For research towards production and dissemination across six tier B cities of a performance piece, tentatively titled Notes on Chai. The performance will explore the idea of the quotidian in everyday life, by combining realistic character-based pieces with abstract sounds.
For the production of a series of films and the curation of workshops and screenings through which a group of ten to fifteen young filmmakers will be trained to create site-specific moving image content. The objective is to generate audio-visual imagery that explores the cinematic form and engages the cultural, political and historical context of Assam from a location grounded within the region, dispelling the prevalent myth of the Northeast as peripheral within a national context.
For research towards a curatorial project exploring the history of early sound and sound technology through archival research and interviews, as well as artistic collaborations between the researcher and a Bombay-based curator, artists, sound recordists, sound theorists, musicians, linguists, researchers and writers whose practices contribute to an understanding of sound ecologies in India.
For the creation of a publication, two workshops and a public exhibition to be held in Delhi in January-February 2014 to demonstrate imaginative ways of re-thinking the question of cultural infrastructure. The New Models on Common Grounds project that is part of the Raqs Media Collective’s work as Artist Directors of INSERT 2014 will invite speculations from 30 artists to respond to particular sites symbolic of the cultural life of Delhi.
For the ALTlab residency programme, which encourages photographers to experiment with alternative photography processes and materials. Four photographers concerned with form-based experimentation will come together for two months at the laboratory of the Goa Centre for Alternative Photography. Their image experiments will be exhibited at the end of the residency.
For research towards the construction of a raft-like structure in collaboration with bamboo artisans and boat-builders in Guwahati and the curation of a journey on the Brahmaputra, during which the raft will function as a mobile, habitable receptacle to gather, share and document stories, songs and local knowledge about food and ecology.
For the creation of sequential visual storytelling techniques based on the study of three picture-based folk performance traditions. With the aim of enriching the contemporary comic book form, the project will focus on how Patachitra from Bengal, Kaavad from Rajasthan and Togalu Gombeyatta from Karnataka depict stories from the Mahabharata.
For the creation of a multi-channel video installation titled ‘Between the Waves’, which uses text and dance choreography to explore contemporary conceptual understandings of the relationship between Animal – Human – Machine – Divine. Drawing upon Donna Haraway and Virginia Woolf, along with theories of evolution and existing religiocultural practices, the project will highlight the inevitability of interstitial existence and challenge received notions of gender, race, evolution and consciousness.
For the second edition of a four-month residency programme, which will enable four Indian photographers from diverse cultural backgrounds to explore and experiment with different approaches to the photographic medium. This edition will introduce a three-day walking expedition to sensitise the residents to the local ethos and encourage them to use the experience to reflect on their practice.
For the creation of a contemporary soundtrack for a silent India film. The soundtrack will be performed live alongside the film at a gallery or an old cinema theatre in Bangalore, Chennai and Pune. While attracting a newer and wider audience for the film, the soundtrack will respect the original ‘silent’ pacing and mood of the film in order to preserve the feel of the pre-talkies era.
