Anirudh Venkata Kanisetti

This Foundation Project implemented by IFA will create Altars of Time: A History of Goa through its Christian Art, one of the country’s first dedicated museum podcasts narrating the history of Goa through select objects from the Museum of Christian Art, (MoCA) Goa. This project is a collaboration with MoCA. Set up in 1994 in partnership with the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, Portugal and the Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH), New Delhi, the museum houses an exceptional collection of objects – sculptures, paintings, jewellery, embroidery – that cover a variety of genres and styles that date back to the 16th century. This is now widely recognised as Indo-Portuguese art, which is a combination of Christian, Hindu and Islamicate art forms. Anirudh Kanisetti is the Principal Investigator for this project and will work with Kevin Fernandes as his primary collaborator.

Anirudh is not new to making podcasts. He has had considerable success in using the medium for disseminating public history. His podcast Echoes of India, a podcast on social and religious history exploring ancient India, and Yuddha, a podcast of military and social history focussing on medieval India, have received considerable acclaim from both audiences and the media. For this project, he will collaborate with Kevin Fernandes and Jajwalya Karajgikar. Kevin is a researcher who studies postcoloniality and its intersection with Christianity and caste, specifically in Mangalore. Currently he is the Assistant Professor in English at the Indian Institute of Psychology and Research, Bangalore. Jajwalya is a US-based Digital Humanities practitioner with experience from the National Gallery of Art, Washington DC. She is currently consulting with Dr Deepthi Murali’s project Textiles of the Indian Ocean World at the Roy Rosenzweig Centre for History and New Media.

The audio project Altars of Time: A History of Goa through its Christian Art attempts to take the museum and its collection beyond the confines of space and time to people across the world, creating ‘a museum without borders.’ Inspired by the former director of the British Museum, UK, Neil MacGregor’s kaleidoscopic history of humanity titled History of the World in 100 Objects this project will research the power and politics embodied in each object. It will explore who its makers were, how it was consumed in its lifetime, and the meaning it acquires in its afterlife in the museum. The resulting podcast will bring to life the everyday living contexts of the artefacts which most people only see as inanimate items behind a glass frame in the museum.

MoCA provides the ideal opportunity for such an investigation as it has an interesting history of its own. It is the first of its kind in Asia when it was set up first in the Seminary of Rachol, and later relocated in 2001 to the Convent of Santa Monica, in one part of the church on the Holy Hill. The convent is Asia’s first and largest and was built between 1606 and 1627 – during the Portuguese presence in Goa. Given the wide range of objects here it will indeed be interesting to see which ones are selected for the podcast and what stories will be told, that will reflect that rich and pluralistic past of Goa.

However, not all objects will be chosen from the museum. About 18 of them will be selected from here, while the other seven will be chosen from sites such as the Goa Archaeological Museum, Braganza House and the Goa Chitra Museum. For designing the sound and audio of the podcast, Anirudh and Kevin will work with the film and creative professional Keshav Rajendran. And once the podcast is ready, it will be uploaded for the public on various online and podcast platforms.

There will be 25 episodes each 15 minutes long and dedicated to one object. In all, around six hours of audio content will be created. At the moment it is envisaged that all the episodes will be in English, but IFA has encouraged the team to explore the possibility of a few in local languages including Konkani.

Alongside developing the audio content of the podcast, Anirudh and Kevin will work with Jajwalya to develop the interactive story-map exhibit website that will anchor the project. The story-map will highlight both the locations and the timelines in relation to the artifact that is described in the podcast. It will explore the region it initially emerged from and where it eventually moved to. It will also provide the links and interconnections between the objects, places and people described in the podcast. This will help listeners to get a visual idea of the place of origin of the object, its migration over time and the global developments that may have influenced both its design and use.

The outcome of the project will be the podcast with the accompanying story-map exhibit website. The deliverables to IFA with the final report will be the podcast and story-map. The objective of the project is that it will generate considerable public interest in MoCA’s collection as well as in Goa’s fascinating global history. In recent times, especially during the pandemic, it has been found that audio entertainment has seen a surge of interest. Also, local content seems to be gaining almost as much popularity as global content. Anirudh with his experience in creating interesting and successful podcasts in the past is best equipped to be the Principal Investigator for this project that IFA is implementing.

IFA will ensure that the implementation of this project happens in a timely manner and funds expended are accounted for. IFA will also review the progress of the project at midterm and document it through an Implementation Memorandum. After the project is finished and all deliverables are submitted, IFA will put together a Final Evaluation to share with Trustees. 

This project is made possible with part-support from Goethe-Institut / Max Mueller Bhavan New Delhi and Parijat Foundation.