This practice-led artistic research considered how a fictional allegory might be employed to examine issues of acculturation, displacement and identity transition. Using the story of a refugee family, the study explored the implications of identity reconstruction inside the body of a new culture.

The narrative of Stella was designed to serve as a provocative vehicle for considering the social implications of identity loss and transition. The practice was provided as a screenplay, a post-visualisation document and an indicative trailer supported by a 45,000 word exegesis.

The project was shaped by an heuristic inquiry that merged existing writing on the methodology with an unique Persian illuminationist ontological and epistemological orientation. Inside the resulting framework a relationship elevated both the self (the writer/director/animator) and the body of knowledge, through the process of making and reflection.

Beyond its contribution to understanding processes and implications of acculturation, displacement and identity transition, the project’s technological significance also lay in its propensity to extend the application and demonstrate the potential of performance capture (using motion capture technology), 3D laser scanning and photogrammetry.