During this encounter, we will hear about the research-practice of Bodiless Heads that Shahrzad Irannejad and Setareh Fatehi developed in 2017, which continues to inspire their current individual works and research. Bodiless Heads is a research on traditions of [non-]depictions of the body in the Islamicate world; it is a metaphor, a hypothesis, an imaginary state that relates to the evasive, multi-layered cultures of courtesy evolved over time, particularly where Sharzad and Setareh come from. In 4 chapters, they have looked at the impact of that certain [non-]visualization of body-image on the development of a non-Eurocentric concept of the Body and its relation to Health, Performativity, Mobility, and Knowledge Transfer. Their research around the idea of Bodilessness and the borders of body perception extended to further questions around body-time-image and formed the basis of Setareh’s practice of online dancing that underlies her current research swim\او. In this research, she explores, among other issues, such themes as ethics of virtual presence, enhancement, and geopolitics. Our encounter in this episode of the lecture series “Human, Medicine and Society” will explore the history of their dialogue, its current state and its possible implications.

Shahrzad Irannejad is a researcher in history of humoral medicine in the Islamicate world. Her research follows two broad paths: first, humoral medicine in Iran in relation to its cultural context; and second, the history of humoral medicine in the Islamicate world in relation to its Hellenic roots. She is currently working on her PhD thesis entitled “Localization of the Avicennean inner senses in a Hippocratic body”, in which she deals with the Hellenic ideas regarding mental faculties and their embodiment, which were transferred to the medieval Islamicate world as manifested in the works of Avicenna. Her current research on the concepts of the Inner Senses is partly fueled by her fascination with the mind-body problem.

Setareh Fatehi is a choreographer based in Tehran and Amsterdam. Her research-based practice encompasses lenses, bodies, wifi connections, screens and projections. She is embracing the medium of live video as a part of her presence. In her work she addresses the fluidity of the definition of her body and opens up the space for acknowledging the effect that other forms of presence (their gaze and their thoughts) could have on the ways she engages with her own body.