[cm_public] [NEWSLETTER] May to July 15, 2004
Shveta Sarda
shveta at sarai.net
Fri Jul 23 11:51:34 CEST 2004
Dear friends,
The period from May to July 15 has been a very critical period for
Cybermohalla. We collectively went through an internal review, to
reflect on the last three years and chart out future trajectories; the
labs hosted their first locality events, to deepen the relationship of
the labs with the respective localities; we produced our first half
Radio programme; and preparations have been underway for the third
locality lab in Nangla Maachhi (a 25 year old settlement in Central Delhi).
These are all long term projects and experiments, and we will keep you
updated on the developments over the next few months.
We look forward to your responses,
warmly
Cybermohalla Ensemble
============================================
CONTENTS OF THIS NEWSLETTER
-->
1. CM Internal Review
-Some texts
2. Locality Events
-DP
-LNJP
3. Radio
-Pilot production
4. New Lab at Nangla Maachhi
-Interactions start, August 01
-Preparations
5. Resource Books
6. Miscellaneous
-ApnaOpus update
-Internship
-Scratch Book Update
-Bolnagri (Phonetic Hindi keyboard, unicode)
============================================
CM INTERNAL REVIEW
Every space, after have been in existence for some time, needs to take
some time to reflect back on its experiences and then chart out future
trajectories. From May 01 to June 30, 2004, Cybermohalla went through an
intensive review process, which involved all its nodes and members.
Some key areas that emerged, and will be followed up on, intensively, in
the near future, were, building deeper relations and links with the
locality and evolving newer roles for the locality lab practitioners (in
terms of possibilities of conceptualising team projects, roles vis-a-vis
new labs and exploring newer media forms.)
For a note about the Compughar from the review texts, see
http://sarai.var.cc/source_material/about_compughar.html.html
(Extract and translations by shveta at sarai.net)
LOCALITY EVENTS:
The labs as listening rooms for the locality.
"Our lab is situated in our locality. This sets in specific dynamics and
opens up newer possibilities for thinking, experimenting and engaging.
We've been working on creating forms that will help deepen the
relationship of the lab with the locality.
I want that we manage to create a certain recognition of the lab in the
locality - as a space that inhabits ideas, and one that ideas ripple out
of. Because our neighbourhood is the closest to us in proximity. And the
most proximal relationship also holds in it a deeper sense and reality
of distance. We can argue with someone who is once removed from us, but
this is not possible with people in the neighbourhood. They can turn
around and silence us by calling us 'outspoken'. We want to constantly
deepen the neighbourhood's perception of the lab, and, through constant
innovation, also surprise them with newer 'selves' of the lab. And we
know this is possible - for instance through the public/locality events
we are currently conceptualising and working on (the first in the series
being 'The Elderly in the locality')."
from a text by Neelofar Neelam, 17y,
LNJP Compughar
On June 10, the Dakshinpuri Compughar hosted its first locality event.
LNJP hosted its first on July 6th. The theme of both the events was
"Elderly in the locality".
Process:
Practitioners at both the labs had been in conversation with around 15
elderly (50 years and above) in their respective localities for 3
months. These were in the form of recorded interviews (sound) and
photographs. Texts were also written from these.
The event:
For the event, the texts were edited and compiled into booklets (LNJP
circulated and gifted these during the event, while Dakshinpuri has
prepared them for circulation after the event, to sustain the
relationship with the elderly.) Sound recordings of the interviews were
played, and the images were blown-up and laminated and put up on the
walls. Both the labs hosted the event in their repsective labs.
For the event, the elderly who the practitioners were in conversation
with were invited to the labs.
At DP:
At Dakshinpuri, they were requested to bring any one object dear to
them. The 6 hour event included long conversations, sharing of stories,
songs and snacks. Conversations and stories were around the history of
Dakshinpuri, and different peoples' memories of living in the colony,
and also about the objects they had brought with them.
Through the event, the lab seemed to emerge as a very interesting space
for sharing narratives, where different people from the locality could
come to tell their stories.
The lab practitioners gifted each invited guest a framed photograph
(taken in the preceding 3 months).
At LNJP:
At LNJP, for the half day during which the event was hosted, the lab
transformed into a meeting place for the elderly in the locality. Most
of the elderly, who knew each other well, were meeting after a long
time. As the guests and the hosts sat together, there were stories,
arguments and reminiscences. The practitioners also shared with the
guests some of their own practices (through memory games and reading of
photographs).
Documentation:
The practitioners at both labs have prepared detailed documentation of
the event, and these will be publicly circulted (within the localities)
through wall magazines, and translations of the wall magazines will then
be made available on the Sarai website. During the events, audio
recordings were also done.
RADIO
Sarai has committed to a one hour radio programme every month to PSBT
(Public Service Broadcasting Trust). The focus is on creating radio
programmes that include a wide range of content and producing publics.
Sarai is one among several organsiations collaborating with PSBT on this.
In this, Cybermohalla has committed to a half hour radio production
every month. The first production, on the theme of "SUNNA" (listening)
was produced in a record breaking two days (July 1 and 2)!
The basic theme of the CM productions will be "Conversations between
friends in public spaces". A team of nine practitioners from the LNJP
and DP labs will be working on the content and production of the CM
programmes. (The team is called Radio Imli and there will be a core
group, and rotating members from the LNJP and DP labs.)
Credits for the first CM radio production (also the Sarai pilot for PSBT):
Concepts, Texts and voice: Radio Imli, Cybermohalla
Recording: Ashish Mahajan
Sound editing and sound overlay: Iram (Sarai Media Lab)
Transcriptions and translations of the CM radio programmes will soon be
made available.
The channel for transmission has not been decided yet (to be announced
by PSBT).
NEW LAB @ NANGLA MAACHHI
Nangla Maachhi is a 25 year old settlement in Central Delhi (just off
the Ring Road). It's denizens are estimated to be around one lakh in
number. It's a mixed population (in terms of religion and caste). The
settlement has come up on the grounds left fallow for fly-ash deposits
from the power plant across the road.
The third locality lab of Cybermohalla has been started in this
locality. The lab itself is a two-room, plus kitchen and bathroom
set-up. The rooms have low ceilings, and the walls are painted a soft blue.
Eight practitioners from LNJP and DP will be the facilitators/animators
for this lab (henceforth named "samvadak" or "someone who is in
conversation"), with least/no intervention from Ankur/Sarai. The primary
areas of discussion will be sound, images and texts. Computers will be
introduced at the lab only after three months.
Interactions will formally begin on August 2, Monday. A first meeting
between the Nangla Maachhi practitioners and the LNJP and DP animators
has been slated for July 26, a Monday.
There are roughly 25 young people (between 15 and 22 years of age) who
have decided to join the Nangla Maachhi Compughar.
The LNJP+DP interlocutors will be publicly sharing their notes and
reflections from this interaction on
http://blog.sarai.net/users/samvadak_cm/
CYBERMOHALLA RESOURCE BOOK # 01
This is the first in a series of (photocopied, spiral bound) Readers for
CM Interlocutors, containing a diversity of material to build resources
to think through CM. One will be brought out every 3 months.
Contents:
#What Really Matters by Cornelius Castoriadis
(http://www.geocities.com/cordobakaf/wrm.html),
#Global Childhood and the Politics of Contempt by Olga Nieuwenhuys,
#Communities of Science: A Case for a new Analogy for the Reciprocal
Influences Between Lay and Learned Cultures by Suzanne Paylor,
#Humiliation + Isolation by Raoul Vaneigem (http://notbored.org),
#Rethinking the Language of Schooling + Solidarity, Ethics and
Possibility in Critical Education by Henry A. Giroux,
#Lives of Infamous Men by Michel Foucault,
#Shooting the Elephant by George Orwell
(http://www.k-1.com/Orwell/shoot.htm),
#The Storyteller by Walter Benjamin,
#Faces, Networks and Membranes by Reinaldo Laddaga
APNAOPUS
Opus(www.opuscommons.net) is an acronym for "Open Platform for Unlimited
Signification!". It is an online space for people, machines and
codes to play and work together - to share, create and transform
images, sounds, videos and texts. Opus is an attempt to create a
digital commons in culture, based on the principle of sharing of
work, while at the same time, retaining the possibility (if and when
desired) of maintaining traces of individual authorship and identity.
To read more about the principles and background of Opus, go to -
http://www.opuscommons.net/templates/doc/record.html
To read a critical appraisal of OPUS, see -
http://apnaopus.var.cc/wiki/index.php/MathewFuller_DigitalObjects
The OPUS team is now working towards creating ApnaOpus (Our Opus).
There is a strong sense of sharing within the CM groups, which is often
hampered (if not outright muddied) by the fact of the individual framing
computer interfaces do with individual stations, folder structures, etc.
So, the basic idea behind ApnaOpus would be to take the interpermeation
of thoughts and works in CM, and the creation of an online platform that
nrtures this, and bring them together. Work on a LAN based system
(perhaps, or something else that allows for low connectivity, and can
synch with the opussite if/when) that becomes a primary interface for
the saving and sharing of material.
To read about the development of ApnaOpus in the next few months, see
http://apnaopus.var.cc/wiki/index.php/Main_Page
Silvan Zurbrueg, who was a resident in Sarai in 2001-2002 and coded for
Opus, will be at Sarai and the RnD Lab to develop ApnaOpus (October to
December).
INTERN at CM
Lekhoni Gupto, a student of the NIT (Media Lab) is doing a 6-month
internship with Cybermohalla. She will be developing "a Navigation
System within the locality of Dakshin Puri by exploring varied layers of
the place from the perspective of 'Compu-Ghar' members".
She will be publicly sharing all her research material on
http://blog.sarai.net/users/cartographicity/
SCRATCH BOOK
The Scratch Book has been translated and will soon be available in
Hindi. It is being developed as an Open Source Project. All discussions
around the Scratch Book and new ports are being blogged at
http://blogger.xs4all.nl/ScratchBookProject/
BOLNAGRI
This (unicode) phonetic keyboard has been developed at Sarai
(ravikant at sarai.net). It will be included in the CM distro, and
available in the CM Gen 01 CD being prepared by Karim (karim at sarai.net).
To read the public announcement of the keyboard and for a link to
download it, see
http://indlinux.org/newsletter/4.html
[END OF NEWSLETTER]
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