“I Am live, But Am I Alive?: A lecture-performance on authenticity, algorithms, and presence with live Kamancheh.”

“I Am Live, But Am I Alive?” is a lecture-performance exploring how authenticity is staged, consumed, and contested in a world where human and AI influencers alike perform “the real.” Blending speech and live Kamancheh performance, Rezvan Sayyad draws on personal experience as a Persian classical musician in the diaspora, negotiating between heritage and the demands of digital visibility.

Platforms like Instagram and YouTube invite intimacy and vulnerability but shape them through algorithms, metrics, and branding. In this performance, theory meets practice: the slow depth of Persian Radif, which demands a patient audience, collides with the quick rhythm of scroll culture.

Between sound and speech, Rezvan asks how performance, presence, and tradition are transformed in a web of illusions. Is authenticity still possible, or just another filter?