Sarai Newsletter 05

[Raju Mathur <raju@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

From: newsletter-admin@xxxxxxxxx
Sender: newsletter-admin@xxxxxxxxx
To: newsletter@xxxxxxxxx
Subject: Sarai Newsletter 05
Date: Sat, 25 Aug 2001 00:05:37 +0530

Contents

1.South Delhi Polytechnic Workshop: Report
2.Cybermohalla workshop report: New team
3.Sarai Team at HAL and Tech_2 Conferences
4.New @ Sarai website
5.Asian Film Cultures: Iranian Films


Dear All

Let me begin this newsletter with a potential newspaper headline which
never got into print: "Record rainfall in Delhi floods Sarai". For many
of you who have not been to the our premises, Sarai is located in the
basement of the Centre for the Studies of Developing Societies, and like
many basements, ours too was no match for the deluge. However, after
hours of pumping out water and cleaning, we did manage to put the place
back on rails, though all this did delay the newsletter. My apologies.



1. Workshop at the South Delhi Polytechnic for Women on the Sarai Reader
01
July 24th and 25th , 2001

The South Delhi Polytechnic for Women chooses a book each year for its
faculty as 'Summer Reading'. This year they chose the Sarai Reader 01:
The Public Domain. A hundred copies of the book were bought and
distributed. The principal also sent out a questionnaire on the basis of
which the faculty members were expected to submit a book report. A
binder with responses to the book from the faculty had also been
prepared by the workshop participants.

The workshop - spread over three hours each on two days - was meant to
be the finale of this process, with the faculty getting a chance to
interact with some of the people who have contributed to the Reader.

The most important discussions ranged on the necessity of a different
way of looking at intellectual property and the public domain, the
collaborative nature of cultural production, a critical attitude to
media messages and the different ways in which media affects and
reconfigures notions of power, newness and elitism. The significance of
language issues in cyberspace and in the digital domain, anxieties about
the replacement of teachers and teaching by new media, about censorship,
and about lack of control also made for interesting discussions.

2. Cybermohalla workshop report

The Medialab set up at the Community Centre in the LNJP Colony as part
of the Sarai Cybermohalla project started on the second series of
training programme, with a new team. The first batch of trainees were
actively involved in the selection of the new team. The success of the
the first workshop was evident from the number of children interested in
being part of the project.

At present the trainees are writing and designing a beginners media
media manual based on their engagement with media tools and everyday.


3. Sarai Team at HAL Conference and Tech_2.

Programmers from Sarai participated in the just concluded HAL Conference
on the outskirts of Amsterdam. Sarai members are also participating in
the Tech_2 Conference on Tactical Media at Bristol, which is going on at
the moment. We will provide you with a report on both these event in the
next newsletter.

4. New @Sarai website

Seecilia: Digital Mapping by Ashok Sukumaran and Manosh De
Ashok and Manoj explore the use of multiple dimensions to create a new
and graphic language. They map data over time and present an "extended
exposure" of an urban experience - hanging out at the cinema.
http://www.sarai.net/compositions/images/ashok/ashok0.htm

New Compositions by:
i) Gas Cylinders: Sampurna Chatterjee
http://www.sarai.net/compositions/texts/works/gas.htm

ii) In which In-Drawn toes meets Green Chandeliers. Or to try to sketch
a stranger? :Hansa Thapliyal
http://www.sarai.net/compositions/texts/works/hansa.htm

iii)Citizen Zero: by Shuddhabrata Sengupta
http://www.sarai.net/compositions/texts/works/zero.htm


5. Asian Film Cultures II: Iranian Films

The Sarai weekly film screenings resume with a second series on Asian
Film Cultures from August 24th 2001. A series of seven Iranian Films
will be screened, as always on every Friday at 4:30 pm.
We are grateful to the Iranian Cultural Centre and Vijay Tankha, St.
Stephen's College Cine Club for making this series possible.
The Films are listed in the order they will be screened.

i) August 24th 2001
The White Balloon, 1995, 85 minutes?
Director: Jafar Panahi

ii) August 31st 2001
The Cyclist, 1989, 75? minutes
Director: Mohsen Makhmalbaf

iii)September 7th 2001
Marriage of the Blessed, 1989, 75 minutes
Director: Mohsen Makhmalbaf

iv) September 14th 2001
Close-up, 1990, 90 minutes
Director: Abbas Kiorastami

v) September 21st 2001
Where is my friend's home, 1987, 90 minutes
Director: Abbas Kiorastami

vi)September 28th 2001
And life goes on, 1992, 91 minutes
Director: Abbas Kiorastami
OR
Maybe Some Other Time, 1987
Director: Bahram Bayzai

vii) October 5th 2001
Children of Heaven, 1997, 90 minutes
Director: Majid Majidi





--
Sarai: The New Media Initiative
Centre for the Study of Developing Societies
29,Rajpur Road, Delhi - 54
Phone:  91-11-3951190
Fax: 91-11-2943450
www.sarai.net