[Sarai Newsletter] AUGUST 2006

[The Sarai Programme]

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**************** SARAI NEWSLETTER AUGUST 2006***********************
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Dear All,


This August we feature Natak Jari Hai (The Play Goes On) - Lalit
Vachani's new film, a discussion with Biwarup Sen on his collection
of essays on popular culture, the Sarai Reader 06 book launch and the
independent fellowships final presentations.

We hope many of you will be able to make your way to Sarai and share
an evening with us!

Warmly

Aarti

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[[CONTENTS]]


EVENTS AND WORKSHOPS

1. Seminars @ Sarai: Of The People, Biswarup Sen
2. Sarai Independent Fellowship Final Presentations/Workshop
3. Sarai Reader 06: Turbulence - Book Launch and Discussion
4. Monsoon Musings Read-Meet: Caferati Delhi + Sarai-CSDS

FILM SCREENINGS & DISCUSSIONS

5. Film @ Sarai: Natak Jari Hai (The Play Goes On), Lalit Vachani

CONVERSATIONS

6. There Has Been A Change of Plan: Raqs Media Collective


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[[EVENTS AND WORKSHOPS]]


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Seminar @ Sarai: Urban Cultures and Politics Seminar Series
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Of the People: Essays on Indian Popular Culture
A Presentation by and Discussion with Biswarup Sen
4:00 P.M., Thursday, 8 August 2006
Sarai-CSDS Seminar Room


Why is all of India so obessed with cricket and what are the reasons
for the fall of hockey and the decline of football? What explains the
continuing convention of singing and dancing in Hindi films?
Following the growth of cable televison, the rise of new technologies
and the emergence of a culture of consumption; the products of
contemporary culture have come to play an increasingly important role
in shaping social practices. This set of essays seeks to answer the
above and other questions to argue that popular culture needs to be
invoked as a serious investigation and reflection if we are to make
sense of the contemporary and India's place in it.

(Biswarup Sen received his doctorate in Communication from the
University of Illinios at Urbana-Champaign. He taught for several
years at the Department of English, SUNY-Binghampton. He has worked
as a marketing and communications consultant in both corporate and
non-profit sectors. He currently teaches courses in mass
communications and popular culture at the University of Oregon.)

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Independent Fellowships Programme
=================================

Independent Fellowships Programme Final Presentations
24, 25, 26, 27 August 2006
Sarai-CSDS Seminar Room

The Sarai Independent Research Fellowship Process for 2005-2006 will
have its public presentation at Sarai-CSDS between the 24th and 27th
of August. Fellows from all over India, and drawn from a variety of
practices and disciplines will present and discuss their work. This
years presentations, like the ones of previous years promise to offer
a host of innovative research and presentation strategies.Themes
discussed will include Urban Forms, Publics, The Street, Migration,
Music, Queer Politics, Comic Books/Graphic Novels, Labour and Work,
among others. All are welcome to attend and participate in the
discussions. A detailed programme will be made available soon on the
list. To see the complete list of fellowship abstracts and previous
years proposals, visit:

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Sarai Reader 06: Turbulence
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SARAI READER 06: TURBULENCE
Book launch and Discussion
6:00 P.M., 26 August 2006
Sarai-CSDS Seminar Room

The 6th Sarai Reader : Turbulence will be formally released to the
public on the 26th of August at 6:00 pm at the seminar room at Sarai
CSDS. Sarai Reader 06 uses 'Turbulence' as a conceptual vantage point
from which to interrogate all that is in the throes of terminal
crisis, and to invoke all that is as yet unborn. It seek to examine
'turbulence' as a global phenomenon, unbounded by the arbitrary
lines  that denote national and state boundaries in a  'political'
map of the world. It wants to see areas of low and high pressure in
politics, economy and culture that transcend borders, to investigate
the flow of information and processes between downstream and upstream
sites in societies and cultures globally'.

At an early stage in its gestation this year, the Sarai Reader was
invited to participate in a community of publications - a project
called 'the documenta 12 magazines' <http://www.documenta12.de/
english/magazines.html>

Documenta 12 Magazines is a process and a discursive community that
brings together  more than 80 print and online periodicals throughout
the world. "These journals and magazines will discuss the main themes
and theories behind documenta 12 with particular emphasis being
placed on reflecting the interests and specific knowledge of the
respective local contexts entering into a dialogue with documenta 12.
These debates will be compiled and published in a series of
publications. This 'journal of journals', so to speak, will represent
a forum for the contemporary aesthetic discourse. This platform will
in turn also form part of the documenta 12 exhibition in Kassel."
This year, Documenta 12 Magazines addresses the issue of 'Modernity?'.

Sarai Reader 06 interprets this issue with an emphasis on the
question mark that follows the abstract noun of this marker of
temporality. We see our time, the one that sits in on Modernity's
wake, as an opportunity for interrogation and questioning, for
admitting to radical uncertainties, and looking askance at the claims
of truth and beauty. We are happy that this Sarai Reader marks a
diffuse, dispersed engagement with discourses in contemporary art, by
featuring a large number of contributions by artists, curators and
critics, and by paying a degree of focused attention on the perils of
practice in contemporary art and literature.

Watch this space for a detailed announcement and table of contents of
the Sarai Reader 06, as well as links to pdf downloads.

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Monsoon Musings: Read-Meet
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Caferati Delhi chapter & Sarai presents
Monsoon Musings - the Caferati Read-Meet
5:00 P.M., Saturday, 12 August 2006
Interface Zone, Sarai


It seems like its going to be a big one this month. (No drizzles!) In
new and interesting environs, Caferati Delhi meets at Sarai-CSDS. We
hope to have many more writers join in so drive, take a bus, take the
metro -here's looking forward to seeing as many of you as possible.
Share your original writing in English with the group.

What you can read:

Fiction, poetry, essays, scripts, screen scenarios - anything that
can be read aloud - in English, and within the time limits set - we
usually do 8 to 10 minutes per person. We will have quick critiques
by other members as usual.

Work in other languages may be permitted, at the discretion of the
moderator, but must be accompanied by an English translation.
Priority will be given to new voices. We also invite Caferati members
from other cities to mail in work that can be read for them by
someone present, but only if time permits. Those present always get
top priority.


Do specify if you are going to read and the length of your piece, so
we can schedule the evening accordingly. You can mail these details to:
anita.vasudeva at gmail dot com,
or Danish at dan.husain at gmail.com ,
or Annie at zaidiannie at gmail.com

It would be nice if you could confirm your attendance to the moderator
beforehand.

(If you haven't done so already, please join Caferati's Delhi googlegroup
to keep track of this and future events. If you'd like to know what a
read-meet is all about, please read this.)

The Caferati Delhi newsgroup: http://groups.google.com/group/Caferati-Delhi
The FAQs: http:www.caferati.com/FAQs.htm


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[[FILM]]


Natak Jari Hai
A film by Lalit Vachani
(India; 2005; Colour & B/W; 84 min.)

5:00 P.M, Monday, 21 August 2006
Sarai-CSDS Seminar Room


What does it mean to perform socialist ‘agit-prop’ theatre in India
in a globalized era of increasing intolerance and inequality?

Natak Jari Hai is a documentary about JANAM (The People’s Theatre
Front), the little theatre group that never stopped performing in the
face of dramatic political transformation and personal tragedy. The
film explores the motivations and ideals of the JANAM actors and
their vision of resistance and change as they perform their ‘People’s
Theatre’ in diverse parts of India. It brings to life the world of
socialist theatre through the words of JANAM’s members, and through a
reflective portrayal of the group’s greatest tragedy - the
assassination of its convenor Safdar Hashmi in 1989.

Credits:
Camera: Mrinal Desai
Sound: Asheesh Pandya
Additional editing: Sameera Jain
Editing, additional camera, production and direction: Lalit Vachani
A Wide Eye Film, 2005

We invite you to a screening for Natak Jari Hai, Lalit Vachani's new
film. Lalit will be present for a discussion with the audience after
the film.

(Lalit Vachani is a documentary filmmaker based in New Delhi and New
York city. His previous documentary films include work on the star-
system and social worlds within the Hindi commercial film industry
(The Academy, 1995; The Starmaker, 1997) and on the indoctrination,
ideology and the politics of Hindutva propagated by the Hindu
fundamentalist organization, the RSS (The Boy in the Branch, 1993;
The Men in the Tree, 2002). Some of the venues where his work has
been screened are: The Oberhausen Short Film Festival in Germany, IDFA
Amsterdam, One World Prague, FID Marseille, The Queens Museum of Art in New
York, Kino Arsenal in Berlin and the World Social Forum in Mumbai.)

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[[CONVERSATIONS]]

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Raqs Media Collective : 'There Has Been a Change of Plan'
(Selected Works 2002-2006)
Nature Morte Gallery, A 1 Neeti Bagh, New Delhi
August 5 - 26, 2006
================================================


Sometimes, adjustments have to be made. Schedules need calibration.
There are contingencies, questions, obstinate demands, weak excuses,
strong desires. You return to the city you never left. You pause,
take stock. Sit still and let a conversation begin. Maybe?

Around you, aeroplanes sit on wooden platforms in a wilderness like
widows on a funeral pyre. Clocks measure fatigue, anxiety and modest
epiphanies across latitudes. A door to nowhere stands obstinately
against the sky. All your cities are a blur.

"Do you like looking at maps?"

Meanwhile, measures are taken, shoes lost and found, ghost stories
gather, the city whispers conspiracies to itself, the situation is
tense but under control. Someone offers you a postcard.

Now: Let's see what happens.

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Raqs Media Collective is pleased to announce its first solo
exhibition in Delhi - 'There Has Been A Change of Plan' at Nature
Morte Gallery. The exhibition features selected works (2002 - 2006)
in the form of cross media installations with networked computers,
objects, postcards, video, sound, prints and projections.

Works exhibited include: 'Lost New Shoes', selections from 'A Measure
of Anacoustic Reason', 'Location (n)', '28.28 N / 77.15 E :: 2001/02
(Co-Ordinates of Everyday Life, Delhi 2001-2002)', 'Erosion by
Whispers', 'Preface to a Ghost Story' and 'There Has Been a Change of
Plan'. (See Details in PDF attatchment with this mail)
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About Raqs Media Collective
www.raqsmediacollective.net

(Excerpt from the Wikipedia Entry on Raqs Media Collective -
www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raqs_Media_Collective)

Raqs Media Collective was formed in 1992 by independent media
practitioners Jeebesh Bagchi, Monica Narula and Shuddhabrata
Sengupta. Based in Delhi, their work engages with urban spaces and
global circuits, persistently welding a sharp, edgily contemporary
sense of what it means to lay claim to the world from the streets of
Delhi. At the same time, Raqs articulates an intimately lived
relationship with myths and histories of diverse provenances. Raqs
sees its work as opening out a series of investigations with image,
sound, software, objects, performance, print, text and lately,
curation, that straddle different (and changing) affective and
aesthetic registers, expressing an imaginative unpacking of questions
of identity and location, a deep ambivalence towards modernity and a
quiet but consistent critique of the operations of power and property.

In 2001 Raqs co-founded Sarai (www.sarai.net) at the Centre for the
Study of Developing Societies (CSDS) in Delhi where they coordinate
media productions, pursue and administer independent research and
practice projects and also work as members of the editorial
collective of the Sarai Reader series. For Raqs, Sarai is a space
where they have the freedom to pursue interdisciplinary and hybrid
contexts for creative work and to develop a sustained engagement with
urban space and with different forms of media.


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