July 21, 2010 - July 22, 2010
Pad.ma presentations and classroom workshop at TISS, Mumbai.
Date Change!
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
Public presentation at Culture Cafe, 5:00 - 6:30 pm.
Since its inception in early 2008, Pad.ma (Public Access Digital Media Archive, http://pad.ma)
has proposed new relationships between video and text and a new context
for viewing, annotating and conceiving moving images in relation to
the internet. Video footage that cannot fit the economy of films, that
is left out in editing processes, or is lengthier than the usual online
clip, all find a home in pad.ma. With deep annotations and full transcripts, videos in pad.ma
acquire a context and seriousness that is often missing on video
streaming sites such as Youtube and Vimeo. Moreover, unlike
"distribution" sites such as Culture Unplugged, the focus in pad.ma is on the downloading, reuse and recirculation of video and related materials.
Pad.ma imagines itself not as a scene for
redemption, nor as being limited to the traditional role of the archive,
but as an active site of production. Indeed, why must we wait for an
archive created by the state or civil society and not take up archiving
ourselves? As a public and shared archive,
pad.ma
hosts video collections by individuals and groups that record the
everyday, local geographies, artistic expressions, people's movements,
cities, and life itself.
At Culture Cafe, the
pad.ma
team will talk about the archive's conceptual and technological
journey, from its inception to the present. It will also reflect on new
ways of thinking about archives, video, text, code and the internet.
(For bios of presenters, see below)
The
pad.ma
project was initiated by a group consisting of Oil21, Berlin, the
Alternative Law Forum, Bangalore, and Majlis, Point of View, and
Chitrakarkhana/ CAMP, Mumbai.
pad.ma was launched as a public website on February 16, 2009. For more, see:
http://pad.ma/about.
Ashok
Sukumaran is an artist whose interests are in archaeologies of media,
and in what haunts or underlies network forms and material
distributions. Recent subjects in his work include urban water,
electricity, cycle rickshaws, sea trade, and "the neighbour". His work
takes the form of public projects, exhibitions, films, lectures, and
long-term collaborations via CAMP, which he co-founded in 2007.
Sanjay Bhangar is a writer and software developer
who lives in Mumbai. He is a founder member of CAMP, and has been
involved with the
pad.ma
project since its inception. He is a big believer in the open-source
software development model, and in new models of access that online
archives can provide. He is currently working on a few web-based
projects including a web-to-print publishing platform, a resource site
for theatre in India, and online mapping and indexing tools.
Shaina Anand a co-initiator of CAMP and Pad.ma. She
has been working independently in film/video since 1997. In 2001, she
founded ChitraKarKhana, (
http://chitrkarkhana.net)
a fully independent unit for experimental media. Her recent works
continue to be informed by an interest in information politics, and by a
critique of documentary film. Interventionist projects such as WICity
TV (2005), Khirkeeyaan (2006), Cold Clinic (2008), and Al Jaar Qabla al
Daar (2009) have created new assemblies from within the terrains of
operation of contemporary media: television, cable TV, surveillance
infrastructures, video archives - towards further possibilities for the
image and narrative.
Subuhi Jiwani is a writer and researcher based in
Mumbai. She has worked as a arts journalist and critic, and has written
for Time Out Mumbai, DNA, Hindustan Times, The Times of India, Art India
magazine, Mayday magazine and World War 4 Report. She has contributed
essays to art catalogues and most recently, the Sarai Reader. She is
currently the Content Coordinator for
pad.ma.
Zinnia Ambapardiwala is a physics graduate,
trichologist, hairdresser, and system administrator. She is currently
the technical coordinator of Pad.ma.
