SIAHKAL 2.0: An A.I. resurrected discourse on Marxism & Islam
This is a limited edition book. The author trained an LLM on the texts of a deceased theorist, and then proceeded to interact with the LLM and produce simulations of what the theorist may have said in regards to various pertinent topics. The book is primarily a free online resource, but a few copies are being printed to commemorate the work. It has a foreword and afterword by the Editors.
At the core of this project is a translation of “Marxist Islam or Islamic Marxism,” a groundbreaking text written by Bizhan Jazani during his imprisonment in the 1970s under the Shah’s oppressive regime. Translated by Parham Ghalamdar, this work is accompanied by an introduction contextualizing Jazani’s radical vision. Ghalamdar also contributes a series of ASCII-style illustrations and diagrams—AI-assisted reinterpretations of Jazani’s original paintings and photographs—that bridge the past and present, offering a new perspective on his revolutionary artistry.
About the author
Parham Ghalamdar is a multidisciplinary artist currently based in the UK. Ghalamdar’s work traces forgotten mythologies, buried philosophies, and visual ruins, reconfiguring them into speculative worlds where memory, fiction, and futurism collapse into one another. Drawing on cybernetic theory and generative AI, he explores how systems of feedback, simulation, and machine vision mediate our understanding of history and possibility. Through painting, film, and writing, he builds narratives that feel both ancient and yet-to-come, haunted by lost histories and animated by possible futures.
names a place in the forests of Gilan and a threshold in revolutionary
time. In 1971 a guerrilla action near Siahkal shook the order of the
Shah. The action failed militarily yet seeded a myth for the People’s
Fedai Guerrillas. Bizhan Jazani, a founding thinker, wrote and painted
in prison and was executed in 1975. His work teaches that strategy
rather than sentiment endures. // This book treats Siahkal as a Deep
Object, a persistent attractor that gathers memory, images, and tactics.
An AI model trained on Jazani’s writings and paintings translates his
essay on Islamic Marxism and proposes annotations. The machine functions
as a probe that widens attention while remaining accountable to the
source. Parham Ghalamdar trained the AI, wrote the introduction, and
composed ASCII diagrams and diagrammatic readings from Jazani’s
artworks. Parsa Esmaeilzadeh contributes an essay that reads Jazani
through Karatani and left accelerationism. // It is a call to reimagine
and export revolution as a Deep Object that asks for Deep Time to
unfold. This clandestine edition invites the reader to study, test, and
build strategy that can outlast the news cycle and meet the future head
on.
This is a limited edition book. The author trained an LLM on the texts
of a deceased theorist, and then proceeded to interact with the LLM and
produce simulations of what the theorist may have said in regards to
various pertinent topics. The book is primarily a free online resource,
but a few copies are being printed to commemorate the work. It has a
foreword and afterword by the Editors.
At the core of this project is a translation of “Marxist Islam or
Islamic Marxism,” a groundbreaking text written by Bizhan Jazani during
his imprisonment in the 1970s under the Shah’s oppressive regime.
Translated by Parham Ghalamdar, this work is accompanied by an
introduction contextualizing Jazani’s radical vision. Ghalamdar also
contributes a series of ASCII-style illustrations and
diagrams—AI-assisted reinterpretations of Jazani’s original paintings
and photographs—that bridge the past and present, offering a new
perspective on his revolutionary artistry.
About the author
Parham Ghalamdar is a multidisciplinary artist currently based in the
UK. Ghalamdar’s work traces forgotten mythologies, buried philosophies,
and visual ruins, reconfiguring them into speculative worlds where
memory, fiction, and futurism collapse into one another. Drawing on
cybernetic theory and generative AI, he explores how systems of
feedback, simulation, and machine vision mediate our understanding of
history and possibility. Through painting, film, and writing, he builds
narratives that feel both ancient and yet-to-come, haunted by lost
histories and animated by possible futures.
names a place in the forests of Gilan and a threshold in revolutionary
time. In 1971 a guerrilla action near Siahkal shook the order of the
Shah. The action failed militarily yet seeded a myth for the People’s
Fedai Guerrillas. Bizhan Jazani, a founding thinker, wrote and painted
in prison and was executed in 1975. His work teaches that strategy
rather than sentiment endures. // This book treats Siahkal as a Deep
Object, a persistent attractor that gathers memory, images, and tactics.
An AI model trained on Jazani’s writings and paintings translates his
essay on Islamic Marxism and proposes annotations. The machine functions
as a probe that widens attention while remaining accountable to the
source. Parham Ghalamdar trained the AI, wrote the introduction, and
composed ASCII diagrams and diagrammatic readings from Jazani’s
artworks. Parsa Esmaeilzadeh contributes an essay that reads Jazani
through Karatani and left accelerationism. // It is a call to reimagine
and export revolution as a Deep Object that asks for Deep Time to
unfold. This clandestine edition invites the reader to study, test, and
build strategy that can outlast the news cycle and meet the future head
on.
This is a limited edition book. The author trained an LLM on the texts
of a deceased theorist, and then proceeded to interact with the LLM and
produce simulations of what the theorist may have said in regards to
various pertinent topics. The book is primarily a free online resource,
but a few copies are being printed to commemorate the work. It has a
foreword and afterword by the Editors.
At the core of this project is a translation of “Marxist Islam or
Islamic Marxism,” a groundbreaking text written by Bizhan Jazani during
his imprisonment in the 1970s under the Shah’s oppressive regime.
Translated by Parham Ghalamdar, this work is accompanied by an
introduction contextualizing Jazani’s radical vision. Ghalamdar also
contributes a series of ASCII-style illustrations and
diagrams—AI-assisted reinterpretations of Jazani’s original paintings
and photographs—that bridge the past and present, offering a new
perspective on his revolutionary artistry.
About the author
Parham Ghalamdar is a multidisciplinary artist currently based in the
UK. Ghalamdar’s work traces forgotten mythologies, buried philosophies,
and visual ruins, reconfiguring them into speculative worlds where
memory, fiction, and futurism collapse into one another. Drawing on
cybernetic theory and generative AI, he explores how systems of
feedback, simulation, and machine vision mediate our understanding of
history and possibility. Through painting, film, and writing, he builds
narratives that feel both ancient and yet-to-come, haunted by lost
histories and animated by possible futures.
This is a limited edition book. The author trained an LLM on the texts of a deceased theorist, and then proceeded to interact with the LLM and produce simulations of what the theorist may have said in regards to various pertinent topics. The book is primarily a free online resource, but a few copies are being printed to commemorate the work. It has a foreword and afterword by the Editors.
At the core of this project is a translation of “Marxist Islam or Islamic Marxism,” a groundbreaking text written by Bizhan Jazani during his imprisonment in the 1970s under the Shah’s oppressive regime. Translated by Parham Ghalamdar, this work is accompanied by an introduction contextualizing Jazani’s radical vision. Ghalamdar also contributes a series of ASCII-style illustrations and diagrams—AI-assisted reinterpretations of Jazani’s original paintings and photographs—that bridge the past and present, offering a new perspective on his revolutionary artistry.