People are not numbers, and so among the rising tide of wartime deaths around the world are some familiar faces from our communities. Soroush Khazaei was an audiovisual artist who gave generously to the Iranian scene. He was killed earlier this week in Tehran by US/Israeli airstrikes.
Soroush was a friend and colleague of many of my own friends and colleagues in the past years. He was a pillar of TouchDesigner work and audiovisual expression in Tehran — one of the people working against the odds to make the Iranian creative scene work.
Amir B Ash wrote about some of that scene for us, both in his native Iran and in the diaspora-driven community in Paris, in his profile of TouchDesigner artist-run community events last summer. On the Tehran side, that includes people now threatened by war.
Soroush was a solo audiovisual artist, making beautiful work like this:
And he was also an event organizer behind the Wenodes series:
My strong, strong belief is in trying to recognize people while they’re still with us. But too often the lives across this region are anonymous. Iranian friends I know have lost loved ones, friends, and family members just since the start of the year — many of those before the airstrikes started, as the regime captured and killed protesters. Life under the regime has long meant disappearances, imprisonment, and deaths. Now, Iran’s diverse and expansive population faces two threats, one from the regime and another from US/Israeli strikes. Soroush’s death is a reminder that this is a war, not just “strategic bombing,” and war claims the innocent. War claims our friends, our brothers and sisters.
I can’t communicate with Tehran right now due to a near-complete Internet shutdown, which ticked past the 100-hour mark earlier today. The last thing I want to do is take up that technical bandwidth or anyone’s emotional bandwidth.
But I do want to take a moment to remember and mourn Soroush, and to reflect on loss in our scene and extended family.
I know there are many more losses readers are suffering that I can’t see. My heart is with you.
And as a US citizen and German resident, our role in killing civilians is indefensible. We’re obligated to take what action we can to resist the devaluing of lives. And somewhere in this, we have to reserve part of our spirit to see through the smoke enveloping Tehran, to a time when people are free to play with sound and light again.