ESHRAQ, built in Unreal Engine, is a research project by Ali Eslami ( ALLLESSS.com ) inspired by Illuminationist philosophy, exploring modular systems and agency through computational models as a cognitive playground.
This website is built with Jekyll, using customized version of the Beautiful Jekyll theme. It is hosted on GitHub.
All the content in this blog is licensed under CC BY 4.0
Contributors
Ali Eslami
Ali Eslami (b.1991) is an Iranian-Dutch Artist based in Amsterdam. His work deals with long-term, practice-based research that builds and grows through speculative thinking and world-building.
His work engages and plays with temporal and spatial investigations of memory, computation, human cognition, and emotions—often informed by non-Western philosophical frameworks, such as Suhrawardi’s Illuminationism. This line of inquiry results in forms of poetic engineering that seek the potential lying between the real and the unreal.
His engineering background and passion for video games nurtured an obsession with cybernetics and computation and continue to build his curiosity towards the shifting roles of form and function that create virtual worlds. He works across various mediums, including VR, Interactive Simulation, film, writing, installation, and performance lectures.
Eslami is an alumnus of the Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten (2021–23). His work has received awards including the IDFA DocLab Award for Best Immersive Non-fiction (2016), the Golden Calf for Best Interactive (2020, with Mamali Shafahi), the Cremer Prize from LWL-Museum Münster (2023) and Wendy-Gutman Prize (2025).
Will Scarlett
Will Scarlett is a writer and researcher interested in the uncertain spaces between sensation and the surrounding world. He holds a PhD in Anthropology from the New School for Social Research, where he explored experiences of presence in virtual and elemental environments. His writing appears in academic journals such as the Journal of the American Academy of Religion, and para-academic platforms such as Future Studies. He led seminars at the New Centre for Research and Practice titled “Notes from Immediate Irreality” and “Being There and Not There.” He presented his research at the Event Lab at University of Barcelona, the American Anthropological Association Annual Meeting, and the Venice Architecture Biennale.