responses from people who have been touched and encountered the phenome...
IAFOR Journal of Cultural Studies, Jan 26, 2022
Mirror-tile artwork is one of the most recent and striking phenomena in Iranian Spiritual Art. As... more Mirror-tile artwork is one of the most recent and striking phenomena in Iranian Spiritual Art. Aside from being an aesthetic item for adorning architectural building space, mirrors also exemplify profound cultural ideas. It has been applied in interior design and the decoration of holy and royal buildings with symbolic expressions and enigmatic nature. Initially, it was created using the broken and unused pieces of mirrors as a recycling project. Muslim artisans did not approve of wasting material. They used basic techniques to construct spiritual and effective Iranian-Islamic architectural spaces and ornamentations filled with mystery and marvels. This study is inspired by Giovanni Caputo’s research on the different psychological effects of mirrors, by the mirror phenomenon as an Iranian-Islamic architectural element, and as a psychological effect brought about by architectural components. It attempts to elicit responses from people who have been touched and encountered the phenomenon by asking them to describe their presence and experiences in a mirror-tile decorated environment. The interviews usually focused on two main topics; the first topic is concerned with the participant’s experience quality during their presence in the architectural space; the second is concerned with the way a person interacts with the various elements of the environment. As a result, there are two direct views at the moment of encountering the mirror-tile decorated architectural spaces: the “Close-look” (looking closely at one’s image) and the “Afar-look” (looking from afar, taking in the whole space). Moreover, the light a place and the emotional effects of the architectural built-up space on perception were the most critical factors for participants’ responses to achieve the research’s goal and thus laying the groundwork for future research in these areas.
IBDA` : Jurnal Kajian Islam dan Budaya, Sep 30, 2021
The Mirror-tiles artwork is one of the latest initiatives of Iranian spiritual art which with its... more The Mirror-tiles artwork is one of the latest initiatives of Iranian spiritual art which with its symbolic expression and mysterious character, conveys the revelations and mystical thoughts in the cover of matter and form to its audience and affects them consciously and unconsciously. This art is an esoteric language to convey intuitive concepts and to remind the way of their inherited life from the predecessors as traditional art has always been based on symbols and allegories and expresses the spirit of its time. The first peak of the Mirror-tiles used in architectural spaces in Iran coincided with the fusion of Sufism and Shi’ism in the early period of the Safavid Empire. The Safavid dynasty had Sufi roots and lineage, and among the Sufis, the inner language is the language of Shari’a and Truth, and the tools of that language are the symbol and indication. Has been rejected or neglected due to a lack of interest and attention to the registration of special documents, the secrets ...
Drafts by Naeim Sepehri
Submission to Academia Letters, 2022
One of the earliest known symbols of humankind is the mandala. Mandalas have also been used in mo... more One of the earliest known symbols of humankind is the mandala. Mandalas have also been used in most traditional sacred buildings and Islamic-Iranian worship places, mosques, and shrines. Is it just an aesthetic decorative element or affects a person's mental state? The mandala is a symbol of existence and a system based on revelation. These decorations subconsciously draw attention for concentration during religious meditation that is considered to focus and search within oneself.
Submission to Academia Letters, 2021
One of the earliest known symbols of humankind is the mandala. Mandalas have also been used in mo... more One of the earliest known symbols of humankind is the mandala. Mandalas have also been used in most traditional sacred buildings and Islamic-Iranian worship places, mosques, and shrines. Is it just an aesthetic and decorative element, or is it used for affecting a person's mental state? The mandala is a pattern of existence and system based on revelation. These symmetrical geometric shapes subconsciously draw attention to the circle's center for concentration during religious meditation that is considered to focus and search within oneself.
Books by Naeim Sepehri
The International Academic Forum (IAFOR), Jan 26, 2022
As humanity is approaching its third year under COVID-19, the virus’s grim day-to-day toll is bec... more As humanity is approaching its third year under COVID-19, the virus’s grim day-to-day toll is becoming increasingly clear. By the end of 2021, over 5 million people will have died from the disease and many are continuing to die on a daily basis. The world has not even yet begun to count the psychological fallout from the disease, as only glimpses of it have become visible so far: children left behind in their schooling, depression among teenagers unable to socialise; students prevented from having campus experiences; parents at the end of their tethers because of closed schools and kindergartens; family members unable to see each other for years on end. Among survivors, “fatigue” is the most common words to be heard.
Other words, unknown a few months ago, have become pedestrian, as we are all becoming (linguistic) epidemiologists: Delta and Omicron mutations, booster vaccinations, 2G, 3G, 3G++. The advantages and disadvantages of heterologous and homologous vaccinations, of mRNA vaccines vs adenovirus vector vaccines versus inactivated virus vaccines are broadly discussed. Additionally, rules and regulations change on a daily basis, and travel plans are more a guessing game than anything else. Under the reign of social media, discussions taking place oftentimes become heated and accusatory, rather than reflected and scientific. As the former spill out onto the streets, people are injured and killed. The virus is political.
IJCS’s current issue pays a small tribute to this situation; in a larger expose, entitled “Screen Ontologies or Teaching the Virus a Lesson: A Few Things that Work in Online Education and a Few that Don’t”, the situation of accelerated online education is discussed. The article states that despite the fact that there were few alternatives to such online teaching, its necessity at the time should not supress necessary criticism of distance education in general. In particular, the teaching situation via screens is discussed and older philosophical and social criticisms of television culture and reintroduced and updated in order to expose the limits of screen education in particular and screen cultures in general. Finally, new ways of distance education are sketched that would usher in a post-screen education model.
The second article, “Is There a Correspondence Between “Orientalism” and The Orient? – Said, Dyson and Sen” by Amitabha Gupta, revisits Edward Said’s seminal Orientalism work and, from the vantage point of 40 years after, explains how especially the work of Sen is able to provide a more fruitful approach today by circumventing some of the by now problematic premises Said relied on
Naeim Sepehri’s “Psychological Effects of the Architectural-Space: Decorated Mirror-tile Artwork-A Phenomenological Approach”, discusses the usage of mirror shards in the interior decoration of palaces and mosques in Iran. He historicises this architectural feature and, with the help of recent psychological theories, demonstrates how such architectural approaches have become deeply engrained in the aesthetic of Iranian historical national narratives.
“Innovation in Cultural Heritage Preservation in Taiwan: Lessons for Indonesia?” by Riela Provi Drianda, Laila Zohrah and Adiwan Fahlan Aritenang contrasts and compares cultural heritage politics and their implementation in Taiwan and Indonesia respectively. While the two cultural communities follow divergent politics of heritage conservation, the authors illustrate that many of the challenges faced by cultural heritage preservation actions, such as rapid development, profit maximisation, lack of political will and funding, and a host of others, are common to preservation efforts around the globe. Preservationists can learn from each other’s experiences, and while local givens, such as weather conditions, might differ, all preservation efforts share a number of commonalities which can best be explored together.
Finally, Xiaolong Zhang’s “Media Power: Cigarette Package Design in China” explores the conflicting messages cigarette package design is sending: On the one hand, as in many other countries, the cigarette pack is supposed to alert its users that smoking kills; on the other, it is supposed to attract users to exactly this habit. Zhang traces this conflict to the differing political and economic messages being sent by the authorities. For one, tax revenues from cigarettes are an import economic factor, as are jobs in the tobacco industry; for another, the long term costs of smokers’ health-care costs have recently begun to be higher than tobacco’s economic benefits. Up to here, the Chinese situation does not seem to be so much different from the rest of the world. But Zhang shows that in China there is a strong cultural element at play that is different from other countries, and that is the social component of smoking. Via focus groups, Zhang demonstrates that smoking is variably used to exhibit status, masculinity and relational sociability. It is these features that make anti-smoking campaigns even harder to run in China than elsewhere.
Holger Briel
Editor-in-Chief
ENQUIRY: The ARCC Journal/Architectural Research Centers Consortium, 2024
Mirror-tile geometric Artwork is considered the last innovation of Iranian artists in the group o... more Mirror-tile geometric Artwork is considered the last innovation of Iranian artists in the group of the fine arts. That utilizes, for the interior architecture and decoration of buildings. The use of pieces of glass-mirrors and Mirror-tile artwork has economic origins and recycling roots. In the beginning, the Glass-mirrors, which had been brought to Iran from Europe, break during transportation. Iranian artists and Muslim Craftsmen found an innovative way to take advantage of these broken pieces and used them as Mirror-tiles. Being wasteful is an act that is abhorred in Islam. In traditional Iranian-Islamic art, the mirror element, besides that has been one subject of aesthetics for decorating the architectural built-space, includes deep cultural concepts that have not been considering for various reasons. This research looks at semiotic signs from an analytical point of view and explaining the use of the Mirror-tile art in Iranian-Islamic architecture by quoting information from the analysis to understand the quality of architectural built-space decorated with the Mirror-tile art. Aim to introduce the real and genuine aspects of mirror art as an influential architectural element through the thoughts of its creators as a result, in this research, first, the concepts related to semiotic ideas are dealt with descriptively, and, with an analytical approach, a connection established between various theories. Mirror-tile art also contains tremendous amounts of meaning - messages that words can never describe. For these craftsmen, that's at the core of their creation. Among the mystics, the inner language is the language of Spirit and Truth, and the tools of that language are the symbol and indication. With the aim of the influence of the Persian mystical thoughts about the mirror, this study cum the available historical and contemporary sources and analyzing them deals with the hidden meanings in Mirror-tile artwork. Reveal its connection with mystical thoughts through Persian literature.
IAFOR journal of cultural studies, Jan 26, 2022
Mirror-tile artwork is one of the most recent and striking phenomena in Iranian Spiritual Art. As... more Mirror-tile artwork is one of the most recent and striking phenomena in Iranian Spiritual Art. Aside from being an aesthetic item for adorning architectural building space, mirrors also exemplify profound cultural ideas. It has been applied in interior design and the decoration of holy and royal buildings with symbolic expressions and enigmatic nature. Initially, it was created using the broken and unused pieces of mirrors as a recycling project. Muslim artisans did not approve of wasting material. They used basic techniques to construct spiritual and effective Iranian-Islamic architectural spaces and ornamentations filled with mystery and marvels. This study is inspired by Giovanni Caputo’s research on the different psychological effects of mirrors, by the mirror phenomenon as an Iranian-Islamic architectural element, and as a psychological effect brought about by architectural components. It attempts to elicit responses from people who have been touched and encountered the phenomenon by asking them to describe their presence and experiences in a mirror-tile decorated environment. The interviews usually focused on two main topics; the first topic is concerned with the participant’s experience quality during their presence in the architectural space; the second is concerned with the way a person interacts with the various elements of the environment. As a result, there are two direct views at the moment of encountering the mirror-tile decorated architectural spaces: the “Close-look” (looking closely at one’s image) and the “Afar-look” (looking from afar, taking in the whole space). Moreover, the light a place and the emotional effects of the architectural built-up space on perception were the most critical factors for participants’ responses to achieve the research’s goal and thus laying the groundwork for future research in these areas.
One of the earliest known symbols of humankind is the mandala. Mandalas have also been used in mo... more One of the earliest known symbols of humankind is the mandala. Mandalas have also been used in most traditional sacred buildings and Islamic-Iranian worship places, mosques, and shrines. Is it just an aesthetic decorative element or affects a person's mental state? The mandala is a symbol of existence and a system based on revelation. These decorations subconsciously draw attention for concentration during religious meditation that is considered to focus and search within oneself.
IAFOR Journal of Cultural Studies, 2021
Mirror-tile artwork is one of the most recent and striking phenomena in Iranian Spiritual Art. As... more Mirror-tile artwork is one of the most recent and striking phenomena in Iranian Spiritual Art. Aside from being an aesthetic item for adorning architectural building space, mirrors also exemplify profound cultural ideas. It has been applied in interior design and the decoration of holy and royal buildings with symbolic expressions and enigmatic nature. Initially, it was created using the broken and unused pieces of mirrors as a recycling project. Muslim artisans did not approve of wasting material. They used basic techniques to construct spiritual and effective Iranian-Islamic architectural spaces and ornamentations filled with mystery and marvels. This study is inspired by Giovanni Caputo’s research on the different psychological effects of mirrors, by the mirror phenomenon as an Iranian-Islamic architectural element, and as a psychological effect brought about by architectural components. It attempts to elicit responses from people who have been touched and encountered the phenome...
IAFOR Journal of Cultural Studies, Jan 26, 2022
Mirror-tile artwork is one of the most recent and striking phenomena in Iranian Spiritual Art. As... more Mirror-tile artwork is one of the most recent and striking phenomena in Iranian Spiritual Art. Aside from being an aesthetic item for adorning architectural building space, mirrors also exemplify profound cultural ideas. It has been applied in interior design and the decoration of holy and royal buildings with symbolic expressions and enigmatic nature. Initially, it was created using the broken and unused pieces of mirrors as a recycling project. Muslim artisans did not approve of wasting material. They used basic techniques to construct spiritual and effective Iranian-Islamic architectural spaces and ornamentations filled with mystery and marvels. This study is inspired by Giovanni Caputo’s research on the different psychological effects of mirrors, by the mirror phenomenon as an Iranian-Islamic architectural element, and as a psychological effect brought about by architectural components. It attempts to elicit responses from people who have been touched and encountered the phenomenon by asking them to describe their presence and experiences in a mirror-tile decorated environment. The interviews usually focused on two main topics; the first topic is concerned with the participant’s experience quality during their presence in the architectural space; the second is concerned with the way a person interacts with the various elements of the environment. As a result, there are two direct views at the moment of encountering the mirror-tile decorated architectural spaces: the “Close-look” (looking closely at one’s image) and the “Afar-look” (looking from afar, taking in the whole space). Moreover, the light a place and the emotional effects of the architectural built-up space on perception were the most critical factors for participants’ responses to achieve the research’s goal and thus laying the groundwork for future research in these areas.
IBDA` : Jurnal Kajian Islam dan Budaya, Sep 30, 2021
The Mirror-tiles artwork is one of the latest initiatives of Iranian spiritual art which with its... more The Mirror-tiles artwork is one of the latest initiatives of Iranian spiritual art which with its symbolic expression and mysterious character, conveys the revelations and mystical thoughts in the cover of matter and form to its audience and affects them consciously and unconsciously. This art is an esoteric language to convey intuitive concepts and to remind the way of their inherited life from the predecessors as traditional art has always been based on symbols and allegories and expresses the spirit of its time. The first peak of the Mirror-tiles used in architectural spaces in Iran coincided with the fusion of Sufism and Shi’ism in the early period of the Safavid Empire. The Safavid dynasty had Sufi roots and lineage, and among the Sufis, the inner language is the language of Shari’a and Truth, and the tools of that language are the symbol and indication. Has been rejected or neglected due to a lack of interest and attention to the registration of special documents, the secrets ...
Submission to Academia Letters, 2022
One of the earliest known symbols of humankind is the mandala. Mandalas have also been used in mo... more One of the earliest known symbols of humankind is the mandala. Mandalas have also been used in most traditional sacred buildings and Islamic-Iranian worship places, mosques, and shrines. Is it just an aesthetic decorative element or affects a person's mental state? The mandala is a symbol of existence and a system based on revelation. These decorations subconsciously draw attention for concentration during religious meditation that is considered to focus and search within oneself.
Submission to Academia Letters, 2021
One of the earliest known symbols of humankind is the mandala. Mandalas have also been used in mo... more One of the earliest known symbols of humankind is the mandala. Mandalas have also been used in most traditional sacred buildings and Islamic-Iranian worship places, mosques, and shrines. Is it just an aesthetic and decorative element, or is it used for affecting a person's mental state? The mandala is a pattern of existence and system based on revelation. These symmetrical geometric shapes subconsciously draw attention to the circle's center for concentration during religious meditation that is considered to focus and search within oneself.
The International Academic Forum (IAFOR), Jan 26, 2022
As humanity is approaching its third year under COVID-19, the virus’s grim day-to-day toll is bec... more As humanity is approaching its third year under COVID-19, the virus’s grim day-to-day toll is becoming increasingly clear. By the end of 2021, over 5 million people will have died from the disease and many are continuing to die on a daily basis. The world has not even yet begun to count the psychological fallout from the disease, as only glimpses of it have become visible so far: children left behind in their schooling, depression among teenagers unable to socialise; students prevented from having campus experiences; parents at the end of their tethers because of closed schools and kindergartens; family members unable to see each other for years on end. Among survivors, “fatigue” is the most common words to be heard.
Other words, unknown a few months ago, have become pedestrian, as we are all becoming (linguistic) epidemiologists: Delta and Omicron mutations, booster vaccinations, 2G, 3G, 3G++. The advantages and disadvantages of heterologous and homologous vaccinations, of mRNA vaccines vs adenovirus vector vaccines versus inactivated virus vaccines are broadly discussed. Additionally, rules and regulations change on a daily basis, and travel plans are more a guessing game than anything else. Under the reign of social media, discussions taking place oftentimes become heated and accusatory, rather than reflected and scientific. As the former spill out onto the streets, people are injured and killed. The virus is political.
IJCS’s current issue pays a small tribute to this situation; in a larger expose, entitled “Screen Ontologies or Teaching the Virus a Lesson: A Few Things that Work in Online Education and a Few that Don’t”, the situation of accelerated online education is discussed. The article states that despite the fact that there were few alternatives to such online teaching, its necessity at the time should not supress necessary criticism of distance education in general. In particular, the teaching situation via screens is discussed and older philosophical and social criticisms of television culture and reintroduced and updated in order to expose the limits of screen education in particular and screen cultures in general. Finally, new ways of distance education are sketched that would usher in a post-screen education model.
The second article, “Is There a Correspondence Between “Orientalism” and The Orient? – Said, Dyson and Sen” by Amitabha Gupta, revisits Edward Said’s seminal Orientalism work and, from the vantage point of 40 years after, explains how especially the work of Sen is able to provide a more fruitful approach today by circumventing some of the by now problematic premises Said relied on
Naeim Sepehri’s “Psychological Effects of the Architectural-Space: Decorated Mirror-tile Artwork-A Phenomenological Approach”, discusses the usage of mirror shards in the interior decoration of palaces and mosques in Iran. He historicises this architectural feature and, with the help of recent psychological theories, demonstrates how such architectural approaches have become deeply engrained in the aesthetic of Iranian historical national narratives.
“Innovation in Cultural Heritage Preservation in Taiwan: Lessons for Indonesia?” by Riela Provi Drianda, Laila Zohrah and Adiwan Fahlan Aritenang contrasts and compares cultural heritage politics and their implementation in Taiwan and Indonesia respectively. While the two cultural communities follow divergent politics of heritage conservation, the authors illustrate that many of the challenges faced by cultural heritage preservation actions, such as rapid development, profit maximisation, lack of political will and funding, and a host of others, are common to preservation efforts around the globe. Preservationists can learn from each other’s experiences, and while local givens, such as weather conditions, might differ, all preservation efforts share a number of commonalities which can best be explored together.
Finally, Xiaolong Zhang’s “Media Power: Cigarette Package Design in China” explores the conflicting messages cigarette package design is sending: On the one hand, as in many other countries, the cigarette pack is supposed to alert its users that smoking kills; on the other, it is supposed to attract users to exactly this habit. Zhang traces this conflict to the differing political and economic messages being sent by the authorities. For one, tax revenues from cigarettes are an import economic factor, as are jobs in the tobacco industry; for another, the long term costs of smokers’ health-care costs have recently begun to be higher than tobacco’s economic benefits. Up to here, the Chinese situation does not seem to be so much different from the rest of the world. But Zhang shows that in China there is a strong cultural element at play that is different from other countries, and that is the social component of smoking. Via focus groups, Zhang demonstrates that smoking is variably used to exhibit status, masculinity and relational sociability. It is these features that make anti-smoking campaigns even harder to run in China than elsewhere.
Holger Briel
Editor-in-Chief