Meghdad AsadiLari

Assistant Professor | School of Film and Animation | College of Art and Design | RIT

Case Study 2F: CalliMotion

Project Overview:

CalliMotion is a four-minute experimental animation work developed between 2021 and 2022 as an independent ongoing personal research thread. The title coins the term "CalliMotion" from calligraphy and motion, naming a creative practice concerned with bringing Persian script to life through procedural animation and dynamic simulation.

Technically, the work represents my ongoing research and professional practice in procedural workflows, and particle and dynamics simulation developed in Houdini and Unreal Engine. Visually and conceptually, it continues a sustained research thread in Persian calligraphy as animation and VFX subject matter, building on foundations established across previous personal and professional works that started from Simorgh (2014), my thesis film that established Persian calligraphy and cultural identity as central subjects of creative inquiry.

Excerpts from the five experimental pieces.

Dissemination:

Current dissemination has been local and non-juried;

CalliMotion was exhibited at RIT’s College of Art and Design Faculty Exhibition, Bevier and Harris Galleries, as part of the Faculty Show in 2025
A separate faculty screening event at RIT provided an additional local venue for the work.

Active outreach to museum venues is ongoing. Institutions contacted include the Aga Khan Museum and the Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg. No exhibition placement has been confirmed at this stage.

CalliMotion playing at William Harris Gallery as a part of the Faculty Show, 2025

Trajectory and Significance:

The four-year exhibition of Simorgh's production material at the Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg (2015-2019) demonstrated international recognition of that work and established an ongoing curatorial relationship that now provides context for CalliMotion's outreach trajectory. CalliMotion represents active creative production during the tenure period, with a forward dissemination trajectory grounded in that established international reputation.

Future plans include grant applications centered on the calligraphy-in-animation research thread, with museum and exhibition venues as the primary dissemination target.