For research towards a documentary film titled In Search of Umrao, envisaged as a journey through history, memory, physical spaces and forms of cultural expression in pursuit of the tawaif or courtesan of north India.
For documenting the early recording industry and music culture in India. The study will identify the human, intellectual and material artefacts of early music culture and result in a series of essays on the gramophone as well as online sharing of documentation.
For field research into the oral ballads of the Mithila region of north Bihar. The research will result in a databank that would assist researchers by providing information on the content of the ballads and the social context in which they are performed.
For research towards a chronicle on the history of jazz in Goa, Bombay and Calcutta between 1930 and 1980. The study will trace the roots of this unique tradition through the lives of its best-known exponents and lead to a manuscript that blends true accounts with fictionalised narratives.
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.
