A ‘process’ can be best related to the plot of a film. To start with, you have a broad surface. People are introduced, ideas are laid out, there is some amount of investigation into the subject or theme, and there are a few mild conflicts. It’s a rather fluid space, and no one is really sure where things are heading.
When we began investigating individual threads that seemed like interesting points to engage with, several themes emerged. There was the thread of technology, larger ideas of access and distribution and more importantly, the context in which all this was situated. It soon became very hard to separate the two. What we recognized as the ‘informal economy’ lived like old neighbors to the ‘formal’ and there was a system of mutual understanding that created the whole texture of what we wanted to map.
Simultaneously, there was a conscious effort to redefine forms of representation, of these voices and stories and experiences. The characters, who were all stakeholders in this game we call our economy became characters in a play we wanted to construct. And this became that part of the plot that lead to its climax.
Characters from our play wanted to speak to each other. They wanted to locate themselves in a dialogue that had never before taken place. Ideas of an interface started to emerge. How do we get an audience to interact with characters that define the fabric of the world they live in? Could it be that they speak into a phone that replays for them a part of a conversation that explains how hard it is to access a representative of State? Or a projecting on layered surfaces to distort the way we see a character in reference to his space? Or maybe a switchboard where you could physically connect two characters to each other..
And then there is the conclusion. The end. Where the climax dissolves into a more definitive understanding (hopefully!) of both the subject and its interpretation. (Divya)
- custom structure (entrance
tunnel and 6 x swing doors)
- custom electronics (switchboards and sensors linked to a Doepfer CTM64
control-MIDI converter)
- MIDI interface
- 4 data projectors
- 5 x Apple Macintosh (minimum 1GHz G4/1GB RAM/64MB VRAM) running Max/MSP/Jitter
- 4 x active monitors (Tannoy Reveal, Behringer B2030A or equivalent)
- 2* x active computer stereo speaker systems (Creative or Logitech 2.1
systems or equivalent)
- 2* x minidisc players
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It provides for a space in which it is not alright to be mere spectators, but to jump right into the clockwork and move things around till the picture gets clearer. In a sense, the amount of clarity attained from the situation is in tandem with the chaos that is generated out of the multiple interactions, which leaves the viewer with only a peak into the multi-complexities that exist within the ever-changing network. (Nishita)
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The audio experience is the recreation of the chaos that one is faced with at the different levels of navigating through a communication network.The sounds of the telephone and the many phone conversations, most of which are efforts to get in touch with people from various institutions are combined into a creative take on what it feels like to be within the network. The monotony of the digitized voice on the other end and the inability to get through to the desired subjects and further denial to entertain interest only amplifies the hurdles of access that we are faced with in any progression towards interaction with information. (Nishita)
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mukul
download patch
The re-enactments are based on interviews with following people, who we like to thank for their word donations:
Lawrence Liang, lawyer and member of Alternative Law Forum
Vivek, Simputer engineer
Veena, Hutch receptionist (Yelahanka office)
Ram Singh, street food vendor
Narshimha, Auto Driver
Asha, Cyber cafe Owner
Arun, Cyber cafe Owner (Yelehanka)
Ravin, Cyber café customer
Shreyaj, Cyber café customer
Santosh, Cyber café customer
Arpan, assembled computers dealer
Computer gamer kids
Cable Diggers
Soloman Benjamin, Cultural Ethnographer
Inspector General of Police, Cyber crime department
IG of Police Sushant Mahabatra, Economic Offences
IG of Police Chandrashekhar, Information
Thanks to the Re-enactors for joining us in the over-heated blue box:
Umang Bhattacharyya
Pratima Kalmadi
Ramyah Gowrishankar
Ishan Ghosh
Siddharth Muthyala
Salam Hidish Singh
Rajesh Narasimha
Smriti Chanchani
Kanyika Kini
DJ Murthy
Nupur Mathur
Saurav Brahmachari
Amaranta Nehru
Rachel Immanuel
Siddharth Jaiswal
Chaitali Bheda
Thara Thomas
Kunal Sen
