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“Voice” under the old Yamuna bridge

The message behind the jacket says: “Yeh meri jagah hai” (this is my place).

The old Yamuna bridge is a two-level bridge (one for railway, one for traffic). It has long been declared to have outlasted its life-time and it actually wobbles vigorously when traffic or trains pass. With the Yamuna river having steadily degraded over the years, the bridge has become many more things: a patch of darkness, a shelter (under the bridge we found many temperory hutments). Being there I could sense decay and neglect. This performance emphasised the marginal space I occupy in Indian society as an artist.

on the bridge

under the bridge

sitting near one of the houses

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“Voice” @ Basant Lok market, Vasant Vihar

The message behind the jacket says: “Yeh meri jagah hai” (this is my place).

In a marketplace like Basant Lok, the perceived value of space (occupancy, advertising) being so high, this performance is a study of how this space is used in different ways everyday and a demonstration of some ideas of how this space can be apropriated and used.

in front of the vodafone store near nirula’s

in the lobby of the axis bank, somebody’s temperory bedroom

in the window of the priya cinema

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“Voice” at Majnu Ka Tila (Tibetan rehabilitation colony)

The message behind the jacket says: “Yeh meri jagah hai” (this is my place).

With this statement, I was responding to the way refugee communities under political asylum go through the process of re-creating their “place” in an alien country. The environments I stand in and walk through speak of the rich culturally assimilated world they live in.

a neighborhood TV-watching booth. they are watching a Tibetan-language channel.

talking to a student near a wall used for demonstration/protest posters

another “wall of protest”

the Tibetan flag and a drunk guy on on the pavement

at the entrance/exit of the “refugee colony”

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“Voice”@ the informal settlements in the Okhla industrial estate

The message behind the jacket says: “Main ujala hun” (I am the light).

I was interested in performing there because no infrastructure exists in informal settlements like Okhla. Most of the streets are dark or lit up by privately set up lights/peripheral lighting from homes.

explaining the project to some curious onlookers near a tea shop

walking near some embroidery factories

another conversation and a kid trying to read

walking past people bathing on a street

standing near a dark patch, mimicking a lamp-post

standing again

a lot of activity in the only lit-up square. I got two requests for similar jackets!

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Before I visit Vidarbha: a sound installation

Across last month at Khoj, I worked on a processing sketch titled, “Before I Visit Vidarbha.” It attempts to carry forward my exploration of urban food systems as a part of the PetPuja project.

Background: Some 90,000 farmers have killed themselves in parts of India. Many reasons have been ascribed to this. And the government has gone from denial to acknowledgment to offering limited solutions. The media has of course been following this extensively. Some deeply, some not. More can be read about here, here and here.

This project explores how highly complex issues like this could be experienced in some interactive sonic/musical way.

Description of project: This is a musical instrument which sonically interprets the farmer suicide cases reported in the English media. There are two two layers of sound, one a chant and the other a groan. The buttons at the corners of the red triangle can be pressed to add sounds to the soundscape.

The comment here is on the way grassroot situations are dealt with at macro/governmental levels it becomes a play, a game. The visitors to the installation were invited to similarly play with the situation. The way they want. The repetitiveness of the keywords which are picked up from news reports hints on the limited vocabulary the media works with to interpret this situation.

Technical description: RSS feeds of news reports of the farmer suicide cases are pulled in (thanks newsrack) keywords are extracted and built into a chant (using the text-to-speach for Processing: RiTa). The groan is built by chanting the same words very slowly (words/minute). The buttons manipulate Sine waves of different frequencies.

Documentation:

the program starts. the green circles represent the character-lengths of extracted words.

 
more and more circles… (a lot of words)

photographs of farmers and their families are pulled in from flickr

when the red buttons on the triangles are pressed they become gray. you can add sounds to the soundscape by pressing the buttons.

this is how it was installed. the canvas was projected on a wall and it could be controlled using a mouse on a “wobbly” surface

This is the recorded sound of one of the sessions: vid1.mp3

The project works best when run as a desktop application:

linux
mac os x
windows

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CitySpinning @ Khoj (pictures)

(from left) prayas, attia, sandeep, nisha and manmeet

at work on the processing sketch for “Before I Visit Vidarbha” in my studio

putting up the photographs of my performance with the modular jacket for our “open studio”

 
one of the walls of the display

a visitor

more jackets on the facing wall

a conversation with pooja and her friends

 
the installation for the processing sketch, “before I visit vidarbha”

another picture of the installation

giving a demo

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module for jacket: portable snack kit

The module (attached to the jacket in the picture below) is made from milk packets and cloth. Four pockets are sticked to a foam piece with velcro to stick to the jacket.

The four pockets can be used to sprout moong, gram, beans etc., in quantity enough for a good snack.

back view

you can walk around with it. no problem. food growing on your back!

my moong sprouts were ready to eat in two days!

eat away!

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“Voice” under the safdarjung flyover

The message behind the jacket says: “Yeh meri jagah hai” (this is my place).

the flyover doesn’t belong to the public works department (PWD)

the bedroom under the flyover

When I stood under and around the flyover, my jacket saying that “This space is mine,” a drunk guard came and asked me how I could lay a claim on the flyover. It belonged to PWD. He called his senior on the phone and told him that some person was claiming ownership of the flyover!

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“Voice” @ the Parliament + Rashtrapati Bhavan

The message behind the jacket says: “Yeh meri jagah hai” (this is my place).

at the gates of the rashtrapati bhavan

walking in front of the north block

@ the north block parked in a “tow away zone”

the guard in front of the north block complex eying me…

 
parked in the garden beside the parliament

trying to unsuccessfully talk my way into the parliament house

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“Voice” @ Delhi University

in front of a delhi police poster about safety at night-time for girl students in front of a delhi police poster about safety at night-time for girl students	"I am the light" "I am the light"	standing in a traffic police shelter standing in a traffic police shelter
talking to the construction workers at the school of economics who found the jacket intriguing talking to the construction workers at the school of economics who found the jacket intriguing	near the hostels of the St.Stephen's college, lighting up a playground. near the hostels of the St.Stephen's college, lighting up a playground.
near the vice-chancellor's office near the vice-chancellor's office	talking to Abhinav, member of Disha, a non-political students' body. Abhinav felt the jacket could be quite useful for Disha. talking to Abhinav, member of Disha, a non-political students' body. Abhinav felt the jacket could be quite useful for Disha.	talking to curious cops in front of the Delhi University metro station talking to curious cops in front of the Delhi University metro station
at the Delhi University metro station. at the Delhi University metro station.