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The Dilemma of The Techno- Hero by Amitabh Kumar
The Dilemma of The Techno-Hero references popular comic book culture in Delhi. It emerges from the artist's ongoing research on a collection of popular comic books at Sarai. This mural re-mixes tropes and narrative fragments from a large body of comic book material that reflect an obsession with computers, mobile phones and surveillance technologies.
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| The mural draws from Amitabh's ongoing research in the Sarai Media Lab on comics - particularly Raj Comics. Raj Comics, publishing since the mid 1980s, began as an action adventure series borrowing heavily from their western counterparts. As the comic introduced more superheroes, each with its own separate series, new religious undertones and mythical plots were introduced. The role of the superhero changed from a local vigilante to the protector of the universe. With technological evolution around, the world in these comic books also changed, and gadgets became an ever-present underlying element in plot development. The research focusses on the visual evolution in the vocabulary of the comic book form. The mural project began as an attempt to build a narrative that would be an intersection of the following: the idea of the superhero, the visual language of the comic books and remixing tropes and narrative fragments from a large body of comic book material that reflect an obsession with computers, mobile phones and surveillance technologies. The Dilemma of The Techno-Hero was created in conjunction with the "Sensor- Census-Censor: An International Colloquium on Information, Society, History and Politics", Sarai Seminar Room, 30th November - 2nd December 2006 The mural has been painted on a wall and other surfaces behind the Sarai cafeteria. Amitabh Kumar The Dilemma of The Techno-Hero, Mural 2006 58ft x 3 ft 7 ft x 5 ft 9 feet circle |