[Sarai Newsletter] [Sarai] Social Media Fellowship-First Post

[The Sarai Programme]

Dear all,

please refer to the following links for the introductory posts by Sarai
Social Media fellows-

Abhija Ghosh-Afterlife of the Nineties Romantic Film Song in the Virtual
Public Sphere
<http://sarai.net/afterlife-of-the-nineties-romantic-film-song-in-the-virtual-public-sphere/>


"In this project, I am interested in observing the popularity of nineties
romantic cinema and music across several internet media streams such as
video sharing platforms, online radio music channels, nineties fan sites
and lists in order to map the registers of popular memory, affect and
pleasure that mark an emerging cultural afterlife of this decade of Hindi
cinema. Social media fan pages like All About 90s evoke cultural
associations with the decade by regularly alluding to nineties media forms
such as cassettes, video tapes and their object lives, or television
broadcasts and their aesthetic convention, however it is the nineties
romantic film song that seems to occupy a special space of nostalgia in the
collective memory of such internet communities."

Smarika Kumar- Law's Role in the Development of the Internet
<http://sarai.net/laws-role-in-development-of-the-internet/>

"As the internet begins to pervade our lives in increasing ways, the
clamour to regulate it has heightened. Be it viral posts on social media
urging violence, the easy availability of sexual content on the internet,
or sharing of pirated media over peer to peer networks—there is a growing
concern about the governance and regulation of the internet from different
and sometimes opposing, social groups. In this post, I attempt to introduce
and outline broadly some of the themes I hope to explore as part of my
Sarai fellowship project in light of the increasing attempts to govern the
internet. What does such an attempt at governance and regulation really
imply? How is the technology of the internet being transformed through such
regulations? How does law treat “the technical” of the internet and is
there something uniquely authoritative about “technical” knowledge and
aspects of the internet which actually goes beyond the reach of law? These
are some of the questions I hope to explore in the coming months."

Silpa Mukherjee- Lovely Interfaces: The Many Lives of the Item Number in
Social and Digital Media
<http://sarai.net/lovely-interfaces-the-many-lives-of-the-item-number-in-social-and-digital-media/>

"I propose to examine the phenomenon that is generated in the domain of
social media that I refer to as the item number effect. The phenomenon
creates a new imagination of the item number, in which cult sequences from
hit films are parodied to generate a new citation culture as well as
celebrate the individual stardom of actors in new ways, provoking one to
think of the many new meanings now associated with the term item number.
The speed at which amateur digital culture is proliferating with the rise
of portals like scoopwhoop, 9gag, buzzfeed, imgur, etc. popularised via
social media platforms is significant for my research. These portals
generate interactive content in the form of memes, gifs and picture
comments (followed by sharing it on social media) by freezing “moments”
from the item number and “listing” and “ranking” celebrities who have
performed these numbers according to their popularity. Digital new media
thus dynamically morphs star-fan relations to not only erase bifurcations
of the on and off-screen lives of stars with their tweets and fan pages on
Facebook but also allows an elusive audience verdict on their favourite
item numbers/girls/boys. This creates a virtual discourse about the item
within a landscape of taboos about the sexualized screen bodies."

Pallavi Paul- Video Forensics Post 1
<http://sarai.net/video-forensics-post-1/>

"My project will stage the idea of the digital trace in the context of
crime and forensics. I will be looking specifically at the ways in which
the forensic practices of audio and video lend a specific charge to the
notions of time, spatiality, evidence, animate and inanimate life. Audio
and video recordings are markedly different from other forms of forensic
evidence as they deal with ‘real time’ and claim to sequentially capture
what transpired on the scene of crime. Therefore, once authenticated, the
video/ audio recording can recreate with a greater degree of certainty the
role of and interaction between human bodies, objects, spaces and passage
of time in any given event. Through the project I would like to engage with
these processes of authentication, as a way of encountering this practice"

Charu Maithani- Imago Aevitas-A Brief Introduction to the Genesis of the
Project
<http://sarai.net/imago-aevitas-brief-introduction-to-the-genesis-of-the-project/>

"My research project combines two ideas that have captivated me for a long
time – the image – its various forms and properties in a medium, and the
viewers’ interaction with the image interface. Different points from these
two wide areas of study have led me to various projects including the one
proposed for the short term research proposal at Sarai. The research titled
Imago Aevitas translates to permanent image from Latin. Imago is Latin for
image, reflection, picture, representation, copy. Merriam Webster
dictionary gives two meanings of the English word imago – (i) it is the
final, adult stage of an insect (ii) an idealised mental image of another
person or self. Aevitas is Latin for unending, lifetime, generation,
immortality – referring to the digital life in my project title. Imago
Aevitas is a research project aimed at understanding the changing
implications of web-based artistic projects. The research will analyse
(inter)net art projects to draw together the changing image aesthetics in
digital technology as well the participatory nature of these projects."

Mrinalika Roy-Khabhar Lahariya: Rural Empowerment Goes Digital
<http://sarai.net/khabar-lahariya-rural-empowerment-goes-digital/>

"I intend to look into the transformative impact the internet has had on
the rural landscape. As my case study I would look into the working of
‘Khabar Lahariya’ and how internet helped to further its cause. This
includes exploring the use of media in the region and the news gathering
process of the newspaper prior to the introduction of internet.I also aim
to document the personal stories of its reporters, most of who come from
underprivileged backgrounds, change in their lives and the way they report."
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