For the creation of an experimental mixed media audio-visual presentation titled Sharif created as a collaborative work by a group of five artists engaging in diverse art forms. It explores the physical and emotional isolation of people in a world hyperconnected through technology. The outcome of the project will be an audio-visual presentation that explores the journey of three friends over five years, 2011 to 2015, a time when the internet had entered all aspects of their lives. The Grantee’s deliverables to IFA along with the final report will be process documentation and a copy of the audio-visual presentation. Grant funds will cover travel and living, costumes and properties and professional fees.
For the creation of a short film about love and the internet. Oscillating between fiction and reality the film titled Love in the Time of Internet will explore the interactive spaces of the internet and the ways in which it affects relationships of couples. It will attempt to capture both love and the internet through the lens of a rapidly changing world. As the outcome of the project, the film will be a collage of art, animation and videography. The Grantee’s deliverables to IFA along with the final report will be the film together with documentation of the process. Grant funds will pay for the purchase of software, professional fees and equipment hire.
For an artistic and scholarly inquiry into the history of publishing in Darjeeling, with a focus on Nepali publications. Drawing on an earlier project supported by IFA that studied the design and editing practices of Bengali Little Magazines in the digital age, this dissemination grant seeks to cover the gap of scholarship in the nearly 100-year-old history of publishing in Nepali in West Bengal. The outcomes of the project will be an exhibition, a panel discussion and the publication of a booklet. Grant funds will pay for travel and living, honorarium, exhibition costs, professional fees, publication costs, material and stationery and an accountant’s fee.
For an exploration of the inscribed plaques in temples built in West Bengal between 16th and 19th centuries. The project will focus on the names of the artisans on the plaques and trace their social, cultural, religious, and economic histories. The outcome of this project will be an essay and a set of small exhibitions held in four districts of West Bengal. The Grantee’s deliverables to IFA with the final reports will be an essay, photographs from the exhibitions and photographs and documentation of two hundred temples across West Bengal. Grant funds will pay for honorarium, travel, food and living costs, exhibition costs, professional fee, documentation, books and an accountant’s fee.
For research on the significance of artist-designer Riten Mozumdar’s life and work while exploring areas of undocumented cultural, political and institutional histories between the 1950s and 1970s. By analysing Mozumdar’s work within its economic and cultural contexts and situating his practice within Nehruvian socialistic aesthetics of the newly-independent nation, this project will attempt to address the lack of scholarship on the history of modern Indian design. The outcome of this project will be an essay on Riten Mozumdar. The Grantee’s deliverables to IFA with the final reports will be the essay, extensive visual documentation, audiovisual interviews with experts from the field and an archival presentation on Riten Mozumdar’s life and work. Grant funds will pay for honorarium, travel, food and living costs, professional fee, equipment rental, scanning and photocopying costs, library and archive fees, and an accountant’s fee.
For the making of a photo-book, on the memories of the massacre of Marichjhapi, 1979. The project aims to question the boundaries between documentary and staged photographs, while creating awareness about a historical event, the traces of which have been systematically erased. The outcome will be a book containing staged photographs, eyewitness portraits, archival materials and three essays. The Grantee's deliverables to IFA with the final report will be final draft of the book, photographs and audio-video interviews of eye witnesses, and staged images. Grant funds will pay for professional fees, honorarium, travel costs, materials costs, equipment hire and an accountant’s fee.
For research to study the interlinked imaginaries of time – geological, mythological, and science-fictional – as they are expressed in the desert landscape of the Rann of Kutch. The project will investigate how the geological and the mythological narratives shape and alter the cultural geographies of the imagined science-fictional future. The outcome will be a physical and digital book with text containing photographs and artworks, two short educational animated films depicting the fictional landscape of the Rann of Kutch, and a website that will host the research data. The Grantee’s deliverables to IFA with the final report will be the two books, the two short films and the website. Grant funds will pay for an honorarium, professional fees, travel and living costs, and an accountant’s fee.
For the creation of an experimental film that explores the lives of a group of performers of the Chhau form from Purulia, West Bengal, going beyond their much studied practice of using elaborate masks in their performances. The project attempts to study their transformation into mythical characters for the performance as well as trace the shifts and changes in the dance form in recent times. Evocative and slow in nature, the film will be an experiment in cinematic storytelling through folk narratives. The outcome will be a film. The Grantee's deliverables to IFA with the Final Report will be the film, final script, rush footage, production notes and stills. Grant funds will pay for an honorarium, equipment hire, professional fees, production and post-production costs and an accountant’s fee.
For working with the cultural history archive at the Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, Calcutta (CSSSC) which contains a wide variety of visual materials across genres from 19th and 20th century Bengal that includes books, journals, popular paintings, prints, posters, hoardings, advertisements, and commercial art productions.The archive has also recently acquired the digitised records of the Calcutta Improvement Trust (CIT) which records the urban and municipal history of 20th century Calcutta. This fellowship supports research that will focus specifically on the legacy of the Calcutta Improvement Trust, studying the growth of the city of Kolkata in the years preceding the formation of the Trust, as well as the alterations in the years that came after. The outcomes will be an exhibition, seminar, publication and other neighbourhood engagements in different parts of the city. The Fellow’s deliverables to IFA with the Final Report will be images of the exhibition, process images, audio recordings and texts, if any.
For working with the cultural history archive at the Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, Calcutta (CSSSC) which contains a wide variety of visual materials across genres from 19th and 20th century Bengal that includes books, journals, popular paintings, prints, posters, hoardings, advertisements, and commercial art productions. This fellowship supports research that will explore the relationship between the city of Kolkata and its citizens, and the many different registers through which the city is experienced. The project will locate Kolkata as a site of both colonial encounter and colonial modernity, and investigate the many mechanisms through which an ‘authentic’ experience of the city is constructed, distributed and negotiated in the everyday. The outcomes will include an exhibition, and other public events around the archive. The Fellow’s deliverables to IFA with the Final Report will be process images, audio recordings, texts and a publication, if any.
