[Sarai Newsletter] DECEMBER 2003
The Sarai Programme
dak at sarai.net
Wed Dec 3 22:34:42 IST 2003
CONTENTS: December 2003
17th Media Publics & Practices Seminar: Contestational Science, Data
Surveillance and Robotic Art
19th Sonidos Locales: Local Soundings - Contemporary Sound Art from Mexico
22nd Delhi Seminar Series: Arts and Patronage in Post-Partition Delhi
Film @ Sarai
11th The Wonderful Horrible Life of Leni Riefenstahl, dir. Ray Muller
12th The Crying Game, dir. Neil Jordan
13th Chhalia, dir. Manmohan Desai OR Dharamputra, dir. Yash Chopra
26th Park Fiction...desire will leave home and take to the streets, dir. `
Margit Czenki
Announcement
Call For Applications - Student Stipends For Research on The City
1st January 2004 Deadline for Abstracts
Workshop Report
New Technologies, Social Knowledge and Intellectual Property Rights
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Dear Friends,
As you know we are organising a workshop on Film and History on 11th, 12th
and 13th of December at Sarai. We have a limited number of seats available
for those of you who are interested in participating in the discussions. Do
regsiter with me (ranita at sarai.net) by Monday, 8th December, if you are
interested in attending the workshop. Please note that we will be unable to
entertain any requests for registration after the 8th of December. The film
screenings, on all the three days are open – for details and timings please
scroll below.
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I. URBAN CULTURES & POLITICS: THE DELHI SEMINAR SERIES
Monday, December 22, 2003, 3:30 pm
Arts and Patronage in Post-Partition Delhi
Vasudha Dalmia, University of California, Berkeley.
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II. MEDIA PUBLICS & PRACTICES SEMINAR SERIES
Wednesday, December 17, 2003, 3:30 pm
Contestational Science, Data-Surveillance and Robotic Art
Beatriz da Costa, University of California, Irvine
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III. Friday, December 19, 2003, 5:00 pm
Sonidos Locales: Local Soundings - Contemporary Sound Art from Mexico
An Evening of Presentations by Three Sound Artists from Mexico City
Ariel Guzik Glantz, Cristian Cárdenas & Luis Alberto Murillo Ruiz
Organised in collaboration with the Cultural Section of the Embassy of Mexico,
New Delhi.
Sound as an independent form of media art practice is increasingly getting
noticed for its inherent possibilities of expressive range, imaginative depth
and formal subtlety. Sound art encompasses a wide register of modes - from
the documentary, to musical, poetic, speech laced and fantastical forms.
Sound art includes remixes of found urban fragments, the riffs of poetic
speech, amplifications of realities outside our auditory range and soundings
of cities, localities and neighbourhoods, near as well as distant.
The Sarai Programme's active interest in different media forms is what impels
us to explore interactions between practitioners and audiences in this
exciting new medium. Sonidos Locales, an evening of presentations by three
sound artists from Mexico City is part of a series of occasional sound art
events at Sarai. The title, Sonidos Locales, suggests the locatedness of
sound, as a practice embedded in nature, and in urban communities.
Contemporary Sound Art in Mexico City is a dynamic set of practices with a
diverse repertoire of theme, form and expressive registers. Ariel Guzik
Glantz, Cristian Cárdenas and Luis Alberto Murillo Ruiz are three
practitioners who, between themselves, contain both the early and pioneering
as well as the fresh and contemporary edges of sound art in Mexico.
Ariel Guzik Glantz (born 1960) is a pioneering sound artist, scientific
investigator and writer working since 1974 in fields as diverse as music,
sculpture, electronic engineering, electromagnetic theory, communications,
physics, traditional medicine and mathematics. He has designed and built
original instruments and sound sculptures, composed original music and
soundtracks for film, theatre and dance and has written books and essays on
sound. He is the founder of the Laboratory for Investigation on Resonance and
Expression in Nature.
His recent and ongoing work, The Plasmaht Laboratory, an architectonic and
sculptural sound piece and installation that is founded on ideas of
resonance, magnetism, feedback and natural harmonic intervals will be
performed at the Jantar Mantar in Delhi on the 16th of December. The current
iteration of the piece is inspired by the birthing songs of grey whales off
the coast of Baja California in Mexico. Ariel Guzik Glantz will talk about
the Plasmaht Laboratory as well as his other projects.
Cristian Cárdenas (born 1983) is a musician, sound artist and graphic
designer. He has worked as a DJ and graphic designer with different
organizations and collective groups such as Parador Análogo, Urbe01,
Ultradub, Noiselab, Konfort, Igloo and Filtro. He is developing his own
aesthetic practice through experimentation with the following genres: dubby
techno, dubby house, minimal house as well as click and ID, He has presented
his work in museums such as XTeresa Arte Alternativo, Museo de Arte Alameda
and Museo Tamayo Arte Contemporáneo in México City. He recently created a CD
project for WOW magazine. Together with the poet Carla Faesler he developed
the Urbe Probeta Project (a collaborative CD featuring the work of
contemporary Mexican poets and musicians) that is also being presented in
Delhi.
Luis Alberto Murillo Ruiz (born 1972) is devoted to experimental electronic
music. He works as a composer, teacher and promoter of experimental
electronic music. He teaches software application and production for DJs
(from beginners to experts). He collaborates with the magazine DJ Concept and
is part of the project Konfort that promotes experimental electronic music.
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IV. FILM @ SARAI
Thursday, December 11, 2003, 4:30 pm
The Wonderful Horrible Life of Leni Riefenstahl (1993),
Directed by Ray Muller
Part I: 96 minutes
Part II: 92 minutes
'The Wonderful, Horrible Life of Leni Riefenstahl' is a documentary that tells
the story of one of the most famous woman film directors of all time. It
features extensive interviews with Leni Reifenstahl, most notoriously known
for making effective propaganda films for the Nazis. Hitler's master
filmmaker is both wonderful and horrible in Ray Muller's 1993 documentary.
Known for her films made during the Third Reich, Riefenstahl's story is a
controversial one. She is best known for Triumph of the Will, the film made
of the 1934 Nazi Party Congress. Olympia, her film on the 1936 Olympic Games
was acclaimed in America as one of the world's ten best films.
Muller’s documentary opens with images from Reifenstahl's underwater
photography, some of the most gorgeous footage of its kind ever produced.
This glittering, silent realm appears to be Riefenstahl's final escape from
her pariah status in social and artistic circles since her indictment as a
Nazi sympathizer at the end of World War II.
Imprisoned and released after four years, Riefenstahl was not to be entirely
repressed. At the age of 60, she went alone to Africa to live with the Nuba
tribe. Several books of her photographs of these tribes were published from
1973 onwards. At the age of 70, she passed a scuba diving test and embarked
for the next several decades on an entirely new career of underwater filming
-- becoming possibly the oldest diver in the world.
The film tries to make sense of this complex figure, and in its three
hours-plus running time, it succeeds as much as can be expected with the
mysterious Riefenstahl with fascinating, if not unpredictable, results.
In the documentary, the remarkably lucid 90-year-old Riefenstahl describes her
filmmaking techniques and defends herself against the accusations that have
hounded her throughout her life. She claims she was essentially ignorant of
inhumane Nazi activities -- for her, art and politics were two separate
things. Riefenstahl emerges in some ways a timeless, almost supernaturally
powerful character - also tragic and possibly self-deluded. Perhaps the same
internal forces that made her create such powerful, lasting art render her
incapable of admitting even decades after the fact that she was, at least for
a while, a willing architect in the creation of Nazi mythology.
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Friday, December 12, 2003, 4:30 pm
The Crying Game (1992), 112 minutes
Directed by Neil Jordan
This film put screenwriter-director Neil Jordan on the international map. The
story begins at a carnival in Ireland with British soldier Jody (Forest
Whitaker) kidnapped by IRA terrorists Jude (Miranda Richardson) and Fergus
(Stephen Rea). Fergus is assigned to guard Jody, and they become friends.
After the kidnapping goes horribly wrong, Fergus escapes to London to track
down Jody's girlfriend, Dil (Jaye Davidson), to fulfill a promise to Jody and
ends up falling in love with her. The only problem--well, it's not the only
problem--is Jude has also come to London with news that the IRA is after
Fergus and has a dangerous new mission in mind.
A sensation during its original release for its controversial plot
development, The Crying Game went on to win several awards. Ian Wilson's
photography beautifully captures the various locales of London and rural
Ireland. Boy George sings the title song, and the rest of the score is by
Anne Dudley.
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Saturday, December 13, 2003, 5:30pm
Chhalia OR Dharamputra
Chhalia (1960)
Directed by Manmohan Desai
Chhalia addresses issues which have recently been explored very productively
through feminist history: the problems posed by the repatriation and
rehabilitation of women after the partition of the subcontinent in 1947. The
drive to repatriate was complicated by the response of families to the
returned women. There was suspicion about what had happened during their
years away from home, and social anxiety, too, about how the community would
regard the reintegration of the possibly `tainted’ woman. Chhalia’s
exploration of this issue rapidly reassures the spectator of the virtue of
the female protagonist, Shanti (Nutan). Newly married, she is left behind in
Lahore as riots erupt. To her good fortune, a pathan, Khan, (Pran) takes her
in and protects her from the marauding Muslim crowd. The pathan is a violent
criminal, but is redeemed by his desire that Sakina, his sister, left behind
in Delhi, will receive protection if he too affords Shanti with protection.
On her return to Delhi, Shanti’s in laws and parents refuse to acknowledge
her, the latter with considerable heartbreak. Only Kewal (Rehman), her
husband, is willing to sunder ties with his family in order to reunite with
his wife. However, he too becomes estranged when he sees that Shanti has a
son who bears the name Anwar. The ostracized Shanti contemplates suicide, but
is saved from this fate by the Chhaliya of the title, Kapoor’s petty thief.
He falls in love with Shanti, and functions as her protector. When he comes
to know of her story, he undertakes to reunite the family. The imagery of the
Ramayana is deployed here, as it is in other 1950s films including Awara, Raj
Kapoor, 1951and, appropriately, the reunion of the couple takes place under
the aegis of the Ramlila. In a melodramatic conclusion, Kapoor’s address to
the assembled public, and to the dramatis personae, urges an end to the Ram
Sita kahani, and oversees the couple united in jointly protecting their child
from the falling effigy of Ravana.
OR
Dharamputra (1961)
Directed by Yash Chopra
Dharamputra, based on Acharya Chatursen's eponymous novel by the same name is
a film which addresses a crucial moment in the history of India- the
Partition, and weaves an intricate link between familial ties and religious
bigotry. The young Dilip who is brought up in a liberal Hindu household,
grows up witnessing the growing divide between the two communities- the
Hindus and the Muslims who were living in perfect communion with each other
till these differences cropped up as a result of the partisan politics of the
time. He turns out to be a Hindu fundamentalist and all Muslims are his
enemies even his own neighbours and family friends for a long time.
The uneasy truth and tortured realisation of one's identity and ideology
surfaces at the melodramatic climax when Dilip is ready to murder his
neighbours only to discover facts which will change his worldview forever and
leave the viewers questioning their own certitudes !
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Friday, December 26, 2003, 4:30 pm
Park Fiction...desire will leave home and take to the streets (1999), 61
minutes
Filmcollage by Margit Czenki
The abundant paradise of an Arabian garden. Oranges glow from the deepest
green. An ultramarine blue arcade. Dreamers listening to promising voices,
"Desires will leave home, finish the empire of boredom and make an end to the
management of misery". Jubilant fanfare for the water-coloured archives of
wishes: a strawberry shaped tree-house, a bathtub tree-house, a dock as
swimming pool, a poodle shaped hedge, an open-air cinema, moveable platforms
with artificial palm trees, a hedge-maze and a slide over Hafenstrasse.
Margit Czenki shows the clever struggle of a small group in Hamburg’s St Pauli
locality, carried out from a seemingly inferior position, against a corporate
housing project that threatened to take away the local park. The film collage
shows the glamorous ideas for a park at the banks of Hamburg's harbour - a
park that doesn't exist yet, about art and politics, about nomadic warfare
and about radiant desires. About the city - and what it could be. About very
different people and the power of a group that produces ideas and works
together over a long period of time.
Park Fiction is a public art project and a stage for the wishes of a
community: a Turkish girl designs a youth-café with letterboxes for teenagers
whose letters are controlled by their parents. A Russian couple wants an
Avenue of Friendship, lined by rosebushes. And a woman reads park-poetry in
her freshly painted flat.
The film collage juxtaposes documentary and narrative elements. It is
structured by a strain on Parks & Politics - on gardens and their ideological
backgrounds. Filmed on Super 8 in Marrakech, Coney Island and St. Pauli, Park
Fiction was blown up to 16mm with an outdated trick-camera, later combined
with video footage, drawings, suggestive collages and photos. There is no
original sound. The image-collage is juxtaposed with an independent
sound-collage: Czech pop songs, Los Ninos del Parque and Eissler-samples. The
soundtrack is by Ted Gaier and Schorsch Kamerun.
Details of films screened as part of the History and Film Workshop on 11th,
12th & 13th December will be available later. Programmes are subject to
last-minute changes.
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V. ANNOUNCEMENT: Call for Application - Student Stipends For Research on The
City
Sarai, an interdisciplinary research and practice programme on the city and
the media, at the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies, Delhi,
invites applications for short term studentships to facilitate research on
Urban life in South Asia.
The Studentship will provide candidates with Rs.10,000 for the preparation of
a research paper to be presented at a workshop in June2003. Selected scholars
will also get an opportunity to discuss their ongoing research in an initial
workshop to be held in March 2003. Sarai will take care of travel, boarding
and lodging for attending workshops. The candidates may be from any
discipline and should be enrolled in Master, M.Phil or Ph.D programme.
List of indicative themes:
Urban Histories
Architecture and Spatial Transformations
Modernist Planning
Alternative Urban Visions
Urban Memory and Narratives of Violence
Urban Ecologies
Literature and Urbanism
Cinema and the City
Visual Culture
The Future of Public Space
Media Practices and the City
Labour in the City
Please send your application along with C.V. and one page abstract indicating
the scope, nature and approach of proposed research to
Ranita Chatterjee
Programme Coordinator,
Sarai, Centre for the Study of Developing Societies
29, Rajpur Road, Delhi 110054.
ph: 23960040, 23942199 (extn.307).
Inquiries: sadan at sarai.net
DEADLINE for Application: 01 January, 2004.
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VI. WORKSHOP REPORT: New Technologies, Social Knowledge and Intellectual
Property Rights
November 20-21, 2003
The workshop hosted by Sarai in collaboration with Hivos and Alternative Law
Forum (ALF) brought together lawyers, free software practitioners, activists,
students and NGO's to discuss how intellectual property regimes are affecting
knowledge production and distribution. Various debates on biodiversity and
the production and distribution of knowledge via new technologies are
increasingly getting wrapped up in intellectual property regimes. The
workshop aimed to bring together people in the open source software movement
and those working with issues of bio-diversity, to look beyond boundaries and
engage critically with each other.
Participants included speakers from Mahiti Infotech; Genderchangers; One World
South Asia; Centre for Indian Knowledge Systems; International Collective in
Support of Fishworkers; Anthra; Genecamp; Toxics Link; and those from Sarai,
Hivos and ALF. The audio archive of the workshop will be available soon.
That's all for this month.
Cheers,
Ranita
The Sarai Programme
Centre for the Study of Developing Societies
29 Rajpur Road, Delhi 110 054
Tel: (+91) 11 23960040
(+91) 11 23942199, ext 307
Fax: (+91) 11 23943450
www.sarai.net
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