For preparatory research towards the development of highway performance circuits for contemporary dance. The outcome would be a strategic plan for a single performance circuit along highways across south Indian states with the aim of expanding opportunities for performance and establishing a sustainable infrastructure for contemporary dance.
For an interdisciplinary, multimedia stage production based on a poet’s anthology and put together by a dancer/choreographer, a music composer/stage designer and the poet. The resulting performance will be a visual and aural collage that will incorporate the poet’s sketches and the video footage that she shot in the wake of the Mumbai riots of 1993.
For the construction of an imaginary photographic studio, by a visual artist and a photographer, to extend the creative possibilities of the photographic image. They will design and photograph a series of tableaux that will critically portray stereotypical images of the south Indian woman drawn from Hindu mythology and forms of popular visual art.
For the conception and design of a collaborative music performance by two musicians/composers and a baul singer. The collaborators’ collective exploration of the soundscapes of baul will result in a document with audio work files and a record of discussions, interviews and photographs that will lead to a full-fledged performance.
For a sound/video installation, by filmmaker and a sound composer, that explores creative and unconventional ‘sound’ possibilities. The collaborators will create multiple soundtracks for the installation, which will have multiple starting points that provide different ‘spatial’ experiences of sound and image.
For four ceramic artists to investigate the role of art in public spaces. They will explore the relationship between the environment and ceramic art practice and examine notions of space and cultural specificity, finally creating a joint installation at a chosen site.
For two musicians to collaborate on The Indica Project, which aims to create new music based on Indian musical heritage with the inclusion of various musical styles. The resulting CD of original compositions will feature Indian classical and folk musicians, and musicians from Africa, Latin America and the USA.
For collaboration between a trained actor and a performer of the folk narrative form of Pandavani to absorb aspects of each others’ practice and work with a writer-director to create three performance texts for the theatre, which will culminate in a series of collectively devised performances.
For collaboration among a creative writer, a screenplay writer and a writer/producer of radio programmes on the arts, to translate six of the latter’s short stories from Gujarati into English in a publishable form. The translations would also be converted into radio scripts and screenplays.
For creating a graphic novel on present-day Calcutta, by a filmmaker and an illustrator, combining elements of a visual travelogue, a documentary comic book and a personal diary. The novel, which will use the personal narrative to explore links between today’s Calcutta and the popular culture of nineteenth-century Bengal, is expected to be serialised in newspapers, and the process of creation will be documented and exhibited.
For the use of an open well as a site, and a quilt as a prop, by a visual artist, a choreographer and a photographer/visual artist to develop a collective language that extends the formal parameters of visual art and dance. It will result in installations, visuals and choreography that will help the collaborators conceptualise a full-fledged site-specific exhibition/performance.
For a comprehensive documentation of the writings of Pudumaippithan, the first modern Tamil writer. The project will bring together his numerous short stories, essays and works of criticism held in public and private collections across the country, and result in microfilm and digital copies of them.
For preparatory research towards a script and screenplay for a fiction film based in Goa and Brazil. While the study will focus on Goan life and culture in the second half of the twentieth century, the film will explore identity formation in the context of the Indian diaspora.
For dissertation research on the development of a ‘national’ theatre in India, analysing and evaluating post-independence cultural policy and the role of institutions like the Sangeet Natak Akademi and the National School of Drama. The study will explore the role of the state in creating and propagating aesthetic hierarchies.
For photo-documentation and study of the popular public sculpture of metropolitan Calcutta, covering the year-long calendar of image-making followed by the Kumartuli potters, and the use of the icons in ritual and festive contexts. A book, a CD-ROM and an exhibition are the expected outcomes of the project.
