«A Shroud Woven of Solar Threads» is an immersive installation by Ala Roushan & Charles Stankievech that connects the ancient Sun worship of Mitra, which coincided with the climate crises 4200 years ago, with contemporary proposals for solar geoengineering.
Shroud us in Thy protective cloak— Woven from threads of solar gold. Mitra, keeper of the Cosmic Order, we worship Thee.
«A Shroud Woven of Solar Threads» is a film by Ala Roushan & Charles Stankievech that connects the ancient Sun worship of Mitra–coinciding with the climate crises 4200 years ago-–with the contemporary concept of solar geoengineering. Revolving around a subterranean ritual, documenting the oldest surviving Mithraic temple in Iran, a collective chant invokes the deity Mitra's protection from the Sun. The script is a speculative reconstruction of the Proto-Indo-Iranian (PII) language from a period that lacks written traces. Using a comparative linguistic methodology, as developed by Prof. Toledo, the script was further extrapolated using a Large Language Model (a generative AI technique) to construct the ritual. As the narrative develops, the surface of the cavernous temple disintegrates into a particle cloud as the ancient language morphs into a futuristic computer script suggesting a protocol for solar geoengineering. Combining 3D scans of a historic archeological site, a speculative model of PII, and a gravitational model of the Sun, the entire film's world is a hyperrealistic model – underlining the position that we can only engage "Nature" as a model simulation in order to intervene in its process. The soundtrack was generated exclusively from period sounds 4000 years ago by modulating and synthesizing fire, human voice, solar radiation and the Persian ney (the oldest continuously used instrument). Length: 8’ CREDITS: SCRIPT: • Ala Roushan MUSIC: • Charles Stankievech IRAN PRODUCTION (FILMING AND 3D SCANNING): • Amin Ghotbi • Mohammad Ebrahim Moaiery CGI Modelling: • AKUA (Lead) • Emilie Tamtik RESEARCH CONSULTANTS: • Prof. Miguel Andres Toledo, University Of Toronto (Proto-Indo-Iranian Linguistics) • Prof. Alessandro Scafi, Warburg Institute (Mithraism) COMMISSIONED BY: • Scott Longfellow and Rafaël Santianez  A commission by MUDAC (Musée cantonal de design et d’arts appliqués contemporains), Switzerland for the II Solar Biennale: "Soleil•s" With additional funding and support from SSHRC, OCADU and Faculty of Architecture, University of Toronto.