For the implementation of a Foundation Project by IFA under Explorations, which will critically examine the conflicting emotions of pleasure and guilt in the context of self-awakening as a homosexual, and investigate the ethical representation of love and sexuality on screen with the help of intimacy experts. Critiquing the lack of sex education, the project will also trace the challenges of growing up as a homosexual person in India. The outcome of the project will be the script for a short film. The Project Coordinator’s deliverables to IFA with the final report will be the script of the short film, and process documentation. Project funds will pay for professional fees, honorarium and travel.
For the implementation of a Foundation Project by IFA under Productions, to create a series of artist books that investigate the history and evolution of printmaking technologies in Bengal. Focussed on five milestone methods of printmaking namely woodcut, block, offset, serigraph and digital technologies, the project will experiment with media, methods and book design formats to trace the history of printmaking to create new relationships between the reader and the book. The outcome of this project will be the series of five artist books, detailed process documentation and a physical and virtual exhibition on the evolution of print-technology in India. The Project Coordinator’s deliverables to IFA with the final report will be the artist books, video documentation of the process, a download of the website containing the virtual exhibition along with the URL, and still and video documentation of the physical exhibition. Project funds will pay for professional fees, documentation, materials, transport, website creation and virtual exhibition, purchase of equipment (the scanner will be returned to IFA), physical exhibition and publicity.
For the implementation of a Foundation Project by IFA under Productions, to create a video game that investigates expressions of corporate culture and gendered labour as manifested on the computer interface. Created in the genre of a Fumblecore game, this project will explore the meaning of labour on the computer and create ways of subverting the hegemonic and gendered bodily relationships with the machine. The outcome of this project will be an online as well as a physical iteration of a Fumblecore game. The Project Coordinator’s deliverables to IFA with the final report will be a download of the website comprising the game along with the URL, the process documentation of creating the game, and still and video documentation of the physical installation. Project funds will pay for professional fees, honorarium, physical installation of the game and purchase of software.
For research to study the theatre practices of two Kolkata-based blind theatre groups – Blind Opera and Anyadesh. The project aims to understand how theatrical training, techniques and practices work as tools for blind pedagogy, healing and care. It will particularly enquire into the nature of the customised theatre practices adopted by the two groups that make them effective for blind individuals. The outcome of this project will be a monograph. The Grantee’s deliverable to IFA with the final reports will be the monograph and extensive audiovisual documentation generated during the course of fieldwork. Grant funds will pay for professional fees, equipment rental, travel, food and living costs, honorarium, books and stationery and an accountant’s fee.
For the implementation of a Foundation project by IFA, which will result in an essay titled Indian Commodities and Commodified Indians in Late Eighteenth Century Portraiture based on the paintings at the Victoria Memorial Hall (VMH) Kolkata. The paintings by European artists, commissioned by the European administrators in India, present Europeans amidst their dazzling material objects and the ‘natives’ who were ever present to serve them. While the essay will focus on the biography of the exotic objects and the lived reality of the native labourers in the paintings, it will also offer insights into larger questions around the ‘Orient’, transcontinental trade and the material culture of colonial India in the eighteenth century. The outcome will be the essay, an online exhibition or a website, an interactive social media platform, as well as talks at the Victoria Memorial Hall. The Principal Investigator's deliverables to IFA with the final report will be the essay, the exhibition or website, and recordings of the talks. This is a collaboration with the Victoria Memorial Hall, Kolkata. Project funds will pay for honorarium, website, travel, books and resources, and stationery.
For the implementation of a Foundation Project by IFA, to create Jol-a-bhumi r Golpo Katha / Stories of the Wetland that will document and disseminate the stories of the East Kolkata Wetlands (EKW) as experienced by the community, created by young people of the community. The EKW - the largest stretch of sewage-fed wetlands in the world that sustains a population of over a lakh, and a diverse species of flora and fauna - is under threat today. This project will empower children from the EKW community to tell their own stories to the world through the PARI (People’s Archive of Rural India) platform. The outcome will be a series of research and workshop-based narratives that will take multiple forms such as podcasts, paintings, photo-stories, comics, and so on. The Principal Investigator's deliverables to IFA with the final report will be the narratives, together with video recordings of the workshops. This is a collaboration with PARI. Project funds will pay for honorarium, professional fees, travel, stationery, and equipment rental.
For the implementation of a foundation project to create a site-specific exhibition titled Route no 033, comprising photographs, images, videos, voices, sounds, and noise. The installation will present a centre-less, rhizomatic map of certain sites in Kolkata that will make visible the multiple narratives of the city. The intention is to show that a city is like a palimpsest that is layered with overlapping histories, intersecting maps, and inter-meshed stories with numerous entries and exits. The outcome will be the exhibition, and talks and lectures. The Principal Investigator's deliverables to IFA with the final report will be the documentation of the exhibition, recordings of the talks and lectures, and other textual material if any. This is a collaboration with the Victoria Memorial Hall, Kolkata, and will draw materials from their rich photo archive. Project funds will pay for production cost, honorarium, professional fees, equipment hire, travel and consumables, and events.
For a video art project that seeks to explore digital consciousness. It will attempt to find moments of invisibility from the omniscient calculations of the internet, to prove that human beings can still be thinking individuals, in control of the choices they make and the identities they create for themselves. The project will explore fictional, seemingly simplistic ways of becoming invisible from digital consciousness. The outcome of the project will be a video tutorial. The Grantee’s deliverables to IFA along with the final report will be documentation of the process and the video. Grant funds will pay for honorarium, professional fees, equipment hire, travel and stationery.
For the creation of an experimental mixed media audio-visual presentation titled Sharif created as a collaborative work by a group of five artists engaging in diverse art forms. It explores the physical and emotional isolation of people in a world hyperconnected through technology. The outcome of the project will be an audio-visual presentation that explores the journey of three friends over five years, 2011 to 2015, a time when the internet had entered all aspects of their lives. The Grantee’s deliverables to IFA along with the final report will be process documentation and a copy of the audio-visual presentation. Grant funds will cover travel and living, costumes and properties and professional fees.
For the creation of a short film about love and the internet. Oscillating between fiction and reality the film titled Love in the Time of Internet will explore the interactive spaces of the internet and the ways in which it affects relationships of couples. It will attempt to capture both love and the internet through the lens of a rapidly changing world. As the outcome of the project, the film will be a collage of art, animation and videography. The Grantee’s deliverables to IFA along with the final report will be the film together with documentation of the process. Grant funds will pay for the purchase of software, professional fees and equipment hire.
