For the making of an experimental film on the city of Lucknow and its architectonics, based on the literary oeuvre of Urdu litterateur Naiyer Masud. The film, a combination of animation sequences and documentary footage, is imagined as a visual letter and travelogue that speaks to Naiyer Masud about the city of Lucknow - one that was ubiquitous in his literary world. It will attempt to unravel the inherent differences between the Lucknow depicted in Masud’s fictional universe and the real city in the present. The outcomes of the project will be the script and the film. The Grantee’s deliverables to IFA with the final report will be a high resolution copy of the film on a hard disk, along with the script, footages, production stills, film deck and publicity materials. Grant funds will pay for honorarium, travel and living, professional fees, post production, equipment hire and an accountant’s fee.
For research on the feminist interpretation of Oppana, a song-and-dance form practised by Muslim women in Kerala. The project will examine the presence of male fantasies and male-centric narratives in the songs of Oppana that reinforce the patriarchal notions about women in everyday life. It will also explore how different Islamic factions have influenced the acceptance of Oppana among Muslim communities in Kerala, and the ways in which a folk practice has become a popular art form. The outcome of this project will be an essay in Malayalam. The Grantee’s deliverables to IFA with the final reports will be an essay and audiovisual documentation of the Oppana performances. Grant funds will pay for honorarium, travel, food and living costs, professional fee, books, stationery and DVDs, and an accountant’s fee.
This Grant was amicably cancelled based on reasons mutually agreed upon by the Grantee and IFA due to unavoidable circumstances.
For a residential workshop over six days that will enable an exchange of knowledge and experiences between shadow puppeteers representing six traditional puppetry forms and contemporary projective shadow theatre practitioners. The artists will collaboratively explore contemporary approaches to conceptualising, devising and performing shadow puppetry through an in-depth inquiry into the narratives, aesthetics, techniques, and social contexts of puppetry. The Grantee’s deliverables to IFA along with the final report will be still and video documentation from the workshop and notes from the session on reflection and evaluation. Grant funds will pay for professional fees, venue hire, travel and living costs, honorarium, local conveyance, material costs, equipment hire, stationery and an accountant’s fee.
For the creation of an experimental video art piece to be included in an installation. Drawing from experiences of women from Kerala in the nuptial chamber, the video will try to address the psychic significance of the ‘wedding night’ in their lives. It will push the boundaries between the academic and artistic realms of cinema, art and psychology. The outcome will be a 15-to-20-minute experimental video. The deliverables to IFA with the Final Report will be the video, rush footage, production stills, art works, interviews generated as part of the project and media reports. Grant funds will pay for costs towards an honorarium, professional fees, hire of studio and equipment, travel, materials and publicity, refreshments, and an accountant’s fee.
For research on the British Colonial visual narratives of landscape and people in the High Ranges of Kerala. The project will study how European photographers, ethnographers and travellers documented the daily lives of people in the region and critique the colonial gaze. It will examine the ways in which the binaries of the civilised and the uncivilised were created on the basis of physical representations of the native people staged against exotic backdrops. The outcome of this project will be a photo essay and an exhibition. The Grantee’s deliverables to IFA with the final reports will be the essay and photographic documentation from various collections across Kerala. Grant funds will pay for travel and living costs, documentation costs, DTP and printing costs, exhibition costs, reference material costs, and an accountant’s fee.
For the creation of an an interactive, three dimensional Virtual Reality installation based on the popular Keralan legend of Perumtachan’s temple pond. The installation will allow spectators to experience and interact with a simulated environment through a head mounted display unit. The project aims to explore the artistic possibilities of Virtual Reality and questions religious indoctrination of legends by making them available for public access. The outcomes of the project will be the interactive site specific installation and a research paper. The Grantee's deliverables to IFA with the Final Report will be photo and video documentations, sketches, 3D models and prototypes, source codes, design iterations of the installation and the manuscript of the paper. Grant funds will pay for travel and living costs, equipment hire, disseminations costs, materials, printing and stationery, professional fees, workshop costs, and an accountant’s fee.
For documenting the complex and conflicted history of the evolution of the Malayalam script in the computer era through the exploration of the Rachana movement in Kerala. Outcomes of the project will include a free and open Malayalam font based on the original script, a website archiving published material related to the language campaign for the original script, and a book printed in this script narrating the history, evolution and present status of the Malayalam Lipi and Unicode language technology.
For research into the history and evolution of public transport in Kerala and the creation of a performance that will be staged on a bus. Engaging with local contexts, histories, literature and the everyday lives of people, the project will employ the bus as a travelling performance space that aims to explore new frameworks for performance and cultivate new audiences.
For research towards a book in Malayalam on women’s participation in three different performance traditions in Kerala—Kathakali, Singaari Melam and Mudiyattam. Through documentation and analysis of female interventionist strategies within the folk and classical arts, the project will shed light on emergent female aesthetics within these traditions and fill a serious gap in academic and popular perceptions of female performers in Kerala.
For an exploration of the body in pain through a re-visioning of Samuel Beckett’s play Act without Words I and Act Without Words II. An Argentinean story will be used to devise the plot and action, and introduce new meanings into Beckett’s plays. The production will also situate the experience of physical pain within the social context of the performers. A script in Malayalam will be developed and layered through games, and constant improvisations and experiments with actors.
