From joy at sarai.net Wed Jan 1 14:25:39 2003 From: joy at sarai.net (Joy Chatterjee) Date: Wed, 01 Jan 2003 14:25:39 +0530 Subject: [Sarai Newsletter] January 2003 Message-ID: <5.1.0.14.0.20030101142227.00abff90@mail.sarai.net> CONTENTS: EVENTS @ SARAI 9, 10, 11 City One Conference 15 Media Art Presentation - conVerge: where art and science meet FRIDAY FILM @ SARAI: FOCUS ON THE DOCUMENTARY 17 Tales from Planet Kolkata 24 Chingari Chumma, Bad Girl with a Heart of Gold 31 Fire Within SARAI @ ASIAN SOCIAL FORUM, HYDERABAD 5 A Workshop on Information Politics & Media FORTHCOMING EVENTS February 28 Launch of the Sarai Reader 03 : Shaping Technologies March 3-5 Crisis/Media: The Uncertain States of Reportage --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Dear Friends, Sarai wishes all of you a very happy New Year. The New Year at Sarai begins with the City One Conference. Read on for more information on activities at Sarai in the New Year. EVENTS @ SARAI January 9-11, 2003 City One Sarai/CSDS City One , a cross-disciplinary conference on the urban experience in South Asia, will be a significant gathering of scholars and practitioners from different fields and we hope it will open up new agendas for urban research on South Asian cities. The conference is organized by the Sarai programme of the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies, Delhi. The response to the conference has been overwhelming , and we have been forced to close registrations. We regret to say that we are unable to accommodate any last minute requests for registrations, however, you can still participate by clicking on to http://www.sarai.net/cityone/cityone.htm on all three days and listen to live webcasts of all the panels and plenaries. Detailed programmes will soon be up on our website. Do keep a lookout. January 15, 2003, 5:30 pm conVerge: where art and science meet Media Art Presentation by Amanda McDonald Crowley ConVerge, a project developed by The Art Gallery of South Australia and the Adelaide Festival 2002 for the 2002 Adelaide Biennial of Australia Art, explored the nexus between art, science and technology and its creative expression, and asked "what happens at these points of intersection?" By bringing together divergent systems of knowledge, conVerge created a vista into new ways of seeing and understanding the scientific, technological and cultural developments of our 21 century. Amanda McDonald Crowley, Associate Director of the Adelaide Festival 2002 will present this exhibition and share her experience of working with the artists. Exhibiting artists include Justine Cooper, Rebecca Cummins, Jason Hampton, Adam Donovan, Nigel Helyer, Joyce Hinterding, Ionat Zurr and Oron Catts, Mangkaja Arts, Martin Walch, Patricia Piccinini, Lynne Sanderson, Jon McCormack, Fiona Hall and Mari Velonaki. Amanda McDonald Crowley is a freelance cultural worker, facilitator, researcher, curator from Australia. She is currently artsworker in residence, at Sarai with support from Asialink. The presentation will be held at the Seminar Room, Centre for the Study of Developing Societies, 29 Rajpur Road, Delhi -110054. FRIDAY FILM @ SARAI: FOCUS ON THE DOCUMENTARY This month we focus again on documentary filmmakers. All screenings are on Fridays at 4:30 pm at the Seminar Room, Centre for the Study of Developing Societies, 29 Rajpur Road, Delhi -110054. The films are listed in the order of screening. Friday, January 17, 2003 Tales From Planet Kolkata Directed by Ruchir Joshi, 1993, 38 minutes A documentary film by Ruchir Joshi. Joshi finds fragments of tales in the course of a journey that takes in old cars, old bars, the filming of the 'city of joy', the poetry of Shakti Chattopadhyay and the streets of 'planet' Kolkata. Ruchir Joshi is a filmmaker and writer based in Delhi, where he lives, in self imposed exile from Planet Kolkata. Friday January 24, 2003 Chingari Chumma Directed by Tejal Shah & Anuj Vaidya, 2000, 9 minutes "Chingari Chumma is a 'fairytale phantasy' which dives head first into the spaces of desire that remain unaddressed in the popular culture that Bollywood constructs. Here is a typical Hindi film climax: the heroine has been abducted by the bandit and is taken to his den where he invariably ties her up, or makes her dance; the hero comes just in time to save his beloved, before the villain can commit the ultimate atrocity. "Our use of heavily aestheticized music and high camp serves not to mask desire in melodramatic overtones but to make them explicit - to unleash desire, especially subversive desire. We take this setup to its logical extreme, in order to locate and complicate the representations of desire, and destabilize the archetypal relationships that are played out within these films." Bad Girl with a Heart of Gold Directed by Anuj Vaidya, 2002, 60 minutes "Meet Helen. Vamp and Vixen. Dancing girl and Diva. But the vamp in the Hindi film is working against many odds. Her screen time is marginal - hardly 20 minutes in a two and a half hour film. And the script is never in her favour - the sympathies lie elsewhere where the moral certitude is. Helen is corrupt, or rather has been corrupted. Her Indianness is threatened by the 'western' characteristics she assumes - her blond hair, her fishnet stockings, her independence, her aggressiveness and most importantly her sexuality. She stands defiant in the face of the 'circumstances' she finds herself in and is unapologetic about her lifestyle and the choices she makes. So she must be punished for her insolence - she must die - which she does very gracefully in most of her films, after performing her centerpiece cabaret. "Dance and Die Helen! Helen's death is a moment of great cultural import, apart from being a very convenient plot point. Her death is a rejection of western values and the reaffirmation of, or search for, an authentic Indian morality. She is the ultimate post-colonial subject. Unsure and unarmed. She is camp, she is grotesque, and yet she is desired. Helen is the sacrificial lamb -- the place where resistance traces its path. This film is a search for that intangible narrative that is Helen." Anuj Vaidya is an artist who works in video, performance and the cusp between the two mediums. Friday January 31, 2003 Fire Within Directed by Sriprakash, 2002, 57 minutes A poignant story of the Indian Coal Industry and the people/environment of Jharkhand spanning over 150 years. Circa 1774 - the first coal mine was blasted in in the Raniganj Area. The indigenous people owned this coal rich land till the British dispossessed them. Come 19th century. The railways were introduced and the extraction of coal began in a big way. The mines passed into private ownership and the owners engaged in ruthless exploitation of natural/human resources. Several committees & commissions diligently worked out technical aspects - how to extract more coal safely! Environmental & Human aspects of mining were never a central concern for any one. Then came our tryst with destiny. And the story continues without any twist. Twenty five years after the independence - the coal industry was nationalised and the situation worsened as mafia and corrupt bureaucrats ushered in an era of violent culture. Today, while approximately Rs. 1000 crores goes to the government as royalty from the black diamond, four to five thousand crores is siphoned away as black money from the coal industry. And the people who owned these mines are left to languish as no one talks about their plight. No rehabilitation, no compensation, no jobs. River Damodar is the most polluted river today, as a bonus! The open mines are literally on fire, there is no water and the land has turned totally infertile. From being owners of land the indigenous people are forced to turn into coal stealers in the eyes of the law. Fire Within draws the painful portrait of the transformation of the land of the 'Tana Bhagats' a sect of the Oraon Tribe who were believers of non-violence and Gandhian philosophy to the land witnessing violent Naxalite movement today. Sriprakash is an independent filmmaker and activist based in Jharkhand. SARAI @ ASIAN SOCIAL FORUM, HYDERABAD January 5, 2003, 2:30-6:30 pm A Workshop on the Information Politics & Media Venue : Methodist School Room No.19 (Opposite Nizam's College), Hyderabad The Asian Social Forum, a follow up of the two successful World Social Forum events organised in Porto Alegre, is being held in Hyderabad from January 2-7, 2003. This workshop is organized by Sarai/CSDS, in collaboration with Mahiti (Bangalore), Indymedia Mumbai (Mumbai),PUKAR (Mumbai) and Aman - Autonomous Media Network (Delhi) Themes : Introducing Tactical Media Free Speech, Info-Politics and Surveillance Challenging Online Language Hegemonies Radio as a Tool for Activism What Activists can do with the Internet/Building a Website in a Day Video as a Means of Reflection Speakers : Aditya Nigam (Aman), Arun Mehta (Radio, Internet and Telecom Activist), Ravikant (Sarai/CSDS), Shuddhabrata Sengupta (Sarai/CSDS), Sanjay Bhangar (Indymedia Mumbai), Sanjay Kak (Independent Filmmaker), Shekhar Krishnan (PUKAR), Sunil Abraham (Mahiti) For details, see - http://www.wsfindia.org/event_manager_list.php?page=9 FORTHCOMING EVENTS: FEBRUARY & MARCH February 28, 2003 Launch of the Sarai Reader 03 : Shaping Technologies 3rd Anniversary of Sarai March 3-5, 2003 Crisis/Media: The Uncertain States of Reportage Sarai-Waag Workshop at Sarai-CSDS, Delhi Crisis/Media, is a conference that will bring together media professionals, activists, and scholars to discuss crisis in the media, and the crisis of the media today. Since September 11, crises in the media have become everyday events and have taken on global dimensions. But what happens when crisis becomes commonplace? How can media tell the stories behind/beneath the crisis? How are the tensions between local/global, mainstream /alternative, event/representation unfolding? In thinking about these and other questions, the conference will try to focus on both the ways in which media cover/create/manage spectacular crisis events, and on the crisis that this reportage has produced for media itself. Key Issues: * Are the Crises in the Media, the Crises of the Media? Where do the lines between reporting in the mainstream and the alternative media harden, and where do they blur? * Has the "broadcast" model, which was the mainstay of the big media business, proved to be too bulky and too conservative in a world in which things change by the minute? * Has the internet really made it possible for correspondents to be co-respondents to the realties of a changing world? Panels on: * South Asia : Bearing Witness to the Truth in Difficult Times * Correspondents in the Crossfire : Reporting Situations of Conflict * The Crisis of Everyday Life : Dispatches from Global Cities * Stories of Earth and Water : Reporting Ecological Crises * The Future of Global Independent Media Activism Special focus and reports from South Asia, Argentina, Australia, the Balkans Activities: Plenaries, Discussions, Open Sessions, Screenings Pre-Registration: If you are not presenting a paper but wish to attend the conference, you can pre-register by sending an email to crisis-media at sarai.net For details contact rachel at sarai.net For more information click on http://www.sarai.net/events/crisis_media/crisis_media.htm Watch this space for more details. That's all that we have this January. We look forward to a sustained and stimulating interaction with you in the year ahead, at Sarai and online. Warm Wishes, Ranita The Sarai Programme Centre for the Study of Developing Societies 29 Rajpur Road, Delhi 110 054 Tel: (+91) 11 23960040 (+91) 11 23951190 Fax: (+91) 11 23943450 www.sarai.net -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From dak at sarai.net Wed Jan 1 21:24:40 2003 From: dak at sarai.net (dak) Date: Wed, 1 Jan 2003 21:24:40 +0530 Subject: [Sarai Newsletter] January 2003 Message-ID: <200301012124.40408.dak@sarai.net> CONTENTS: EVENTS @ SARAI 9, 10, 11 City One Conference 15 Media Art Presentation - conVerge: where art and science meet FRIDAY FILM @ SARAI: FOCUS ON THE DOCUMENTARY 17 Tales from Planet Kolkata 24 Chingari Chumma, Bad Girl with a Heart of Gold 31 Fire Within SARAI @ ASIAN SOCIAL FORUM, HYDERABAD 5 A Workshop on Information Politics & Media FORTHCOMING EVENTS February 28 Launch of the Sarai Reader 03 : Shaping Technologies March 3-5 Crisis/Media: The Uncertain States of Reportage --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Dear Friends, Sarai wishes all of you a very happy New Year. The New Year at Sarai begins with the City One Conference. Read on for more information on activities at Sarai in the New Year. EVENTS @ SARAI January 9-11, 2003 City One Sarai/CSDS City One , a cross-disciplinary conference on the urban experience in South Asia, will be a significant gathering of scholars and practitioners from different fields and we hope it will open up new agendas for urban research on South Asian cities. The conference is organized by the Sarai programme of the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies, Delhi. The response to the conference has been overwhelming , and we have been forced to close registrations. We regret to say that we are unable to accommodate any last minute requests for registrations, however, you can still participate by clicking on to http://www.sarai.net/cityone/cityone.htm on all three days and listen to live webcasts of all the panels and plenaries. Detailed programmes will soon be up on our website. Do keep a lookout. January 15, 2003, 5:30 pm conVerge: where art and science meet Media Art Presentation by Amanda McDonald Crowley ConVerge, a project developed by The Art Gallery of South Australia and the Adelaide Festival 2002 for the 2002 Adelaide Biennial of Australia Art, explored the nexus between art, science and technology and its creative expression, and asked "what happens at these points of intersection?" By bringing together divergent systems of knowledge, conVerge created a vista into new ways of seeing and understanding the scientific, technological and cultural developments of our 21 century. Amanda McDonald Crowley, Associate Director of the Adelaide Festival 2002 will present this exhibition and share her experience of working with the artists. Exhibiting artists include Justine Cooper, Rebecca Cummins, Jason Hampton, Adam Donovan, Nigel Helyer, Joyce Hinterding, Ionat Zurr and Oron Catts, Mangkaja Arts, Martin Walch, Patricia Piccinini, Lynne Sanderson, Jon McCormack, Fiona Hall and Mari Velonaki. Amanda McDonald Crowley is a freelance cultural worker, facilitator, researcher, curator from Australia. She is currently artsworker in residence, at Sarai with support from Asialink. The presentation will be held at the Seminar Room, Centre for the Study of Developing Societies, 29 Rajpur Road, Delhi -110054. FRIDAY FILM @ SARAI: FOCUS ON THE DOCUMENTARY This month we focus again on documentary filmmakers. All screenings are on Fridays at 4:30 pm at the Seminar Room, Centre for the Study of Developing Societies, 29 Rajpur Road, Delhi -110054. The films are listed in the order of screening. Friday, January 17, 2003 Tales From Planet Kolkata Directed by Ruchir Joshi, 1993, 38 minutes A documentary film by Ruchir Joshi. Joshi finds fragments of tales in the course of a journey that takes in old cars, old bars, the filming of the 'city of joy', the poetry of Shakti Chattopadhyay and the streets of 'planet' Kolkata. Ruchir Joshi is a filmmaker and writer based in Delhi, where he lives, in self imposed exile from Planet Kolkata. Friday January 24, 2003 Chingari Chumma Directed by Tejal Shah & Anuj Vaidya, 2000, 9 minutes "Chingari Chumma is a 'fairytale phantasy' which dives head first into the spaces of desire that remain unaddressed in the popular culture that Bollywood constructs. Here is a typical Hindi film climax: the heroine has been abducted by the bandit and is taken to his den where he invariably ties her up, or makes her dance; the hero comes just in time to save his beloved, before the villain can commit the ultimate atrocity. "Our use of heavily aestheticized music and high camp serves not to mask desire in melodramatic overtones but to make them explicit - to unleash desire, especially subversive desire. We take this setup to its logical extreme, in order to locate and complicate the representations of desire, and destabilize the archetypal relationships that are played out within these films." Bad Girl with a Heart of Gold Directed by Anuj Vaidya, 2002, 60 minutes "Meet Helen. Vamp and Vixen. Dancing girl and Diva. But the vamp in the Hindi film is working against many odds. Her screen time is marginal - hardly 20 minutes in a two and a half hour film. And the script is never in her favour - the sympathies lie elsewhere where the moral certitude is. Helen is corrupt, or rather has been corrupted. Her Indianness is threatened by the 'western' characteristics she assumes - her blond hair, her fishnet stockings, her independence, her aggressiveness and most importantly her sexuality. She stands defiant in the face of the 'circumstances' she finds herself in and is unapologetic about her lifestyle and the choices she makes. So she must be punished for her insolence - she must die - which she does very gracefully in most of her films, after performing her centerpiece cabaret. "Dance and Die Helen! Helen's death is a moment of great cultural import, apart from being a very convenient plot point. Her death is a rejection of western values and the reaffirmation of, or search for, an authentic Indian morality. She is the ultimate post-colonial subject. Unsure and unarmed. She is camp, she is grotesque, and yet she is desired. Helen is the sacrificial lamb -- the place where resistance traces its path. This film is a search for that intangible narrative that is Helen." Anuj Vaidya is an artist who works in video, performance and the cusp between the two mediums. Friday January 31, 2003 Fire Within Directed by Sriprakash, 2002, 57 minutes A poignant story of the Indian Coal Industry and the people/environment of Jharkhand spanning over 150 years. Circa 1774 - the first coal mine was blasted in in the Raniganj Area. The indigenous people owned this coal rich land till the British dispossessed them. Come 19th century. The railways were introduced and the extraction of coal began in a big way. The mines passed into private ownership and the owners engaged in ruthless exploitation of natural/human resources. Several committees & commissions diligently worked out technical aspects - how to extract more coal safely! Environmental & Human aspects of mining were never a central concern for any one. Then came our tryst with destiny. And the story continues without any twist. Twenty five years after the independence - the coal industry was nationalised and the situation worsened as mafia and corrupt bureaucrats ushered in an era of violent culture. Today, while approximately Rs. 1000 crores goes to the government as royalty from the black diamond, four to five thousand crores is siphoned away as black money from the coal industry. And the people who owned these mines are left to languish as no one talks about their plight. No rehabilitation, no compensation, no jobs. River Damodar is the most polluted river today, as a bonus! The open mines are literally on fire, there is no water and the land has turned totally infertile. From being owners of land the indigenous people are forced to turn into coal stealers in the eyes of the law. Fire Within draws the painful portrait of the transformation of the land of the 'Tana Bhagats' a sect of the Oraon Tribe who were believers of non-violence and Gandhian philosophy to the land witnessing violent Naxalite movement today. Sriprakash is an independent filmmaker and activist based in Jharkhand. SARAI @ ASIAN SOCIAL FORUM, HYDERABAD January 5, 2003, 2:30-6:30 pm A Workshop on the Information Politics & Media Venue : Methodist School Room No.19 (Opposite Nizam's College), Hyderabad The Asian Social Forum, a follow up of the two successful World Social Forum events organised in Porto Alegre, is being held in Hyderabad from January 2-7, 2003. This workshop is organized by Sarai/CSDS, in collaboration with Mahiti (Bangalore), Indymedia Mumbai (Mumbai),PUKAR (Mumbai) and Aman - Autonomous Media Network (Delhi) Themes : Introducing Tactical Media Free Speech, Info-Politics and Surveillance Challenging Online Language Hegemonies Radio as a Tool for Activism What Activists can do with the Internet/Building a Website in a Day Video as a Means of Reflection Speakers : Aditya Nigam (Aman), Arun Mehta (Radio, Internet and Telecom Activist), Ravikant (Sarai/CSDS), Shuddhabrata Sengupta (Sarai/CSDS), Sanjay Bhangar (Indymedia Mumbai), Sanjay Kak (Independent Filmmaker), Shekhar Krishnan (PUKAR), Sunil Abraham (Mahiti) For details, see - http://www.wsfindia.org/event_manager_list.php?page=9 FORTHCOMING EVENTS: FEBRUARY & MARCH February 28, 2003 Launch of the Sarai Reader 03 : Shaping Technologies 3rd Anniversary of Sarai March 3-5, 2003 Crisis/Media: The Uncertain States of Reportage Sarai-Waag Workshop at Sarai-CSDS, Delhi Crisis/Media, is a conference that will bring together media professionals, activists, and scholars to discuss crisis in the media, and the crisis of the media today. Since September 11, crises in the media have become everyday events and have taken on global dimensions. But what happens when crisis becomes commonplace? How can media tell the stories behind/beneath the crisis? How are the tensions between local/global, mainstream /alternative, event/representation unfolding? In thinking about these and other questions, the conference will try to focus on both the ways in which media cover/create/manage spectacular crisis events, and on the crisis that this reportage has produced for media itself. Key Issues: * Are the Crises in the Media, the Crises of the Media? Where do the lines between reporting in the mainstream and the alternative media harden, and where do they blur? * Has the "broadcast" model, which was the mainstay of the big media business, proved to be too bulky and too conservative in a world in which things change by the minute? * Has the internet really made it possible for correspondents to be co-respondents to the realties of a changing world? Panels on: * South Asia : Bearing Witness to the Truth in Difficult Times * Correspondents in the Crossfire : Reporting Situations of Conflict * The Crisis of Everyday Life : Dispatches from Global Cities * Stories of Earth and Water : Reporting Ecological Crises * The Future of Global Independent Media Activism Special focus and reports from South Asia, Argentina, Australia, the Balkans Activities: Plenaries, Discussions, Open Sessions, Screenings Pre-Registration: If you are not presenting a paper but wish to attend the conference, you can pre-register by sending an email to crisis-media at sarai.net For details contact rachel at sarai.net For more information click on http://www.sarai.net/events/crisis_media/crisis_media.htm Watch this space for more details. That's all that we have this January. We look forward to a sustained and stimulating interaction with you in the year ahead, at Sarai and online. Warm Wishes, Ranita The Sarai Programme Centre for the Study of Developing Societies 29 Rajpur Road, Delhi 110 054 Tel: (+91) 11 23960040 (+91) 11 23951190 Fax: (+91) 11 23943450 www.sarai.net From dak at sarai.net Sun Jan 12 23:18:15 2003 From: dak at sarai.net (dak) Date: Sun, 12 Jan 2003 23:18:15 +0530 Subject: [Sarai Newsletter] Media Art Presentation Message-ID: <200301122318.15278.dak@sarai.net> Dear Friends, Sarai invites you to conVerge: where art and science meet a media art presentation by Amanda McDonald Crowley on Wednesday January 15, 2003, 5:30 pm at the Seminar Room, CSDS, 29 Rajpur Road, Delhi 110054 ConVerge, the 2002 Adelaide Biennial of Australia Art, was a project developed by the Art Gallery of South Australia and the Adelaide Festival 2002. It explored the nexus between art, science and technology and its creative expression, and asked "what happens at these points of intersection?" Many artists currently exploring scientific, technological and cultural developments of the 21st century are engaged in a critical debate. This is a discourse fused by complex social issues. These disciplines are often understood to be at odds with one another, but must engage if we are to realise our future and the potential roles of our creative practises within it. This project in part responded to the Art Gallery of South Australia's other concurrent exhibition The Encounter, 1802: Art of the Flinders and Baudin Voyages which focuses on the paintings, drawings and prints by the artists on the two scientific voyages. By bringing together divergent systems of knowledge, conVerge created a vista into new ways of seeing and understanding the scientific, technological and cultural developments of our 21 century. We can no longer talk about art and science or about ecologically sustainable futures without engaging in the very real possibilities and issues being raised in the realm of biotechnology and genetic engineering. conVerge asked us to question our role as creative individuals and collectively as a community, in decision making processes that will steer our futures. Amanda McDonald Crowley, Associate Director of the Adelaide Festival 2002 will present this exhibition and share her experience of working with the artists. Exhibiting artists include Justine Cooper, Rebecca Cummins, Jason Hampton, Adam Donovan, Nigel Helyer, Joyce Hinterding, Ionat Zurr and Oron Catts, Mangkaja Arts, Martin Walch, Patricia Piccinini, Lynne Sanderson, Jon McCormack, Fiona Hall and Mari Velonaki. Amanda McDonald Crowley is a freelance cultural worker, facilitator, researcher, curator from Australia. She is currently artsworker in residence, at Sarai with support from Asialink. Cheers, Ranita The Sarai Programme Centre for the Study of Developing Societies 29 Rajpur Road, Delhi 110 054 Tel: (+91) 11 23960040 (+91) 11 23951190 Fax: (+91) 11 23943450 www.sarai.net