[Sarai Newsletter] DECEMBER 2005
The Sarai Programme
dak at sarai.net
Thu Dec 1 18:01:33 IST 2005
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***************************************** SARAI NEWSLETTER DECEMBER 2005
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Dear All,
Winter is here and we thought it would be a good idea to warm things up
with coffee and conversation in the Sarai cafe, and elsewhere in Delhi.
Besides the Friday evening film screening at Sarai, and the Thursday
evening screenings at Khoj, we also have a series of 'conversational'
events lined up this month - book readings, discussions, open mic and
more. We are also inviting applications to participate in a gaming
workshop facilitated by Josephine Starrs and Leon Cmielewski, media
practitioner currently on a residency in Sarai.
We look forward to seeing more of you, and to the warmth of conversations.
Do spread the word!
Warmly,
Aarti Sethi
[Outreach]
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*[[CONTENTS]] *
EVENTS
1. Book reading @ Sarai: New Life, Sharmistha Mohanty
2. Seminars @ CSDS: Genealogies of Mass Politics, Dipesh Chakrabarty
3. Presentation @ Sarai: The Disappeared Project: Migration, National
Identity & Security Panic, Naeem Mohaiemen, Visible Collective
4. The 'Bare Acts' Picnic II: Sarai Reader 05: Bare Acts discussion,
Lodhi Gardens, Delhi
5. Open Mic: An Evening of Poetry and Spoken Word, Featured Performer:
Jeet Thayil
WORKSHOPS
6. Gaming: Josephine Starrs and Leon Cmielewski + Anand V. Taneja
7. Blogs/Zines/Comix: Anand V. Taneja, Samit Basu + Sarai.txt Editorial
Collective + Vishwajyoti Ghosh, Sarnath Bannerjee
FILM
8. Film @ Sarai: Focus on European Cinema
RESOURCES
9. Contested Commons/Trespassing Publics: A Public Record
FORTHCOMING
10. Discussion @ Sarai: The Insurrection of Little Selves: The Crisis of
Secular-Nationalism in India, Aditya Nigam
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*[[EVENTS]] *
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Book-reading @ Sarai
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*New Life*
Sharmistha Mohanty
5:30 pm, Thursday, 15 December 2005
Interface Zone
Sarai-CSDS
We invite you for an evening of coffee and conversation with Sharmistha
Mohanty, author of 'New Life'. Sharmistha will read sections
from the book and Vivek Narayanan will be the discussant for the evening.
"The past comes through in New Life as so many melodic lines converging
and then separating in strange yet vaguely familiar ways. These lines, I
am afraid, will haunt you, because just when you will begin to think
nostalgia is getting you, you will recognise in some surprise that it is
not a lost world that Sharmistha Mohanty is invoking but a living world
that survives in fragments, tentatively yet confidently, all around us.
It is a world that has lost none of its vitality for being
half-forgotten or cornered. The search is not for a lost history but for
a self within which fragments of past selves will find a place."
- Ashis Nandy.
[Sharmistha Mohanty received a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing
(Fiction) from the Iowa Writer's Workshop. She is the author of the
screenplay for the film Nazar (1989) by Mani Kaul, and two novels-- Book
One (1995) and the just published New Life (India Ink /Roli Books,
2005). Her fiction has also appeared in the journals, Ploughshares
(Boston), Siecle 21 (Paris) and Gender and History (London), and Inertia
Magazine (New York, online.]
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Seminar @ CSDS
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*Genealogies of Mass Politics*
A conversation with Dipesh Chakrabarty
3 pm, Friday 2 December 2005
CSDS Library
The Centre for The Study of Developing Societies invites you for an adda
with Dipesh Chakrabarty on Genealogies of Mass Politics. Professor
Chakrabarty is professor of South Asian Languages and Civilizations,
South Asian History, University of Chicago.
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Presentation @ Sarai
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*The Disappeared Project: Migration, National Identity & Security Panic*
Naeem Mohaiemen, Visible Collective, New York
3:30 pm, Saturday 17 December 2005
Seminar room, Sarai-CSDS
DISAPPEARED IN AMERICA is part of an ongoing project by VISIBLE Collective/Naeem Mohaiemen, which looks at the migration impulse, hyphenated national identities and the fissures that appear when these trajectories collide with security panic.
The majority of Muslim migrants racially profiled after 9/11 were from the invisible underclass of our cities. They are the recent arrivals, legal and "illegal", who drive our taxis, deliver our food, clean our restaurant tables, and sell fruit, coffee, and newspapers. The only time we see their faces are when we glance at the scratched hack license in the taxi partition, or the ID card around the neck of a vendor. Already invisible, after detention they become "ghost prisoners." The talk reviews the project and talks about some of the underlying issues facing global cities today.
[Naeem Mohaiemen is a visual artist-activist and director of Visible Collective, which created DISAPPEARED IN AMERICA (disappearedinamerica.org), a series of art-interventions that visualize post-9/11 "disappeared" Muslims. Naeem is Editor of Shobak.Org, and Associate Editor of AltMuslim.com. Naeem directed MUSLIMS OR HERETICS (muslimsorheretics.org), a film about struggles between 'moderate' and 'radical' Muslims in Bangladesh, which screened at numerous venues including the UK House of Lords. His work and essays have appeared in Washington Post, Tikkun Jewish Journal, Village Voice, Alternet.org, CounterPunch.org, Chimurenga.co.za (South Africa), Wordt Vervolgd (Netherlands), Voima (Finland), New Internationalist (UK), Rediff (India), Prothom Alo (Bangladesh), and Dawn (Pakistan.)]
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Sarai Reader 05: Bare Acts Picnic II: The Border
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*The Border*
Lodhi Gardens, Delhi
3:00 pm, Saturday, 24 December 2005
Directions: Gather at Lodhi Gardens, Gate No. III (next to India
International Centre, Joseph Stein Marg) at 2:30 PM.
From this November onwards we have initiated a monthly informal
discussion around particular texts from the Sarai Readers. We have begun
by looking at Sarai Reader 05: Bare Acts. The idea is to get different
people to respond to texts from their particular locations and
perspectives, and share this with a group of interested interlocutors in
an informal, conversational setting. Each month we will consider a
different set of texts grouped around a broad theme. Visitors are
welcome to bring snacks and beverages to
provide the conversation with nourishment!
The first picnic was held on the 5th of November at Lodhi gardens around
the themes of Gender and Sexuality. This month's session on the
afternoon of the 24th of December, is called 'The Border' in which we
will try and explore the many ways in which the conditions of the
border, or borderline conditions, become generalized.
The following texts will be discussed. If you would like to be a
discussant for a text, and for more information about the picnic, write
to Aarti Sethi: aarti at sarai.net <mailto:aarti at sarai.net>
Marginalia by Kai Friese: http://www.sarai.net/journal/05_pdf/03/05_kai.pdf
The Discovery of the Fifth World: Stealth Countries and Logo nations by
Meta Haven Project: http://www.sarai.net/journal/05_pdf/03/01_metahaven.pdf
The Strange Case of Qays Al Kareem, by Tripta Wahi:
http://www.sarai.net/journal/05_pdf/03/04_qay.pdf
On Smugglers, Pirates and Aroma Makers, by Ursula Biemann:
http://www.sarai.net/journal/05_pdf/03/06_ursula.pdf
Dreams and Disguises, As Usual, by Raqs Media Collective:
http://www.sarai.net/journal/05_pdf/03/09_raqs.pdf
Lepers, Witches and Infidels & It;s a Bug's Life, by Francesca Da
Rimini: http://www.sarai.net/journal/05_pdf/01/04_francesca.pdf
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Open Mic: An Evening of Poetry and Spoken Word
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* Open Mic: An Evening of Poetry and Spoken Word*
5:30 pm, Monday, 12 December 2005
Featured Performer: *Jeet Thayil*
This month we invite friends interested in experimenting with the
poetic/prose form to jam in the Sarai cafe. We hope this can become a
regular event in which people working across forms such as film,
image-making, sound and text can come together and share their work in
an open, relaxed and fun context.
Everyone will get 5-7 minutes to read, and the mic will circulate. You
can share poetry, spoken word, a short prose piece, a performance,
singly or in groups, in any language (though do be prepared to translate
for those uninitiated :) The reading order will be decided on a
first-come-first-serve basis.'Live readings' will be interspersed with
recordings of poetry and spoken word by Allen Ginsberg, Langston Hughes,
Sylvia Plath among others. This month's featured performer is Jeet Thayil.
So come, spread the word and invite your friends!
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*[[WORKSHOPS]]
*
Call For Applications: *
GAMING*
Friday/Saturday, 9 and 10 December, 2005
Facilitated by Josephine Starrs and Leon + Anand Vivek Taneja
In this two day workshop Josephine and Leon Cmielewski will demonstrate a range of works exploring different aspects of game culture, including digital game modification, game art, machinima, mixed reality games, locative based gaming and the concept of gameplay.
Ideas of 'gameplay' include interactivity design which may take many forms. For example decision making, navigating space, the structure of
game content, collaborative or competitive interaction with other players, and the physical aspects of play.
The workshop will consist of demonstrations, practical exercises, and experiments in the development of locative games. Participants will combine a walk through Delhi University, the site of the workshop, with Anand, and material they gather will form the basis for developing a gaming experience.
[Josephine Starrs and Leon Cmielewski are Australian media artists who
have worked together on several projects which incorporate the language
and structure of digital games. They use play in their work as a
strategy for engaging with the social and political contradictions
inherent in contemporary society.
Anand V. Taneja is a researcher with the Publics and Practices in the
History of the Present project, Sarai-CSDS.]
For more details and to register for the workshop, write to: aarti at sarai.net
******
*BLOGS/ZINES/COMIX*
January 2006, (Dates to be finalised)
Facilitated by: Anand V. Taneja, Samit Basu + Sarai.txt Editorial Collective + Vishwajyoti Ghosh, Sarnath Bannerjee
Blogs/Zines/Comix is a workshop designed to introduce you to the discussion and production of three exciting media forms. If you ever wanted to make and design your own blog, edit your own zine or draw your own comics, then this workshop is for you. Interact with leading comic book writers based in Delhi such as former Sarai Independent Fellows Sarnath Bannerjee and Vishwajyoti Ghosh, find out what keeps the blogosphere active by talking to hot bloggers Samit Basu, Anand Taneja and others, and have a hands on experience in designing and editing broadsheets with the Sarai.txt team.
More details in the next newsletter. Watch this space! Write to: aarti at sarai.net
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*[[FILM]]*
We are happy to announce that film screenings curated by the Sarai
programme will also be screened at the Khoj artists collective. This
marks a collaborative initiative between Sarai and Khoj. This new series
of screenings will run on Thursdays at Khoj at 6:00 pm and on Fridays at
Sarai-CSDS at the usual time, 4:30 pm.
These screenings have been an integral part of Sarai's programming and
public profile for five years. The screenings have been a space for
people from diverse backgrounds - academics and students, practitioners,
artists and researchers – to converse with each other about the way in
which films speak to the times that they were made in, and to the times
we live in.
We hope that with this initiative a new public will find the Sarai
screenings, and that Sarai will find a new public, bringing new energies
and approaches into talking and thinking about films. Hoping to see many
of you, and many good films.
films @ khoj – Thursdays, 5.340 pm
Khoj Studios
S-17 . Khirki Extension.
(Near Sai Baba Temple)
New Delhi-17
Call:91-11-55655874\73
www.khojworkshop.org <http://www.khojworkshop.org/>
khojinteract at gmail.com <mailto:khojinteract at gmail.com>
films @ Sarai – Fridays, 4.30 pm
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Film @ Sarai: December – January 2005
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Focus on European Cinema
This month's curation ffocuses on some classics of European cinema, worthy of many repeat viewings. This curation programme is part of "Towards A Culture of Open Networks", a collaborative project supported by the EU-India Economic Cross Cultural Programme – a programme dedicated to Media, Culture, Enterprise & University networking between Europe and India. Please see: http://www.opencultures.net/
Umberto D
Directed by Vittorio de Sica
1957, 92 minutes
Khoj, 1st December
Sarai, 2nd December
Umberto Domenico Ferrari, an elderly and retired civil servant, is desperately trying to maintain a decent standard of living on a rapidly
dwindling state pension. But he's up against his tyrannical landlady, who keeps demanding rent that he can't pay (while renting his room out to prostitutes during the day), and his only friends are the pregnant housemaid and his little dog Flag... This film is considered to be one of the masterpieces of Italian neo-realism.
Night and Fog
Directed by Alain Resnais
1955, 32 minutes
Khoj, 8th December
Sarai, 9th December
Filmed in 1955 at the post-war site of Auschwitz, the film combines color footage with black and white newsreels and stills to tell the story of not just the Holocuast, but the horror of man's brutal inhumanity. Despite being one of the most powerful documentaries about the Holocaust, the word "Jew" isn't once mentioned in the film.
The Gospel According to St. Matthew
Directed by Pier Paolo Passolini
1964, 137 minutes
Khoj, 15th December
Sarai, 16th December
A committed but far from conformist Marxist, Passolini took a powerful and immediate approach to Jesus, with no false piety or sentimentality.
Employing a cast drawn largely from the peasantry of Southern Italy, where the film was shot, the action has the feel of a mystery play reenacted for the camera. Enrique Irazoqui's Christ is part folk hero, part political agitator, but always pursuing his destiny with unswerving conviction.
*Eloge de L'amour (In Praise of Love)*
Directed by Jean Luc Godard
2001, 97 minutes
Khoj, 22nd December
Sarai, 23rd December
Éloge de l'Amour begins with a project proposal by Edgar (Bruno Putzulu) concerning the different stages of love: union, passion, separation and reconciliation. These experiences are to be reflected through three couples at various junctures in their lives: young, adult and old. Edgar's search for his cast spells a flashback to a few years previously, where working on an historic documentary he meets the 'characters' upon which he hopes to base his latest venture…
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All screenings at Khoj at 5.30 pm, Thursdays
All screenings at Sarai at 4.30 pm, Fridays
The programme is subject to last minute changes.
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*[[RESOURCES]]
*
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Contested Commons/Trespassing Publics: A Public Record
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This compilation links a wide spectrum of political, social and cultural
issues embedded in the "property question". Varied voices explore new
paradigms of practice in relation to the global intellectual property
regime, its enforcement as well as its violation and subversion by a
compelling array of resilient figures. These include the hacker, the
pirate, the solitary "genius", the reformer, the artist, the judge, the
prisoner, the heretic, the thief, the "transformative" author, the
theorist, the migrant, the scholar, the vendor, the critic, the
aesthete, the scribe, the citizen, the tenant, the worker, the chairman,
the rebel, the coder, the squatter, the inventor, the farmer, the
smuggler, the spectator...
This account describes the radical contemporary shifts in the
production, distribution and consumption of cultural materials through
the networks of digital media. It deconstructs the capital-driven
processes of enclosure in the contexts of software, file-sharing,
patents, biopiracy, indigenous knowledge, cyber art, virtual exchange,
literary history, theology and law, among others, while celebrating the
emancipatory potential of knowledge sharing through the ethical creation
of a commons that is vibrant, open and free.
The book is available for free download at:
http://www.sarai.net/events/ip_conf/ip_conf.htm
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*
[[FORTHCOMING]]
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*Discussion @ Sarai
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The Insurrection of Little Selves: The Crisis of Secular-Nationalism in
India
Aditya Nigam
3:30 pm, Wednesday, 11 January 2006
Seminar Room, Sarai-CSDS
Sarai invites Aditya Nigam to read from and discuss his book, 'The
Insurrection of Little Selves: The Crisis of Secular nationalism in India'.
Secular Nationalism as the hitherto ruling idealogy of the postcolonial
Indian state represents a specific, historically constituted idealogical
configuration. The 1980s witnessed the explosion of what could be
loosely called 'identity politics'. This book is the first to explicitly
examine this.
Nigam argues that the moments of crisis in the secular consensus have
revealed that its latent assumptions are fundamentally Hindu and its
quest for a homogeneous national culture has lead, like other
universalisms, to privilege the dominant and marginalise minority cultures.
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END OF NEWSLETTER
The Newsletter of the Sarai Programme,
29 Rajpur Road, Delhi 110 054, www.sarai.net <http://www.sarai.net/>
Info: dak at sarai.net <mailto:dak at sarai.net>
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Directions to Sarai: We are ten minutes from Delhi University. Nearest
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get off at Civil Lines station.
See Calendar and Newsletter online:
http://www.sarai.net/calendar/newsletter.htm
<http://www.sarai.net/calendar/newsletter.htm>
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