Spaces
Sarai maintains a digital archive on media cultures and urban spaces. The archive is physically located on site at Sarai and is open to the public at large on reservation. It is accessible through electronic networks, presently through the intranet and soon on the internet. From time to time the archive, in tandem with the research and fellowship programmes, will hold special exhibitions and conduct outreach programmes to the wider community. It also has links with other media and urban archives. For more, go to Archives
The objective behind Sarai's Media Lab is the creation of a democratic context for the interplay of art, technology and critical reflection. It hopes to give rise to a unique cultural expression through creative dialogue between diverse repertoires of visual culture in an international digital framework.
The Sarai Media Lab provides:
. A creative space committed to innovation and experimentation, and autonomous of the commercial pressures of the art and audio-visual marketplace.
. New modes of dissemination and an active context for engagement with a new audience for digital culture.
In addition to providing a physical space and technological infrastructure the Media Lab also generates a series of interactive processes and encounters. These interactions have been:
. between new and old media practitioners
. between media practitioners and software programmers.
. between media practitioners and theorists/scholars.
. between new media practitioners from India, South Asia and the world.
Click here for Media Works produced by the Media Lab.
The Interface Zone is closely allied to the activities of Sarai's outreach projects. This is where the public at large encounters Sarai in its most intensive form. A space generally used by researchers, its technically fully equipped nature makes it useful for conducting workshops and temporary tactical media labs.
There is also space to have tea and coffee in an informal and relaxed atmosphere. See Event Proceedings for reports on activities in the Interface Zone.
- Cybermohalla Locality Labs
In 2007, Cybermohalla is a network of three locality labs across the city of Delhi – in LNJP (an informal settlement in Central Delhi), Dakshinpuri (a Resettlement Colony in South Delhi) and a lab in formation in Savda-Ghevra (a resettlement colony at the far northern edge of Delhi, where some residents of Nangla Maanchi, where one of the CM labs was, have been relocated). For more,
see.
Sarai seeks to use its whatever space it has for the short term exhibition of innovative and experimental media work. Thematically installed, such exhibitions are usually around a larger conference or event. These can be multimedia installations, digital art works, performances and alternative software & interfaces. They may be specially commissioned or curated works, selections from the Sarai Media Lab and other projects' output, selections from the Sarai Archive's holdings, exhibitions of works gifted or loaned to Sarai, or related to the work of collaborators & partners as well as edited selections from public domain sites on the Internet. See Event Proceedings for reports on activities in the Interface Zone.
- Screening & Seminar Space
The Seminar & Screening space is provided by CSDS for Sarai's use. It is a well-equipped venue for talks, seminars, presentations and public screenings of video and multimedia content.
The Seminar & Screening space hosts regular public talks, seminars and discussions organized by the Sarai programme on urban issues and on various aspects of old and new media practice and culture. It also hosts a regular and curated schedule of screenings of video copies of films, followed by discussions. See Event Proceedings for reports on activities in the Interface Zone.
