Information-based media share with some historical Islamic artworks a structure in which images are not mimetic but arise from text. Islamic text-based images have inspired many Western modern and electronic-media artists, who often draw specifically on Islamic aesthetics as a point of departure for aniconic and textual images. The art they produce sometimes sincerely explores Islamic aesthetics (as in new-media works by John F. Simon, Jr.), and sometimes dabbles in Orientalism. Thus when Arab and Muslim artists seek to use electronic media to explore traditional Islamic aesthetics, they find the formal vocabulary has been pre-emptively Orientalized. Postproduction in this context can mean accepting this vocabulary and playing into audiences’ desires to see a “Muslim” text-based electronic art. Or it may mean ironizing it, or deepening its associations with Islamic aesthetics of aniconism and transformation. Some font designers, such as Tarek Atrissi, are specifically adapting Arabic writing for the live-action medium of the computer screen. Analog and computer animation provides an ideal playing field for a (sometimes ironic) revival of textual aesthetics, for example in the work of Usama Alshaibi and Paula Abood. This talk will focus on the work of Moroccan video artist Mounir Fatmi, who plays profoundly with Islamic aniconism and with the performativity of calligraphy.