The Remaining Signs of Future Centuries

(Work in Progress)

The Remaining Signs of Future Centuries is a multifaceted research-based project that will trace the neglected history of Islamicate science and technology as an anchor point for seeing the people of MENA (Middle East and North Africa), into their own imaginations.

Allahyari’s research will examine innovative devices and ideas of the Islamic Golden Era (7th -15th century) through an anti-colonial feminist queer lens. Optics, clocks, geomantic tablets, celestial objects, and alchemical tools will be paired with female Arab/Iranian historians, scientists, and future-tellers. Through the activation and re-imagination of each tool and its significance, these experts present us with a series of interviews, historical stories, and poetic speculative predictions for profoundly reconsidering a technological past and a future for a region that is living in a dystopian present.

The project proposes to build a case for advocating that technology needs magic, inspired by the scientists and inventors of the Islamicate world who were interested in understanding and building connections to the mysteries of the universe. For example, Ibn Al Haytham, known as the father of Optics, was both a scientist, a poet, and a spiritual practitioner. He did not perceive a fundamental contradiction between empirical observation and metaphysical or spiritual beliefs; In The Remaining Signs, Allahyari wants to offer a poetic proposal: Like the Arab and Persian scientists of the past, we must return and invest in a practice of “progress” through the path of magic and occult; defined as phenomena involving otherworldly agencies.

In addition, the project will explore and build a case for understanding the ways in which the people of MENA engage with futurity in this contemporary moment.

The Remaining Signs of Future Centuries is a recipient of the Creative Capital Awards 2025, from Creative Capital for Artists Foundation.

Morehshin Allahyari, The Remaining Signs of Future Centuries, Photographer Javad Taghizadeh, 2025.