[Reader-list] Pad.ma Update: Call For Fellowships, deadline extended to 6th August

[Namita]

PAD.MA <http://PAD.MA/> - is an online archive of densely text-annotated 
video material, primarily footage and not films. The entire collection 
is searchable and viewable online, and is free to download for non- 
commercial use. We see PAD.MA <http://PAD.MA/> as a way of opening up a 
set of images, intentions and effects present in video footage, that 
conventions of video- making, editing and spectatorship  have tended to 
suppress.

This is our first call for fellowships and we would like to connect with 
people from diverse backgrounds and interests, who like to work 
creatively on video, film, digital and offline archives or collections.  
We are offering two types of fellowships.

*The first is a call to work with online video, **writing about video 
and film, and creative combinations of the two.* *The second is a call 
for those interested in research and writing on early film histories in 
India.*

Please distribute these fellowship calls widely.

________

*1. Pad.ma Fellowship for Experiments with Video Archives *

Over the last 4 years, through many contributions from groups and 
individuals, Pad.ma has built a growing collection of documentary 
footage, contemporary art video, cinema, performing and classical arts, 
lectures, long interviews and so on. We now want to open the archive up 
to collaborations, video contributions from surprising and disparate 
sources, experiments in writing about, displaying and sharing video.

We invite proposals for fellowships with Pad.ma, especially those 
interested in working with video and archives in the following ways

-        Writing on existing footage in the archive: Many essays on 
Pad.ma are a commentary on a set of videos, or link disparate videos in 
collections.  See examples at http://essays.pad.ma <http://essays.pad.ma/>

-        Contribution of an existing collection of videos to Pad.ma: The 
contribution can be of a specific set of videos that are linked 
thematically, or sourced from a project such as documentary films or 
existing archives. An example of this is Kolar Gold Fields footage 
sourced from the film 'After the Gold'(J.Nair). See 
https://pad.ma/grid/title/project==Kolar%20Gold%20Fields%20and%20MinesThe project 
proposal must include transcription and annotation of videos, where 
possible extended to a written essay.

-        Software development: Pad.ma is always looking for programmers 
- amateurs or professionals - who are interested in extending the 
software behind Pad.ma (http://pan.do/ra), or who might want to use the 
Pad.ma API (http:/pad.ma/api) to build interesting applications.

-        Pad.ma also invites general scholarship on material from early 
film archives, the Internet Archive's moving image library, and other 
offline sources. We also encourage research and exploratory writing on 
popular and mass cultures online, that culls from Youtube and other 
online video platforms. These materials can be drawn together from 
diverse sources - an example in Pad.ma is the collection of the Radia 
tapes that are recordings of conversations between power brokers and 
media houses that were leaked to the public. The collection can be used 
for analysis, investigative journalism, but also as a script for a play 
or film. See https://pad.ma/grid/title/list==zi:The%20Radia%20Tap%28e%29s

*Duration of Fellowship*: 6 Months*
Remuneration*: 15,000 per month over 6 months, to be disbursed in 3 
installments

The fellowship will commence in September, 2012 and will culminate in a 
seminar-workshop in February, 2013 for the Pad.ma fellows. Maximum 
number of fellows chosen will be 8.

Please apply with a statement of your research interest (1 page or 500 
word outline) and plan for the fellowship and a copy of your CV. You can 
also send a writing sample and additional links to videos, images and 
other files, using host services such as http://hostb.org 
<http://hostb.org/>. We may require a meeting in Mumbai or Bengaluru 
before final decision on the proposals.

Applicants can be of any educational or disciplinary background.

Last date of submission of proposals: *6th August, 2012*
Date for deciding proposals: 24th August, 2012
Write to Namita A. Malhotra: n at pad.ma <mailto:n at pad.ma>


*2. Pad.ma Research Fellowship in Film Histories*

While the focus of Pad.ma thus far has primarily been on footage, we 
would like to open Pad.ma out to an exploration of film studies, history 
and technology. Technology does not merely change the way films are made 
or seen, but also the way that it is studied, and film studies has 
travelled a long way from the time that one had to make notes in the 
dark to the control over the temporal flow of the film brought by video. 
Through this fellowship  we are interested in exploring the possible 
futures of film studies when it meets new technologies and the internet 
which allows for different ways in which we can categorize, retrieve and 
write about the moving image.

Celebrating forty years of copyright-free cinema in (1952 being the 
current threshold) amidst the hundred years of Indian cinema this year, 
we intend to upload pre-1952 films on to Pad.ma  and open them out to 
future collaborations with film historians and scholars. Fellows are 
encouraged to apply with a statement of their research interests, the 
films that they would like to work with on pad.ma <http://pad.ma/> and 
the kind of materials around the film that they would bring into 
conversation with the film.

*Duration of Fellowship*: 6 Months (with a possible extension to a year 
subject to future funding)*
Remuneration*: 15,000 per month over 6 months, to be disbursed in 3 
installments

Maximum number of fellows chosen will be 4. There will be additional 
fellowships administered via Jadavpur University Media Lab, and the 
School of Arts and Aesthetics, Jawaharlal Nehru University.

There will be a board of mentors including leading film scholars who 
will guide the independent fellows. There will also be a workshop at the 
beginning and the end of the fellowship period.

Please apply with a statement of your research interest and plan for the 
fellowship, a copy of your CV and one sample piece of writing. You can 
also send a writing sample and additional links to videos, images and 
other files, using host services such as http://hostb.org 
<http://hostb.org/>. We may require a meeting in Mumbai or Bengaluru 
before a final decision on the proposals.

Last date of submission of proposals: *6th August, 2012*
Date for deciding proposals: 24th August, 2012
Write to Lawrence Liang: lawrence at altlawforum.org 
<mailto:lawrence at altlawforum.org>