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August, 2007
Dear All,
After a summer break, the Sarai newsletter returns! First, a roundup of the events in the summer (May-July).
May 1st saw the launch of Bahurupiya Shehr, a book-length collection of texts from Cybermohalla. The book includes stories, biographies, conversations, blog entries, reflections about the city of Delhi. Bahurupiya Shehr has been published by Rajkamal Prakashan, and was released in a public event at the India Habitat Centre, Delhi. The event included readings by the book's authors and commentaries by Krishna Kumar, educationist; Anurag Kashyap, film maker; Anamika, writer and Ravikant, historian.
For more details about the book, images from the launch and reviews of the book, you can go to http://www.sarai.net/practices/cybermohalla/public-dialogue/books/bahurupiya-shehr. The book is available in bookstores, the list of which can be found on the above link.
Raqs Media Collective (based at the Sarai Media Lab) opened an exhibition curated by them called "Building Sight" at the Watermans Arts Centre, London on the 29th of June. The exhibition features variable size installations with 9 video projections, slide projections, sound and photo prints. "Building Sight" will remain on show till the 10th of September, 2007. The artists and practitioners features in this exhibition are Sanjay Kak, Ruchir Joshi, Satyajit Pande, Solomon Benjamin, Ravikant Sharma, Prabhat Kumar Jha, Nancy Adajania, CyberMohalla Ensemble, Sarai Media Lab and the Sarai.txt Broadsheet Collective.
From the curatorial statement:
" 'Building Sight' is a sketch of how a way of thinking about a city can be constructed. It is also a provisional index of conversations that we have been having for some time with friends, colleagues and correspondents - architects & urbanists, filmmakers & cinematographers, researchers, practitioners, editors and designers - who have helped us to think about what it means to live in cities. Many of them are from Delhi, some from Mumbai and Bangalore. To us, their work anticipates, rather than represents, what the response of contemporary art practice to the South Asian city can be.
For more information about this event you can visit the following link : http://www.watermans.org.uk/exhibitions/building_sight_curatorial_project/
For an interesting review of "Building Sight" that also takes in other exhibitions on urban themes going on in London currently, see
http://www.spiked-online.com/index.php?/site/article/3675/
July was occupied by the Digital Video Masterclass II. This workshop conducted by filmmaker, Kabir Mohanty was held from the 2nd of July, 2007 to the 28th of July, 2007. The final screening took place on the 29th of July, 2007. The workshop had three principle components - the editing of video using a non-linear digital editing system, the recording of sound using recorders and microphones and the building of sound and image relationships. This platform generated compositional ideas that enabled participants to work with them for a long time after the workshop. These ideas were honed in response to the participants' video material, from certain broad principles and from an intensive viewing of the work of a few masters in video, for example Bill Viola and Gary Hill. The reading done was minimal and intensive, and dealt mainly with perceptual and philosophical concerns, related to the moving image. Besides being perceptual and philosophical, it was primarily hands-on. This workshop tried to bring out the best from all its disciples who hope to administer creativity in the world of digital media.
Talks
The first one was by Geeta Patel, Associate Professor of Women's Studies and Co-director of the South Asia Studies Program at Wellesley College on the 11th of July,2007. Titled 'Reading Longing, Reading Miraji: An Introduction to the Poet'. Geeta Patel presented a dialogue on the subtleties and complexities of Miraji's lyrical oeuvre. Using Miraji's own theoretical categories, the talk attempted to analyse the relationships between sexuality, mysticism reading and politics. Patel also read out a select set of poems in English translation.
The second talk by Francesca Orsini (SOAS, London) 'Print and Pleasure' on the 25th of July, 2007, explored the boom in commercial publishing in 19th Century North India at a time when the rates of literacy were very low. She showed how commercial publishers endeavoured and innovated to win over to the print page, a public used to existing means of entertainment through oral, visual and embodied performances. Her talk also illustrated a happy cohabitation of Urdu-Hindi scripts in the space of a book, even a single page. This presentation generated a lively discussion beyond the seminar room on Hindi lists such as deewan@sarai.net. Those of you who want to read the paper in Hindi can write to us, offline.
On the Sarai Broadsheet front, we have:
Sarai.txt 4.1
15 June-15 September, 2007
*The Changing Same*
Tenth in the Sarai broadsheet series, 'The Changing Same' is a playful excavation of the idea of the 'original'. The image text compositions use an aesthetics of layering and translucence to produce meaning.
For previous issues see:
http://www.sarai.net/publications/sarai.txt/
This issue of the broadsheet may be downloaded in pdf format at:
http://www.sarai.net/publications/sarai.txt/10-the-changing-same
For queries write to broadsheet at sarai.net
This August we have two documentary films, Who Do You Think You Are?-Meera Syal directed by Safina Uberoi, 2004 and The Last Fire Brands (Porto Marghera-Gli Ultimi Fuochi), by Manuala Pellarin, 2004.
In the first film, British actor and writer Meera Syal explores her grandfather's contribution to the struggle for India's Independence, through which she comes to examine the fall of the Raj, the creation of India and Pakistan and immigration from the subcontinent.
The second film, which is an Italian feature looks into concerns of environmental damage, the visible onslaught of industries and most importantly the parallel emergence of the class struggles of the 50s, 60s and 70s.
We hope that this August you will be able to make your way to Sarai.
Best,
Mitoo Das
(Programme Coordinator)
************************************************************************************
[[CONTENTS]]
FILM
Films @ Sarai:
Who Do You Think You Are?- Meera Syal by Safina Uberoi
The Last Fire Brands (Porto Marghera - Gli Ultimi Fuochi) by Manuala Pellarin.
[[FILM]]
Who Do You Think You Are?- Meera Syal
Directed by Safina Uberoi
A Wall to Wall Production for BBC2, 2004
(60 minutes/English, Hindi/Punjabi)
4:30 pm, Date: 24th August, 2007
Seminar Room, Sarai, CSDS
Part of a BBC series, this one hour documentary, follows the award winning writer/actress, Meera Syal (Goodness Gracious Me, The Kumars at No. 42). On her journey to her family's roots in India as Meera searches for her ancestors, she uncovers the story of two freedom fighters whose struggle against British imperialism challenges Meera's notion of herself as a British Asian. The documentary was one of the first films on prime time British television to highlight the Punjabi contribution to the Indian independence struggle.
The series was nominated for a Grierson Award, two BASTA's and one Indie Award for best historical documentary series.
Safina Uberoi trained at the Mass Communication Research Center in Jamia Millia Islamia in New Delhi. In 1995 she left India to study in the Australian Film Television and Radio School. Her short films made there include the award winning Nonno Peppe is a Video Head and Guru. Safina directed a feature length children's animation for release on CD Rom. Her documentaries include Faith for the Foundation For Universal Responsibility, the highly acclaimed My Mother India for Chili Films Pvt. Ltd. and SBS Independent and The Brides of Khan as part of a major series of SBS television, Australia. She has taught at the National School of Drama, New Delhi and the National Institute of Dramatic Art, Sydney. Safina also lectures in film and television at Macquarie University in Sydney.
The screening will be followed by a discussion with the filmmaker Safina Uberoi.
'The Last Fire Brands' (Porto Marghera- Gli Ultimi Fuochi, created by Manuala Pellarin, 2004)
(45 min / Original: Italian / Subtitles: English)
4:30 pm, Date: 31st August, 2007
Seminar Room, Sarai, CSDS
The title of the documentary has various meanings: the Italian word 'fuoco' means 'fire', and also a 'shootout. In this case, the word also means the flames of the petrochemical works that make the industrial zone visible from miles around.
Its future is uncertain. The environmental damage that it has caused cannot be overlooked. The hundreds of deaths from cancer can never be undone. The most polluting parts of the industry have since been outsourced to East Asia, but Italy is still among the largest PVC producers.
In the film, the fire in the industrial wasteland where the illegal immigrants warm themselves is a symbol for the new class composition which has turned an emigration country into an immigration one.
But the phrase 'the last firebrands' also refers to the heat waves of class struggles that swept across this industrial zone in the 1950s, 60s and 70s; struggles that characterised the area and left a lasting impact upon it.
Italy under went rapid industrialisation after the Second World War. The Communist Party became one of the important state agents to discipline the workers for the industrial development. A new work-force emerged from the rural areas of Italy, trying their luck by migrating to the cities. The old core workers of the traditional labour movement greeted them with suspicion, sometimes even racism. For the traditional unions they were inexperienced peasants who only put downward pressure on wages. The first collective upheavals of this new generation of workers took everyone by surprise and shook the whole social frame-work of post-War Italy.
END OF NEWSLETTER
After a summer break, the Sarai newsletter returns! First, a roundup of the events in the summer (May-July).
May 1st saw the launch of Bahurupiya Shehr, a book-length collection of texts from Cybermohalla. The book includes stories, biographies, conversations, blog entries, reflections about the city of Delhi. Bahurupiya Shehr has been published by Rajkamal Prakashan, and was released in a public event at the India Habitat Centre, Delhi. The event included readings by the book's authors and commentaries by Krishna Kumar, educationist; Anurag Kashyap, film maker; Anamika, writer and Ravikant, historian.
For more details about the book, images from the launch and reviews of the book, you can go to http://www.sarai.net/practices/cybermohalla/public-dialogue/books/bahurupiya-shehr. The book is available in bookstores, the list of which can be found on the above link.
Raqs Media Collective (based at the Sarai Media Lab) opened an exhibition curated by them called "Building Sight" at the Watermans Arts Centre, London on the 29th of June. The exhibition features variable size installations with 9 video projections, slide projections, sound and photo prints. "Building Sight" will remain on show till the 10th of September, 2007. The artists and practitioners features in this exhibition are Sanjay Kak, Ruchir Joshi, Satyajit Pande, Solomon Benjamin, Ravikant Sharma, Prabhat Kumar Jha, Nancy Adajania, CyberMohalla Ensemble, Sarai Media Lab and the Sarai.txt Broadsheet Collective.
From the curatorial statement:
" 'Building Sight' is a sketch of how a way of thinking about a city can be constructed. It is also a provisional index of conversations that we have been having for some time with friends, colleagues and correspondents - architects & urbanists, filmmakers & cinematographers, researchers, practitioners, editors and designers - who have helped us to think about what it means to live in cities. Many of them are from Delhi, some from Mumbai and Bangalore. To us, their work anticipates, rather than represents, what the response of contemporary art practice to the South Asian city can be.
For more information about this event you can visit the following link : http://www.watermans.org.uk/exhibitions/building_sight_curatorial_project/
For an interesting review of "Building Sight" that also takes in other exhibitions on urban themes going on in London currently, see
http://www.spiked-online.com/index.php?/site/article/3675/
July was occupied by the Digital Video Masterclass II. This workshop conducted by filmmaker, Kabir Mohanty was held from the 2nd of July, 2007 to the 28th of July, 2007. The final screening took place on the 29th of July, 2007. The workshop had three principle components - the editing of video using a non-linear digital editing system, the recording of sound using recorders and microphones and the building of sound and image relationships. This platform generated compositional ideas that enabled participants to work with them for a long time after the workshop. These ideas were honed in response to the participants' video material, from certain broad principles and from an intensive viewing of the work of a few masters in video, for example Bill Viola and Gary Hill. The reading done was minimal and intensive, and dealt mainly with perceptual and philosophical concerns, related to the moving image. Besides being perceptual and philosophical, it was primarily hands-on. This workshop tried to bring out the best from all its disciples who hope to administer creativity in the world of digital media.
Talks
The first one was by Geeta Patel, Associate Professor of Women's Studies and Co-director of the South Asia Studies Program at Wellesley College on the 11th of July,2007. Titled 'Reading Longing, Reading Miraji: An Introduction to the Poet'. Geeta Patel presented a dialogue on the subtleties and complexities of Miraji's lyrical oeuvre. Using Miraji's own theoretical categories, the talk attempted to analyse the relationships between sexuality, mysticism reading and politics. Patel also read out a select set of poems in English translation.
The second talk by Francesca Orsini (SOAS, London) 'Print and Pleasure' on the 25th of July, 2007, explored the boom in commercial publishing in 19th Century North India at a time when the rates of literacy were very low. She showed how commercial publishers endeavoured and innovated to win over to the print page, a public used to existing means of entertainment through oral, visual and embodied performances. Her talk also illustrated a happy cohabitation of Urdu-Hindi scripts in the space of a book, even a single page. This presentation generated a lively discussion beyond the seminar room on Hindi lists such as deewan@sarai.net. Those of you who want to read the paper in Hindi can write to us, offline.
On the Sarai Broadsheet front, we have:
Sarai.txt 4.1
15 June-15 September, 2007
*The Changing Same*
Tenth in the Sarai broadsheet series, 'The Changing Same' is a playful excavation of the idea of the 'original'. The image text compositions use an aesthetics of layering and translucence to produce meaning.
For previous issues see:
http://www.sarai.net/publications/sarai.txt/
This issue of the broadsheet may be downloaded in pdf format at:
http://www.sarai.net/publications/sarai.txt/10-the-changing-same
For queries write to broadsheet at sarai.net
This August we have two documentary films, Who Do You Think You Are?-Meera Syal directed by Safina Uberoi, 2004 and The Last Fire Brands (Porto Marghera-Gli Ultimi Fuochi), by Manuala Pellarin, 2004.
In the first film, British actor and writer Meera Syal explores her grandfather's contribution to the struggle for India's Independence, through which she comes to examine the fall of the Raj, the creation of India and Pakistan and immigration from the subcontinent.
The second film, which is an Italian feature looks into concerns of environmental damage, the visible onslaught of industries and most importantly the parallel emergence of the class struggles of the 50s, 60s and 70s.
We hope that this August you will be able to make your way to Sarai.
Best,
Mitoo Das
(Programme Coordinator)
************************************************************************************
[[CONTENTS]]
FILM
Films @ Sarai:
Who Do You Think You Are?- Meera Syal by Safina Uberoi
The Last Fire Brands (Porto Marghera - Gli Ultimi Fuochi) by Manuala Pellarin.
[[FILM]]
Who Do You Think You Are?- Meera Syal
Directed by Safina Uberoi
A Wall to Wall Production for BBC2, 2004
(60 minutes/English, Hindi/Punjabi)
4:30 pm, Date: 24th August, 2007
Seminar Room, Sarai, CSDS
Part of a BBC series, this one hour documentary, follows the award winning writer/actress, Meera Syal (Goodness Gracious Me, The Kumars at No. 42). On her journey to her family's roots in India as Meera searches for her ancestors, she uncovers the story of two freedom fighters whose struggle against British imperialism challenges Meera's notion of herself as a British Asian. The documentary was one of the first films on prime time British television to highlight the Punjabi contribution to the Indian independence struggle.
The series was nominated for a Grierson Award, two BASTA's and one Indie Award for best historical documentary series.
Safina Uberoi trained at the Mass Communication Research Center in Jamia Millia Islamia in New Delhi. In 1995 she left India to study in the Australian Film Television and Radio School. Her short films made there include the award winning Nonno Peppe is a Video Head and Guru. Safina directed a feature length children's animation for release on CD Rom. Her documentaries include Faith for the Foundation For Universal Responsibility, the highly acclaimed My Mother India for Chili Films Pvt. Ltd. and SBS Independent and The Brides of Khan as part of a major series of SBS television, Australia. She has taught at the National School of Drama, New Delhi and the National Institute of Dramatic Art, Sydney. Safina also lectures in film and television at Macquarie University in Sydney.
The screening will be followed by a discussion with the filmmaker Safina Uberoi.
'The Last Fire Brands' (Porto Marghera- Gli Ultimi Fuochi, created by Manuala Pellarin, 2004)
(45 min / Original: Italian / Subtitles: English)
4:30 pm, Date: 31st August, 2007
Seminar Room, Sarai, CSDS
The title of the documentary has various meanings: the Italian word 'fuoco' means 'fire', and also a 'shootout. In this case, the word also means the flames of the petrochemical works that make the industrial zone visible from miles around.
Its future is uncertain. The environmental damage that it has caused cannot be overlooked. The hundreds of deaths from cancer can never be undone. The most polluting parts of the industry have since been outsourced to East Asia, but Italy is still among the largest PVC producers.
In the film, the fire in the industrial wasteland where the illegal immigrants warm themselves is a symbol for the new class composition which has turned an emigration country into an immigration one.
But the phrase 'the last firebrands' also refers to the heat waves of class struggles that swept across this industrial zone in the 1950s, 60s and 70s; struggles that characterised the area and left a lasting impact upon it.
Italy under went rapid industrialisation after the Second World War. The Communist Party became one of the important state agents to discipline the workers for the industrial development. A new work-force emerged from the rural areas of Italy, trying their luck by migrating to the cities. The old core workers of the traditional labour movement greeted them with suspicion, sometimes even racism. For the traditional unions they were inexperienced peasants who only put downward pressure on wages. The first collective upheavals of this new generation of workers took everyone by surprise and shook the whole social frame-work of post-War Italy.
END OF NEWSLETTER